The mediating role of passion to living a calling

In this multi-country study, we examined the effects of living a calling on career satisfaction, psychological well-being and workaholism through the dual pathways of harmonious and obsessive passion. We carried out a two-wave online survey of 478 full-time financial planners resided in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, countries that represent different levels of industry development. Findings from a structural equation modelling analysis revealed that the associations between living a calling and the three employee outcomes are partially mediated by harmonious and obsessive passions. These results shed light on the psychological mechanisms that underlie the relationship between living a calling and attitudinal outcomes. Our theoretical contributions in the area of work-related well-being are three-fold. First, we employed the dualistic model of passion, a motivational lens to strengthen the Work as Calling Theory (Duffy et al., 2018) framework. Second, our cross-cultural study enhances scholarly understanding of calling from a non-Western perspective, to address calls for research which have been relatively scant. Third, we extend research on calling to an occupation that has a unique work environment, comprising characteristics of employment and self-employment; thus, conducive for fostering both desirable and undesirable outcomes. The outcome of this study offers potential suggestions for the financial planning industry in Asia on how to better engage and retain their workforce.