Mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goals and their relation with exhaustion and engagement at work: The roles of emotional and instrumental support

Development and validation of the Nurse Team Resilience Scale (NTRS) in the context of public health emergencies

BACKGROUND

Team resilience can help nurse to respond positively to adversity at work and maintain normal team function in complex and unstable environments. However, much less research attention has been paid to team resilience than to individual resilience, and nurses lack reliable and valid tools to measure team resilience. This study aimed to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a scale that measures the nursing team resilience in the context of a public health emergency.

METHODS

The study was conducted in three stages that item development, scale development, and scale evaluation. This scale was based on that of Morgan and Sharma et al. proposed four-factor team resilience model, and the draft scale was generated based on the literature review, existing scales, experts' validations, and cognitive interviews. During July 2022 to August 2022, the construct validity and the internal consistency reliability of the NTRS were evaluated through an online survey of 421 nurses.

RESULTS

The 8-item NTRS scale has good reliability and validity and is suitable for measuring the nurse team resilience. The EFA found a common factor solution and explained 72.33% of the common varianc and the CFA score showed construct validity. Reliability of the internal consistency of the scale with a good Cronbach alpha of 0.94.

CONCLUSION

This scale can assess team resilience in nurses that nursing education and management resources can be allocated to improve policies and training programs to provide effective positive support to nurses in challenging workplace situations and to enable greater health systems resilience in the future.

The mixed blessing of coworker support: understanding family-work conflict, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction

Purpose

Drawing from a resource-based perspective in the work–family interface literature, the current study examines how emotional exhaustion, as a resource depletion mechanism, mediates the relationship between family–work conflict and job satisfaction. The authors also considered the content and nature of coworker support to investigate whether there were differential moderating effects of the two distinct types of coworker support: emotional and instrumental support.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors surveyed 321 kindergarten employees across multiple sites located in South Korea. Using this sample, the authors performed random coefficient modeling to test the proposed research model.

Findings

The results showed a significant negative indirect relationship between family–work conflict and job satisfaction through emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, the findings suggested differential effects of the two coworker support types, such that the positive relationship between family–work conflict and emotional exhaustion was stronger when coworker emotional support was low than when it was high; the positive relationship was stronger when coworker instrumental support was high than when it was low. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that the two types of coworker support moderated the indirect relationship.

Originality/value

These results highlight the mixed blessing of distinct types of coworker support for researchers and practitioners. A lack of emotional support and greater instrumental support from coworkers each, respectively, exacerbate the negative impact of family–work conflict on employees' well-being and, subsequently, job satisfaction.

Work Engagement: A meta-Analysis Using the Job Demands-Resources Model

Although the construct of work engagement has been extensively explored, a systematic meta-analysis based on a consistent categorization of engagement antecedents, outcomes, and well-being correlates is still lacking. The results of prior research reporting 533 correlations from 113 independent samples (k = 94, n = 119,420) were coded using a meta-analytic approach. The effect size for development resources (r = .45) and personal resources (r = .48) was higher than for social resources (r = .36) and for job resources (r = .37). Among the outcomes and well-being correlates explored, the effect size was highest for job satisfaction (r = .60) and commitment (r = .63). Furthermore, moderation analysis showed that (a) concerning the occupational role, work engagement finds a low association with turnover intention among civil servants, volunteer workers, and educators; (b) collectivist cultural environments reported a greater association of feedback with engagement than individualistic environments; (c) the relationship between personal resources and engagement was stronger among workers with university degrees than workers with high school diplomas. Furthermore, the absorption dimension showed a lower effect with all variables under investigation than vigor and dedication.

Relationships Between Achievement Goal Orientations, Learning Engagement, and Academic Adjustment in Freshmen: Variable-Centered and Person-Centered Approaches

Academic adjustment is a principal determining factor of undergraduate students' academic achievement and success. However, studies pay little attention to freshmen's antecedent variables of academic adjustment. This study aimed to examine the mechanisms underlying the relationship between achievement goal orientations and academic adjustment in freshmen using variable- and person-centered approaches. A sample of 578 freshmen (aged 18.29±1.04years, 58.5% female) completed questionnaires on achievement goal orientations, learning engagement, and academic adjustment. Latent profile analysis of achievement goal orientations revealed four groups: low-motivation (11.1%), approach-oriented (9.5%), average (52.8%), and multiple (26.6%). In the mediating analysis, results of the variable-centered approach showed that learning engagement mediated the effects of the mastery-approach and performance-avoidance goals on academic adjustment. For the person-centered approach, we selected the average type as the reference profile, and the analysis revealed that compared with the reference profile, learning engagement partially mediated the link between the approach-oriented profile and academic adjustment. The current study highlights the important role that achievement goal orientations and learning engagement play in academic adjustment. We discuss the implications and limitations of the findings.

