Further thoughts on the happy-productive worker - Reply

Ledford's commentary on our paper titled, 'Affect and favorable work outcom es: Two longitudinal tests of the happy-productive worker thesis', is a tho ught-provoking attempt to place the research and its findings in a larger t heoretical context. His comments address three general questions. First, wh y have so many academics and practitioners alike been willing to accept the existence of the happy-productive worker relationship? Second, to what ext ent do Wright and Staw's findings shed additional light on the happy-produc tive worker thesis? Finally, what are the study's implications for future r esearch? We will comment briefly on each of these issues. Copyright (C) 199 9 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.