In this commentary, I respond to Ilies, Aw & Pluut’s (Intraindividual models of employee well-being: What have we learned and where do we go from here?, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, in press) call for a theory that distinguishes between traits and states of employee well-being. I use Job Demands–Resources theory to illustrate how we may integrate within- and between-person approaches and findings to design an overall multilevel model of employee well-being. My perspective builds on Ilies et al. and recent findings of research combining relatively stable “traits” with fluctuating states of employee well-being. My goals with this commentary are three-fold: (1) give more insight into possible differences between variables at different levels of analysis; (2) use research to show how trait and state levels of (predictors of) employee well-being may interact; (3) propose a multilevel model that may stimulate future research on the topic.

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doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2015.1071423, hdl.handle.net/1765/84568
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Department of Psychology

Bakker, A. (2015). Towards a multilevel approach of employee well-being. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology (Vol. 24, pp. 839–843). doi:10.1080/1359432X.2015.1071423