Linking Passion to Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Employee Performance: The Mediating Role of Work Engagement

Although a good deal of attention has been focused in understanding the impact of passion in non-work related activities (e.g. sports, romance etc), but little research examines its impact in the organizational work context. This study plugs these knowledge gaps; specifically our purpose is to empirically investigate the impact of harmonious passion on employee performance via work engagement. Through a questionnaire based survey from 210 full time permanent employees and 27 managers of a large commercial bank of Pakistan and statistical analysis utilizing SPSS and AMOS, the paper reveals that the employees, who are harmoniously passionate about their work, are more effective in both task and non-task related performance and in creating a conducive environment for efficient and effective functioning of the organization. Moreover, these relationships are mediated by work engagement. The paper contributes to the literature by advancing the role of passion and the intervening mechanism in work related activities.