New Frontiers in Passion and Performance

Academy of Management Proceedings, vol. 2025

Abstract

The expectation that employees have passion for their work is deeply ingrained and has long shaped workplace norms (Cech, 2021; Landay & Schaefer, 2022). This belief rests on the assumption that passion for one’s work inevitably leads to positive outcomes, enhancing both individual success and organizational performance (Vallerand & Houlfort, 2019; Vallerand, Houlfort, & Forest, 2014). Despite the widespread perception of passion as a consistently positive force, the reality is more complex—not all forms of passion consistently predict improved performance (Curran et al., 2015; Pollack et al., 2020), and passion may sometimes create unintended challenges or exacerbate workplace inequalities (Cech, 2021; He et al., 2024; Rao & Tobias Neely, 2019). This symposium brings together four papers on the theme of passion and performance. The authors examine how passion interacts with individual traits such as cognitive and emotional intelligence as well as with contextual factors like the transition to fatherhood to affect performance, the mechanisms through which passion can yield both functional and dysfunctional impacts on performance, and how being perceived as passionate—or not—shapes evaluations of employees. These studies provide employers with valuable insights into when and how passion enhances performance, while also highlighting scenarios where passion may not yield positive effects—underscoring its implications for employee well-being and workplace equity. Work passion, intelligence, and job characteristics: Substitutes or complements for work behaviors? Author: Marina Astakhova; Author: Violet T. Ho; University of Richmond The impact of expectant fathers’ work passion on performance and work-family balance post-childbirth Author: Anna M. Stertz; RWTH Aachen University Author: Maggie Wan; Texas State University From drive to deliverance: How the dual faces of work passion impact job performance Author: Shoshana Schwartz; Christopher Newport University Author: Karen Landay; University of North Texas Author: Jaime Leigh Williams; Tennessee Technological University The role of managers’ financial security in harsher evaluations of employees who lack passion Author: Paul A. O'Keefe; University of Exeter Author: Liz Horberg; University of Exeter

Authors 9

1. Shoshana Schwartz

   Christopher Newport University

   Affiliation as printed

   Christopher Newport University

2. Karen Landay

   University of North Texas

   Affiliation as printed

   University of North Texas

3. Nathalie Houlfort
   Affiliation as printed

4. Paul A. O’Keefe

   University of Exeter

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Exeter

5. Marina N. Astakhova
   Affiliation as printed

6. Anna M. Stertz Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University

7. Jaime Leigh Williams

   Tennessee Technological University

   Affiliation as printed

   Tennessee Technological University

8. Liz Horberg

   University of Exeter

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Exeter

9. Violet T. Ho

   University of Richmond

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Richmond