Passionate workers: A Spanish adaptation of the Passion Scale

Abstract

Passion is defined as a strong inclination toward an activity the people like, that they find important, and in which they invest time and energy, like working. The aim of this study is to present evidence of the validity of the factor structure of the Spanish version of the Passion Scale. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out in a heterogeneous sample of 432 Spanish workers. The results confirmed the expected two-factor structure of passion in the workplace: obsessive passion and harmonious passion. A strong and positive correlation between harmonious passion and job satisfaction was observed, which is considered as an indicator of the positive nature of passion. Future research should investigate more extensively its construct validity with other organizational variables.

Resumen

La pasión puede definirse como un fuerte impulso hacia una actividad que las personas gustan y consideran importante y a la que dedican tiempo y energía, como es el trabajo. El objetivo de este estudio es presentar datos de validez de la estructura factorial de la versión española de la Escala de Pasión. Se realizó un análisis factorial exploratorio sobre una muestra de 432 trabajadores españoles. Los resultados confirmaron la estructura bifactorial de la escala de pasión en el trabajo: pasión obsesiva y pasión armoniosa. Se observó una fuerte relación entre pasión armoniosa y satisfacción en el trabajo, lo que puede considerarse un indicador de la naturaleza positiva de la pasión. Futuros estudios deberán investigar con mayor profundidad la validez de criterio con otras variables organizacionales.

During the early twentieth-first century, developments on Psychology have heightened the need for a new “positive psychology”. This emerging positive psychology shifts the stress on weakness and malfunctioning for the stress on human strength and optimal functioning (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Seligman, Steen, Park, and Peterson, 2005). According to Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000), the question is how people's lives can be worth living. In this sense, Vallerand and colleagues believe that the concept of passion would play a key role in how life can be most worth living, as a pathway to engagement, optimal performance, and intrinsic joy, even amidst difficulties and setbacks (Vallerand et al., 2003; Vallerand, Paquet, Philippe, and Charest, 2010).

Passion can fuel motivation, enhance well-being, and provide menacing in everyday life. However, passion can also arouse negative emotions, lead to inflexible persistence, and interfere with achieving a balanced successful life. In a work context, harmonious passion occurs when individuals freely accept work as important for them without any contingencies attached to it. Obsessive passion, by contrast, can eventually take disproportionate space in the person's identity and cause conflict with other activities in the person's life (Marsh et al., 2013; Vallerand et al., 2003, 2010). I could also have negative consequences such as burnout and workaholism (Aziz, Uhrich, Wuensch, and Swords, 2013; Carbonneau, Vallerand, Fernet, and Guay, 2008; Vallerand et al., 2010).

The influence of passion makes it a challenge for researchers to measure. In this sense, Vallerand et al. (2003) developed the Passion Scale focused on general activities. Later, Marsh et al. (2013) demonstrated that the Passion Scale is appropriate for assessing passion across a wide variety of activities, including work. As no adaptation of this instrument for the Spanish-speaking countries has been made yet, this study aims to contribute to the adaptation and validation of the Spanish version of the Passion Scale focused on the workplace.

A dualistic model of passion

In recent years, an increasing amount of research in Psychology and has been concerned with providing a better understanding of what makes people's lives more fulfilling. Although several concepts have been found useful to shedding light on what leads to a better life, 10 years of research have shown that the concept of passion represents one important answer to this question (Snyder and López, 2009; Vallerand et al., 2003). People who wake up in the morning with a smile in their face “because today is football day” or people who work hard for a cause, all have passion that makes their lives worth living.

Passion has been defined as a strong tendency toward an activity that people like, find important, and in which they spend time and energy (Vallerand et al., 2003). Thus, for an activity to represent a passion for people, it has to be significant in their lives, something that they like, and something in which they spend time on a regular basis. It should be noted that the source of passion could be oriented toward an activity (e.g., playing the piano, writing a research article, or working in a project), a person (e.g., one's romantic partner), or an object (e.g., a football card collection) (Marsh et al., 2013; Vallerand et al., 2003, 2010).

