Abstract
The belief that a life of passion is a life well-lived serves as a perpetual motivator to pursue work aligned with one’s passion. Both work and family are essential life domains in many people’s lives, and they often interconnect, impacting each other. In the workplace, passion is a highly desired but under-researched employee characteristic, offering benefits like positive emotions and improved performance but also carrying risks, such as inflexibility. Drawing on job demands-resources theory and conservation of resources theory, our inquiry offers an integrative conceptual framework that combines insights from positive psychology, organizational behavior, and human resource development (HRD) literature. This framework enhances our understanding of how work passion connects to the work-family interface, considering the roles of psychological capital and self-regulation failure in interactions beyond work. Our study includes implications for HRD practitioners motivated to promote change initiatives and an agenda for future research for HRD scholars.
Keywords
“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.” - Benjamin Franklin
Work passion, which is “an individual’s emotional and persistent state of desire on the basis of cognitive and affective work appraisals, which results in consistent work intentions and behaviors” (Perrewé et al., 2013, p. 146), has a significant impact on shaping people’s lives (Wan et al., 2021). As Swanson (2023) elucidates, human resource development (HRD) has substantiated its effectiveness in cultivating and deploying expertise to enhance individual, team, work process, and organizational system performance, actively positioning HRD as an effective intervention strategy that yields numerous positive outcomes pursued by organizations. One of the positive outcomes in recent times that has garnered attention from academicians and HRD practitioners is the construct of passion at work (e.g., Ho & Astakhova, 2018; Perrewé et al., 2013; Pollack et al., 2020). This has a distinctive capacity to stimulate a reevaluation, redesign, and reimagining of organizational, developmental, and leadership solutions (Shirmohammadi et al., 2022), all of which hold significant importance for HRD. It is intriguing that a Google search for “work passion” yields over 1 billion results, and a Google Scholar search produces roughly 2.5 million results. Popular sayings like “The only way to do great work is to love what you do” and well-known books such as The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century (Davidson, 2020) reinforce the notion that finding passion in one’s profession is a prudent move that will put one on a path to higher success and personal fulfilment compared to career paths devoid of passion. Despite the fact that work passion can have a positive impact, literature shows that it does not necessarily result in ubiquitously positive consequences for employees (Burke et al., 2015). Owing to the contradictory nature of passion at work, we focus on the dualistic model of passion (Vallerand et al., 2003), which divides work passion into two types: harmonious work passion, which is linked to beneficial outcomes in the context of other identities due to its association with autonomous internalization of work practices (Carpentier et al., 2012), and obsessive work passion, which is associated with controlled internalization of work into one’s self resulting in an insatiable desire to work (Mageau et al., 2009).
Background
Around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic caused havoc in personal and professional realms, highlighting the growing significance of work-family concerns and bringing them to the forefront of discussions (Allen & French, 2023). Work-family research has developed into a key component of HRD policies and practices, as the work-related outcomes of employees can be shaped by their work-family experiences, impacting both personal lives and workplace performance and contributions (Chummar et al., 2019). Researchers have characterized the work-family interface using several paradigms (Li et al., 2017). In this study, our focus is on work-family enrichment and work-family conflict. The spillover effects associated with work attitudes (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000), such as work passion, make it necessary to simultaneously explore the outcomes related to work passion in both work and non-work domains. However, the effects of work passion in non-work settings, such as at home and with family, have been examined only sparsely (Chummar et al., 2019). Given the close interdependence of work and family life, with each influencing one another (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985), and its potential to influence individual contributions, work process efficiency, and organizational performance (Allen & French, 2023), it becomes critical for HRD to fully comprehend how one’s work passion can have a significant beneficial or detrimental influence on one’s family domain. In light of the evolving nature of work and employee demands, HRD may need to re-evaluate its policies and practices to foster a strong psychological contract between employees and organizations, facilitate positive work role adjustments, and retain talent over the long term (Shirmohammadi et al., 2022).
Problem Statement and Research Purpose
While studies have explored the impact of work passion on work-family matters, the focus is varied, and the number of studies remains limited (e.g., Caudroit et al., 2011; Thorgren et al., 2013). Although researchers have acknowledged that harmonious and obsessive work passion have different impacts on work-family enrichment and conflict (Carpentier et al., 2012; Vallerand et al., 2010), there has been no research on the specific pathways linking work passion and the work-family interface, based on current knowledge. This lack of investigation makes it a relevant but understudied area (Chummar et al., 2019) that calls for further exploration to better understand the mediating mechanisms involved in establishing these connections. This holds particular significance for HRD, as it is impossible to make headway in understanding the true nature of work passion, much less how to sustain it over time, without a clear grasp of how it connects to the work-family interface. Without this knowledge base, HRD may face difficulties in developing effective interventions, multifaceted strategies, and sustainable practices to address work-related problems and build a more integrated and efficient workforce.
