Work Passion and Employee Behavior: In Search of the Intrinsic Motivational Processes

Abstract

Past organization and management studies have emphasized individual and organizational performance. However, research on employee growth and development is relatively limited, even though findings drawn from positive psychology show that promoting and preserving employee mental health can improve employee performance. The present research follows the argument of positive organizational behavior (POB) to suggest that employee behaviors are determined by underlying intrinsic motivational processes linking employees’ work passion, flow experience, well-being, and positive behavior. The present study has two major goals: first, to examine the dualistic effects of passion on creative workers’ intrinsic motivation processes and behavioral consequences; second, to confirm the mediating role of flow experience and well-being in, as well as their causal relationships with, work passion, flow experience, well-being, and positive behavior (innovative behavior and job performance). The present overarching study consists of two specific studies. Study 1 involves (1) data from 363 creative professionals and (2) a cross-sectional design for testing the proposed model. Study 2 involves (1) two-wave data concerning creative professionals and (2) three cross-lagged tests for examining the causal relationships among variables. Structural equation modeling is employed for testing the hypotheses. The results of the two studies demonstrate that the effects of two kinds of passion differ from each other in relation to differences in time frame. Moreover, the results show that the greater the work passion is in creative workers, the more likely they will be to experience flow, well-being, strong job performance, and innovative behavior. The results also confirm their causal relationships with one another. Lastly, we discuss our findings’ theoretical and practical implications, the study’s limitations, and suggestions for future research.