How was your day? A within‐person analysis of how mental health may moderate the route from daily micro‐events to satisfaction after work via affect and contextual performance

Abstract

This study builds on the affective events theory and the conservation of resources theory to propose a model that analyses an affect‐to‐behaviour‐to‐outcome route, highlighting how daily micro‐events and subsequent affective reactions lead to behaviours (performance) and cognitions (satisfaction after work), and how mental health moderates this process. Results from a 5‐day diary study, during the pandemic (N = 250, n = 1221), provided data to test the proposed affect‐to‐behaviour‐to‐outcome route. Poorer mental health buffered the positive within‐person relationship between daily micro‐events, affective reactions, performance and satisfaction after work, suggesting that high levels of mental health allowed individuals to maximise the benefits of positive daily micro‐events in their satisfaction after work via affect and performance. This study presents original research analysing how situational factors create a route through which individuals experience affective reactions that influence their work behaviour, and in turn their levels of satisfaction after work.