Passion and pride in professional sports: Investigating the role of workplace emotion

The current study examined the influence of passion and pride on employees of professional sport organizations. Anecdotally, much has been noted about the role that emotions play in making the sport industry one of the world’s largest and most visible. However, empirical investigation is lacking in relation to those who choose a career in this environment. Results from an analysis of 933 employee survey responses representing 89 teams across 5 leagues suggest that passion and pride play an important role influencing commonly assessed workplace attitudes and behaviors. Notably, obsessive passion se ems to work in a distinctly positive fashion within professional sport workplaces, as compared to its negative influence on employees within other non-sport industries researched previously.