Igniting the Harmonious Passion among Fast Moving Consumer Goods Companies’ Frontline Employees: The Role of Relationship-oriented Leadership

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of relationship-oriented leadership on harmonious passion based on Self-Determination Theory. Self-efficacy is taken as a mediator between the relationship-oriented leadership style and harmonious passion. A conscientious personality trait is integrated as a moderator to check whether it moderates the effect of relationship-oriented leadership on harmonious passion. The data were collected using a cross-sectional research design, and the study population is the front-line employees of fast-moving consumer goods companies in Pakistan. The research model was tested using a questionnaire survey instrument, and the sample size was 487. PLS-SEM was used for testing the hypotheses. Similarly, Hays process macro was used for testing mediating and moderating effects. Results revealed that employees increase their Harmonious Passion in the presence of relationship-oriented leadership. Self-efficacy mediates the relationship between relationship-oriented leadership and Harmonious Passion. Conscientiousness personality trait significantly acts as a moderator between relationship-oriented leadership and Harmonious Passion. As research on this leadership style and employee passion is scarce, this paper will help get a proper understanding of the specific leadership style necessary for cultivating harmonious passion. This study also concludes that fast-moving consumer goods companies should consider this leadership style and motivate their managers to adopt this particular style to increase their employees’ harmonious passion for better outcomes.