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  • January–February 2024
  • Article
  • Organization Science

The Challenge of Maintaining Passion for Work over Time: A Daily Perspective on Passion and Emotional Exhaustion

By: Joy Bredehorst, Kai Krautter, Jirs Meuris and Jon M. Jachimowicz
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:23
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Abstract

Passion for work is highly coveted, but many employees report struggling to maintain their passion over time. In the current research, we explain the challenge of pursuing passion by conceptualizing passion as an attribute with temporal variation. Viewed through a daily lens, we argue that self-regulation plays a critical role in understanding the challenges underlying the daily maintenance of passion. More specifically, we hypothesize that—unless employees adequately regulate their passion on any given day—higher levels of passion will lead them to invest more time and energy into their work, decreasing their psychological detachment from work after the workday, and consequently resulting in higher levels of emotional exhaustion the next day. Higher levels of emotional exhaustion on a given day subsequently prompt a greater need for recovery, shifting employees’ focus away from devoting time and energy into work, thereby eroding their passion on the following day. Two daily-diary studies covering 30 and 10 consecutive working days provided support for our predictions (Ntotal = 798; ktotal = 15,702). Employees who felt more in charge of their passion on any given day engaged in self-regulation during their workday, increasing their psychological detachment from work and subsequently being less likely to suffer the detrimental consequences of higher daily passion. Our theory and findings demonstrate the daily interplay between passion and emotional exhaustion and specify why passion may be self-limiting unless employees adequately manage it, reflecting a challenge they need to navigate each day in pursuing their passion.

Keywords

Passion; Work-Life Balance; Employees; Emotions

Citation

Bredehorst, Joy, Kai Krautter, Jirs Meuris, and Jon M. Jachimowicz. "The Challenge of Maintaining Passion for Work over Time: A Daily Perspective on Passion and Emotional Exhaustion." Organization Science 35, no. 1 (January–February 2024): 364–386.
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About The Author

Jon M. Jachimowicz

Organizational Behavior
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 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
    • July 24, 2024
    • Harvard Business Review Digital Articles

    Research: How Passion Can Backfire at Work

    By: Erica R. Bailey, Kai Krautter, Wen Wu, Adam D. Galinsky and Jon M. Jachimowicz
More from the Authors
  • 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
  • Research: How Passion Can Backfire at Work By: Erica R. Bailey, Kai Krautter, Wen Wu, Adam D. Galinsky and Jon M. Jachimowicz
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