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Sometimes enough is enough: Nurses’ nonlinear levels of passion and the influence of politics

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Examining nonlinear associations of work passion with job outcomes for nurses amidst work politics during a pandemic. Ilias Kapoutsis discusses the implications for nursing practice and scholarship.

Image courtesy of interviewee. January 10, 2024

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This video video discusses the concept of work passion, particularly in healthcare settings like nursing, and challenges the common belief that high levels of passion always lead to enhanced performance and job satisfaction. It highlights that while work passion is generally viewed as a desirable trait that can increase engagement, commitment, and creativity—especially in high-stress fields like healthcare—it can also have negative effects when it becomes excessive or when the work environment is unsupportive.

The research identifies three core elements of work passion: affect (positive emotions associated with job activities), motivation (devotion of time to activities often at the expense of others), and identity (evaluation of work as meaningful and integral to one's self). It differentiates between harmonious passion, which is beneficial, and obsessive passion, which can lead to negative outcomes, especially in politically charged or ambiguous work environments.

The study conducted involved nurses and examined how different levels of passion influenced various work outcomes, including job satisfaction and performance. It revealed that moderate levels of passion were optimal for positive outcomes, while excessive passion could lead to increased workload without corresponding job satisfaction. Additionally, high organizational politics were found to require a balanced passion level for effective outcomes.

The findings suggest that organizations should not indiscriminately promote high passion among employees, but rather, foster environments where employees can effectively navigate political dynamics to harness their passion positively. In practice, developing skills such as political acumen can help employees manage their passion constructively, ensuring they do not experience negative consequences from excessive dedication or unclear expectations.

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I would start by saying that most managers

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consider work passion an invaluable

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and hard to find, characteristic, frequently associated

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with, heightened performance.

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Uh, in healthcare organizations, for example, demands

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and, stress are often assumed, managers

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and patients and cards.

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And, I I could say that sometimes anticipate nurses

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to exhibit passion,

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however healthcare professional are, are at the forefront

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of, of illness, of, catastrophic, often death,

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as the recent pandemic crisis, crisis has on,

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in addition, they, they tend to work

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for more than 10, 10 to 12 hours.

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The job is often demanding

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and mistakes can be, really disastrous.

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Uh, however many people choose such professions

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and then work under, under extreme pressure

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because they need to exercise their passion for, for caring,

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for saving lives, or any other reason.

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Uh, however, in in our research, we challenge the assumption

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that the general form of passion is always desirable,

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suggesting that in passion, there is too much

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of a good thing effect.

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So, in, in broader terms, I would say

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that work passion is an emotional

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and rather, persistent state of desire toward,

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a specific job tasks or, activities.

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And, usually it includes three, three core elements.

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Uh, the first is, affect,

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let's imagine some positive

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and arousing emotions, attached with a,

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a task or an activity.

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Uh, it entails motivation, an inclination

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to devote time to the, to the activity, always a,

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although this often, may come at the expense

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of other activities because we sift focus, to,

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to the tasks that we are passionate, with.

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And, the third element is identity.

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Um, to evaluate the activity of passion as meaningful

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and, identity forming.

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Uh, so, a passionate employee would, probably say

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that this is not, just my job.

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It is, who, who I am.

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Um, so in general, we know that those who are more,

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passionate at work, tend to perform, tend

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to perform tasks and take initiatives

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to solve problems even when, rules

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and, expectations, are, are, are vague

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or, they operate in an uncertain environment.

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Uh, so the literature, suggests

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that passion relates in a, in a positive way with,

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numerous, work outcomes, such as, decreased,

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emotional exhaustion

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or burnout, an increased engagement,

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career commitment, and perhaps job creativity and others.

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Uh, but surprisingly, research

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and work passion, especially in,

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nursing is rather limited.

