Effects of materialism on work-related personal well-being

Abstract

Materialism is a defining aspect of many societal cultures. Unfortunately, a large body of research has documented a negative relationship between materialism and indicators of non-work personal well-being. This study extends the materialism research into the organizational domain, investigating whether materialistic values are related to work-related indicators of personal well-being. Our field study results indicate that materialistic values are negatively associated with a range of indicators of work-related personal well-being, including intrinsic and extrinsic reward satisfaction, job satisfaction, and career satisfaction. Further analyses suggest that the relationship between materialism and work-related personal well-being is driven by the happiness and centrality dimensions of materialism, and not by the success dimension. Implications for future research and practice are presented.