Eudaimonia and Hedonia Through Enrichment: Pathways to Happiness

Abstract

There is a need to further explore the distinctions between two traditions of well-being research: hedonia and eudaimonia. We do this by looking at hedonia, operationalized as subjective well-being (SWB), and eudaimonia, operationalized as flourishing or psychological well-being (PWB), and exploring the pathways through work-family enrichment (WFE). We study 504 married individuals, with at least one child, working in the IT/ITES sector in India. We use structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyse a multidimensional conceptualization of well-being with work-family enrichment as an antecedent. Results indicate that WFE is positively linked to both forms of well-being. SWB was found to fully mediate the relationship between WFE and PWB. Hedonia and eudaimonia were found to be correlated but distinct constructs. This study contributes to existing research on work-family enrichment and well-being by showing that WFE is a significant pathway towards employee well-being. It is also the first study from India to explore hedonia and eudaimonia in the same research and the first to look at only married individuals with children in a well-being study forced on a specific sector.