Designing Jobs to Make Employees Happy? Focus on Job Satisfaction First

Abstract This article examines the effects of job task characteristics and job satisfaction on subjective well-being, often referred to as happiness, among Japanese employees. Because past research has recognized happiness as a source of greater performance, and on account of recent events related to karōshi (death by overwork), conditions in the workplace are of great interest for both research and practice. This research, using conditional process analysis with data gathered from Japanese managers and front-line workers within Japanese firms in Japan, found that job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between job task characteristics and subjective well-being. Among job satisfaction factors, self-accomplishment and 'relatedness' (mutual respect and reliance with others) displayed the strongest mediating influences between job task characteristics and positive well-being. First, these findings suggest that companies cannot rely on job design alone to directly foster employee well-being but must ensure that task characteristics translate into work-related outcomes, such as job satisfaction. Second, at least for Japanese employees, careful attention must be paid to designing jobs that foster feelings of self-accomplishment and relatedness in order to enhance subjective well-being. These results indicate that job satisfaction plays a central role in the relationship between job design and well-being.