Summary
Despite widespread belief that passion is important for workplace success, research has failed to keep pace with theorizing in this domain, particularly as it pertains to measurement. The ...Dualistic Model of Passion, which is composed of harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP), has been frequently adapted by management researchers. Two different versions of its measure, the Passion Scale, are concurrently in use. Therefore, we collected three samples of working adults (total N = 1497) to conduct a comprehensive psychometric evaluation and comparison of the 14‐item and 12‐item versions of the Passion Scale adapted to work. Despite sharing only five items, both versions demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and incremental validity over other work attitudes. However, the positive correlation between HP and OP is much smaller in magnitude in the 12‐item version, which may account for the wide credibility interval reported by meta‐analysis. Additionally, item response theory analysis revealed that neither version can assess very high or low levels of HP or OP, indicating that the Passion Scale may be best suited to measuring mid‐range levels of passion. We leverage these conclusions to offer future research directions and best practices for passion research using this measure.
This article examines how passion affects an entrepreneur’s business failure experiences. Our study explores the link between the type of passion an entrepreneur exhibits and the effect this has on ...the entrepreneurs’ attitudes and reactions to business failure. We analyse the way in which passion type informs entrepreneurs identification with their business, and the entrepreneurial process. Entrepreneurs who experienced harmonious passion maintained an emotional distance from their business failure. Harmoniously passionate entrepreneurs had a rational perspective and were reflective, self-aware, adaptive and future oriented. Entrepreneurs who experienced obsessive passion, were defensive and reactionary about their business failure. Obsessively passionate entrepreneurs attached contingencies and experienced increased stress and conflict. Our findings suggest promising opportunities for future research on the interplay between heterogeneous passions, adaptive/maladaptive entrepreneurial action and regulated goal pursuit.
Recent studies indicate that a team with entrepreneurial passion performs positively. To understand the dynamics of new venture teams (NVTs), however, more research is needed on cross-level ...interactions and the cyclical relationship between passion and performance. We hypothesize that the perception of a lead entrepreneur’s passion and entrepreneurial passion diversity are team-level constructs that influence the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and performance. Furthermore, utilizing the input-mediator-output-input (IMOI) model, we investigate whether the performance of NVTs affects members’ pre- and post-entrepreneurial passions while developing their businesses. We collected and analyzed multi-wave data from 160 individuals nested in 53 NVTs. The results indicate that entrepreneurial passion predicts perceptions of performance in general. However, the focal relationship is moderated by how NVT members perceive the lead entrepreneur’s passion. Our findings also suggest that entrepreneurial passion diversity directly hinders performance perception, although it does not influence the passion-performance link. Moreover, this study reveals that the perception of NVT performance mediates the effect of prior passion on subsequent passion, supporting the cyclic nature of the passion-performance relationship in NVTs. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.
•This study examines the relationships among passion for work, emotional labor strategies and emotional exhaustion.•This study contributes to the literature by conceptually and empirically evaluating ...passion for work and emotional labor strategies dimensions simultaneously.•The results contribute to explain why a passionate employee is likely to experience emotional exhaustion.•Emotional labor strategies mediated the link between the relationship between passion for work and emotional exhaustion.
The study aims to apply a dualistic model of passion to explore how frontline employees with different types of passion for work use emotional labor strategies, and how this affects emotional exhaustion. The research surveyed samples of 260 in the restaurant industry and employed Structural Equation Model for analysis and testing. The results show that harmoniously passionate frontline employees tend to adopt a deep acting strategy when confronted with emotional labor, and then protect themselves from emotional exhaustion, whereas frontline employees with obsessive passion tend to employ a surface acting strategy, and are in turn more likely to exhausting their emotional energy. Further, finding of mediation analysis confirms the partially mediating role of emotional labor strategies in the relationship between dualistic passion for work and emotional exhaustion. Finally, this study proposes managerial implications and suggestions for future research.
Does passion predict performance? Whereas harmonious passion is typically associated with strong performance, evidence for the obsessive passion-performance relationship has been so far inconclusive. ...The mixed results in the literature suggest that there are hitherto unexamined boundary conditions and mechanisms shaping the relationship between obsessive passion and performance. This study draws on principles from conservation of resources and the dual-systems model of self-regulation to explain how these two types of passion (obsessive and harmonious) relate to work performance. We examined career adaptability as a buffer that determines when and for whom obsessive passion precipitates emotional exhaustion as well as when and for whom emotional exhaustion diminishes work performance. This proposed moderated mediation model was tested in two multisource samples in corporate (N = 139 employee-supervisor dyads) and healthcare sectors (N = 156 time-lagged employee-peer dyads) respectively. We observed support for the proposed model in both samples. Career adaptability prevents obsessively passionate workers from being consumed by obsession.