Expanding on this field of inquiry, the current study, which draws on job demands-resources (JD-R) theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017) and conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 1998), conceptualizes two pathways connecting work passion to work-family enrichment and conflict: one through psychological capital and the other through self-regulation failure. While some studies have recognised the significance of psychological capital and self-regulation (e.g., Lafrenière et al., 2011) in forecasting the outcome of passion-driven activities, the findings are often inconsistent and insufficient. For instance, research indicates that individuals more absorbed and committed to their work are more inclined to display behaviors aligned with psychological capital, like self-efficacy and resilience (Choi et al., 2018; Luthans et al., 2007). However, existing literature overlooks an understanding of how these behaviors are generated and how they might benefit the family. Similarly, although researchers have extensively studied self-regulation (Carver & Scheier, 1981; Nesbit, 2012), and applied frameworks related to self-regulation in various contexts, they have devoted relatively little attention to understanding self-regulation failures (Kirschenbaum, 1987). Therefore, considering the scope of psychological capital and self-regulation failure, finding possibilities linking work passion to these indices is worthwhile. We particularly chose psychological capital and self-regulation failure to explore the pathways because of the centrality of resources in each of these linkages and the potential for future studies in HRD literature in this area. The relevance of this association to HRD lies in its connection to effectively harness individual capabilities and organizational systems through tailored change initiatives, empowering employees to drive organizational change while maintaining HRD’s moral and ethical commitments to employee and organization well-being and performance. Further, it opens up many new possibilities for HRD practitioners to deepen their knowledge and strategies that could aid employees in collaborating effectively with their families, organizations, and society to build ideal work and family environments.
The concept of work passion has been applied in diverse fields, and the knowledge in this area is conceptually fragmented. Therefore, the present study aims to develop an integrative conceptual framework by synthesizing knowledge from positive psychology, organizational behavior, and HRD to comprehensively grasp the concept of work passion and its relationship to work-family outcomes. This effort is particularly crucial as, to our knowledge, it is the first attempt to integrate the fragmented knowledge in the field of work passion, developing a framework that explains the underlying pathways involved in the work passion – work-family interface relationship. The importance of integrative conceptual framing for HRD lies in its ability to discover new perspectives and advance existing theories through a conceptual approach. Conceptual studies play a crucial role in bridging existing theories, fostering interdisciplinary connections, offering multi-level insights (Gilson & Goldberg, 2015, p. 128), and facilitating the exploration of emerging phenomena and theory development, all without being limited by data-related constraints (Jaakkola, 2020).
The purpose of this study is to explore work-family enrichment and conflict concurrently through the linking processes of psychological capital and self-regulation failure. This allows HRD practitioners and researchers to grasp the intricate processes by which harmonious work passion generally benefits the work-family interaction while obsessive work passion typically results in negative consequences. By doing so, the study also conceptually advances the dualistic model of passion literature by conceptualizing work passion as a precursor for understanding the work-family interface. This substantially adds to the existing literature on work passion, where previous studies have mostly emphasized work passion as an outcome (Wan et al., 2021). Finally, by using integrative conceptual framing to consolidate scattered knowledge on work passion, this study enables HRD practitioners to draw insights from diverse fields and benefit from multiple disciplines.
Theoretical Background
The Dualistic Model of Passion
The dualistic model of passion (Vallerand et al., 2003), which research conducted over the last decade (e.g., Landay et al., 2021) has supported, divides the notion into two types: harmonious and obsessive work passion, each with its own set of antecedents and consequences. Harmonious work passion emerges on account of an autonomous internalization process. Here, the individual pursues passion because it embodies who they are and since they genuinely like it (Vallerand et al., 2014). The flexible nature of such passion gives freedom to the individual to determine the amount of time and effort they want to dedicate to their passion and does not make them feel pressured to indulge in it (Vallerand et al., 2003). Theoretical and empirical studies indicate that functional behaviors such as pleasant sensations and favorable outcomes during and after task engagement are linked to harmonious work passion (Vallerand et al., 2003, 2007). Like harmonious work passion, employees with obsessive work passion also experience love, attach importance, define themselves, and devote a substantial amount of time to the activity they are passionate about. However, as opposed to harmonious work passion, obsessively passionate individuals experience a controlled form of internalization of the source of passion into their identity, resulting in an irresistible need to partake in it (Vallerand et al., 2010). The individual’s dependency on participation in the activity of passion in order to be pleased with oneself, as well as the sense of social acknowledgement and self-respect acquired from it, causes the individual to place an extremely subjective value on their work role (Vallerand et al., 2003, 2010). This leads obsessive work passion to occupy an excessive amount of space in the identity of an individual, thereby causing the individual to feel that the activity is controlling them.
Due to the construct’s expansiveness (Zigarmi et al., 2009), work passion is likely to intersect with a few other constructs that some regard as substitutable. However, prior studies have presented extensive theoretical parallels (e.g., Ho & Astakhova, 2018) and examined discriminant validity (e.g., Perrewé et al., 2013), highlighting the unique and defining characteristics of work passion, affirming its distinctiveness from related concepts. Building on the previous research showing that the two forms of work passion differentially influence the work-family interface (Chummar et al., 2019; Wan et al., 2021), the current study primarily relies on JD-R theory and COR theory to describe and investigate the links between the harmonious and obsessive work passion, psychological capital, self-regulation failure, and work-family interface. We chose these two theories because they ensure a more comprehensive understanding and richer perspective of all the relationships outlining resource loss and gain dynamics, and promote critical thinking.