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We, we try to defend, we advocate that passion

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can be too much of a good thing,

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thus despite its merits, it's obvious merits,

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there might be instances, where work passion is,

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is not enough or it's harmful to employee health,

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satisfaction, satisfaction, behavior or, or,

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or even work, work performance.

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Um, for, for example, research suggests,

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potentially adverse effects, when passion is, is high,

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and, the, the context is, unsupportive

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or even, potentially threatening the work passion,

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tends to relate positively to, several work outcomes.

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Although research has indicated that there are two,

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two different forms, on the one hand,

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we are talking about harmonious passion.

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Uh, the passion that has all this, positive,

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it is the positive force, at work.

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But, if you have obsessive passion

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and you tend to, you know,

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narrow your focus on the specific tasks

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and you overdo it, then it may have deleterious,

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effects, at work.

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But in, in general,

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when you are talking about the general form of passion,

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for example, we ask how passionate, is your employee?

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We tend to, relate it rather positively.

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So we want employees that are, passionate.

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Uh, however, we believe that, passion in any form,

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cannot exist in a vacuum.

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Um, instead, it, its impact,

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depends on external work conditions, threats,

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rewards or punishment mechanisms, or leader attributes.

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And, while nurses, fight the battle to save lives,

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often they're left without the resources needed

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to provide appropriate care.

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Uh, for example, one nurse,

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that participate in the study reported that,

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they had better protection at, at the,

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at the local Starbucks, when she was,

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on her way to work.

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Uh, so in, in such demanding environments, the use

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of politics to secure resources is required,

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making politics an ideal construct

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to understand the impact of work passion.

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You've spoke there, Ilia.

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So my, forgive me on this

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because you've spoke there to the politics of, how,

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how politics is linked to passion in this study.

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Um, I haven't, got this wrong.

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Have I, I asked you about the related literature.

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Was that your answer to the related literature?

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Um, work passion relates positively to, to, to numbers,

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results, like, like performance

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and, citizenship behaviors

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and, increased job satisfaction,

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commitment decreased, exhaustion and burnout.

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But on the other hand, when, when,

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and this is what we suggest, that

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after a certain point when you have too much passion, then,

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we start to experience negative outcomes,

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in performance or even, satisfaction.

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And a, a, a key, construct, that depends,

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on whether we, we will experience

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that kind of negative effects.

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We believe that it is organizational politics, which is,

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a construct, that reflects, how the environment,

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works.

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So because I have, I have my passion,

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but the passion is, is,

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or let's say manifested in environments

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that may be uncertain or they may be mechanistic

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or they be maybe, fraught with politics

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and, other kind of situations.

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So we cannot isolate, isolate, work, passion

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and say that it's, it's always good.

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It might be good depending on the situation

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that, we are dealing with.

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When we discuss about, politics, at work,

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usually we, we, we, we speak to the perceptions

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that employees, have about, about others,

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whether others are engaging in, self-serving behaviors,

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often, at the expense of others

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or at the expense of organizational, goals.

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Um, so in, in our research, we argue

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that simply having a work passion is not always ideal,

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but rather, the activated level of passion matters for,

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for, nurse outcomes.

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Um, so, in, in this research,

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we expected that, work passion in general will,

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positively relate, to job satisfaction, to work effort,

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to citizenship, behaviors, pro-social,

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let's say behaviors, and then work performance.

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But after a point, the relationship, we expect it,

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we expect to be negative.

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Um, we know from, other studies, that,

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the manifestation of, of such activation levels, similar

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to work passion is cont contingent on situational factors.

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And we believe that organizational politics is a,

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is a very relevant contextual construct,

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that reflect a, a, a job demand.

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And while most, research views politics

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as an aversive, working condition,

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that has a negative impact on, work outcomes,

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sometimes politics can reflect, a process,

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through Wes.

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Uh, we can ensure power balance, we can

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and reads, discussions

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and decision making, processes, improve,

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organizational flexibility, perhaps overcome inertia,

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or adapt to environmental changes,

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fundamental attributes in, in,

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in the nursing profession, for example.