Vallerand et al. (2003) proposed a dualistic model of passion with two types of passion, obsessive passion (OP) and harmonious passion (HP). These passions can be distinguished in terms of how the passionate activity is internalized into one's core self or identity. Identity refers to an individual's relevant features, characteristics, and experiences, how these are interrelated, as well as the social and self-regulation functions that such features serve (Schlenker, 1985). According to Vallerand et al. (2003), certain activities could be so self-defining that they represent central features of one's identity.

On the other hand, internalization represents the process through which individuals transform socially sanctioned values and behaviors into personally endorsed ones (Deci and Ryan, 2000). When the internalization is autonomous, people voluntarily recognize these principles as important, assimilate them into their identity, and, thus, fully accept them as their own. However, when the internalization process is controlled, people are compelled to identify with these principles, and thus behaviors and values may remain external or be only partially internalized in the identity (Marsh et al., 2013). In the same vein, Vallerand et al. (2003) proposed that those two types of internalization should take place for sources of passion and that these processes should be conducive to HP and OP, respectively.

HP results from an autonomous internalization of the activity into the person's identity. It refers to a strong desire to freely engage in the activity (e.g., work). The passionate activity is self-defining, elicits intrinsic job, and allows individuals to feel in control (Amiot, Vallerand, and Blanchard, 2006; Vallerand et al., 2003). Such internalization process occurs in contexts where the person willingly accepts his or her passion as important, instead of feeling pressured, either internally or externally, to do so (Vallerand et al., 2003).

With this type of passion, the activity occupies a significant but no overpowering space in the person's identity and is in harmony with other aspects of the person's life. People with a predominant HP should thus experience positive outcomes not only during (e.g., positive affect, concentration, flow) but also after task engagement (e.g., general positive affect, psychological adjustment, etc.) (Marsh et al., 2013; Sloan, 2008).

Conversely, OP is characterized by a controlled internalization and a contingency-driven engagement process that develops from intra and/or interpersonal pressure (e.g., need for self-esteem or social acceptance), or from the sense of excitement derived from activity engagement, that becomes uncontrollable (Marsh et al., 2013; Vallerand et al., 2003, 2010). Although individuals like the activity, they feel compelled to engage in it because of these internal contingencies that come to control them. Because activity engagement is out of the person's control, it eventually takes disproportionate space in the person's identity and causes conflict with other activities in the person's life (Vallerand et al., 2003, 2010).

Whether a passion will foster positive affect and healthy persistence depends on whether it is harmonious or obsessive. With respect to affective outcomes, HP should lead to greater positive affect and less negative affect than OP during task engagement. This is because the autonomous internalization of the activity leads the person to engage in the task in a more flexible manner and thus to experience task engagement more fully. Such a flexible form of activity engagement should facilitate better concentration and the experience of positive affect (e.g., job satisfaction), absorption, and flow. Such is not the case for OP, because a controlled internalization breeds an internal compulsion to engage in the activity, leading to a more rigid and conflicted form of task engagement (e.g., workaholism) (Aziz et al., 2013; Deci and Ryan, 2000; Vallerand et al., 2003, 2010).

Furthermore, HP should also contribute to the experience of positive affect and minimize the experience of negative affect after task engagement. This is because with HP people are in control of the activity. They can decide to engage or not in the activity and when. This results in very little conflict between the passionate activity and other activities in the person's life. On the contrary, OP leads the person to engage in the activity even when he or she should not, causing conflict between the passionate activity and participation in other tasks. For instance, the person could feel guilty for having holidays when he or she was supposed to work in the last project for the company (Marsh et al., 2013).

Empirical findings support this dualistic conceptualization of passion, using the Passion Scale developed by Vallerand et al. (2003). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the two factor structure of the Passion Scale (Carbonneau et al., 2008; Marsh et al., 2013; Schellenberg, Gaudreau, and Crocker, 2013; Vallerand et al., 2003, 2010). The Passion Scale has shown high levels of internal consistency as well as predictive, discriminant, construct, and external evidence in diverse activities (e.g., leisure, work, etc.) (Marsh et al., 2013; Stenseng, 2008; Vallerand et al., 2003, 2010). Test-retest correlations over a 3-month period revealed moderately high stability values (Stenseng, 2008).