Job Demands-Resources Theory
The JD-R theory, a development of the JD-R model (Demerouti et al., 2001), postulates that job and personal demands and resources activate distinct routes, one of impairment and the other of motivation. Individual’s personal resources (e.g., self-esteem and optimism) (Hobfoll, 1989) are those resources that are useful in attaining goals and promoting personal advancement (Xanthopoulou et al., 2009), whereas individuals’ personal demands (e.g., psychological volatility and workaholism) (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017) are the standards they set for themselves in terms of accomplishment and demeanor, which push them to work hard and as a result, are connected with bodily and mental expenses (Barbier et al., 2013). As per JD-R theory, personal demands and resources can activate employees’ performance in their roles through separate motivating or inhibiting pathways (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017). Viewed as a source of personal resource derived from work, harmonious work passion contributes to the motivating experience of psychological capital and promotes work-family enrichment. Since harmoniously passionate employees enjoy validation, autonomy, and self-determination in work-related activities (Mageau et al., 2009), we contend that harmonious work passion can generate personal resources that will help them accomplish professional targets while retaining control over their work in a way that prevents it from taking precedence over other areas of their lives (Vallerand et al., 2010). On the other hand, researchers view obsessive work passion as a personal demand derived from work (Wan et al., 2021) that contributes to the impairing path of self-regulation failure and elevates work-family conflict. Because employees with obsessive work passion are driven by external factors (e.g., societal pressure or maintaining self-esteem) (Carbonneau et al., 2008), they may become overly focused and driven by their work, resulting in psychological consequences (Kong & Ho, 2018), thus creating conflict with other areas of their lives.
Conservation of Resources Theory
Researchers have extensively used the COR theory to understand the experience of employees as they traverse the work-family interface (Crain et al., 2014; Halbesleben et al., 2009). The theory contends that individuals are driven to acquire, preserve, and safeguard resources (Halbesleben et al., 2009). Hobfoll (1989, 1998, 2001) defines personal attributes, material possessions, energy resources, and conditions as examples of resources that represent environmental elements that can be operated upon (Wayne et al., 2007). The work-family enrichment and work-family conflict of passionate individuals, as they gain or lose resources via harmonious or obsessive work passion, may be comprehended using the COR theory. According to the COR framework, when individuals are too immersed in their work roles, they can have insufficient resources (e.g., time, strength, attention) available for the other role domains, such as for family or community (Halbesleben et al., 2009). The persistent attention to work-related issues, such as that observed in obsessively passionate employees, has been shown to deplete energy reserves and promote unpleasant emotions (Sonnentag et al., 2008). This reduces an individual’s capacity to regulate oneself and leads to conflict between work and home domains, thus paving way for additional resource drain and negative outcomes for individuals. In other words, loss spirals develop due to a lack of resources to balance loss, leading to further losses (Dohrenwend, 1978). The COR theory also argues that resources can be acquired to counteract exhaustion. People can obtain resources by numerous mechanisms, including work attitudes such as work passion and calling (Choi et al., 2017), as applicable to human resource management (HRM) and organizational behavior literature. People, such as those with harmonious work passion, attempt to generate resource reserves while not facing stressors to mitigate the chance of future loss and enhance the experience of positive well-being (Shirmohammadi et al., 2022).
Method
Comprehensive, pertinent, and contemporary reviews on work passion and work-family research exist in the literature (e.g., Allen & French, 2023; Pollack et al., 2020). Nevertheless, despite extensive reviews and other empirical and conceptual studies, it is noteworthy that none of these works have specifically examined the fundamental pathways that shape the relationship between work passion and work-family outcomes. This aspect holds immense significance from an HRD standpoint, as it entails notable implications for training, career advancement, and organizational development. However, this paper’s aim is much more modest; it does not intend to provide an exhaustive review of the literature, but to establish an integrative conceptual framework of work passion, focus on discovering the pathways that connect work passion to the work-family interface, to build upon the foundation and direction provided by Pollack et al.’s (2020) review. We conducted a thorough search of electronic databases such as ABI Inform, Business Source Ultimate, Science Direct, and Psych Articles using keywords like work passion, work-family interface, work-family enrichment, work-family conflict, psychological capital, and self-regulation to identify relevant articles. We examined a total of 983 peer-reviewed journal articles (Figure 1), dating from 2000 onwards, with some searches extending back to the 1990s and 1980s. We excluded articles unrelated to work or family context and those focusing on other work-family interactions like work-family balance, integration, and segmentation. We also excluded autobiographical articles, editorials, commentaries, book reviews, and non-empirical, theoretical, or opinion papers, resulting in a total of 66 articles from academic and practice journals that we thoroughly examined. Upon identifying theoretically meaningful constructs, we found that JD-R theory and COR theory emerged as the theoretical foundations upon which we could build the conceptual framework. Utilizing concept mapping (Morgan & Guevara, 2008), the theoretically relevant constructs were visually connected, resulting in the generation of the conceptual framework. Below we present the conceptual framework, which is instrumental in addressing the original focus of the problem and purpose statement. Article search and selection.
Our Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework serves as the foundation for formulating propositions relevant to the following two questions. First, does harmonious and obsessive work passion have a differential impact on work-family outcomes? Second, what are the underlying pathways through which work passion relates to work-family enrichment and conflict? In developing the conceptual framework, we integrated literature from positive psychology, organizational behavior, and HRD. This literature, discussed in the following section, serves as the basis for developing the conceptual framework outlined in Figure 2. At first, we explore how work passion relates to work-family enrichment. Subsequently, we shift our focus to its association with work-family conflict, considering the mediating roles of psychological capital and self-regulation failure, respectively. Conceptual framework of work passion in the work-family interface.
