Abstract

Passion plays an important role in innovation, but theoretical understanding of what it does is lacking. The study proposes a model of two types of job passion, harmonious and obsessive passion, to employees’ innovative behavior, via the mediating mechanism of cognitive absorption and organization-based self-esteem (OBSE). Results from a survey conducted with 228 employees from 19 firms of China indicate that employees with harmonious passion have more innovative behavior at work, and that this relationship was mediated primarily by cognitive absorption and OBSE. However, even though obsessive passion was negatively related to OBSE, it did not have a significant relationship to cognitive absorption overall. The author identified and discussed research and practical implications for job passion and employees’ innovative behavior.

Key words: Harmonious passion, obsessive passion, organization-based self-esteem, cognitive absorption, innovative behavior.