The Determinants of Work Passions: A Study of Education Sector

Abstract

Nowadays, the workforce does encounter big problems in work-life as almost no one is passionate about their work anymore. Work passion is comparable important among educators to maintain their job performance. Over the years, researchers, organizations, and leaders have been struggling with the challenge of how to best create a motivating work environment and play a role in leadership to stimulate and maximize the employees' work passion and performance. The purpose of this research is to explore the organizational factors i.e., organizational climate, organizational justice, work motivation and job autonomy driving the work passion among the educators in Malaysia. Convenience sampling was employed in this study and data were collected from 150 educators across various types of educational institutions. Partial least squares (PLS), a structural equation modelling approach was used to analyse the direct effect of the four determinants towards the work passion of educators. This study reveals that organizational climate, work motivation and job autonomy had a significant direct effect on work passions. Further, work motivation appeared to be the most influencing determinant towards work passion. This research unlocks a fresh debate window and offers an interesting chance to advance our understanding by examining the current study's findings in various areas of existence and should not be limited to the education sector. Whilst extensive research has been undertaken to investigate the antecedents of passion in the fields of psychology and marketing, there is no particular study that thoroughly explores the transition from educator to work passion. This research consequently adds to the literature of passion by exploring whether the work passion of an educator can be transmitted in other service industries in Malaysia. In general, this research makes notable theoretical contributions.