Running head: THE EFFECT OF PASSION ON CAREER LIFE

The Effect of Passion On Career Life

Nazanin Nader
San Jose State University

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Finding ones passion is the goal in life to a number of people around
the world. They are struggling with exploring what they want in life, what
they aim to do when they finish school, after finding the first job, etc.
According to Forbes magazine released on September 2015, over half the
people in the U.S. feel disengaged in their jobs. Finding passion could lead to
happier people who know the job they are doing is the one they have all the
credentials for and are restless about, which eventually optimizes the
outcomes of all jobs being done by such workers. Despite the fact that
finding the passion in life would lead to a better career life and eventually a
happier person; if someone finds his/her obsessive passion instead of
harmonious one, he/she will soon feel the exhaustion of always thinking
about the job. Therefore, this paper will study the characteristics of people
with obsessive and harmonious passion and how they can each affect their
job performance and also their private lives. In addition, it will investigate
why people with harmonious passion have happier lives and also the
relationship between deliberate working and self-image for both types of
passion.
Vallerand et al. (2003) define passion as a strong tendency for an
activity that individuals like, that is important to them, and that they are
willing to invest time and energy on. They demonstrate that there are two
types of passion: obsessive and harmonious. The difference between them
stems from how individuals personalize activities. Obsessive passion (OP) is
defined as personalization of an activity which stems from internal pressure

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to do an activity that the individual wants to do. Harmonious passion (HP), on
the other side, refers to an independent personalization that inspires people
to choose to get involved in an activity they like to do. HP develops healthy
adjustments while OP averts it by leading to negative affect (p.1). Studies
show that harmonious passion positively associates with measures of general
positive affect (Stoeber et al.2011), satisfaction with life (Carpentier et al.
2011), subjective vitality (Forest et al. 2010), and measures of selfacceptance, purpose in life, and personal growth representing eudaimonic
well-being (Philippe et al. 2009). OP has no or negative relation with these
factors (Vallerand et al., 2003). Obsessive Passion is derived from lack of
basic needs fulfillment and is affected by internal and external incidents,
such as social acceptance or self-esteem (Mageau et al., 2009). Other factors
influencing obsessive passion are pay raises, promotions, group acceptance
(Astakhova and Porter, 2015).
The two kinds of passion obtained the workplace are affected by the
job, organization and career-focused outcomes (Burke, Astakhova, Hang,
2015). In their very thorough research Les Passions de lA me On Obsessive
and Harmonious Passion Vallerand et al. (2003) share their findings on both
obsessive passionate and harmonious passionate people. They prove that
although both groups found the job given to them important and put effort
and time into doing it, the group with harmonious passion showed positive
feelings and concentration while the other group was held by negative
feelings and conflicts with other aspects of life. For example the group with

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harmonious passion said that the activity given to them led them to live a
variety of memorable experiences; reflected the qualities they liked about
themselves and for them, it was a passion, that they still manage to control.
However, for the group with obsessive passion the activity given to them
became something they couldnt live without; they got emotionally
dependent to it; and their mood depended on whether or not they were able
to do that activity (pp. 3-6).
There are some differences in the work place between people with
harmonious passions and obsessive passions. The first group enjoys work
time; they work hard and are focused; although, in their break times they
socialize with their colleagues, talking about non-work related subjects, or
simply doing an activity they enjoy like going for a walk. Whereas the second
group people with obsessive passion always think about their job even if
they arent working. They even take some work home; blame others for their
work habits and also give their family a hard time nagging about their work
overload. There comes a time when they cannot control themselves being
tremendously involved in their careers for social acceptance or just for selfsatisfaction and that happens simply because they cannot help engaging in
their career more and more. This is what keeps people with obsessive
passion away from other aspects of life (Burke, Astakhova, Hang, 2015).
However, more research needs to be done in order to find out other harms
that living a one dimension life may cause.

