Nature, predictors, and outcomes of Nurses' trajectories of harmonious and obsessive passion

Abstract

This study sought to achieve a dynamic person-centered understanding of the various harmonious and obsessive work passion trajectories observed among a sample of nurses, as well as the connections between these two types of work passion trajectories. Moreover, it sought to document the predictive role of workload, unfairness, harassment, and supervisor support in relation to these harmonious and obsessive passion trajectories, as well as the implications of these trajectories for a variety of outcomes related to attitude (i.e., turnover intention), psychological health (i.e., perceived psychological health and work fatigue), and behaviors (i.e., work performance, presenteeism, and absenteeism). A sample of 622 nurses was surveyed six times over a period of five months. Our results revealed that harmonious and obsessive passion trajectories matched five primary profiles, similar across the two types of work passion. Workload, unfairness, harassment, and supervisor support were associated with these trajectories in a way that mainly supported our expectations. Trajectories characterized by higher levels of harmonious passion and lower levels of obsessive passion were associated with higher levels of perceived psychological health and work performance, and with lower levels of work fatigue, turnover intention, presenteeism, and absenteeism. Conversely, trajectories characterized by lower levels of harmonious passion and higher levels of obsessive passion were associated with the most negative outcomes.