Disentangling the Dynamic Nature of Work Passion: A Latent Growth Modeling Approach

Abstract

While employees’ work passion is widely pursued by organizations and their citizens, the development of passion remains largely unstudied. This gap in extant literature has motivated the present study, as a part of which the dynamic nature of work passion is investigated—whether passion is context-dependent (i.e., the change of passion based on external circumstances). Our research framework was informed by the integrative framework of self-determination theory, which emphasizes individuals’ internalization of activities while acknowledging the critical role of contextual influences. Specifically, unmet expectations was investigated as a critical contextual factor that represents the interplay of individual expectations and work realities. Using the data from a four-wave longitudinal survey involving 365 employees, a series of latent growth modeling tests were performed. Our findings show that unmet expectations influence the initial status and subsequences change in both forms of passion, albeit in opposite directions. The theoretical and practical implications were discussed accordingly.