Work Passion in Work-to-Family Enrichment Path
Work-family enrichment refers to “the extent to which experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other role” (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006, p. 73). Greenhaus and Powell (2006) postulate that resources created from positive experiences at work aid in performing well in one’s family role. In light of these findings, our research concentrates on the work-to-family relationship to determine how work passion relates to advantages in the family. Individuals with harmonious work passion allocate a considerable amount of time and effort to the activities linked to their work and dedicate themselves totally to an activity while remaining conscious of their surroundings, resulting in greater psychological well-being (Philippe et al., 2009). Not only will this not drain the individual of their valuable resources, but it will also contribute to the feeling of flow at work (Lavigne et al., 2012). In accordance with the motivational path of JD-R theory, it is argued that the feeling of being able to carry out tasks autonomously and working willingly with no contingencies attached not only minimizes the occurrence of unpleasant emotions and feelings after activity completion but also promotes positive feelings and mood. This, in turn, leads to the creation of more resources that can be applied to a different domain (Vallerand et al., 2010).
On the contrary, the continuous preoccupation with job-related thoughts and rumination over one’s work will be detrimental to the obsessively passionate person’s affective state and deplete energy resources (Sonnentag et al., 2008). Congruent with the impairment path of JD-R theory, it could be presumed that the resource drain associated with obsessive work passion will cause employees to experience lower levels of enrichment as they have fewer resources available for family activities. Furthermore, per the COR theory, researchers theorize that, unlike obsessively passionate individuals, harmoniously passionate persons derive favorable affective experiences and positive outcomes during and after involvement in the activity (Thorgren et al., 2013). This not only alleviates the possibility of one’s passion resulting in conflict with other areas of life but also paves the way for enrichment (Chen & Powell, 2012). As a result of the preceding, we offer the following:
Harmonious work passion has a positive effect on work-family enrichment.
Obsessive work passion has a negative effect on work-family enrichment.
Psychological Capital in Work Passion – Work-to-Family Enrichment Path
Psychological capital refers to “the state-like psychological attributes enhancing one’s ability to cope with life stress, strain, or challenges that consists of four sub-factors including self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience” (Luthans et al., 2007). Not enough studies delve into how work passion affects psychological capital. Nonetheless, the pertinence of this link is discernible in the literature that explores the presumed association between constructs akin to work passion and the four sub-constructs constituting psychological capital (e.g., Dobrow & Tosti-Kharas, 2011). Specifically, the relationships of psychological capital with inner resources and a positive mindset (Choi et al., 2018), crucial for cultivating an environment conducive to the flourishing and sustenance of the family realm, leading to positive work-family exchanges, merit consideration.
According to the COR theory, those with an obsessive work passion will expend more physical and mental energies into maintaining high-performance standards for an extended timeframe, resulting in a greater strain on resources, thus making the efforts unsustainable (Chummar et al., 2019). Though obsessive work passion may provide short-term benefits to job performance, its effectiveness fades over time as resources deplete, and it results in stress and burnout. This, in turn, makes it difficult for the person to maintain consistent high-level performance over extended stretches of time (Nangoy et al., 2020). However, the effortless nature of harmonious work passion will not only have no negative effect on resource drain but will also lead to self-reinforcing resource gains due to job satisfaction and needs fulfilment (Chummar et al., 2019). This is consistent with the idea of “gain spirals” (Hobfoll, 2001) in which individuals gain additional resources through acquired resources, as postulated by COR theory.
The proposed association between work passion and psychological capital is also congruent with the broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 1998), which contends that positive feelings (such as harmonious work passion) can broaden the ability of an individual for effective thought and action, thus enhancing their personal resources (like psychological capital). These resources are not limited to the time of experience of positive feelings but are long-lasting (Fredrickson, 1998). Using the broaden-and-build theory, we can propose that positive feelings, such as those associated with harmonious work passion as opposed to obsessive work passion experienced by employees at work, contribute to increased feelings of positivity and self-confidence. This, in turn, energizes them to deal with unfavorable circumstances, thereby fostering the development of psychological capital at work. On the basis of the aforementioned, we propose the following:
Harmonious work passion will have a positive effect on the generation of psychological capital at work.
Obsessive work passion will have a negative effect on the generation of psychological capital at work.
Based on the ongoing discussion, we put forward that psychological capital generated by work passion will be positively associated with work-to-family enrichment. COR theory postulates that the perception of having sufficient resources itself weakens the stressful situation (Crain et al., 2014). Work-to-family enrichment, by definition, indicates that resources attained from the work sphere enhance the family sphere’s performance (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Among several resources, including material resources, social capital, flexibility, skills, and perspectives, psychological capital is one of the resources obtained through positive work experiences that are perceived to promote work-family enrichment (Choi et al., 2018). Additionally, the literature suggests that psychological capital and work-family enrichment are positively related, implying that the more resources a person has, the more able they can accommodate their family’s diverse requirements (e.g., Crawford et al., 2010). Therefore, this link is proposed based on theories of work-family enrichment (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006) and prior study results, which indicate that positive experiences in the work realm can flow over into the family realm (Grzywacz & Marks, 2000):
The generation of psychological capital at work will have a positive impact on work-family enrichment.
