What it means to thrive: a qualitative, interdisciplinary exploration of employees’ understandings of “thriving” at work.

Publication date: Dec 31, 2025

Due to widespread societal changes, scholars and human resources (HR) practitioners need additional ideas and strategies to encourage employee well-being and “thriving” in the post-COVID workplace. However, academics and practitioners are typically not in conversation on this topic, which can lead to gaps between knowledge and practice. Informed by an interdisciplinary approach that bridges theoretical insights from psychology, sociology, and HR practitioner-focused research, we use focus group interviews with 113 full-time employees across five U. S. cities to explore how employees define what it means to thrive at work in contemporary times. We find that employees’ accounts demonstrate the importance of both psychological and interactional factors in their understandings of thriving, including feeling a sense of personal well-being and opportunity at work, feeling appreciated in their interactions with coworkers and leaders, and feeling that the organization has a larger purpose and mission and that they, as employees, contribute to the organization’s purpose and success. Given employees’ interpretations, our findings suggest concrete strategies that HR practitioners can take to help employees thrive in the workplace today.

Semantics

Original Article