Published in the Jurnal Ekonomi dan Bisnis Digital (MINISTAL) in 2026, the study offers a more nuanced view of employee well-being. Rather than assuming that employees who feel psychologically well will always perform better, the findings suggest that well-being needs to be translated into concrete workplace behaviors, particularly the ability to generate, promote, and implement new ideas.
Why Employee Well-Being Matters
The men’s grooming and skincare industry has become increasingly competitive, creating pressure on FMCG companies to maintain both productivity and innovation. Employee performance is therefore not limited to completing assigned tasks. It also involves maintaining work quality, taking responsibility, and finding better ways to solve workplace problems.
The researchers examined two factors that can influence performance: psychological well-being and servant leadership.
Psychological well-being refers to positive psychological functioning, including self-acceptance, positive relationships, autonomy, a sense of purpose, control over one’s environment, and personal growth. Servant leadership describes a leadership approach in which managers prioritize employee development, support, empowerment, and well-being rather than focusing only on their own interests.
The researchers also examined innovative work behavior, which involves identifying opportunities, generating ideas, promoting those ideas, and putting them into practice. This factor was particularly relevant because FMCG businesses operate in markets where creativity and rapid adaptation can influence competitiveness.
How the Study Was Conducted
The research involved all 46 employees of the company studied, identified in the article as PT XYZ in Surabaya. Instead of selecting only a portion of the workforce, the researchers surveyed the entire employee population.
Employees completed an online questionnaire using a five-point response scale. The researchers then analyzed the relationships between psychological well-being, servant leadership, innovative work behavior, and employee performance using a statistical modeling approach with SmartPLS 4.1.1.8.
Most respondents were young employees. About 80.4 percent were aged 20–29, 69.6 percent were women, 65.2 percent held bachelor’s degrees, and 82.6 percent occupied staff positions. Nearly two-thirds, or 63 percent, had worked for the company for three years or less.
Key Findings
The results produced several important findings:
- Psychological well-being did not directly improve employee performance. Its direct relationship with performance was negative, with a coefficient of -0.307, and did not reach the study’s significance threshold.
- Servant leadership positively affected employee performance. The relationship had a coefficient of 0.340 and a p-value of 0.048.
- Innovative work behavior was the strongest direct predictor of employee performance in the model. Its coefficient was 0.542, with a p-value of 0.004.
- Psychological well-being strongly supported innovative work behavior. The coefficient was 0.559, with a t-statistic of 4.000 and a p-value below 0.001.
- Servant leadership also encouraged innovative work behavior, with a coefficient of 0.359 and a p-value of 0.006.
- Innovative work behavior mediated the relationship between psychological well-being and performance, producing a positive indirect effect of 0.303 with a p-value of 0.013.
- Innovative work behavior also mediated the relationship between servant leadership and performance, with a positive indirect effect of 0.195 and a p-value of 0.047.
Together, the findings suggest that simply making employees feel comfortable is not enough to guarantee stronger performance. Psychological well-being appears to become more valuable when employees use that psychological capacity to explore ideas, solve problems, and introduce improvements.
Innovation Turns Well-Being Into Performance
The researchers describe innovative work behavior as an important “conversion” mechanism. Psychological well-being provides an internal resource, while supportive leadership provides an external resource. Those resources can then be converted into workplace innovation, which ultimately contributes to performance.
Rahiba, Jacobis, Wahjudi, and Indawati of Universitas Negeri Surabaya found that employees with stronger psychological well-being were more likely to engage in innovative behavior. However, the direct relationship between well-being and performance was negative. The positive contribution emerged when well-being was channeled through innovative work behavior.
The pattern was different for servant leadership. Supportive leadership improved performance directly while also strengthening performance indirectly through innovative behavior. Leaders who listen, empower employees, build trust, and provide room for experimentation can therefore contribute to both innovation and performance.
Implications for Companies
The findings suggest that employee well-being programs should not focus solely on creating a comfortable workplace. Companies can strengthen their impact by connecting well-being initiatives with challenging goals, constructive feedback, opportunities to experiment, and mechanisms for employees to develop their ideas.
The researchers recommend servant-leadership training for line managers and structured forums where employees can generate and develop new ideas. They also suggest combining well-being initiatives with meaningful challenges and feedback so that psychological comfort does not become complacency.
For businesses operating in competitive consumer markets, the message is straightforward: well-being can create potential, but innovation helps turn that potential into measurable performance.
The researchers caution, however, that the findings should not be generalized too broadly. The study involved only one company and 46 employees, while its cross-sectional design limits conclusions about cause and effect. Future studies could examine larger groups across multiple companies and follow employees over longer periods.
Author Profiles
Kevin Kantata Rahiba — Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Negeri Surabaya. His work in this article focuses on psychological well-being, servant leadership, innovative work behavior, and employee performance.
Riedel Paulus Jacobis — Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Negeri Surabaya. His research interests represented in the article include innovative work behavior, leadership, and employee outcomes.
Eko Wahjudi — Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, with expertise represented in the study in management and employee performance.
Nurul Indawati — Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, contributing expertise in management and organizational behavior.
The journal article does not list academic degrees for the four authors, so no degrees are added here to avoid introducing information that is not supported by the source.
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