Drawing on the theory of work-family enrichment (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006), we put forward that the favorable experiences derived from a passion for work create a variety of resources, such as psychological capital. These resources overflow into the family realm, leading to enrichment of the family domain. Since employees that have a high harmonious work passion autonomously internalize their work and enjoy engaging in it (Vallerand et al., 2010), harmonious work passion, rather than obsessive work passion, generates resources like work-family capital, affect, and development (Carlson et al., 2006) that assist them in functioning effectively in their family realm (Crain & Hammer, 2014). These employees may boast healthy self-esteem at home, positive feelings such as optimism and hope after work, and can adapt their professional competence and expertise to the family role, increasing their resilience. Due to the higher generation of psychological capital at work and translation of it to the family realm, harmoniously passionate employees, as opposed to obsessively passionate employees, may enjoy better enrichment in their family realm, following the motivational path proposed by JD-R theory. A study by Hirschi (2012) on a group of highly educated German employees contends that having a sense of calling, a construct similar to passion (Dobrow & Tosti-Kharas, 2011), increases employee’s positive work experiences; this leads to higher levels of occupational self-efficacy and person-job fit, as well as work-to-family enrichment, allowing positive affect created at work to be transferred to the family realm. Therefore, based on the linking arguments presented in Propositions 3, 4, and 5, we can anticipate that harmonious and obsessive work passions can have distinctive effects on the generation of psychological capital at work, leading to diverse work-family enrichment outcomes. Considering this, we put forward that psychological capital mediates the relationship between work passion and work-family enrichment:
Psychological capital mediates the relationship between harmonious work passion and work-family enrichment, such that individuals with harmonious work passion experience an increase in the generation of psychological capital at work, increasing their work-family enrichment.
Psychological capital mediates the relationship between obsessive work passion and work-family enrichment, such that individuals with obsessive work passion experience a decrease in the generation of psychological capital at work, decreasing their work-family enrichment.
Work Passion in Work-to-Family Conflict Path
Work-family conflict is “a form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect. That is, participation in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role” (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985, p. 77). The aspects of Greenhaus and Beutell’s (1985) work-life conflict model, specifically time-based and strain-based conflict, emerge quite easily from the characteristics of individuals with obsessive work passion. Both time-based and strain-based conflicts involve cognitive and emotional components, implying that individuals enhance their capacity to transition efficiently from work to family life by re-evaluating their cognitive state and controlling their emotions (McMillan et al., 2010; Wood et al., 2020). The interference of obsessive work passion with cognitions and behaviors depletes individual resources, reducing the time and strength available to participate in family activities (Thorgren et al., 2013; Vallerand et al., 2014). Moreover, obsessively passionate employees may also carry over the negative feelings they encounter into their perceptions and actions at home (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000). Therefore, it is reasonable to infer that employees with obsessive work passion cannot fully immerse themselves in family experiences due to mental preoccupation with thoughts and activities about work outside of their working time, resulting in less involvement in social behavior and other positive experiences at home (Ilies et al., 2007).
In contrast, harmoniously passionate individuals view themselves as having several essential role identities and hence have a more holistic attitude towards work and family; this helps them to take on multiple roles while ensuring that each role gets an adequate proportion of resources, both personal and cognitive (Clark, 2000). Moreover, individuals with harmonious work passion fulfil their professional obligations through autonomous motivation, which results in the experience of positive affect at work and, consequently, positive feelings outside of work. Subsequently, harmoniously passionate individuals are left with enough resources to relish and fully participate in their lives outside of work, as they will not have to draw on personal resources to cope with the increased stress and worry (Chummar et al., 2019). A study by Vallerand et al. (2010), in French and Canadian employee samples indicates that harmonious passion is linked to a reduction in conflict, while obsessive passion is linked to a rise in conflict. Hence, we suggest the following propositions:
Harmonious work passion is negatively related to work-family conflict.
Obsessive work passion is positively related to work-family conflict.
Self-Regulation Failure in Work Passion – Work-to-Family Conflict Path
Self-regulation failure is defined as “the problems that arise when one intentionally tries to initiate, alter, or inhibit a specific response or behavior and fails to do so because one does not put in the sufficient effort (under-regulation) or because one’s active efforts are ineffective or counterproductive (misregulation)” (Heatherton & Baumeister, 1996, p. 92). Self-regulation theory (Baumeister & Vohs, 2004; Lord et al., 2010) has been considered a comprehensive theoretical framework for comprehending passion (Cardon et al., 2009; Lord et al., 2010). According to self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985), individuals with self-determination, a trait associated with harmonious work passion, are said to be highly self-regulated (Vallerand et al., 2003, 2007). To achieve better outcomes, such persons strive to fulfil their fundamental requirements of autonomy, competence, and relatedness to others (Deci & Ryan, 2000). In a similar line, the self-concordance model of self-regulation (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999) asserts that people are more inclined to put in the work necessary to meet their requirements and achieve their aims when they pursue their personal goals for autonomous reasons (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999); such a motivating notion is considered the most critical aspect that promotes self-regulation of behavior among harmoniously passionate individuals (Buhrau & Sujan, 2015).
