The Mediating Role of Subjective Well-Being on Organizational Virtuousness and Job Performance: A Comparison between France and Japan

Abstract

This paper examines the relationships between organizational virtuousness, subjective well-being, and individual job performance, examining potential mediation effects. It uses a questionnaire survey and conditional process analysis to compare those relationships among French and Japanese employees. Job performance is divided into that related to one’s own core tasks—self-management—and that associated to working with others—leadership.

First, positive subjective well-being was found to fully mediate the relationship between integrity-related organizational virtuousness and self-management-related job performance for both French and Japanese respondents. Second, in the relationship between integrity-related organizational virtuousness and leadership-related job performance, positive subjective well-being acted as a partial mediator for the French sample only.

We have confirmed the importance of corporate virtue, especially that pertaining to firm integrity, in supporting directly or indirectly job performance. This suggests that firms must nurture a culture of integrity and tailor the management of their employees taking into account their cultural characteristics. While employee welfare has rightfully gained further recognition, it is shown to be indispensable to achieve higher core job performance and even more critical in firms with individualistic employees in order to achieve higher leadership.