Passion at work: A meta‐analysis of individual work outcomes

Abstract

Academic research on passion is much more complex than the extant literature or popular press portray. Although research on work-related passion has progressed rapidly over the last decade, much remains unknown. We are now just beginning to recognize the different theoretical underpinnings and empirical operationalizations that work passion research has adopted, and the confusion this has generated hampers our understanding of the construct and its relationship to workplace outcomes. Accordingly, we use a meta-analytic examination to study the work-related outcomes of three dominant literature streams of work passion: general passion, dualistic passion (i.e., harmonious passion and obsessive passion), and role-based passion (i.e., passion for developing, passion for founding, and passion for inventing). We employ meta-analytic techniques using random effects modeling summarizing 106 distinct samples across 87 manuscripts totaling 384 effect sizes (total unique N = 38,481; 43.54% women, average age is 38.04).Importantly, we highlight how each of the three streams of passion relates to various outcomes differently, illuminate several important heretofore undetected nuances in passion research, and provide a roadmap for future inquiry on passion at work. K E Y W O R D S dualistic model of passion, entrepreneurial passion, general work passion, meta-analysis, rolebased passion

The Moderator Role of Passion for Work in the Association between Work Stressors and Secondary Traumatic Stress: A Cross‐Level Diary Study among Health Professionals of Intensive Care Units

“…Interestingly, both passions are positively related, which allows us to deepen our examination of such a concept and contribute to the existing literature (Pollack et al, 2020). In this regard, both passions seem to describe a similar feeling of love and enjoyment of their work, but possibly the cognitive and behavioral aspects associated with each type of passion, as mentioned before, may result in them having different consequences (Forest et al, 2011).…”

“…However, little is known about how passion for work—as a personal resource—may influence the relationship between work stressors and negative consequences (Lavigne et al, 2014), although authors such as Dam, Perera, Jones, Haughy, and Gaeta (2019) established that passion, among others, may protect against work stressors in that field. Despite this, the lack of studies in this vein means that current studies need to strongly emphasise the need for examining the moderator role of this passion for work (Pollack, Ho, O’Boyle, & Kirkman, 2020). Therefore, we hypothesised that:…”

The passion bug: How and when do leaders inspire work passion?

“…Empirically, work passion has also been distinguished from these forms of motivation and shown to have additional predictive value over intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (e.g., Ho & Astakhova, 2018; Ho, Kong, Lee, Dubreuil, & Forest, 2018; Liu, Chen, & Yao, 2011; Vallerand et al, 2003). Similarly, prior studies have consistently shown that passion is distinct from common work attitudes such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment (e.g., Ho, Wong, & Lee, 2011) and has additional explanatory value in predicting both employee attitudes and behaviors such as turnover intention, job performance, and citizenship behaviors (e.g., Astakhova & Porter, 2015; Burke, Astakhova, & Hang, 2015—see Pollack, Ho, O'Boyle, & Kirkman, 2020, for a meta‐analytic review of work passion outcomes).…”

Pilot study of a brief psychological intervention for reducing emotional exhaustion and secondary traumatic stress among physicians of intensive care units in Mexico

“…Interestingly, this is the physician with higher levels of obsessive passion, which could be associated with the fact that he has another job apart from working in this unit. Besides, it seems plausible that the internalization made by this type of workers (Pollack et al, 2020), in which they are more dependent on external contingencies, need a greater length of the intervention working in the harmonious passion, and in turn, to provoke significant changes. Thus, the work-related attitudes internalized as this obsessive passion could diminish the positive impact of the intervention, as previous findings supported in which the harmonious passion is related to the use of strengths and positive outcomes (Dubreuil, Forest, & Courcy, 2014).…”

“…Despite these healthcare workers are considered to have a potential risk, current studies highlight their passion for caring and their vocation in their work (Gómez-Salgado, Navarro-Abal, López-López, Romero-Martín, & Climent-Rodríguez, 2019). This passion for work has been widely studied as an inclination toward work in which the individual has positive feelings and also makes this as part of his/her identity (Pollack, Ho, O'Boyle, & Kirkman, 2020). The outstanding role of this passion is the distinction between the two types with different associated outcomes (Vallerand, Paquet, Philippe, & Charest, 2010).…”