Cross-cultural Evidence of the Relationship between Subjective Well-being and Job Performance: A Meta-analysis

Abstract

This meta-analysis examined the differences across countries/regions, and the moderator effects of the study type (cross-sectional vs. longitudinal) on the SWB-job performance relationship. The database consists of 78 independent samples (N = 18,853), located through electronic and manual searches. The results showed that overall SWB (ρ = .37), cognitive SWB (ρ = .27), and affective SWB (ρ = .37) are predictors of job performance. Evidence of cross-cultural effects showed that the magnitude of the SWB-job performance relationship was larger in the Asia-Pacific region than in Europe and the US-Canada region (Asia-Pacific ρ = .41, Europe ρ = .33, USA ρ = .23). Moderator analyses indicated that, on average, cross-sectional (concurrent) and longitudinal (predictive) studies showed similar validity (ρ = .33 vs. ρ = .32). Lastly, we discuss the main contributions, and some practical implications and some limitations of the study are mentioned.