仕事への情熱は働き過ぎを正当化するのか : Kim et al. (2020)の追試

In Japan, overwork has often been reported and criticized by the media as well as the public. Jobs are, however, often regarded as giving workers a sense of fulfilment and enjoyment, leading to their willingness to work extra hours. Based on the findings of Kim et al. (2020), we conducted two studies to investigate whether poor treatment of a worker can be legitimated when he/she is passionate about his/her work. In line with previous research, we found that a passionate worker was perceived to be volunteering to do extra jobs without compensation if given the chance and to regard the work as a reward in and of itself. However, unlike Kim et al., we did not find any mediating effects of these two perceptions on legitimating poor treatment of passionate workers. The reason why we failed to replicate the findings of Kim et al. are discussed in terms of Japanese people’s awareness of the hardship and unfairness of overwork.