I see you in me, and me in you. The moderated mediation crossover model of work passion
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-05-2018-0176 |
| Published date | 02 August 2019 |
| Pages | 1209-1238 |
| Date | 02 August 2019 |
| Author | Hirra Pervez Butt,Hussain Tariq,Qingxiong Weng,Nadeem Sohail |
| Subject Matter | Hr & organizational behaviour,Global hrm |
I see you in me, and me in you
The moderated mediation
crossover model of work passion
Hirra Pervez Butt
School of Management,
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
Hussain Tariq
NUST Business School,
National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan and
School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
Qingxiong Weng
School of Management,
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China, and
Nadeem Sohail
University Community College, Government College U niversity, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose –Based on the theory of cr ossover, the purpose of this pap er is to explore the limited but gro wing
body of research on positive crossover, whereinthe authors investigated the direct and indirect crossover
of work passion between th e dyadic setting of lead er and followers. The aut hors hypothesized that t he
leader’s (follower’s) wor k passion influence foll ower’s(leader’s) work passion throug h direct crossover
phenomena (i.e. cross over via empathy). In the st udy, the authors also exa mined the underlying in direct
crossover mechanism of l eader’s(follower’s) work passion via perso nal identification –the process by
which individuals (su pervisors and subordinates) realiz e cognitive overlap between the self a nd other over
time in a relationship. I n an attempt to fully understand the cr ossover of leader’s(follower’s ) work passion,
the authors scrutiniz ed the pattern of leader–f ollower relationship qu ality, which has the cap acity to
moderate the direct and indirect crossover of work passion from leader to follower and vice versa.
Design/methodology/approach –The authors conducted two independent studies and collected a
time-lagged data from the dyadic settings of a large trade multinational company (n¼77 supervisor and 373
subordinates) and a large manufacturing multinational company (n¼89 supervisor and 411 subordinates)
situated in Anhui province of China to test the authors’moderated mediation model of work passion.
Findings –As expected the authors found support for all the authors’hypothesized relationships.
Specifically, the results provide support for the notion of direct and indirect crossover of workpassion within
leader–follower dyads. Moreover, the authors’findings also support the moderated mediation model of direct
and indirect crossover of work passion.
Originality/value –Overall, this study provides a potential way to stimulate work passion in employees
(leader and followers) from the perspective of their relationship quality with each other. Moreover,
implications for theory, research and practice with prospective future research topics are discussed.
Keywords China, Quantitative, Relationship quality, Crossover process, Personal identification, Work passion
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested. (E. M. Forster)
Over the years, research on work passion has become more relevant to management and
organizational behavior (Ho et al., 2011; Vallerand et al., 2003) because of its remarkable Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 5, 2019
pp. 1209-1238
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-05-2018-0176
Received 16 May 2018
Revised 5 September 2018
4 November 2018
Accepted 19 February 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
Financial support from the Natural Sciences Foundation of China (Project Nos 71373251, 71422014) is
gratefully acknowledged.
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The moderated
mediation
crossover
model
prominence (Thorgren and Wincent, 2013) and potential constructive outcomes to
individuals and organizations (Burke et al., 2015; Lavigne et al., 2014). Not only researchers
but also practitioners, in term of managerial implications, note the usefulness of work
passion (McAllister et al., 2017). Based on former conceptualization (Vallerand et al., 2003),
Perrewé et al. (2014) defined work passion as “an individual’s emotional and persistent state
of desire based on cognitive and affective work appraisals, which results in consistent work
intentions and behaviors”(p. 146). Passion is an essential ingredient of life and career, an
abundance of this natural resource is what drives high achievers. When people are
passionate about something, they identify that object or activity as a part of their concept of
self. As opined by Steve Jobs “The only way to do great work is to love what you do,”being
passionate about work plays a great role in one’s performance and overall career success.
For example, employees high in passion display higher levels of work satisfaction and
psychological well-being (Burke and Fiksenbaum, 2009).
There has been an extant research in recent years to examine the work passion-job
performance link (e.g. Astakhova and Porter, 2015; Burke et al., 2015; Jachimowicz et al.,
2018; McAllister et al., 2017). Vallerand et al. (2007) argue that work passion characterizes
“a positive source of activity investment”that helps to attain performance (p. 505).
The importance of passion holds not just for the subordinates, but for supervisors as well,
since the pursuance of passion in the workforce is highly significant for organizations in the
present era. Generally, leaders or supervisors have a higher level of work passion as
compared to their followers (Li et al., 2017). Leader’s passion is a source of motivation for the
followers and hence steers the way toward the accomplishment of a common goal.
A passionate supervisor is a manager of meaning and progress, and lack of passion in
supervisors may have detrimental effects on subordinates. Moreover, a passionate
employee would not be lauded by a supervisor who discounts the importance of
work passion, which ultimately leads to lower supervisor-rated job performance
( Jachimowicz et al., 2018). Therefore, it is important to examine the leader–follower work
passion relationship.
Limited research has been conducted to investigate the relationship of work passion in
a dyadic setting (i.e. supervisors and subordinates). As indicated in recent research
(e.g. Aryee et al., 2007; Bakker and Xanthopoulou, 2009; Liu et al., 2012) the leader’s
behavior, attitudes, affect, and cognition transfer to his/her followers and induce similar
responses in them. For example, Li et al. (2016) conducted a team-level study and found,
from the perspective of conservation of resource theory, that leader’s psychological
distress is transferred to his/her employees. Bakker and Xanthopoulou (2009) conducted
an experience sampling study and used an actor–partner interdependence model to
delineate the crossover mechanism of actor–partner work engagement and found support
for the crossover of daily work engagement. In contrast, to the best of our knowledge, only
one study has been conducted by Wirtz et al. (2017) to examine the crossover from follower
to leaders, in particular, the crossover of emotional exhaustion and work engagement from
follower to leaders. This line of inquiry points to the fact that not only leader’sbehavior
and attitudes are transferred to his/her employees, but also subordinates’behavior and
attitudes may have an impact on their leader’s behavior and attitudes. By further
exploring the supervisor–subordinate relationship, we explain the underlying mechanism
of how and when both supervisor and subordinate have an influence on work passion of
each other.
We draw on crossover theory to explain the phenomenon of “crossover”of work passion
between supervisors and subordinates. Crossover theory explains crossover process
(an interpersonal dyadic transmission; Li et al., 2016) that occurs when an individual’s
experience affects the experience of another individual (Carlson et al., 2011) in the same
social environment (Bakker et al., 2009; Bolger et al., 1989). In our study, we explore how the
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