How Hedonia and Eudaimonia on the Job Affect Happiness

Studies show that happiness leads to success nearly in every life domain, including work. Employees who are happier have superior productivity, creativity, performance and are more satisfied with their jobs. All these perks make the topic of happiness highly relevant for the business world. This thesis aims to get a better understanding of how the job affects happiness by distinguishing between two different paths to happiness and well-being that origin from the philosophical terms hedonia and eudaimonia. Hedonia can be described as the pursuit of pleasure and eudaimonia as the pursuit of meaning. Hedonia and eudaimonia will be assessed in general and in job-settings in order to evaluate how these orientations affect the global happiness of individuals. By using the model of subjective well-being by Diener and by analyzing its hedonic facets of life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect, in general and on the job, it was determined under what conditions or in what situations on the job an individual will contribute to their happiness. The same approach was used to assess eudaimonic well-being. The dimensions of the model of psychological well-being by Ryff, were evaluated as facets and it was assessed how each of these dimension; environmental mastery, self-acceptance, positive relationships, growth, autonomy and purpose, affected global happiness in job-related settings. The results of the analysis of the facets are presented in a visual model that shows how these facets contribute positively to happiness. Nevertheless, this model has a lot of limitations that are a reflection of the challenges in the field, where there is a problem with the semantics, with the categories of analysis, with the research methods and biases, and all the differing perspectives of the leading researchers