Calling and Workaholism: Examining Obsessive and Harmonious Passion as Mediators and Moderators

Dalla Rosa and Vianello investigated whether obsessive and harmonious passion mediate or moderate the relationship between calling and workaholism. Results suggest that the relationship between calling and workaholism is completely mediated by obsessive passion and partially mediated by harmonious passion. In addition, obsessive passion moderates the relation between calling and workaholism, such that when obsessive passion is high, calling protects individuals from workaholism. Their results call for more research on the so-called dark side of calling by suggesting that the positive effect of calling on workaholism found in the literature might be due to obsessive passion for work rather than calling, and that calling actually protects obsessively passionate individuals from developing workaholism.