Fired up to perform: A multilevel examination of antecedents and consequences of thriving at work

The current study developed and tested a multilevel model that articulates the contextual factors and individual characteristics that promote thriving at work and the underlying mechanisms that explain how thriving at work relates to overall unit performance. Analysis of data collected from 275 employees at multiple time periods and their immediate supervisors representing 94 work units, reveal that servant leadership and core self-evaluations significantly relate to thriving at work with these relationships fully and partially mediated by collective efficacy and psychological empowerment, respectively. Results also show that thriving at work positively relates to positive health at the individual level of analysis with this relationship fully mediated by positive work attitude. Finally, results show that aggregated thriving at work positively relates to overall unit performance with this association partially mediated by aggregated positive health. These findings suggest that work context and individual characteristics play significant roles in facilitating thriving at work and that thriving at work is an important means by which organizations can enhance performance.