A study by Spanish researchers has shown that a high level of job satisfaction reduces the risk of destructive behavior and increases the effectiveness of young people. This was reported by News Medical, according to infohub.kz.
The new work, published in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, sheds light on the link between the psychological well-being of young workers and their job performance. The researchers analyzed questionnaires from 412 employed workers under the age of 35 living in Spain. The authors sought to assess how various aspects of employee well-being affect the completion of work tasks, corporate behavior, and destructive actions in the workplace.
The analysis showed that overall job satisfaction is directly linked to more effective performance of immediate duties and to a positive contribution to the collective environment. Conversely, if work negatively affects mental health and personal life, it more often leads to destructive behavior that harms company goals and also reduces contextual productivity. At the same time, job satisfaction by itself did not reduce the frequency of counterproductive actions, nor did stress directly worsen the quality of solving technical tasks.
Interestingly, the emotional availability of a manager and formal respect from the organization did not have a direct impact on productivity. The researchers suggest that millennials and Generation Z view respect and support from management merely as a basic condition of work, not as an incentive for greater effort. Based on the findings, the authors propose adjusting social exchange theory, emphasizing that young professionals value tangible care for their well-being above abstract recognition.