Passion Amid the Pandemic: Does Dual-Domain Passion Facilitate Life Satisfaction?

Abstract

While many employees have experienced sudden work changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those changes have been particularly unsettling for employees whose work is also their passion. We examine whether having passion for work and non-work activities (i.e., passion in dual domains) helps employees achieve life satisfaction amid the pandemic. Using multiple identity frameworks, we investigate which forms of dual-domain passion are associated with life satisfaction, and whether passion enhancement moderates those relationships. Further, to explore the possibility that some people may be more prone to experiencing dual-domain passion, we examine individual ambidexterity as an antecedent of dual-domain passion. We first conducted a preliminary study to empirically test the notion of dual-domain passion and the forms it can take. In the main study, we tested the proposed model using two samples: employees working from home or furloughed during the pandemic. We found that having same-form passion (i.e., harmonious passion for work and non-work domains, or obsessive passion for both domains) was more critical to bolstering life satisfaction than having different-form passion (i.e., harmonious work passion and obsessive non-work passion, or vice versa). Specifically, harmonious (obsessive) dual-domain passion enhanced life satisfaction when one had high (low) passion enhancement. By extension, the indirect link between individual ambidexterity and life satisfaction, as mediated by each of the two same-form dual-domain passion, differed depending on the nature of same-form passion and passion enhancement.