I see you in me, and me in you

Abstract

PurposeBased on the theory of crossover, the purpose of this paper is to explore the limited but growing body of research on positive crossover, wherein the authors investigated the direct and indirect crossover of work passion between the dyadic setting of leader and followers. The authors hypothesized that the leader’s (follower’s) work passion influence follower’s (leader’s) work passion through direct crossover phenomena (i.e. crossover via empathy). In the study, the authors also examined the underlying indirect crossover mechanism of leader’s (follower’s) work passion via personal identification – the process by which individuals (supervisors and subordinates) realize cognitive overlap between the self and other over time in a relationship. In an attempt to fully understand the crossover of leader’s (follower’s) work passion, the authors scrutinized the pattern of leader–follower relationship quality, which has the capacity to moderate the direct and indirect crossover of work passion from leader to follower and vice versa.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted two independent studies and collected a time-lagged data from the dyadic settings of a large trade multinational company (n=77 supervisor and 373 subordinates) and a large manufacturing multinational company (n=89 supervisor and 411 subordinates) situated in Anhui province of China to test the authors’ moderated mediation model of work passion.FindingsAs expected the authors found support for all the authors’ hypothesized relationships. Specifically, the results provide support for the notion of direct and indirect crossover of work passion within leader–follower dyads. Moreover, the authors’ findings also support the moderated mediation model of direct and indirect crossover of work passion.Originality/valueOverall, this study provides a potential way to stimulate work passion in employees (leader and followers) from the perspective of their relationship quality with each other. Moreover, implications for theory, research and practice with prospective future research topics are discussed.