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While theories of work passion expand, uncovering why passion
converts to performance is needed (Forest et al., 2010), since passion
happens to be modified by circumstantial influences (Curran et al., 2011).
Trpanier et al. (2014) describe outcomes of either burnout or work
engagement using the job demandsresources model, and found that job
demands thwart harmonious passion and facilitate obsessive passion and
burnout. They also found that job resources predict harmonious passion and
work engagement positively and burnout negatively. The reason that burnout
happens to obsessive passionate people is that they get so involved in their
jobs that do no longer notice the facilitators around them. They give this
example: in an emotionally difficult situation, a nurse who exhibits high
obsessive passion may be less inclined to discuss the issue with fellow
nurses and ask for help (i.e., social support) because he/she is too wrapped
up in the work and feels obligated to keep working. This phenomenon
happened as a result of not paying attention to the resources at hand.
Up to now, all the researchers have one finding in common: both
passions harmonious and obsessive- have effects on job performance.
Although the negative sides of obsessive passion havent yet been
confirmed, the positive sides of harmonious passion are greatly supported
(Burke et al., 2014; Ho et al., 2011). There are also studies in favor of the
positive effects of obsessive passion on job performance, as Vallerand et al.
(2007) believe that any kind of passion is a fuel source when people are

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going through discouraging situations and as a result helps them in having
higher levels of performance.
Different motivational factors are needed in order to derive each of
obsessive and harmonious passion. Harmonious passion is arisen with inner
motivations and because the person with that kind of passion is satisfied
when seeing the job done, although it may lead to success, the success isnt
a tool of motivating the person to do the job. On the other hand, people with
obsessive passion must feel the outer rewards and contingencies. However,
they also feel the pressure to get the job done as it gives them the feeling of
self-worth and society acceptance and proudness. As a conclusion, the
researchers on Understanding the work passionperformance relationship
claim that both obsessive and harmonious passion affect the performance;
although they have different self-motivations. (Astakhova and Porter, 2015)
Astakhova and Porter (2015) believe that organizational identification
-self belongingness of one to the organization and considering the
organizations achievements as his own- will meditate the effect of both
types of passion on performance. People with harmonious passion find it
motivational as it fulfills their need for self-rule. They dont need
observations from supervisors. Yet, they have a great performance so as to
satisfy their inner need of autonomy. Likewise, people with obsessive passion
find organizational identification motivating as well because it makes them
feel involved in communities and coordinating with others having the same

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path which makes them feel they are socially awarded and brings them the
feeling of pride and self-esteem. Therefore, organizational identification
derives people with obsessive passion and leads them to better performance
at work. They also prove the moderating role of person-organization fit in the
effect of passions on performance (Astakhova and Porter, 2015). They found
that the more the organizations values fit ones personality, the more
engaged he/she will get in the job and therefore the better his/her
performance is.
Moreover, the authors of A Tale of Passion argue that cognitive
engagement at work defined as ones psychological presence and focus at
work is one of the outcomes of both types of passion. They state that
cognitive engagement consists of two factors: absorption and attention.
Absorption is the quality side of the engagement which is referred to the
time that a person is so involved in his/her work that couldnt easily be
distracted. Attention, on the other hand, is referred to the amount of time
and resources one give to think about the work and therefore is about the
quantity of cognitive efforts. The researchers then proved that harmonious
passion is positively related to both sides of cognitive engagement whereas
obsessive passion is negatively related to both sides of it. They finally remark
that the engagement of both kinds effect on performance for people with
both harmonious and obsessive passion and that is because people who are
more engaged in their jobs and less distracted, spend more amount of time
on thinking about their job and therefore about the ways to improve their

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current situation and get promotions; and that is the definition of better
performance (Ho et al., 2011, pp.6-9).
To draw a conclusion, passion is what encourages people with different
characteristics to have better performances in jobs and have happier lives.
There are two kinds of passion: Harmonious and obsessive which differ in the
way people behave towards their achievements and what motivates them to
perform at their best. This paper shows that most of the scholars believe
harmonious passion is what people need to make them happy in life while
enjoying their careers and doing very well on it. It also discusses that
obsessive passion, although helpful in motivating people to have a good
performance at work, wont let them be free when not working and somehow
makes their lives tied to career achievements which would not necessarily
lead to happiness. Therefore, when finding passion, one must be vigilant
about choosing it related to his/her own skills and more important than that
to what makes him/her happy individually and not just depending on what
society expects him/her to be. Because if so, obsessive passion is taken as
the persons passion without knowing it which could lead to tiredness,
nervousness, and always asking themselves if this is what is meant for them
to do. On the other hand, when applying for jobs, both employee and
employer should pay attention to this aspect aside from the credentials
needed; as by hiring employees who are harmoniously passionate about
what theyre doing, company could reach to the optimal outcome while
employees are happier as well. After all, it should be mentioned that there is

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a shortage in data to assure the negative relationship between obsessive
passion and effective commitment and vitality which has not been proven
yet and also to demonstrate the number of passions for one to assure
happiness. Therefore, more research should be conducted on these areas.

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