In contrast, for obsessively passionate individuals, work motivation is linked to a variety of factors, and they view work as a means to obtaining significant extrinsic benefits that help them strengthen their self-worth, such as salary increments, promotions, and group acceptance (Mageau et al., 2009). As a result, persons who have obsessive work passion find it difficult to stop themselves from engaging in the activity they love because they not only experience an irrepressible desire to participate in the activity, but they also derive a feeling of self-worth from its completion and therefore are more willing to stick with it even if it has unfavorable effects. The internal urge experienced by obsessively passionate employees to carry out work activities even when they know they should not lead to the generation of unpleasant feelings both during and after the passionate action, which in turn may result in further resource drain (Vallerand et al., 2010), increasing the inability to regulate oneself. These reasons indicate that obsessive work passion led to poorer self-regulation. Yeh and Chu (2018), based on their investigation, indicate that though harmonious and obsessive passion are associated and predictive of self-regulation, they influence self-regulation in opposite directions; the study findings reveal that individuals with harmonious passion experience enhanced abilities of self-regulation, whereas individuals with obsessive passion experience hindrances in their abilities of self-regulation. Thus, based on the foregoing, we advance the following proposition:
Harmonious work passion has a negative influence on self-regulation failure.
Obsessive work passion has a positive influence on self-regulation failure.
With the advancement of information and communication technologies (ICT), the line between work and non-work time has gotten increasingly indistinct (Firoozabadi et al., 2018; Kao et al., 2020). People build and sustain boundaries between their roles in different realms to make their surroundings simpler and more organized (Nippert-Eng, 1996). While these boundaries or mental fences between roles are advantageous in bringing order to one’s environment, in the context of limited individual resources, the transition between one role to the other becomes complicated, thus triggering inter-role conflict between mutually incompatible roles (Beigi et al., 2018; Cooke & Rousseau, 1984; Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). The prevailing research on work-family conflict suggests that inter-role tensions and role incompatibilities make it strenuous for the individual to meet work and family role obligations concurrently (Cooke & Rousseau, 1984; Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985).
The strength model of self-regulation is appropriate and useful in self-regulation theory and has a significant corollary for understanding self-regulation failure (Baumeister et al., 1994). Since self-regulatory strength is a finite resource, it can be momentarily exhausted due to self-control failure emerging from exhaustion caused by multiple simultaneous demands. In particular, an individual’s self-regulatory capacities get depleted due to fatigue, stress, and overexertion, and subverts some patterns of self-control (Baumeister & Heatherton, 1996). As a result, when one’s strength gets depleted by demands in one domain, it reduces one’s competence to regulate behavior in other domains because any given individual can only govern so much of one’s behavior at any given time. For instance, cognitive preoccupation with work and unpleasant disposition generated due to psychological strain from work hampers the effectiveness of family interaction by interfering with the employee’s expected attention span and creates a conflict between work and family (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000; Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). Thus, in the light of the foregoing discussion, we propose that:
Self-regulation failure has a positive impact on work-family conflict.
Congruent with the impairment path of JD-R theory, we put forth that obsessively passionate employees, compared to harmoniously passionate individuals, will experience greater work-family conflict as they have fewer resources available for family activities through the impairing path of self-regulation failure. This is due to the fact that the rigid persistence and the inner yearning linked with obsessive work passion make it hard for a person to completely disconnect from work-related thinking and part with one’s engagement in one’s work, both during and beyond working time (Burke & Fiksenbaum, 2009; Vallerand et al., 2010). The failure to attain psychological detachment from work due to their inability to “turn work off” when they leave their workplace suggests a loss in one’s ability to self-regulate. As a result, obsessive work passion tends to negate other interests and needs, resulting in greater conflict with other facets of an employee’s identity and various roles in their life. On the other hand, harmoniously passionate individuals exhibit an autonomous form of control and flexible persistence that aids them disengage from work on a physical and mental level when participating in other activities (Vallerand et al., 2010). Such detachment allows for the experience of increased positive affect and resource replenishment when away from work, as well as reduced conflict in other activities and relationships (Donahue et al., 2012; Sonnentag et al., 2008). Unlike harmonious work passion, which peacefully coexists with other aspects of an employee’s life (Vallerand & Houlfort, 2003), obsessive work passion occupies an inordinate space in an employee’s identity. This intense focus on work leads them to view non-work pursuits (e.g., family responsibilities) as intrusions or even a menace to their passion for work, making them less inclined to participate in them (Vallerand et al., 2007).
Based on current theories of motivation, Deci and Ryan (2000) argue that individuals start off and persevere in behaviors as far as they believe the behaviors will result in the intended results or outcomes. Although harmonious and obsessive work passions are linked to continuous perseverance with the activity (Vallerand et al., 2007), the distinctions in the perseverance related to the two kinds of passion result in different self-regulatory outcomes. Employees with harmonious work passion will persevere as long as their work is pleasurable and does not negatively impact their other domains of life. Alternatively, employees with obsessive work passion exhibit inflexible tenacity that often comes at the cost of other pursuits in their lives (Vallerand & Houlfort, 2003). Other studies, such as Lex et al. (2020), claim that the constituents of passion, namely the positive feelings toward activity and the identity centrality, have varied cycle durations in the feedback loop because they function at various levels of abstraction and are shaped at distinct levels of self-regulation. Thus, based on the literature, we culminate that the kind of passion a person possesses determines the degree to which work passion relates to work-family conflict. Drawing from the ongoing discussion, we put forth that people with obsessive work passions are more susceptible than people with harmonious work passions to experiencing self-regulation failure, thus paving the way for increased levels of work-family conflict through the next propositions.
Self-regulation failure mediates the relationship between harmonious work passion and work-family conflict, such that individuals with harmonious work passion experience a reduction in self-regulation failure, decreasing their work-family conflict.
