Abstract
Employee productivity is a well-studied area, which has been explained in various dimensions. However, there is insufficient research on how workers’ on-job emotional status relates to productivity. This study examined the relationship between workers’ emotional states and productivity by assessing on-job emotionality recorded using a specially designed wearable biometric device. The experiment was conducted at KP Beau Lao Co. Ltd., a Japanese plastic toys and cosmetic products company in Savannakhet province in Southwestern Laos. Participants were 15 plastic toy painters. Mental status, daily output, and other issues were recorded for three consecutive working days. Using random effects panel regression models, we examined how productivity, operationalized as the log of daily output, was related to workers’ emotional states, including the amount of time workers reported being happy, angry, relaxed, and sad. We controlled for conversation time, heart rate, and other demographic features. The results revealed that happiness, and no other emotional state, was significantly and positively related to productivity. Such findings suggested that workers’ emotional states must be addressed as part of an organization’s operational strategy to ensure higher productivity.
Highlights
Improving employee productivity is an important consideration for the overall wellbeing of an organization
Several random-effects regression models were conducted to examine how emotional states are related to productivity after controlling for demographic and biometric factors
In model (1,1), we controlled for conversation and heart rate during the working hours
Summary
Improving employee productivity is an important consideration for the overall wellbeing of an organization. Productivity is related to the organization’s profitability and its operations and human resource management. Because of its multidimensional importance, numerous studies have been conducted to observe what affects employee productivity and how it could be improved. Previous studies have already documented how employee productivity is linked to job-related terms and conditions, technological advancement, and employees’ demographic, socioeconomic, and psychological factors. Recent research shows that employees’ mental health status and psychological conditions affect their productivity. There is inadequate research on how employees’ on-job emotional conditions affect their productivity. On-job emotional condition is important because it defines how employees will apply their acquired knowledge in the workplace. The present study examined the relationship between employee productivity and on-job emotional states. A unique dataset that tracks both employees’ emotional states during working hours within a factory and their quantifiable output on a real-time basis were used in the study
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