Achievement goals and intrinsic motivation: Coherence, concordance, and achievement orientation

Unlock the innovation potential of meaning of work: An empirical study of scientific and technological workers in China

Creativity and innovation have significantly increased in the past years. Amabile and Pratt were the leading proponents of creativity who integrated a dynamic componential model of creativity and innovation in organizations. The present study discusses the concept of innovative behavior within the scientific and technological environment based on the dynamic componential model of creativity and innovation and the Triadic Reciprocal Determinism Theory. The study investigates the mediating effect of achievement motivation and the moderating effect of the organizational innovative climate between the meaning of work and innovative behavior. Meaning of work has a positive impact on innovative behavior based on the structural equation modeling and the results of data collected from the survey of 4,666 scientific and technological workers in China. In addition, achievement motivation plays a partial intermediary role between the meaning of work and innovative behavior. However, innovation within organizational climate plays a negative regulatory role between achievement motivation and innovative behavior. The study finds some existing weaknesses through the Importance-Performance Map Analysis. Lastly, we examine the critical findings and present hypothetical suggestions.

Teamwork attitudes, interest and self-efficacy between online and face-to-face information technology students

Purpose

Challenges of teamwork in online classes may adversely affect students’ future attitudes toward teamwork. Further, there is a concern about whether online programs foster students’ teamwork skills. To answer these questions, the purpose of this paper is to compare online and face-to-face students’ attitudes toward teamwork, interest in learning teamwork skills and teamwork self-efficacy.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors developed a conceptual model explaining how students’ background, engagement in learning teamwork, teamwork self-efficacy and interest in learning teamwork affect attitudes toward teamwork and rigorously tested the model for a meaningful comparison between online and face-to-face students. Attitudes toward teamwork, teamwork interest and teamwork self-efficacy of 582 online and face-to-face students who attend the same academic program were compared.

Findings

The results suggest that online students have less positive attitudes towards teamwork compared to face-to-face students although online students have a higher level of teamwork self-efficacy. Therefore, online students’ relative less positive attitudes toward teamwork cannot be explained by the lack of engagement, teamwork skills or interest.

Research limitations/implications

The homogeneity of the sample population is one of the limitations of the paper although it provides the opportunity for a comparative study of online and face-to-face students by controlling the majors.

Practical implications

Instructors should evaluate the appropriateness of team assignments while incorporating teamwork in online classes.

Originality/value

Concerns about online teamwork are discussed but have not been rigorously investigated in the literature. The authors conducted a comprehensive study involving 582 undergraduate students. The findings of this paper suggest that new approaches are needed to incorporate teamwork in online classes. The results also show that importance of building teamwork self-efficacy.

Matching Achievement Contexts with Implicit Theories to Maximize Motivation After Failure: A Congruence Model

Previous research has shown that matching person variables with achievement contexts can produce the best motivational outcomes. The current study examines whether this is also true when matching entity and incremental beliefs with the appropriate motivational climate. Participants were led to believe that a personal attribute was fixed (entity belief) or malleable (incremental belief). After thinking that they failed a test that assessed the attribute, participants performed a second (related) task in a context that facilitated the pursuit of either performance or learning goals. Participants were expected to exhibit greater effort on the second task in the congruent conditions (entity belief plus performance goal climate and incremental belief plus learning goal climate) than in the incongruent conditions. These results were obtained, but only for participants who either valued competence on the attribute or had high achievement motivation. Results are discussed in terms of developing strategies for optimizing motivation in achievement settings.

The influence of avoidance temperament and avoidance-based achievement goals on flow

In the present research, we conducted two studies designed to examine the joint influence of avoidance temperament and avoidance-based achievement goals on the experience of flow on a creativity task. In both a laboratory study (N = 101; M(age)  = 22.61, SD(age)  = 4.03; 74.3% female) and a naturalistic study (N = 102; M(age)  = 16.23, SD(age)  = 1.13; 48% female), participants high in avoidance temperament were shown to experience greater flow when performance-avoidance goals were induced; no differences were found in any of the other three achievement goal conditions from the 2 × 2 achievement goal framework. These findings reveal a short-term benefit for a disposition-goal match grounded in avoidance motivation, and point to the need for more research on both avoidance-based matches and the short-term versus long-term implications of such matches.

Achievement motives and emotional processes in children during problem-solving: Two experimental studies of their relation to performance in different achievement goal conditions

In two studies, the influence of key emotional and motivational factors on performance in different achievement goal-type situations is examined. In study 1, based on 314 sixth-graders, two types of goal situations were induced; performance and mastery. The goals were examined with respect to important antecedents (e.g., motive dispositions) and several consequences (e.g., performance, satisfaction, pleasant affect, worry, and emotionality). The results showed that the motive to achieve success (M_s) produced positive affects, satisfaction, and increased performance, whereas the motive to avoid failure (M_f) produced worries and performance reduction. In study 2, based on 331 sixth-graders, three types of goal situations were induced; performance–approach, performance–avoidance, and mastery goals. The findings revealed that the most important single factors positively related to performance were M_s and mastery–goal situation. In addition, high M_s pupils performed better under mastery condition than under performance condition. Finally, avoidance-goal situation accentuate the negative effects of high M_f on performance.

Effects of Achievement Goal Striving on Well-Being: The Moderating Role of the Explicit Achievement Motive

This research is based on the theoretical conception of motives and goals as distinct motivational concepts. Previous research has demonstrated that discrepancies between implicit motives and goals have negative consequences for well-being. The authors have extended these findings to the explicit motive system, with four studies investigating the moderating role of the explicit achievement motive on the relationship between achievement goal striving and well-being. In line with their expectations, achievement goal striving was accompanied by high positive affect (Studies 1 and 2) and a high number of positive affective experiences (Study 3) only when the explicit achievement motive was high. Longitudinal Study 4 showed that the interaction between the explicit achievement motive and achievement goal commitment predicts changes in subjective well-being and health measured over a 3-month period.