Self-regulation failure mediates the relationship between obsessive work passion and work-family conflict, such that individuals with obsessive work passion experience an increase in self-regulation failure, increasing their work-family conflict.
Discussion
The study aims to propose an integrative conceptual framework that illustrates how psychological capital and self-regulation failure play a role in the relationship between work passion and the work-family interface, an area that has received little scholarly attention. The importance of exploring the proposed link stems from prior research findings, which suggest that while organizational factors (e.g., organizational support; Dorio et al., 2008) are crucial in shaping the experience of work passion in work-family interactions, there is a growing focus in an upcoming field of study on several individual aspects (e.g., psychological detachment; Chummar et al., 2019) that are thought to be significant. Exploring how an individual’s characteristics and dispositional factors influence the connections in the work-family interface model is gaining traction (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Nevertheless, the extant literature remains scattered and fragmented. To gain a comprehensive understanding, we tried integrating insights from positive psychology, organizational behavior, and HRD to create a unified perspective considering the dynamic interplay between these constructs. Our integrative conceptual framework contributes to a holistic comprehension, offering richer perspectives, innovative approaches, and actionable insights for exploring the multifaceted and intricate connection between work passion and the work-family interface. Studying psychological capital and self-regulation failure, as opposed to other constructs, is justified by the fact that these constructs have associations with various positive and negative work-family outcomes, which carry significant implications for HRD scholars and practitioners. The uniqueness arises from the adeptness of these constructs in serving as the foundation for comprehending the underlying pathways, facilitating the identification of potential origins of work-family conflict while also pinpointing sources of positive work-family interactions in a broader context. Drawing on JD-R theory, our study corroborates personal resources, akin to job resources, foster personal growth, well-being, and development (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017). Likewise, informed by COR theory, our study supports that an increase in harmonious work passion and psychological capital will likely lead to resource gain and work-family enrichment. However, obsessive work passion and self-regulation failure have a detrimental effect on work-family conflict, underscoring the significance of resource loss and stress, which COR theory deems more salient than resource gain (Hobfoll, 2001). As per COR theory, stressors have a more significant influence than resources in the broader context of life, and given the additional stressors brought on by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, comprehending this link becomes essential for work passion and work-family relationships globally. Our study’s distinctive and invaluable contribution is its proficient exploration of resource management within the context of how work passion influences work-family outcomes. This examination assists in identifying detrimental connections and patterns that contribute to resource depletion while providing valuable insights and opportunities for discovering pathways that support the preservation and effective management of an individual’s personal resources. Literature asserts that an individual’s work-family outcomes can affect their personal lives and professional outcomes, such as job satisfaction, job performance, burnout, and fatigue (Carlson et al., 2006; Kao et al., 2020). Suppose both organizations and HRD are mindful of this actuality. In that case, they can employ a range of strategies – some of which are discussed in the implications – to either reinforce the positive aspects of work passion or attempt to balance out the negative effects of being “too passionate”.
Implications for Research
Our study opens many possibilities for further research. The comprehensive framework proposed in this study opens new avenues for HRD researchers to enable the formulation of change initiatives, policies, and strategies to enhance HRD, benefiting employees’ professional and personal lives. Future research should evaluate the veracity of this assumption by conducting empirical studies to test the framework and verify whether there are any statistically significant relationships between the suggested links formed by psychological capital and self-regulation failure in the association between work passion and work-family interface. To establish causal inferences, researchers could test our framework using multiple measurements over time, employing approaches such as time-lagged analysis, multi-wave panel studies, or cross-lagged panel models, which would offer a more realistic assessment. Our integrative conceptual framework, built upon COR and JD-R theories, provides a foundation for future research exploring the relationship between work passion and work-family interface. Expanding upon the JD-R theory, one promising avenue for further research, which has not been extensively explored in the literature, involves examining how job demands and resources, in conjunction with personal demands and resources, dynamically interact to trigger distinct pathways related to impairment and motivation. Additionally, researchers could consider evaluating the framework across different cultural contexts since it would be intriguing to learn how the proposed linkages differ across cultures and how cultural factors affect the proposed relationships. Researchers could also test the framework with participants representing various demographic and human capital attributes, particularly minoritized groups covering age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status, with individuals as its unit of analysis.
Implications for HRD Practice
The study offers HRD practitioners some practical guidelines on maximizing the positive effects and minimizing the negative consequences of work passion on their employee’s work-family interactions. Given that the kind of passion an individual has for work has a differential impact on work-family matters, HRD practitioners can carry out assessments to analyze the different types of work passion found among their employees and use the findings to understand how it affects various outcomes pertaining to the employee’s work and family lives (e.g., work performance, employee well-being, and life satisfaction). Considering the importance of HRD’s role in establishing and executing a healthy work-life culture in an organization (Poelmans & Sahibzada, 2004), HRD professionals can easily take the lead on issues relating to the work-family interface in their organizations. HRD experts can establish appropriate solutions that actively assist employees in their lives outside of work and aid them in achieving other life goals as well. “Family-friendly” organizations encourage their workforce to balance work and family obligations (Adkins & Premeaux, 2019); employees, on the other hand, do not reap the benefits of such family-friendly policies if the organization’s informal work-family culture, influenced by HRD practices, is not supportive (Lyness & Kropf, 2005).
