An Investigation of Work Passion, Work Engagement, and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour in Romania

Abstract

Passion is defined as a “strong inclination toward an activity that people like, that they find important, and in which they invest time and energy.” (Vallerand et al., 2013, pp 757). The concept of work passion and the Dualistic Model of Passion developed by Vallerand and colleagues (2003) have gained increasingly more attention in the past two decades within the work and organisational psychology literature. This cross-sectional study examines the relationships between harmonious and obsessive work passion, work engagement, and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour in the Romanian general workforce. The Dualistic Model of Passion and the Self-Determination Theory serve as a theoretical framework. Data were collected from various organisations in Romania (N=196) and two mediation analyses were conducted in order to test the hypotheses of the current research. Results showed that harmoniously and obsessively passionate employees display more work engagement in the workplace. However, no significant direct relationship was found between either harmonious or obsessive passion and OCB. Work engagement fully mediated the relationships between harmonious and obsessive passion respectively, and OCB, indicating that work engagement is a powerful catalyst in the Romanian work environment. The present research adds to the work passion literature by investigating the duality of the work passion construct in a non-Western setting. Thus, it provides a more comprehensive understanding of the different outcomes the two types of passion bring about in the workplace. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that delves into both harmonious and obsessive passion in relation to work engagement and OCB in an Eastern context.