›› 2020, Vol. ›› Issue (5): 1132-1139.

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“What is Beautiful is Good” or “Too Much of a Good Thing”?How Facial Attractiveness Influences Job-related Well-being in Workplace

  

  1. 1. Guangdong University of Technology
    2. Guangdong University of Technology
    3.
  • Received:2019-02-11 Revised:2019-10-10 Online:2020-09-15 Published:2020-09-20
  • Contact: Xia Zhao

“美即好”?颜值对工作幸福感的“过不及”效应

吴伟炯1,赵霞1,杨国亮2   

  1. 1. 广东工业大学
    2. 广州航海学院航运经贸学院
  • 通讯作者: 赵霞
  • 基金资助:
    浙江省社会科学联合会研究课题重点项目;广东省教育科研 “十三五” 规划课题;浙江省自然科学基金项目

Abstract: Attractive people enjoy many social and economic advantages. Most literature find the effect of “what is beautiful is good”, which means facial attractiveness positively related with subjective well-being. Recent studies reveal the inverted U shape relationship between facial attractiveness and income. However, when it comes to workplace literature, no study has been drawn on the relationship between facial attractiveness and job-related well-being or income. This study base on conservation of resource theory, investigated the effect of “too much of a good thing” i.e., inversed U shape relation between facial attractiveness and job-related well-being, as well as the mediating effect of income distributive justice and the boundary condition (profile of job demand and control). Thus this study provides important implications for facial attractiveness theory, as well as the new practice for human resource management activities such as employee selection, allocation and retention. Data were collected from 1078 dyads of employees and their interviewers from variety of industries (e.g., sales, administration, education, manufacturing, lodging, catering, finance, healthcare). The questionnaire for employee included job-related well-being, income distributive justice, job demand and job control. Facial attractiveness was rated by 2 interviewers, scores correlation coefficient is 0.87. The internal consistency coefficient of job demand, job control, distributive justice, positive job related well-being and negative job related well-being is 0.81, 0.85, 0.83,0.89 and 0.88 respectively. Moreover, demographic variables (gender, age, education, marriage), organizational variables (work experience, income) and physical variables (body mass index, height) are controlled according prior studies. Theoretical hypothesis were tested by polynomial hierarchical regression. As the result showed, controlling the effect of control variables (gender, age, education, tenure, income, body mass index, and height), facial attractiveness had inversed U shape impact on job-related well-being; meanwhile, the three-way interaction effect between facial attractiveness, job demand and job control has also shown to be significant. Specially, the inversed U shape facial attractiveness-job-related well-being relation was stronger for the active job, where scored high on job demand while simultaneously high on job control; under passive job (i.e., low demand/ low control), low strain job (i.e., low demand/ high control), and high strain job (i.e., high demand/ low control), the curvilinear relation between facial attractiveness and job-related well-being was weak. Following the procedure of mediation analysis, distributive justice was found mediated the relationship of facial attractiveness, the three-way interaction (facial attractiveness2×demand×control) to job-related well-being. The present study demonstrated that, facial attractiveness in workplace not only has effect of what is beautiful is good, but also has effect of too much of a good thing. Employees would achieve highest well-being on the higher-than-average facial attractiveness (6.88). From the perspectives of “what is beautiful is good” effects and “too much of a good thing” effects, it could be referred that, higher-than-average facial attractiveness, rather than the highest facial attractiveness, would help acquiring “what is beautiful is good” effects and avoiding “too much of a good thing” effects. Thus, it is indicated that managers should pay attention to above effects and employees’ job-related well-being, however, are inadvisable to pursue the highest attractive employees simply. More important, the effect of facial attractiveness was moderated by job demand and control. When in the situation of high demand and high control, which helps invoked employees’ motivation, facial attractiveness has the strongest “what is beautiful is good” effects and “too much of a good thing” effects. The last contribution is that the mediating effect of income distributive justice has been proved. For controlling “too much of a good thing” effects, it should be worth trying for managers to stimulate employees’ income distributive justice.

Key words: fascial attractiveness, job related well-being, distributive justice, job demand- control model, conservation of resource theory.

摘要: 本文基于资源保存理论,考察职场中颜值影响工作幸福感的机制及边界,对1079份配对数据的多项式层级回归分析发现:颜值对工作幸福感有倒U型的影响,颜值中等偏上(6.88)的员工有最强的工作幸福感;不同职场类型中颜值的影响效应存在差异,在高要求-高控制的职场中,颜值对工作幸福感的曲线效应最强;分配公平感在上述影响路径和交互效应起中介作用。结论对人力资源管理和面孔吸引力理论具有积极贡献。

关键词: 面孔吸引力, 工作幸福感, 分配公平感, 工作要求-控制模型, 资源保存理论.