Passion in the workplace: empirical insights from team sport organisations

Abstract

Research Question: Although sport management scholars have focused on a fairly wide number of psychologically-related constructs in the workplace, passion has not been part of this research agenda. The present study is the first attempt to fill this gap by exploring team sport organisation employees’ passion via the dualistic model, that is, harmonious and obsessive, developed by Vallerand et al. (2003).  Research Methods: UK football industry employees responsible for either business-related functions or the clubs’ social agenda (N=236) completed an online survey in order to measure their level of passion. The particular instrument has two components: harmonious and obsessive passion towards the job. Besides the passion scales, the survey contained measures related to demographic variables, employment position, and previous job experience. Data were treated with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and analysis of variance using SPSS and Amos 18.0.  Results and Findings: Both groups of employees are passionate about their job. They remain harmoniously passionate throughout their career and show low levels of obsessive passion. The type of work activities influences personnel within sport organisations with employees responsible for the social agenda being slightly more harmoniously and obsessively passionate compared to those responsible for the business agenda.  Implications: Vallerand et al.’s dualistic model of passion has been adapted for sport organisations. The particular working environment that forms these organisations attracts and/or facilitates employees to experience a positive work–life balance.