“You are Happy, so I am Happy?” A Study on the Trickle-Down Effects of Well-Being in the Organisation

With the mounting pressure of work and life, improving personal well-being has become increasingly significant. Existing studies illustrate that hierarchical relationships in organisations may affect employees' perceptions and cognitions. However, there is a relative lack of research on the trickle-down of well-being across different hierarchical levels. This paper examines a trickle-down model of well-being across three hierarchical levels (i.e., CEO, middle-level managers and employees), as well as the synergistic effect of human resource management (HRM). We used a mixed-method design. In-depth interviews of middle managers and non-managerial employees offered initial insights for our research questions and hypotheses. Multi-level analyses of 1,386 employees from 120 enterprises further tested and confirmed that CEO well-being may independently affect the well-being of two middle-level managers (the line manager and the HR manager) and further improve employee well-being. Besides, a significant three-way interactive effect, among line-manager well-being, HR-manager well-being and commitment-based HRM, may synergistically promote employee well-being. When line-manager well-being, HR-manager well-being and commitment-based HRM are all high, employees exhibit the highest level of well-being. The results provide support for the application of a trickle-down model of well-being and extend the research on the synergy between leaders and HRM systems.