Furthermore, results using the scale revealed that both HP and OP were positively correlated with each other and with measures of the perceived value of the passion, of the activity being perceived as a passion, and inclusion of the passion in the person's identity (Smith, 2008; Stenseng, 2008; Vallerand et al., 2003). However, the two types of passion are differentially associated with various outcomes. Overall, empirical research has showed that harmonious passion comprises positive outcomes such as enhanced psychological well-being and positive emotions (Philippe, Vallerand, Houlfort, Lavigne, and Donahue, 2010), flow in the workplace (Lavigne, Forest, and Crevier-Braud, 2012), job satisfaction (Carbonneau et al., 2008; Carpentier, Mageau, and Vallerand, 2012), affective commitment toward work (Forest, Mageau, Sarrazin, and Morin, 2011). This form of passion can also prevent professional burnout (e.g., emotional exhaustion) and conflict with the other life activities (Carbonneau et al., 2008; Vallerand et al., 2010). On the other hand, obsessive passion leads to outcomes such as negative affect over time, rigid persistence, shame, anxiety and burnout (Carbonneau et al., 2008; Vallerand et al., 2010), workaholism (Aziz et al., 2013; Del Líbano, Llorens, Salanova, and Schaufeli, 2010), and higher conflict with other life contexts (Marsh et al., 2013).

Passion can be also considered as a relevant well-being indicator, such as job satisfaction, from the hedonic perspective of well-being (Cifre, Vera, Rodríguez-Sánchez, and Carmen Pastor, 2013). Although environmental sources are highly relevant, well-being also derives from the individual person. According to Warr (2013), two aspects are important: 1) long-term characteristics, such as dispositional or demographic features, for instance, gender, and 2) an individual's way of attending to and thinking about particular situations as they are experienced. With regard to gender, the results have been inconsistent, as some studies have reported differences between men and women, whereas others have not found any dissimilarities in emotions (Cifre et al., 2013; Gyllsensten and Palmer, 2005). However, regarding well-being measures that consider any level of activation, such as job satisfaction and work engagement, women usually score higher on anxiety and depression than men. Other studies observed that women showed higher job satisfaction and higher engagement (Cifre, Salanova, and Franco, 2011). Similar differences in gender could be expected as well in relation to passion at work.

In line with the aforementioned studies, passion seems to play a major role in people's well-being and, in the long run, in organizational success and competitive advantage (Carbonneau et al., 2008; Marsh et al., 2013; Snyder and López, 2009). Furthermore, currently there is not a scale adapted into Spanish that measures the passion (harmonious and obsessive) construct, making the study in Spanish-speaking countries impossible. In this sense, the aim of this study is to adapt and validate the Passion Scale into Spanish.

Method

Participants

The sample consisted of 432 Spanish workers from companies and entrepreneurial organizations across southern Spain. Participants were required to have a minimum of one year's experience in their professional positions. As for the sample's sociodemographic characteristics, 53.4% were women; the average age of the sample was 34.67 (SD = 10.61), ranging from 18 to 61 years old; 67.7% of the participants were married and 55.3% held an undergraduate degree. According to Hofstede's (2001) job types, 30.09% were unskilled or semiskilled manual workers, 21.18% were generally trained office workers or secretary, 20.56% were vocationally trained craftspersons, technicians, IT specialists, nurses, artists or equivalent, 14.39% were academically trained professionals (but not a manager), and 11.78% were managers.

Measures

Participants completed two psychological scales and some sociodemographic variables previously presented in the Sample section. Specifically, they completed the following scales:

Passion. To measure passion in the workplace, we utilized the Passion Scale (Vallerand et al., 2003). The Passion Scale consists of 14 items distributed into two sub-scales: harmonious scale (items 1-7) and obsessive passion (items 8-14). Responses are given on a Likert-type scale from 1 to 7, where 1 means not agree at all and 7 very strongly agree. Reliability scores in the Passion Scale have ranged from .78 to .88 (Marsh et al., 2013). In the process of adaptation, we asked the authorization of the original questionnaire's author, which was duly granted.

