Sustainability of Passion for Work? Change-Related Reciprocal Relationships Between Passion and Job Crafting

Abstract

Although the importance of developing and sustaining passion for work over time has long been underscored, how this can be accomplished has yet to be elaborated and substantiated in the literature. Drawing upon the self-concordance model, we proposed a theoretical model in which harmonious work passion (i.e., passion derived from an autonomous internalization of work into one's identity) may develop and be sustained over time through promoting job crafting behaviors that, in turn, spur greater subsequent passion later on. However, obsessive work passion (i.e., passion emanated from a controlled internalization of work with intra- or interpersonal contingencies attached) is less likely to promote this self-reinforcing cycle. Multivariate latent change score modeling of six-wave longitudinal data over 15 months revealed the hypothesized relationships between harmonious work passion and overall job crafting but not between obsessive work passion and overall job crafting. Furthermore, through bivariate latent change score modeling, we found a change-related reciprocal relationship between harmonious passion and cognitive and task crafting but not with relational crafting. Interestingly, we also observed a change-related reciprocal relationship between obsessive passion and cognitive crafting. This research contributes to the literature on passion and job crafting by demonstrating a self-reinforcing cycle for workplace passion and job crafting over time.