Loving Your Work Is Good. But It’s Not a Virtue.

New assistant professor Mijeong Kwon discusses her research, which finds that loving your work can be valuable — but treating it as the only “right” reason to pursue a career can cause harm.

The takeaway? Leaders should be mindful to not impose love of work as a standard, and employees should remember that all motives — from money to meaning — are legitimate.

Can you tell us about the main focus of your research?

MK: My research focuses on a question we often get in our interviews and work conversations: “Why are you interested in this job?” or “Why do you do this work?” It’s a question of motivation. And we often have a hunch that there is a right answer for that question, but there’s surprisingly little research on this — how people perceive others’ work motivation.

Coming from an international background, especially, I thought that there’s really something interesting about “intrinsic motivation” in this country, about the social pressure to enjoy and love your work. We tend to admire people who love what they do, and we treat that love as a sign of character, not just preference.

So, my research is about what I call the moralization of intrinsic motivation. I study the cultural weight we place on passion and its consequences for careers, organization and society.

That line of inquiry seems especially relevant to students and early-career professionals.

MK: Absolutely. I saw it firsthand early in my teaching at Michigan. Students would come to me worried about their internship interviews. Some would say, “I’m interested in fields outside of consulting or finance, but I feel pressure to choose those paths because of money or prestige.”

They worried that saying “I want financial stability” wasn’t acceptable in an interview context, even if it was honest. I also noticed colleagues reading student applications and dismissing them as “not passionate enough.” That raised a question for me: What counts as passion? Who gets to define it?

Coming from another culture where passion wasn’t emphasized in the same way, I realized this wasn’t a universal problem. In the U.S., loving your work has become a moral expectation. But that can make it difficult for people from different cultural or socioeconomic backgrounds to express their real motives in ways that are accepted.

How do you approach this research in terms of methodology?

MK: I do a lot of experimental research. In one of the studies I ran, for example, I asked people to imagine two coworkers, one emphasizing love for work and the other not. When I subsequently asked whether they wanted to help either or both of these coworkers, I found that people were more likely to help out the person who emphasized intrinsic motivation because such a coworker was considered “moral” — closer to an ideal worker prototype. Surprisingly, I found those who love their work themselves were more likely to exhibit this tendency to consider love for work as a moral virtue.

And what do you see as the practical implications of your research? What can employees and managers do differently?

MK: For business leaders, I want them to recognize that while intrinsic motivation (i.e., “love for work”) has real benefits — better performance, persistence, creativity — it shouldn’t be imposed as a moral standard. If leaders overemphasize it, they risk alienating employees who don’t express it in the same way, or who are motivated by family obligations or financial security. These employees may feel excluded or even overlooked for opportunities, even if they’re highly capable and committed.

For students and young professionals, I think it’s equally important to know that this is a social expectation, not an absolute truth. If they feel stressed because they don’t “love” their work, I want them to understand they don’t need to be tortured by that. At 20 years old, you don’t have to have found your lifelong passion. You can experiment, build skills and change direction later.

What projects are you working on now?

MK: One current project looks at whether there are positive aspects of extrinsic motivations like money or recognition. These often carry stigma, but they can also reflect admirable goals — supporting your family, building stability, etc.

I’m also developing a broader concept I call “motivational ambidexterity.” Most of us don’t work for a single reason. We juggle passion, meaning, money, identity, security, pride, family. Rather than seeing these as competing motivations, I want to study how people can integrate them in healthier ways.

One final question, given the topic we’re covering here: How do you personally feel about your own work?

MK: It’s a little ironic, but studying this downside of intrinsic motivation has been a labor of love for me. I find the topic fascinating because it reshaped my career path. I started my Ph.D. focused on macro-level sociology, but this became my dissertation and shifted me into organizational behavior. So yes — I do love the work. But I also recognize it is just one piece of the story.

Kwon and Sonday, “The Moralization of Intrinsic Motivation: Opportunities and Perils.” Forthcoming in Academy of Management Review (2025).