Job satisfaction. Job satisfaction was assessed with the Spanish version of the Job Satisfaction Scale (Warr, Cook, and Wall, 1979). It contains 15 items distributed into two dimensions: intrinsic job satisfaction (8 items) and extrinsic job satisfaction (7 items). Responses are given on a Likert-type scale from 1 to 7, where 1 means not agree at all and 7 very strongly agree. High scores reveal a high presence of job satisfaction in the employees. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for the total scale, intrinsic job satisfaction, and extrinsic job satisfaction was .92, .85, and .87, respectively.

Procedure

The first step to conducting this study was to back-translate the items of the Passion Scale into Spanish in accordance to Hambleton, Merenda, and Spielberger's procedure (2006). We first sought the collaboration of three university professors in the field of psychology and motivation, who did not participate in the study, who translated the questionnaire from English to Spanish independently of one another, focusing in the workplace. We subsequently compared the three translations and discussed the differences between them until reaching a consensus about each item, thereby obtaining a single version of each in Spanish.

The next step was to translate the Spanish version obtained from the original questionnaire back into English. This process was done by a professional translator whose first language was English and who had nothing to do with the first translation. We later compared the two English versions, the original and the translation of the Spanish version, analyzing the translation's quality by seeing what items coincided in the two questionnaires, making modifications when necessary (Hambleton et al., 2006; Muñiz and Hambleton, 2000).

To analyze the validity of the newly created Spanish scale, each item was evaluated by expert judges, as recommended by Balluerka, Gorostiaga, Alonso-Arbiol, and Haranburu (2007). We sought the participation of three experts, two on the construct being assessed, and one on constructing scales.

In order to effectively carry out the assessment, they were provided with the concept of passion, along with the dimensions that comprise it. They were subsequently given a list of all the items and the judges’ task was to classify each into the dimensions to which they though it belonged. They were also asked to give their opinions about whether the number of items was sufficient to measure each dimension. Finally, they were asked to evaluate whether or not the items were clearly written (Balluerka et al., 2007). The resulting expert judgment yielded very favorable results in that all three judges correctly classified all items. They also agreed that the dimensions could be perfectly measured by seven items.

The outcome of the phases described above was the Spanish version of the Passion Scale, made up of 14 items, 7 for each component of passion: harmonious passion and obsessive passion. As in the original questionnaire, responses were given on a Likert-type scale from 1 to 7, 1 corresponding to not agree at all and 7 very strongly agree. Table 1 presents the English version as well as the Spanish version.

Table 1.

English and Spanish version of the Passion Scale.

English version	Spanish version
Harmonious passion	Pasión armoniosa
1. This activity allows me to live a variety of experiences.	1. Este trabajo me permite vivir una gran variedad de experiencias.
2. The new things that I discover with this activity allow me to appreciate it even more.	2. Las cosas nuevas que aprendo con este trabajo hacen que lo valore todavía más.
3. This activity allows me to live memorable experiences.	3. Este trabajo me permite vivir experiencias memorables.
4. This activity reflects the qualities I like about myself.	4. Este trabajo refleja las cualidades que valoro en mí.
5. This activity is in harmony with the other activities in my life.	5. Este trabajo está en armonía con otras actividades de mi vida.
6. For me it is a passion, that I still manage to control.	6. Para mí es una pasión que todavía logro controlar.
7. I am completely taken with this activity	7. Estoy completamento implicado con este trabajo.
Obsessive passion	Pasión obsesiva
8. I cannot live without it	8. No puedo vivir sin este trabajo
9. The urge is so strong. I can’t help doing this activity.	9. El impulso es tan fuerte, que no puedo dejar de hacer este trabajo.
10. I have difficulty imagining my life without this activity.	10. No puedo concebir mi vida in este trabajo.
11. I am emotionally dependent on this activity.	11. Dependo emocionalmente de este trabajo.
12. I have a tough time controlling my need to do this activity.	12. Me cuesta controlar la necesidad de realizar este trabajo.
13. I have almost an obsessive feeling for this activity.	13. Tengo un sentimiento casi obsesivo por este trabajo.
14. My mood depends on my being able to do this activity.	14. Mi estado de ánimo depende de mi capacidad para realizar este trabajo.

