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Live Paper Session "Work Passion and Intrinsic Motivation" (Session #230)

  • 1.  Live Paper Session "Work Passion and Intrinsic Motivation" (Session #230)

    Posted 07-29-2021 13:57
    Dear colleagues,

    We invite you to our live paper session titled "Work Passion and Intrinsic Motivation" (Session #230 Saturday, July 31st, 6:30-8:00AM ET).

    We have four papers included in the session:

    Work Passion and Employee Behavior: In Search of the Intrinsic Motivational Processes
    Author: Wan-Jing April Chang, National Tsing Hua U.
    Author: Ya Jen Joe Cheng, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung U.

    Past organization and management studies have emphasized individual and organizational performance. However, research on employee growth and development is relatively limited, even though findings drawn from positive psychology show that promoting and preserving employee mental health can improve employee performance. The present research follows the argument of positive organizational behavior (POB) to suggest that employee behaviors are determined by underlying intrinsic motivational processes linking employees' work passion, flow experience, well-being, and positive behavior. The present study has two major goals: first, to examine the dualistic effects of passion on creative workers' intrinsic motivation processes and behavioral consequences; second, to confirm the mediating role of flow experience and well-being in, as well as their causal relationships with, work passion, flow experience, well-being, and positive behavior (innovative behavior and job performance). The present overarching study consists of two specific studies. Study 1 involves (1) data from 363 creative professionals and (2) a cross-sectional design for testing the proposed model. Study 2 involves (1) two-wave data concerning creative professionals and (2) three cross-lagged tests for examining the causal relationships among variables. Structural equation modeling is employed for testing the hypotheses. The results of the two studies demonstrate that the effects of two kinds of passion differ from each other in relation to differences in time frame. Moreover, the results show that the greater the work passion is in creative workers, the more likely they will be to experience flow, well-being, strong job performance, and innovative behavior. The results also confirm their causal relationships with one another. Lastly, we discuss our findings' theoretical and practical implications, the study's limitations, and suggestions for future research.

    Intrinsic Motivation Display as an Impression Management Tactic
    Author: Mijeong Kwon, U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

    Previous research assumes that employees' true levels of intrinsic motivation and the levels of intrinsic motivation they show to others are the same and does not distinguish between the two. This paper challenges the assumption and builds a theory about how employees can display their intrinsic motivation to others in a way that it deviates from their true intrinsic motivation. Drawing on theories of impression management, we argue that employees are more likely to exaggerate their intrinsic motivation to interaction partners with greater power. We further propose that morality concerns are central in employees' intrinsic motivation display, where employees' desires to moral mediate the relationship between interaction partners' power and employees' intrinsic motivation displayed to the partners. We report results of two experiments and one field survey that support our hypotheses.

    Good to Be Passionate? The Conflicting Effects of Leader Passion on Follower Creativity
    Author: Lei Liu, UCL School of Management
    Author: Colin Muneo Fisher, UCL School of Management
    Author: Hannah Lettmann, UCL School of Management

    Do passionate leaders inspire follower creativity? We hypothesize that leaders' displaying passion has two contradictory effects on followers' and their creativity. In five experimental studies (total n = 1872), we show that leaders' displays of passion stimulate follower creativity because followers identify more with passionate leaders, increasing followers' intrinsic motivation. However, this potential benefit to creativity was offset by an unintended effect of passion: Increased identification with the leader also led followers to follow more passively, thereby stifling follower creativity. Although we originally predicted that followers' personal identification with passionate leaders would lead followers to anchor more heavily on examples that leaders gave, our results did not support this assertion. We conclude that personal identification constrains individuals' cognitive activities generally (i.e., makes them follow more passively), instead of fixating individuals' attention on the examples given by leaders. These findings provide insights into the dark side of leader passion in work requiring creativity, which has been frequently overlooked by prior literature on leader behaviors and follower performance.

    Can't Catch a Break: Working During Time Off Undermines Intrinsic Motivation
    Author: Laura Maria Giurge, London Business School
    Author: Kaitlin Woolley, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

    Intrinsic motivation refers to what people do-whether they pursue activities that enable autonomy, competence, and relatedness. However, six studies offer a new perspective on intrinsic motivation, demonstrating that it is also determined by when people pursue activities. Working during time perceived as non-standard work time (i.e., weekends/holidays vs. Monday-Friday) decreased intrinsic motivation for professional and academic goals (Studies 1-2). This effect occurs because working during perceived non-standard work time triggers counterfactual thoughts that one's time could have been better spent (Study 3). An intervention that held non-standard work-time constant, but manipulated norms about time-use by emphasizing that others work (vs. relax) during this time, helped restore intrinsic motivation in one's own work (Studies 4a-4c), with consequences for persistence. This research contributes to literature on time and intrinsic motivation, and addresses a real challenge many people face: How changing norms about work time affect interest in, and enjoyment of, work.

    Please find the session link here: https://2021.aom.org/meetings/virtual/6CieHeGJRK2MrDgw6

    Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you!

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    Mijeong Kwon
    Ph.D. Candidate, Management & Organizations
    Stephen M. Ross School of Business
    University of Michigan
    www.mijeongkwon.com | mjkwon@umich.edu
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