Passion ignites: Effect of expert worker passion on employee performance in knowledge worker teams

Previous studies have shown that employees perform better by acquiring knowledge and skills from domain-specific experts. In this research, we depart from this perspective to focus on expert workers, who possess a high level of domain-general and task-related competencies, and draw on role modeling theory to propose that expert workers’ passion can inspire employees’ passion and thus contribute to employee performance in knowledge worker teams. We conducted three studies to test our research model. The results consistently showed the positive effects of expert workers’ harmonious passion on employees’ harmonious passion, which in turn increased employees’ task performance and taking charge behavior; these effects were stronger when employees and expert workers had similar expertise and demographic backgrounds. In contrast, expert workers’ obsessive passion had no significant effect on employees’ passion and performance. Overall, the study advances the understanding of passion in knowledge worker teams and provides important insight into the managerial practice of presenting outstanding employees as role models.