Once the Passion scale was translated into Spanish, we proceed to data collection. The Passion Scale was administered between January and May 2013. Two answer modalities were offered: written and electronic format (online survey). Both modalities explained the aim and conditions of the study. All the participants took part voluntarily and gave informed consent.

Data Analysis

The statistical package SPSS 20.0 was employed carrying out data analyses. The scale's psychometric properties were explored through internal consistency, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and validity.

Internal consistency. Means, standard deviations, and skewness were calculated for each of the items used to assess passion, as well as for the subscales scores. The internal consistency of the EFA solution was further investigated by Cronbach's alpha, corrected item-total correlations, and alpha when item deleted.

Exploratory factor analysis. To assess the internal validity of the instrument, a Principal Component Analysis was carried out on the 14-item instrument measuring passion in the workplace. To determine the number of factors to retain, we used the analysis of eigenvalues (Cattell and Vogelmann, 1977). Factors were rotated using the Oblimin rotation, a procedure normally used when factors are expected to correlate and not be orthogonal (Gorsuch, 1983).

Validity. Criterion-related validity was established by correlating both harmonious and obsessive passion with job satisfaction, using zero-order correlations. Student's t-test for the comparison of two independent means was performed in order to find out whether there were any significant differences between men and women when they reported their levels of job engagement and job satisfaction.

Results

Internal Consistency

Descriptive statistics, corrected item-total correlations, and alpha if item deleted are presented in Table 2. The mean score of the item used to assess harmonious and obsessive passion ranged from 5.10 to 4.24 and from 3.03 to 3.79, respectively. All item standard deviations were higher than 1.0. None of the items had absolute skewness greater than 1. Items from harmonious passion were slightly skewed toward the negative, yet items from obsessive passion were slightly toward the positive. All the corrected correlations coefficients between item score and dimension exceed .30, as recommended by Nunnally and Berstein (1995). Overall, the internal consistency of the scale and its items may be considered adequate.

Table 2.

Skewness, corrected item-total, and mean for the Passion Scale.

	Skewness (SE = 0.11)	Corrected item-total	α if item deleted	Mean (SD)
Harmonious (α = .92)
Item 1	-.53	.74	.91	4.76 (1.76)
Item 2	-.70	.81	.90	4.90 (1.67)
Item 3	-.41	.82	.90	4.51 (1.70)
Item 4	-.68	.81	.90	4.87 (1.58)
Item 5	-.36	.73	.91	4.54 (1.67)
Item 6	-.30	.72	.91	4.24 (1.72)
Item 7	-.72	.62	.92	5.10 (1.51)
Obsessive (α = .94)
Item 8	.08	.79	.94	3.79 (1.88)
Item 9	.07	.85	.93	3.63 (1.79)
Item 10	.08	.89	.93	3.49 (1.90)
Item 11	.20	.87	.93	3.44 (1.93)
Item 12	.17	.84	.93	3.28 (1.76)
Item 13	.52	.82	.93	3.03 (1.86)
Item 14	.04	.62	.94	3.69 (1.91)

Exploratory Factor Analysis

Prior to the analysis, the Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett sphericity test were calculated. KMO index showed a value of .93, which may be considered acceptable, and the Bartlett test proved to be statistically significant, χ²(91) = 4220.92, p < .001; therefore, the factor analysis was considered appropriate.

The first five eigenvalues of the correlation matrix were 7.74, 2.37, 0.68, 0.60, and 0.53, suggesting a two-factor solution. This finding is consistent with the results of several past studies (Marsh et al., 2013; Vallerand et al., 2003, 2010), supporting the bi-dimensionality of the scale. The first factor (harmonious passion) accounted for 55.28% of the variance and the second factor (obsessive passion) accounted for 16.76%.