Obsessive passion predicts many maladaptive workplace outcomes (Vallerand & Houlfort, 2019). However, we hypothesized that people hold the lay belief that obsessive passion is needed to succeed in ...workplaces that focus on singular objectives (e.g., productivity) at the expense of competing goals (e.g., well-being) – that is, workplaces characterized by bottom-line mentalities (Greenbaum et al., 2012). In three studies (total N = 911) we assessed lay beliefs about passion from different perspectives, including perceptions of others (Study 1), the way people presented themselves and believed others should present themselves (Study 2), and estimates of one's own success in different workplaces (Study 3). In support of our hypothesis, participants believed that, in workplaces characterized by bottom-line mentalities, they and others would be more likely to achieve success with high levels of obsessive passion. This means that lay beliefs about passion may be a force that promotes and sustains obsessive passion in workplaces focused exclusively on bottom-line outcomes.
•We conducted 3 studies to examine beliefs about obsessive passion in the workplace.•People believe obsessive passion can lead to success in some types of workplaces.•This belief was held for workplaces with bottom-line mentalities.
In a world marked by exponential change, work demands are intensifying and becoming increasingly prominent in organizations' reality. Work demands are stressors for the employees who must deal with ...these requests as they bring with them costs. Promoting these workers' well-being at work is important as their level of comfort is closely related to how they will behave in the workplace. In this context, work passion is a fundamental factor in employees' daily motivation to work well. This study tested a new approach to work demands, distinguishing between challenges and obstacles, exploring how they influence affective well-being at work when work passion is part of the equation. Individual workers also participate in how demands are formulated, which affects their level of well-being at the workplace. Data were collected with an online questionnaire administered to a sample of 515 participants who had been working in the same organization for at least 6 months. The results of multiple regression analysis show that the way demands are revealed influences what kind of work passion predominates and thus how much workers' well-being at work is altered. Harmonious passion emerges as a personal resource that has the power to prevent negative affective states related to work from developing, while obsessive passion ends up putting even more demands on employees and having a stronger negative association with their affective well-being in the workplace.
It is just over a decade since Vallerand et al. (J Personal Soc Psychol 85:756–767,
2003
) introduced the dualistic model of passion. In this study, we conduct a meta-analytical review of ...relationships between Vallerand et al’s two passions (viz. harmonious and obsessive), and intrapersonal outcomes, and test the moderating role of age, gender, domain, and culture. A systematic literature search yielded 94 studies, within which 27 criterion variables were reported. These criterion variables derived from four research areas within the intrapersonal sphere: (a) well-/ill-being, (b) motivation factors, (c) cognitive outcomes and, (d) behaviour and performance. From these areas we retrieved 1308 independent effect sizes and analysed them using random-effects models. Results showed harmonious passion positively corresponded with positive intrapersonal outcomes (e.g., positive affect, flow, performance). Obsessive passion, conversely, showed positive associations with positive and negative intrapersonal outcomes (e.g., negative affect, rumination, vitality). Correlations were largely invariant across age and gender, but certain relationships were moderated by domain and culture. Implications are discussed.
Although the importance of developing and sustaining passion for work over time has long been underscored, how this can be accomplished has yet to be elaborated and substantiated in the literature. ...Drawing upon the self-concordance model, we proposed a theoretical model in which harmonious work passion (i.e., passion derived from an autonomous internalization of work into one's identity) may develop and be sustained over time through promoting job crafting behaviors that, in turn, spur greater subsequent passion later on. However, obsessive work passion (i.e., passion emanated from a controlled internalization of work with intra- or interpersonal contingencies attached) is less likely to promote this self-reinforcing cycle. Multivariate latent change score modeling of six-wave longitudinal data over 15 months revealed the hypothesized relationships between harmonious work passion and overall job crafting but not between obsessive work passion and overall job crafting. Furthermore, through bivariate latent change score modeling, we found a change-related reciprocal relationship between harmonious passion and cognitive and task crafting but not with relational crafting. Interestingly, we also observed a change-related reciprocal relationship between obsessive passion and cognitive crafting. This research contributes to the literature on passion and job crafting by demonstrating a self-reinforcing cycle for workplace passion and job crafting over time.
Career calling is a positive construct that describes how much individuals see their work as a meaningful and consuming passion, experienced as a transcendent summons, that defines their identity, ...their life’s purpose, and contributes to the common good. Somewhat surprisingly, recent research suggested that calling fosters workaholism. In a cross-sectional study (N = 235), we investigated obsessive and harmonious passion as mediators and moderators of the relation between calling and workaholism. Results suggested that the relation between calling and workaholism is completely mediated by obsessive passion and partially mediated by harmonious passion. In addition, we observed that obsessive passion moderates the relation between calling and workaholism, such that when obsessive passion is high, calling protects individuals from workaholism. These results put into question the so-called dark side of calling.
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