Having the will and finding the way: A review and meta-analysis of hope at work
verifiedrich profile · The Journal of Positive Psychology · 2013
Reichard, Rebecca J.; Avey, James B.; Lopez, Shane; Dollwet, Maren
How this was studied
A meta-analytic synthesis — it pools many primary studies rather than running a single design, so there is no single-study diagram.
What this article reports
The findings we extracted from this work, normalized into Principia’s relationship form (X → Y). Each feeds the synthesized models below.
hope → organizational commitment
hope → job satisfaction
Models this article informs
The meta-analytic priors this article contributes evidence to — its place in the broader synthesis.
In the authors’ words
The article’s own abstract.
Critics of the field of positive organizational psychology have expressed reservations with validity and utility of positive constructs, such as hope. The purpose of this article is to systematically review the existing research on hope at work and to determine the ‘true’ relationship between hope and work outcomes by meta-analyzing 133 effect sizes across 45 primary studies based on 11,139 employees. As predicted, we found that the overall corrected mean effect sizes between hope and work performance and employee well-being were positive and statistically significant. Gender and study location were significant moderators of these relationships, with women and US-based studies having stronger hope to work outcomes effects. Taken together, results demonstrate that positive psychology constructs, such as hope, play an important role in understanding and predicting employee behavior.
What the literature says about it
Attributed, open-access quotes from other works that cite this article, plus the citation-graph verdict tally. Corroborations and disputes, in one place — the honest-broker view.
supports “A review of the relationship between hope and work among general employees reported positive correlations between hope and work performance as well as hope and employee well-being (Reichard et al., 2013).”
supports “Hope is associated with goal achievement (Friend et al., 2016) and positive workplace performance, commitment, and satisfaction (e.g. Reichard et al., 2013; Youssef & Luthans, 2007).”
supports “Hope is associated with goal achievement (Friend et al., 2016) and positive workplace performance, commitment, and satisfaction (e.g. Reichard et al., 2013; Youssef & Luthans, 2007).”
supports “The meta-analysis found a statistically significant positive correlation between hope and employee performance based on self-report and aggregate measures such as financial performance (Reichard et al., 2013).”
supports “Research shows that hope positively relates to job satisfaction and commitment, while reducing stress and exhaustion (Luthans et al., 2007; Reichard et al., 2013; Youssef & Luthans, 2007).”
Ancillary research
Neighbouring works in the citation graph around this article.
- 10.1177/10690727211050898
- 10.1111/jjns.70006
- 10.1080/13215906.2024.2362670
- 10.1080/15548732.2025.2518373
- 10.1080/23303131.2024.2388726
- 10.1080/00049530.2026.2616975
Assembled from Principia’s registry — bibliographic record, extracted effect sizes, the models they inform, and open-access citing literature.