The rotated factorial loadings matrix shows that F1 (harmonious passion) saturates the first seven items, and F2 (obsessive passion) saturates the last seven items (see Figure 1). All the items showed a factor loading higher than .40, ranging from .63 to .96, as recommended by Nunally and Berstein (1995) (see Table 3).

Figure 1.

Factor loadings of the 14-item Passion Scale.

Table 3.

Factor loadings from the exploratory factor analysis with Oblimin rotation.

Factors
Item	1	2
1	.89	-.13
2	.91	-.07
3	.87	.03
4	.85	.05
5	.72	.14
6	.63	.27
7	.71	.01
8	.14	.77
9	.16	.81
10	.01	.92
11	.01	.91
12	-.01	.90
13	-.15	.96
14	.02	.70

Note. Figures in bold are statistically significant at p < .01.

Cronbach's alpha was computed for the harmonious and obsessive passion factors, with a value of .92 and .94, respectively. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the scale met the standard criteria of 70, as recommended by Nunnally and Bersntein (1995). Finally, we compared the factor structure observed in this study with the factor structure obtained in the original study (Vallerand et al., 2003). The Burt-Tucker congruence coefficients (Burt, 1948; Tucker, 1951) were 91 for harmonious passion and .92 for obsessive passion. The coefficients were higher than .90, which is considered the cut-off point, so we conclude that the factor structure was replicated (Burt, 1948; Rivas Moya, 2012; Tucker, 1951).

Validity

Criterion-related validity was established by correlating passion in the workplace with constructs theoretically linked to passion in the literature. Specifically, passion was related to job satisfaction, as detailed in the Method section. Preliminary analyses were performed to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity, and homoscedasticity. There was a strong relationship between harmonious and obsessive passion (r = .55, p < .01). Intrinsic job satisfaction was related to harmonious passion (r = .68, p < .01) and to obsessive passion (r = .46, p < .01). Extrinsic job satisfaction was related to harmonious passion (r = .57, p < .01) and to obsessive passion (r = .38, p < .01).

Zero-order correlations were used to explore the relationships between harmonious and obsessive passion, and intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. There was a strong positive correlation between harmonious passion and intrinsic (r_p = .57, p < .01) and extrinsic (r_p = .46, p < .01) job satisfaction when the influence of OP was controlled. Obsessive passion was related to intrinsic job satisfaction (r_p = .14, p < .05); instead, there was no significant relationship between obsessive passion and extrinsic job satisfaction when the influence of HP was partialled out (r_p = .10, p = .34).

An independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the passion and job satisfaction scores for women and men.Womenscored higher than men in all four variables but no significant differences were observed in harmonious passion, M_men = 4.48, SD = 1.41; M_women = 4.64, SD = 1.44; t(422) = -1.06, p = .29; obsessive passion, M_men = 3.26, SD = 1.61; M_women = 3.32, SD = 1.54; t(422) = -0.37, p = .71;intrinsic job satisfaction, M_men = 4.70, SD = 1.12; M_women = 4.84, SD = 1.10; t(422) = -1.22, p = .23; and extrinsic job satisfaction, M_men = 3.96, SD = 1.25; M_women = 4.10, SD = 1.14; t(402) = -1.06, p = .24.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Spanish version of the Passion Scale. This scale showed good psychometric properties; factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficients supported the internal validity and the reliability of the instrument. The alpha coefficients of both harmonious and obsessive passion were above .70, and all the corrected correlation coefficients between item score and dimension exceed .30 (Nunnally and Bersntein, 1995). Furthermore, as revealed by the item analysis, the scale and each single item followed a normal distribution. Thus, the 14-item Spanish version of the Passion Scale showed adequate psychometric coefficients, coherent with the studies made by Stenseng (2008), Marsh et al. (2013), and Vallerand et al. (2003, 2010).

