Leaders’ Role in Shaping Employee Work Passion, Wellbeing and Workplace Outcomes

<p dir="ltr">Work passion is a result of individual and contextual factors and represents a unique combination of characteristics that yield numerous personal and organisational benefits. The concept of work passion is defined as a strong inclination towards an activity that one likes, deems important and devotes considerable time and energy to (Vallerand & Houlfort, 2003). Learning how to influence work passion within the workplace could enable organisations to cultivate a passion-supportive environment, thereby enhancing work passion’s beneficial outcomes. Leaders are key organisational actors who shape the work environment and influence employees’ self-concept, emotions, attitudes and behaviours. Yet, the extent to which their actions and their own work passion affect employees, as well as the mechanisms through which such influence occurs remain underexplored. This thesis highlights leader work passion as a key factor affecting employees and contributes to theory and practice by providing insights into the important role of leaders and their work passion in shaping employee workplace experience. Leaders’ impact is studied in relation to employees’ work passion, wellbeing and workplace outcomes including job satisfaction, organisational commitment, job performance and turnover intentions. Drawing on social learning theory and the dualistic model of passion, this thesis proposes that leader harmonious and obsessive work passion can be transmitted to employees and affect employee workplace experience in different ways. Three empirical studies presenting different perspectives on work passion illustrate the general argument of the thesis. The first study provides leaders’ perspective on work passion through 30 semi-structured interviews with Australian-based leaders and addresses the following research questions: What are leaders’ perceptions of their role in influencing employee work passion? How do leaders perceive the impact of their work passion on employees? The findings reveal that leaders are seen as the key actors responsible for cultivating employee work passion. Leaders’ own work passion is perceived as desirable, motivational and contagious, although it is also regarded as potentially carrying certain risks. The second study uses a quantitative approach including surveys with employees (n = 232) from various industries and addresses the research question, How can leaders transmit their work passion to employees? The results confirm that leader harmonious and obsessive work passion are directly related to employee harmonious and obsessive work passion. However, leader harmonious passion could also contribute to employee obsessive passion for some individuals. Perceived leader role modelling and coaching appear to facilitate the transmission of harmonious passion. The third study adopts a quantitative dyadic approach including surveys with matched leaders and employees (n = 51) working for two Australian-based organisations. This study addresses the research question, How do leader harmonious and obsessive work passion affect employees’ workplace experience? The findings demonstrate the positive impact of leader harmonious passion on employees, while also highlighting how differing passion types between leaders and employees can negatively affect the employee workplace experience. Together, the empirical studies that comprise the thesis show the important role of leaders and their work passion in shaping employee work passion and workplace outcomes.</p>