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Stavrova O, Ehlebracht D, Ren D. Cynical people desire power but rarely acquire it: Exploring the role of cynicism in leadership attainment. Br J Psychol 2024; 115:226-252. [PMID: 37910018 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2023] [Revised: 10/11/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 11/03/2023]
Abstract
Do cynical individuals have a stronger desire for power and are they more likely to acquire power at work? The negative consequences of cynicism-for cynics themselves and the people around them-render the examination of these questions particularly important. We first examined the role of cynicism in power motives. Results showed that more cynical individuals have a greater desire for power to avoid exploitation by others (and less so to exploit others; Study 1) and score higher on dominance (but not prestige or leadership) motives (Study 2). The subsequent two studies examined the role of cynicism in power attainment at work. A study of virtual teams (Study 3) showed that more cynical individuals were less likely to emerge as group leaders, and a prospective study of ~9000 employees followed for up to 10 years (Study 4) showed that cynicism predicted a lower likelihood of attaining a leadership position in organizations. Taken together, more (vs. less) cynical individuals have a stronger power-in particular, dominance-motive but they are not more successful at power acquisition. These findings inform the literature on cynicism and power and highlight the importance of cynical worldviews for leadership attainment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olga Stavrova
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
- Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
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Bakaç C, Kehr HM. Getting to the bargaining table: The role of explicit motives and traits in negotiation initiation. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2023.112099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
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Handrito RP, Slabbinck H, Vanderstraeten J. Stuck in short-term, daily operations, or not?: Unraveling SME's long-term orientation. SMALL BUSINESS ECONOMICS 2023; 61:1-23. [PMID: 38625188 PMCID: PMC10037389 DOI: 10.1007/s11187-023-00748-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/05/2023] [Indexed: 04/17/2024]
Abstract
Long-term orientation (LTO) is an essential strategic option for firms to shape their future success, in particular for SMEs which are often submerged by daily operations. Surprisingly, little is known about the underlying personal and contextual drivers of LTO in an SME context. To unravel why some SME entrepreneurs adopt an LTO, while others seem to be stuck in short term and daily operations, we consider the (interacting) impact of both personal and contextual drivers. We carefully select well known drivers for their impact on various other aspects of SME's LTO: Need for achievement, as a personal driver, and the entrepreneur's perception of the institutional entrepreneurial support (PIES), as a contextual driver. The latter consists of a regulative, normative and cognitive institutional dimension. Based on a study on 176 SMEs in an emerging country, Indonesia, we confirm that both personal as well as contextual drivers individually and interactively impact an SME's LTO. Specifically, when highly achievement motivated entrepreneurs perceive that institutional regulations support entrepreneurial activities, they tend to adopt a higher level of LTO. We discuss implications for SMEs and policy makers, and provide suggestions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Radityo Putro Handrito
- Department of Marketing, Innovation, and Organization, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
- Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia
| | - Hendrik Slabbinck
- Department of Marketing, Innovation, and Organization, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Johanna Vanderstraeten
- Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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Quirin M, Loktyushin A, Küstermann E, Kuhl J. The Achievement Motive in the Brain: BOLD Responses to Pictures of Challenging Activities Predicted by Implicit Versus Explicit Achievement Motives. Front Psychol 2022; 13:845910. [PMID: 35846710 PMCID: PMC9286520 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.845910] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2021] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The achievement motive refers to a preference for mastering challenges and competing with some standard of excellence. Along with affiliation and power motives, the achievement motive is typically considered to occur on the level of implicit versus explicit representations. Specifically, whereas implicit motives involve pictorial, emotional goal representations and facilitate corresponding action effortlessly, explicit motives involve propositional (“verbalized”) goal representations but need some effort to translate into action (McClelland et al., 1989). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether and to which degree the implicit and explicit achievement motives differentially predict blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses to pictures of individuals engaging in challenging activities. Whereas the implicit AM predicted activity in areas associated with emotion (orbitofrontal cortex) and visual processing (right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, premotor and occipital cortices), the explicit AM predicted activity in areas associated with cognitive self-control or verbal goal processing (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). The findings support the commonly assumed distinction between implicit and explicit motives with neuronal data. They also suggest that explicit motives require cognitive self-control to overcome potential lacks of motivation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markus Quirin
- Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- Department of Psychology, PFH Private University of Applied Sciences, Göttingen, Germany
- *Correspondence: Markus Quirin,
| | - Alexander Loktyushin
- Department of Empirical Inference, Max-Plank Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Ekkehard Küstermann
- Department of Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
| | - Julius Kuhl
- Institute of Psychology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
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The effect of motive-goal congruence on adolescents’ academic goal engagement and disengagement. MOTIVATION AND EMOTION 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s11031-022-09946-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
AbstractAcademic achievement is an important developmental goal during adolescence. Two independent factors involved in academic motivation are implicit motives and explicit goals. In this study, we examined whether high school students’ (N = 213) implicit achievement motive, explicit achievement goals, and their interactions were associated with academic goal engagement and disengagement. Our findings showed that academic goal engagement and disengagement were associated with explicit achievement goals only, and not with the implicit achievement motive. However, interactions between the implicit achievement motive and grade aspiration (i.e., a specific explicit achievement goal) revealed that individuals with a low implicit achievement motive can still attain high goal engagement if they have a high grade aspiration. We also found that motive-goal congruence was associated with lower goal disengagement. Overall, these findings suggest that explicit achievement goals and specific academic goals play a dominant role in goal engagement behavior in the structured setting of high schools, and may allow youth to overcome the constraints of having a low implicit achievement motive.
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Janse van Rensburg YE, de Kock F, de Vries RE, Derous E. Measuring Honesty-humility with an Implicit Association Test (IAT): Construct and Criterion Validity. JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Oh VYS, Ismail I, Tong EMW. Income moderates changes in big-five personality traits across eighteen years. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY 2022. [DOI: 10.1177/08902070221078479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The role of income in adult personality change remains poorly understood. Using latent growth modeling, we performed exploratory analyses of how longitudinal trajectories of change in personal income and the Big Five personality traits would be related. We examined 4234 participants (2149 Males, 2085 Females; MT1age = 46.42, SDT1age = 13.36, age range at T1: 20–74 years) across three time points spanning 18 years using data from the Midlife in the United States study. Results indicated that starting levels of income moderated changes in four personality traits. Specifically, income moderated the slopes of openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, such that for high-income individuals, openness to experience, extraversion, and agreeableness were less likely to decline and more likely to either increase or remain stable over time, while neuroticism was less likely to increase and more likely to remain stable over time. Conversely, personality traits were weaker predictors of income change as slopes of income were not moderated by starting levels of any of the personality traits. Moreover, changes in income were not correlated with changes in any of the personality traits. The findings suggest that individual differences in income could potentially explain diverging trajectories of personality change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vincent YS Oh
- National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | | | - Eddie MW Tong
- National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
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Brueckner J, Bosak J, Lang JW. Connect vs conquer? CEO gender and implicit motives. JOURNAL OF MANAGERIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1108/jmp-01-2019-0061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
PurposeThis study examined gender differences in CEOs' expression of implicit achievement, power and affiliation motivation. Building on the role congruity account of sex differences and similarities in motivation and existing literature on implicit motives, the study tested whether female CEOs would express higher affiliation motivation than male CEOs and similar levels of achievement motivation. In addition, gender differences in power motivation were explored.Design/methodology/approachThe study used propensity score matching to generate a comparable sample of male and female CEOs from publicly traded companies. Subsequently, the authors content-coded CEO letters from annual reports using Winter's (1994) manual for scoring motive imagery in running text.FindingsOverall, CEOs expressed more achievement and power motivation than affiliation motivation. Comparisons between male and female CEOs showed that female CEOs expressed lower power and higher affiliation motivation than male CEOs.Research limitations/implicationsBy integrating implicit motive theory with social role theory and the role congruity account of motivation, this study provides a theoretical framework and novel demonstration that understanding social roles and gender roles can lend insights into motive expression by CEOs.Originality/valueThe study uses established theory and a validated scoring method in a novel way by analyzing implicit motives from CEO letters, a critical communication channel in the CEO–shareholder relationship. In doing so, this study adopts a sociocultural perspective. Informed by the role congruity account of motivation, the study demonstrates the importance of social roles and gender roles for motivational displays.
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