Our results revealed that the bi-dimensionality of the scale was replicated also in the Spanish context. This finding is consistent with the results of several past studies (Marsh et al., 2013; Stenseng, 2008; Vallerand et al., 2003, 2010), supporting this dualistic model of passion. Harmonious passion and obsessive passion can be differentiated in terms of how passion for any kind of activities, including work, has been internalized into one's identity. HP refers to a strong desire to freely engage in work and results from an autonomous internalization of the passion into the person's identity (Marsh et al., 2013; Vallerand et al., 2003). Harmonious passion is related to intrinsic motivation and engagement in the workplace. While this phenomenon leads to the passion becoming part of the person's identity, individuals with an obsessive passion come to develop ego-invested self-structures toward the source of their passion. OP overwhelms other aspects of the person's life, like workaholism and type A personality. Obsessive passion for work and workaholism include obsessive-compulsive tendencies associated to excessive working and an incapacity to get satisfaction from other areas of life (e.g., health, leisure activities, etc.) (Aziz et al., 2013).

The construct validity was also supported by the relationship between passion in the workplace and job satisfaction. Both harmonious and obsessive passion correlated with each other and with job satisfaction, but the relationship between obsessive passion and job satisfaction (intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction) disappeared when the harmonious passion was statistically controlled. HP showed a stronger relationship with intrinsic job satisfaction than with extrinsic job satisfaction. HP's autonomous internalization leads the person to engage in the task. This process enhances intrinsic job satisfaction because harmonious leads individuals to fully enjoy themselves in their tasks. It would thus appear that involvement in an activity central to one's life (such as working) contributes to one's personal well-being to the extent that harmonious passion underlies such involvement. Conversely, high activity involvement triggered by obsessive passion may not afford similar outcomes (Carbonneau et al., 2008).

These results are in line with the ones observed by Vallerand and colleagues (Forest et al., 2011; Philippe et al., 2010; Vallerand et al., 2003). Carbonneau et al. (2008) and Carpentier et al. (2012) observed that harmonious passion predicted enhanced job satisfaction and this, in turn, decreased conflict and prevented burnout symptoms over time. These findings provide encouraging evidence for the role of passion in predicting workers’ psychological well-being.

Results using the Passion Scale revealed that both harmonious and obsessive passion were positively correlated with each other and with measures of passion's perceived value (Marsh et al., 2013; Smith, 2008; Stenseng, 2008). However, the two types of passion are differently associated with various outcomes. Harmonious passion is positively related with positive emotions and flow during activity engagement. Employees who experience positive emotions and work engagement tend to express higher levels of job satisfaction and well-being (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004; Simpson, 2009; Sloan, 2008). On the other hand, obsessive passion is positively related with the experience of conflict between one's passion and with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, like work addiction (Aziz et al., 2013; Vallerand et al., 2010Amiot et al., 2006, Del Líbano et al., 2010, Hofstede, 2001, Lavigne et al., 2012, Schellenberg et al., 2013, Seligman et al., 2005 and Warr et al., 1979).

With regard to gender differences, men and women did not show any significant differences in the level of passion (both harmonious and obsessive) or in job satisfaction. These results are in line with the ones observed by Cifre et al. (2013); however, Cifre et al. (2011) found that women showed higher job satisfaction and higher engagement. According to Cifre et al. (2013), the way in which the variable gender has been treated during research and the use of different indicators of well-being associated to emotions might be behind these contradictory results. In this sense, new studies would be necessary to clarify the relationship between gender and emotions, specifically passion at work.

The Spanish version of the Passion Scale is the first instrument that assesses the passion levels in the workplace. Nevertheless, it is important to warn of the study's limitations. It would be positive to conduct additional studies in others samples and organizations (e.g., public versus private companies). We also think it is necessary to conduct further studies employing this instrument and analyzing its relationship with other workplace variables (i.e., workaholism, engagement). Finally, in future studies with Spanish samples, temporal stability should be explored and confirmatory analyses carried out to ratify the model.

To sum up, the Spanish version of the Passion Scale seems to be an accurate instrument for assessing passion for work levels in organizational context, analyzing it in relation to other variables. It is an easy-to-apply tool requiring minimal time to complete, and it could be useful in designing models and strategies for increasing employees’ passion for work levels.

Conflict of Interest

The authors of this article declare no conflict of interest.

Financial Support

This paper was partially financed by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology (Portugal).