In this era of evolving trends, discovering methods to boost employees’ harmonious work passion and foster self-regulation in their work-life is critical for encouraging sustainable development, personal growth, and thriving amidst the constantly transforming environment. Given that work passion is perceived as something that can be trained and enhanced within organizational settings (Pollack et al., 2020), HRD experts can employ a range of strategies to foster it. Organizing custom training programs led by field specialists, offering micro-interventions for behavioral modifications, adopting strategies facilitating employee empowerment, and assigning mentors for constructive feedback are some of the initiatives that enable employees to cultivate harmonious work passion and enhance their self-regulation abilities effectively. HRD managers may also effectively communicate work expectations, determine whether job needs can be met without encroaching on employee’s non-work obligations, and refrain from rewarding or glorifying excessive work performed outside of the designated scope and time frame; this aids in the reduction of on-task thoughts off work spurred by obsessive work passion, potentially assisting in effective self-regulation management. Another HRD initiative in this regard would be to implement policies and build a culture that encourages employees to mentally distance themselves from their jobs by shutting down email and limiting evening calls. This helps lessen work-family conflict by reducing self-regulation failure brought on by obsessive work passion.
Promoting practices that attenuate obsessive work passion and nurture harmonious work passion among employees would help boost the generation of psychological capital at work; this creates additional resources for employees to use in their family sphere and should be taken into account for promoting positive work-family exchanges. HRD professionals may consider fostering their employee’s harmonious work passion by creating work environments that enhance meaning and purpose and make employees feel that their contributions matter, which will, in turn, help them feel more optimistic and hopeful. Encouraging employees to have autonomy in decision-making, time management, and resource utilization for work tasks while trusting them to make responsible decisions can lead to better outcomes by enhancing their sense of self-efficacy and resilience. Simultaneously, HRD practitioners may also focus on preventing the depletion of the workforce’s psychological capital resulting from obsessive work passion by establishing balanced work environments, providing equal opportunities for advancement, setting manageable timelines, and fostering a supportive organizational culture.
Directions for Future Research
This study gives rise to many possibilities for future investigation. Only a few research have investigated the link between work passion and work-life concerns (Caudroit et al., 2011; Thorgren et al., 2013), signaling that there is room for future studies in this area to improve our knowledge about how these constructs relate to one another, not just in the context of families but also in other areas of life. More broadly, future studies may explore the impact of work passion on a number of life roles that make up the non-work realm (e.g., recreation, society, the self) in addition to the traditional conceptions of family. An intriguing avenue for future research, focused on attaining a holistic understanding of the nature of work passion, entails investigating the potential negative repercussions of harmonious work passion and, conversely, exploring the positive merits associated with obsessive work passion.
Given the significance of work passion for individuals and organizations, HRD researchers and practitioners could focus on identifying antecedents that promote harmonious work passion (e.g., big five personality traits, spouse support) and obsessive work passion (e.g., narcissistic personality disorder, emotional intelligence). Exploring the antecedents of work passion by putting the focus on family-related constructs (e.g., warmth, attachment) and career development variables (e.g., career mapping, career ladder) as well as discovering the intermediate stages in the process that results in the development of work passion could be a promising area for future studies. Upcoming studies may also expand and validate the involvement of other mediating variables (e.g., engagement orientation, career success, self-congruence, life meaning) to improve comprehension of how work passion relates to work-family interface. Exploring potential moderators that could enhance the beneficial effects of harmonious work passion (e.g., managerial support, workplace culture) or exacerbate the negative effects of obsessive work passion (e.g., core self-evaluation, problems at work) on employee’s work-family experiences would also be a useful direction for future research for HRD scholars. The interaction of job resources (e.g., autonomy at work, performance feedback), personal resources (e.g., multitasking skills, character strengths), job demands (e.g., schedule inflexibility, workplace bullying), and personal demands (e.g., childcare responsibilities, household maintenance) in the proposed relationships concerning work passion and work-family interface is a highly significant association that remains unexplored in this current study; however, it may be a focus for future research.
Considering the significant advantages and benefits of utilizing integrative conceptual frameworks, future research can direct their efforts towards the development of such frameworks that integrate perspectives from diverse disciplines and literature, such as behavioral neuroscience, industrial sociology, and systems thinking. This approach holds substantial potential for greatly enhancing the understanding of the proposed relationships. Work-family conflict and work-family enrichment can influence the experience of work passion in a way that having more resources may lead to having more work-related passion and vice-versa. Therefore, future studies may examine the bidirectional characteristics of work passion and work-family relationships. In addition, the linkage between work-family enrichment and work-family conflict is an association that this study failed to address, but that seems crucial. Future research may, therefore, consider examining the repercussions of the interaction between work-family enrichment and conflict on the proposed relationships in the context of work passion.
Conclusion
The conceptual study attempts to improve the understanding of work passion in non-work settings by developing an integrative conceptual framework that examines how it differentially impacts work-family outcomes. The framework integrates literature from positive psychology, organizational behavior, and HRD, based on JD-R theory and COR theory, to explore how harmonious and obsessive work passion interact with work-family enrichment and conflict, facilitated by the mediating influences of psychological capital and self-regulation failure. The study offers valuable implications for HRD in research and practice, underscoring the significance of considering individual characteristics, dispositional factors, and intra-personal circumstances that shape the association between work passion and the work-family interface. The proposed framework is expected to assist HRD scholars and practitioners in designing effective solutions to leverage work passion and address work-family interface challenges, thereby facilitating change initiatives, career advancement, and organizational development.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
