This research project aimed at analyzing the role of personal, generational, and sociocultural factors (both individually and collectively) in the development of sustainable well-being and performance at work. The research has been carried out in labor organizations in different countries: Spain, Italy, Poland, Mexico, Ecuador, and Brazil.

The results offer a new framework for the development of research and theories about wellbeing and performance and the management of labor relations. The analysis developed confirm, under certain conditions, the thesis of the happy-productive worker but qualifies it by highlighting the dynamic and polyhedral relationships between both aspects. We have also developed our knowledge about this model by considering  the similarities and differences in the relationship between performance and well-bing when different operationalizations  of those constructs are employed (e.g.hedonic/eudaimonic,  task/creative performance). Our research identifies clusters of individuals that do not follow the happy-productive worker model,  that is, unhappy but productive and not very productive but happy. We also made progress in clarifying these relationships over time.

Our publications also make proposals that consider the role of personal and generational differences in the development of sustainable well-being at work. We identified the importance of the active role of the worker (job-crafting, I-deals) and of the strength of the person (psychological capital and work capacity) and their personal values (orientation to happiness, individualism-collectivism) in the development of performance and well-being. Also their moderator role in the effects of organizational factors among those outcomes. In this sense, we offer guidelines for design that take into account how human resource practices and work design contribute to sustainable development, and the needs, motivations, and objectives of different groups of workers.

Likewise, a transnational and cross-cultural perspective has been adopted comparing the results in Spain with other European and Latin American countries, which allows us to approach the study of well-being and performance in increasingly diverse and multicultural environments. The results show both, similarities and differences in the reciprocal relationships between well-being and performance in different national contexts. Similarly, they indicate a different impact of aspects such as human resource practices and individual values on patterns of well-being-performance relationships. The consideration of personal, social and cultural specificities allows us to advance in the design of more inclusive societies and to propose actions in organizations that move in multinational or multicultural contexts.