Linking the Fit Between Achievement Goal Orientation and Learning Opportunities With Employee Well-Being and Absenteeism

Abstract. We examined the effects of a (mis)match between learning opportunities and individuals’ mastery goal orientation (GO; approach and avoidance) on well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, task enjoyment, need for recovery, and absenteeism). Data from a sample of 212 employees of an organization that provides guardianship for youngsters were collected and analyzed by means of polynomial regression and surface plot analysis. Our results indicate that a person's mastery GO enhances the positive effects of perceived learning opportunities. Hence, to foster employee well-being, organizations should not only provide ample learning opportunities but also foster a mastery GO. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Achievement Goals and Goal Progress as Drivers of Work Engagement

In two studies, we investigated the role of self-regulatory behavior in terms of achievement goals and goal progress for work engagement. Study 1 (N = 205) revealed that trait learning goals were positively related to work engagement and performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals were unrelated to work engagement. In a second study, employees were asked to either set a (state) learning, performance-approach, or performance-avoidance goal for the upcoming work week. Goal progress and work engagement were measured one week later (N = 106). Learning goals at the trait and state level were associated with higher work engagement and performance-avoidance goals were unrelated to work engagement. We found a positive relationship of goal progress with work engagement, in particular for employees who pursued learning or performance-approach goals. Our studies contribute to theory building by delineating the (combined) role of goal orientations (trait), state achievement goals, and goal progress for work engagement, as well as generating practical implications for the design of effective interventions to enhance work motivation in organizational practice.

The roles of basic psychological needs, self-compassion, and self-efficacy in the development of mastery goals among medical students

Aim: Competency-based medical education aims to foster mastery goals in learners. We examined medical students' mastery approach (beneficial) and mastery avoidance (maladaptive) goals and their associations with students' basic psychological needs, self-compassion, and self-efficacy. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study employing an online questionnaire. Two hundred medical students in all four years of the medical program completed the questionnaire, containing measures of mastery goals, basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness), self-compassion, and self-efficacy. Regression analyses were performed. Results: Of the three basic psychological needs, the need for competence was significant in explaining both types of mastery goals. Self-efficacy and self-compassion were significant in explaining mastery approach and mastery avoidance goals, respectively. Conclusions: Creating learning environments that are supportive of students' need for competence, raising students' awareness of the value of learning from mistakes in competency acquisition, and providing opportunities for students to experience self-efficacy may foster beneficial mastery approach goals in medical students.

Leaders' achievement goals predict employee burnout above and beyond employees' own achievement goals

OBJECTIVE

Burnout has primarily been examined from an individual's perspective without taking the broader environmental context into account. The authors applied an integrative, multilevel perspective and investigated the influence of leaders' motivational strivings on employee burnout. In two multisource studies, we investigated relationships between leaders' achievement goals and employee burnout while controlling for employees' own achievement goals.

METHOD

Study 1 consisted of 362 members and 72 leaders of the corresponding working groups. Study 2 consisted of 177 employees and 46 leaders of the corresponding working groups, and measurements were spaced apart in time. We also ran a model including the data of both Study 1 and Study 2.

RESULTS

Multilevel analyses indicated that leaders' mastery-approach goals were negatively related to employee burnout above and beyond employees' own achievement goals. Leaders' performance-approach goals were positively related to employee burnout in Study 1 and in the overall analysis combining Study 1 and Study 2.

CONCLUSIONS

We advance our understanding of the motivational etiology of burnout by examining the top-down effects of leaders' achievement goals on employee burnout over and above employees' own achievement goals. In order to reduce burnout, organizations should take leaders' achievement goals into account as an important contextual factor.