How to get radical creative ideas into a leader’s mind? Leader’s achievement goals and subordinates’ voice of creative ideas

The Link Between Employees' Sense of Vitality and Proactivity: Investigating the Moderating Role of Personal Fear of Invalidity

Proactive behavior has emerged as a key component in contemporary views of individual work performance. Hence, a central question in the literature is how to enhance employees’ proactive behavior. We investigated whether the more that employees experience a sense of vitality (i.e., energizing positive affect), the more likely they are to show proactive behavior at work, and whether this applies only to employees with a low personal fear of invalidity [(PFI) i.e., the inclination to be apprehensive about the risks/negative consequences of making errors]. Experimental (N = 354) and cross-sectional field (N = 85) studies provided consistent evidence for a positive relation between employees’ sense of vitality at work and their self-rated proactivity. The predicted moderation effect was observed only for manager-rated proactivity. We conclude that feeling energized in the workplace is not necessarily associated with observable proactive behavior. It is only when employees experiencing a sense of vitality at work are not prone to fearing the risks/negative consequences of making errors that they are more likely to show observable proactive behavior in an organization.

When Are Leaders Receptive to Voiced Creative Ideas? Joint Effects of Leaders' Achievement Goals and Personal Sense of Power

Voiced suggestions for improvement and constructive change (i.e., voiced creative ideas) by employees are important for organizations. In order to reap the benefits of these ideas, leaders need to be receptive. Drawing on achievement goal theory and approach-inhibition theory of power, we examined the joint effects of leader achievement goals and personal sense of power on leader receptivity to voiced creative ideas in two studies. In a field study (Study 1, N = 136), we found that leaders pursuing mastery-approach goals were positively related to leader receptivity. Receptivity for leaders pursuing performance-approach goals was found to be contingent upon their personal sense of power, with a positive (negative) association under conditions of high (low) sense of power. Similarly, in experimental study (Study 2, N = 93), in which we manipulated leader achievement goals, the receptivity of performance-approach goal leaders was contingent upon their sense of power. When sense of personal power was high, performance-approach goal leaders displayed higher levels of receptivity than when their personal sense of power was low. An implication is that personal sense of power may prevent leaders with performance-approach goals from disregarding creative ideas that are put forward by their subordinates. These findings extend insight into how and when leaders are receptive to voiced creative ideas.

Are All Challenges Equal?

Abstract. This study seeks to advance theory on the motivational underpinnings of striving for challenge. We propose and empirically demonstrate that challenging job experiences can be meaningfully subdivided into private challenging job experiences (private challenges) and public challenging job experiences (public challenges). Drawing on achievement goal theory, in a two-wave field study among 226 employees (Study 1) and a multi-source field study among 326 employees (Study 2), we found initial evidence regarding differential effects of employees' mastery-approach goals and performance-approach goals in relation to private challenges and public challenges. Furthermore, Study 2 showed a negative relationship between performance-approach goals and supervisor-rated in-role job performance when public challenges were low. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

When Is Proactivity Wise? A Review of Factors That Influence the Individual Outcomes of Proactive Behavior

There is solid evidence that proactivity, defined as self-initiated and future-focused action to change oneself or the situation, can positively benefit individuals and organizations. However, this way of behaving can sometimes be ineffective or have negative consequences. We seek to understand what factors shape the effect of proactivity on individual-level outcomes. On the basis of a review of 95 articles, we identify three categories of factors that mitigate or exacerbate the effectiveness of proactive behavior: task and strategic considerations (e.g., situational judgment), social and relational considerations (e.g., having an open leader), and self-regulatory considerations (e.g., learning orientation). We then extrapolate from this review, and draw on psychological theories of wisdom, to suggest that individuals can be more or less “wise” in the proactive goals they set, and in how they pursue those goals. In closing, we identify further research directions that flow from the notion of wise proactivity.

The Negative and Positive Aspects of Employees' Innovative Behavior: Role of Goals of Employees and Supervisors

We aim to examine the negative (relationship conflict) and positive (in-role job performance) outcomes of employees’ innovative behavior and explore the moderation effect of employees’ goal content and supervisors’ achievement goal orientation in these relationships. Data from 218 employees and their immediate supervisors were collected in companies in China and results show that employees’ innovative behaviors are positively related to their relationship conflict and in-role job performance, and employees’ extrinsic goals and supervisors’ performance goal moderate these relationships. Specifically, employees’ innovative behaviors were significantly and positively related to relationship conflict when either employees have high extrinsic goals or supervisor have high performance goals or both; and when supervisor have low level of performance goals, employees’ innovative behaviors were significantly and positively related to their in-role job performance. We contribute in showing when there are positive and negative outcomes of employees’ innovative behaviors and document the effect of moderating factors that may strengthen these benefits and lower the conflicts.

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.

Tell Me the Gossip

We investigate the self-evaluative function of competence-related gossip for individuals who receive it. Using the Self-Concept Enhancing Tactician (SCENT) model, we propose that individuals use evaluative information about others (i.e., gossip) to improve, promote, and protect themselves. Results of a critical incident study and an experimental study showed that positive gossip had higher self-improvement value than negative gossip, whereas negative gossip had higher self-promotion value and raised higher self-protection concerns than positive gossip. Self-promotion mediated the relationship between gossip valence and pride, while self-protection mediated the relationship between gossip valence and fear, although the latter mediated relationship emerged for receivers with mastery goals rather than performance goals. These results suggest that gossip serves self-evaluative functions for gossip receivers and triggers self-conscious emotions.