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So, when politics are lower, people know what

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to expect, rather than, immersing,

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let's say in the political arena at work, employees,

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do not have a common perception of what is expected

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and how contributions will lead to desired, outcomes.

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So, in our research, we studied work passion in,

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in these four, work outcomes.

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And, we, we advocated

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that this is con contingent on organizational politics,

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in, in terms of, methods, we,

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we focused on registered

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and licensed practical nurses,

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working at large hospital in the United States,

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amidst the, the, the, the pandemic.

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Um, they all worked for more than 30 hours per week.

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They had the permanent, work, work status.

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Um, we collected our data, twice, roughly,

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two months, apart between waves.

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And, for performance, we asked the nurses, supervisors.

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So we had, we collected data from, multiple sources,

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and we, we collected eventually,

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surveys from 330, nurses,

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and conducted some, sophisticated analysis

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to examine the, the, the relationship.

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I mentioned the study sold some interesting results,

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because initially we argued that, outcomes will be,

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would be most favorable when an optimal,

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that is a moderate, level of, work passion exists.

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Uh, interestingly, all the, the non-linear,

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let's say that, after,

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after a point that work passion, the effect

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of work passion, drops, were opposite to

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what we, theorized.

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Um, and, and that is

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before of course, we accounted for the,

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contextual effect.

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But, our data supported

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that nurses' behavioral outcomes were highest at

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high levels of passion.

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So, as passion, increases, performance,

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for example, increases,

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but job satisfaction, may not.

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Whereas positive work attitudes like job satisfaction

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promote a too much of a good thing effect,

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in the presence of exceedingly, high levels

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of work passion, these, positive,

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work behaviors do not.

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Um, thus,

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although, work passion may not

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guarantee consistently at least, high job satisfaction,

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it does provide the behavioral, ignition to,

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to repeatedly behave in ways to obtain,

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passion driven, goals.

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And yet, our general predictions for too much

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of a good thing effect in,

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work passion was supported when we added high politics

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in the, in the equation.

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And specifically, we, we found that, when perceptions

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of politics are high, work outcomes were higher

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when passion was at moderate levels.

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So, nurses need to be,

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at a moderate level to have,

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work passion at a moderate level,

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but at the same time work, in an environment,

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that has high, organizational politics,

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which might sound a bit, a bit strange.

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And,

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however, when perceptions of politics were low,

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a work passion did not impact,

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this prosocial behaviors and work performance.

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Um, although in such environments, job satisfaction

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and work careful dropped when passion was getting higher.

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Um, so such evidence confirm, let's say the idea

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that the work passion should not be examined in a silo,

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as its impact depends on numerous external work,

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contextual cues and,

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and taking all in our research so that high passion nurses

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are more satisfied with their job

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and, exhibit more significant,

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work careful work effort than proactive behavior

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and receive better performance appraisals.

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However, such benefits only hold

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to a certain threshold depending on the level

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of politics in the, in the, their context.

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In praxis, managers should be mindful

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of not an over encouraging, work, passionate,

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the organizations as such effects may not be, let's say,

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fruitful, as they can rather lead

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to wasted energy and, resources

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and perhaps employees themselves.

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Employees themselves must find ways

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to control, their passion.

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Otherwise, too much passion can damage rather than benefit,

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desired outcomes, especially when situations are,

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vague or they are, constantly evolving and

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or they are self-serving.

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So one way to control work passion,

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is to develop social skills like, political skill,

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for example,

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to navigate these political environments.

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So you may operate, in a, in a political environment,

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but if you know how to, navigate effectively, that means

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that you can, you can make the environment work,

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beneficially, towards your, your, your passion.

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And this finding suggests that healthcare organizations,

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specifically need to tolerate some political behavior,

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or I would say even encourage them,

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while developing the competence to, to navigate, such,

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such, ambiguous environments, effectively.

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