How Passion for Work Shapes Work-Family Interactions: A Conceptual Framework Exploring the Roles of Psychological Capital and Self-Regulation Failure

Abstract

The belief that a life of passion is a life well-lived serves as a perpetual motivator to pursue work aligned with one’s passion. Both work and family are essential life domains in many people’s lives, and they often interconnect, impacting each other. In the workplace, passion is a highly desired but under-researched employee characteristic, offering benefits like positive emotions and improved performance but also carrying risks, such as inflexibility. Drawing on job demands-resources theory and conservation of resources theory, our inquiry offers an integrative conceptual framework that combines insights from positive psychology, organizational behavior, and human resource development (HRD) literature. This framework enhances our understanding of how work passion connects to the work-family interface, considering the roles of psychological capital and self-regulation failure in interactions beyond work. Our study includes implications for HRD practitioners motivated to promote change initiatives and an agenda for future research for HRD scholars.