The Influence of Passion and Work–Life Thoughts on Work Satisfaction

• Author: Sara Thorgren,Charlotta Sirén,Joakim Wincent
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21172
• Date: 01 December 2013
• Published date: 01 December 2013

The Infl uence of Passion and

Work−Life Thoughts on Work

Satisfaction

Sara Thorgren, Joakim Wincent, Charlotta Sirén

The Dualistic Model of Passion has gained increasing attention in social

psychology in the past decade. Besides defi ning passion as “a strong

inclination or desire toward an activity that one likes, fi nds important, and

in which one invests time and energy” (Vallerand et al., 2003, p. 757), it

acknowledges two types of passion, harmonious and obsessive, which

develop according to how individuals internalize an activity in their self-

concept. A growing body of empirical research, particularly in nonwork

settings, has demonstrated that harmonious passion and obsessive passion

have distinct outcomes. As such, this two-dimensional passion construct may

be particularly useful for developing a more comprehensive understanding of

how individuals engage with work compared to the existing one-dimensional

constructs of job engagement used in organizational literature. The present

study develops hypotheses and tests the direct effect of harmonious and

obsessive passion with work satisfaction. It also aims to develop theory by

connecting the dualistic passion approach with work–life confl ict; in doing

so, it tests how individuals’ off-task thoughts at work and on-task thoughts

off work may mediate this relationship. Using a quantitative survey, the

hypotheses are tested on a random sample of individuals engaged in business

start-ups in Sweden. Whereas harmonious passion exhibits a direct effect

with work satisfaction, obsessive passion exhibits an indirect effect through

on-task thoughts off work with work satisfaction.

Key Words: emotions at work, work–life balance, work–family, passion, satisfaction,

business start-up

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 24, no. 4, Winter 2013 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21172 469

The authors would like to thank the editors for their careful and very helpful guidance in this review

process. This study is part of a project funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Council for

Working Life and Social Research, and Handelsbanken’s Research Foundations. Studies on the data set

employed in this article also appear in articles in International Journal of Stress Management (doi:10.1037/

a0031457) and International Small Business Journal (doi:10.1177/0266242613487085).

470 Thorgren, Wincent, Sirén

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq

Introduction

The concept of passion has a long history in both research and practice, yet

only in the past decade has it gained extensive scholarly attention and devel-

opment following the work of Vallerand and colleagues’ (2003) Dualistic

Model of Passion (e.g., Amiot, Vallerand, & Blanchard, 2006; Mageau,

Vallerand, Rousseau, Ratelle, & Provencher, 2005; Omorede, Thorgren, &

Wincent, 2013; Ratelle, Vallerand, Mageau, Rousseau, & Provencher, 2004;

Thorgren & Wincent, 2013; Vallerand et al., 2003; Vallerand & Houlfort,

2003). In this model, passion is defi ned as “a strong inclination or desire

toward an activity that one likes, fi nds important, and in which one invests

time and energy” (Vallerand et al., 2003, p. 757). A signifi cant quality of this

conceptualization is that the authors distinguish harmonious passion from

obsessive passion. Self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) supports

the idea that the type of passion that develops (harmonious or obsessive)

depends on whether the individual internalizes the activity into his/her self-

concept in an autonomous or a controlled/pressured way. Whereas harmoni-

ous passion is an inclination or desire toward an activity that is well integrated

into one’s identity and undertaken freely (autonomous internalization), obses-

sive passion is not equally integrated into one’s identity and is undertaken in

response to some kind of pressure, such as maintaining one’s value or increas-

ing one’s self-worth (controlled/pressured internalization). Thus, by being

viewed as a feeling directed toward a specifi c activity, the Dualistic Model of

Passion diverges from earlier trait-based conceptualizations of passion.

Empirical research on harmonious and obsessive passion has focused

mainly on nonwork environments such as gambling, Internet use, cycling, ice

hockey, and football (Amiot et al., 2006; Rousseau, Vallerand, Ratelle, Mageau,

& Provencher, 2002; Seguin-Levesque, Laliberte, Pelletier, Blanchard, &

Vallerand, 2003; Vallerand et al., 2003). Recent articles, however, have high-

lighted the value of applying the Dualistic Model of Passion to an organiza-

tional context (R. J. Burke, Jeng, Koyuncu, & Fiksenbaum, 2011; Carbonneau,

Vallerand, Fernet, & Guay, 2008; Ho, Wong, & Lee, 2011; Philippe, Vallerand,

Houlfort, Lavigne, & Donahue, 2010; Thorgren & Wincent, in press;

Vallerand, Paquet, Philippe, & Charest, 2010).

Organizational science scholars study several seemingly similar concepts,

including work engagement, involvement, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation,

identifi cation, and commitment (Chalofsky, 2003; Deci & Ryan, 1985; Lodahl

& Kejner, 1965; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004; Shuck, 2011; Shuck, Ghosh,

Zigarmi, & Nimon, 2013; van Knippenberg & Sleebos, 2006; Zigarmi,

Nimon, Houson, Witt, & Diehl, 2009). Although passion may resemble these

notions in diverse ways, it is nevertheless a distinct concept. Importantly,

Vallerand and colleagues’ (2003) defi nition of passion not only encompasses

the idea that the individual likes the activity (which is comparable with the

other concepts), but also that the activity is important for the individual, and