Introduction

Based on the ancient philosophical notion of “the good life” and its modern adaptations in the discipline of psychological science, in this chapter, I introduce the concept of “the good working life.” The good working life entails a combination of high levels of job satisfaction, work meaningfulness, and work psychological richness. As a guide for subsequent chapters of this book, I present a theoretical model of potential antecedents and consequences of the good working life, including individual and work characteristics, as well as work and life outcomes. Moreover, I introduce a large-scale empirical survey study with over 2000 workers conducted for this book to obtain an evidence-based understanding of the good working life. The methods and results of this study are described in the subsequent chapters of this book.