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  • December 2022
  • Article
  • Research in Organizational Behavior

Divergence Between Employer and Employee Understandings of Passion: Theory and Implications for Future Research

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz and Hannah Weisman
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:18
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Abstract

There is an increasingly prevalent expectation in contemporary society that employees be passionate for their work. Here, we suggest that employers and employees can have different understandings of passion that potentially conflict. More specifically, we argue that although employers may often be well-intentioned, their emphasis on employee passion may at times amount to normative control and reflect a means to attain valued work outcomes. In contrast, employees may primarily view their pursuit of passion as an opportunity to self-actualize, and thereby, view passion as an end in itself. We propose that when employees notice that these two understandings of passion diverge, they experience uncertainty in adjudicating which understanding of passion—their own or their employer’s—to privilege. Critically, employees may feel responsible for and subsequently seek ways to reduce this uncertainty, and doing so places added demands that impedes employees’ ability to perform. We discuss why employers may not necessarily recognize how their understanding of passion can create challenges for employees, and examine the difficulties employers face in attempting to resolve the tensions employees experience. Subsequently, we develop an agenda for future research that highlights how individual, organizational, and cultural differences may lead to variation in divergent understandings of passion, and the critical role managers could play in helping address employees’ uncertainty.

Keywords

Employee Relationship Management; Human Capital; Performance Effectiveness; Management Style

Citation

Jachimowicz, Jon M., and Hannah Weisman. "Divergence Between Employer and Employee Understandings of Passion: Theory and Implications for Future Research." Research in Organizational Behavior 42 (December 2022).
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About The Author

Jon M. Jachimowicz

Organizational Behavior
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • June 2025
    • Administrative Science Quarterly

    Riding the Passion Wave or Fighting to Stay Afloat? A Theory of Differentiated Passion Contagion

    By: Emma Frank, Kai Krautter, Wen Wu and Jon M. Jachimowicz
    • April 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Giving Up on a Passion: Elizabeth Rowe at the Boston Symphony Orchestra

    By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and Alexis Lefort
    • September 2024
    • Social Psychological & Personality Science

    A Potential Pitfall of Passion: Passion Is Associated with Performance Overconfidence

    By: Erica R. Bailey, Kai Krautter, Wen Wu, Adam D. Galinsky and Jon M. Jachimowicz
More from the Authors
  • Riding the Passion Wave or Fighting to Stay Afloat? A Theory of Differentiated Passion Contagion By: Emma Frank, Kai Krautter, Wen Wu and Jon M. Jachimowicz
  • Giving Up on a Passion: Elizabeth Rowe at the Boston Symphony Orchestra By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and Alexis Lefort
  • A Potential Pitfall of Passion: Passion Is Associated with Performance Overconfidence By: Erica R. Bailey, Kai Krautter, Wen Wu, Adam D. Galinsky and Jon M. Jachimowicz
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