Goal-Focused Leadership,Leader-Member Exchange,and Task Performance: The Moderating Effects of Goal Orientations and Emotional Exhaustion

An important role of leaders is to foster followers’ performance through goal setting processes, which involve reciprocal interactions between leaders and followers (Locke & Latham in American Psychologist, 57, 705–717, 2002). Drawing upon the theory of role-making processes and a resource allocation framework, this study examined (a) how leaders’ goal setting activities interact with employees’ goal orientations and emotional exhaustion in predicting leader-member exchange (LMX), and (b) how LMX intervenes between goal-focused leadership and followers’ task performance. Hypotheses were tested using data collected from a sample of 187 leader-subordinate dyads from South Korea. Follower learning goal orientation (LGO) weakened the positive relationship between goal-focused leadership and LMX and, indirectly, task performance, contributing to the literature on goal orientations by revealing a “backfire effect” of LGO. Additionally, employee emotional exhaustion also reduced the positive relationship of goal-focused leadership to LMX and, ultimately, task performance. Integrating the theory of role-making processes from the LMX literature and a resource allocation perspective on self-regulation behavior, the present findings indicate that LMX is a key process through which goal-focused leadership relates to follower task performance. Furthermore, this study contributes to the goal-focused leadership literature by pointing out the importance of adopting an interactional perspective on leaders’ influence. Specifically, findings suggest that followers with divergent characteristics in terms of goal orientations and resourcefulness respond differently to leaders’ goal setting activities. This is one of the few studies that have examined the mechanisms and boundary conditions by which leaders’ goal-focused behaviors relate to followers’ task performance.     

The Effects of Self-Set Goals on Task Performance

Locke & Latham (1990a) report that specific, difficult goals lead to better performance than "do-your-best" instructions, whether the goals are self-set or are set by an external source. However, in Experiment I, as well as in previous research (White, Kjelgaard, & Harkins, 1995), we did not find self-set goal effects. A meta-analysis showed that self-set goal effects can be produced if two conditions are met: Prior to setting their goals, participants take part in a pretest that is equal in duration to the experimental task; and the experimenter has access to the participants' goals and the performances. Experiment 2 confirmed these meta-analytic findings by showing that when these two conditions were met, goals stringent enough to produce the effects were set, and goal-setting effects were obtained.     

Work–Life Balance in the Police: The Development of a Self-Management Competency Framework

Purpose

Addressing a gap in the current work–life balance (WLB) literature regarding individual-focused approaches to inform interventions, we elicited behaviors used to self-manage WLB to draw up a competency-based WLB framework for relevant learnable knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs; Hoffmann, Eur J Ind Train 23:275–285, 1999) and mapping this against extant WLB frameworks.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Our participants were from a major UK police force, which faces particular challenges to the work–life interface through job demands and organizational cutbacks, covering a range of operational job roles, including uniformed officers and civilian staff. We took a mixed methods approach starting with semi-structured interviews to elicit 134 distinct behaviors (n = 20) and used a subsequent card sort task (n = 10) to group these into categories into 12 behavioral themes; and finally undertook an online survey (n = 356) for an initial validation.

Findings

Item and content analysis reduced the behaviors to 58, which we analyzed further. A framework of eight competencies fits the data best; covering a range of strategies, including Boundary Management, Managing Flexibility, and Managing Expectations.

Implications

The WLB self-management KSAs elicited consist of a range of solution-focused behaviors and strategies, which could inform future WLB-focused interventions, showing how individuals may negotiate borders effectively in a specific environment.

Originality/Value

A competence-based approach to WLB self-management is new, and may extend existing frameworks such as Border Theory, highlighting a proactive and solution-focused element of effective behaviors.     

Deleterious Consequences of Change in Newcomers’ Employer-Based Psychological Contract Obligations

Purpose

This study examines the issue of change in newcomers’ employer-based psychological contract obligations over time, viewing change as a potentially important determinant of perceived contract breach and subsequent employee attitudes and behaviors.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were collected using a three-wave longitudinal design from newly hired faculty members (N = 106).

Findings

Newcomers’ perceptions of employer-based relational obligations significantly decreased during their first year on the job. Newcomers reacted negatively to these changes, subsequently reporting increased contract breach and more negative work attitudes (i.e., increased turnover intentions and reduced job satisfaction and organizational loyalty).

Implications

This study provides evidence of the negative effects of perceived changes to a newcomer’s psychological contract. Practitioners should implement interventions to ensure a realistic set of psychological contract obligations are developed from the start in order to minimize the likelihood that newcomers will modify these obligations downward; and, therefore, experience these negative attitudes toward the organization.

Originality/Value

Drawing from the realistic job preview and socialization literatures, this study examines a topic that has received little empirical attention in the extant psychological contract research, yet has important implications to the management of employees’ psychological contracts. Using both a three-wave longitudinal field design and a more rigorous statistical analysis for assessing change (i.e., latent growth curve modeling), we add a unique contribution to the extant research by identifying the negative consequences of psychological contract change on newcomers’ subsequent work perceptions and attitudes.     

Antecedents and Outcomes of Informal Learning Behaviors: a Meta-Analysis

Purpose

Over the past two decades, research has shown a growing consensus that 70% to 90% of organizational learning occurs not through formal training but informally, on-the-job, and in an ongoing manner. Despite this emerging consensus, primary data on the nature and correlates of informal learning remains sparse. The purpose of this study was to provide an integrative definition of informal learning behaviors (ILBs) and to synthesize existing primary data through meta-analysis to explore ILB correlates.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Given that there has been little systematic treatment of ILBs, we defined their construct domain and tested relationships suggested by our research questions with antecedents (personal factors, situational factors) and outcomes (attitudes, knowledge/skill acquisition, performance) using random effects meta-analyses (k = 49, N = 55,514).

Findings

Our results showed both personal and situational antecedent factors to be predictive of ILBs, as well as ILB–outcome relationships.

Implications

Findings indicate that engagement in ILBs for working adults is linked to valued criteria such as attitudes (ρ = .29), knowledge/skill acquisition (ρ = .41), and performance (ρ = .42). We provide suggestions for future research and actionable advice for organizations to support the development of ILBs.

Originality/Value

Although hundreds of studies and over a dozen meta-analyses have explored the nature and effectiveness of formal learning in the workplace, our work is the first attempt to conceptualize a unified definition of ILBs and to aggregate primary data on ILB correlates using meta-analysis.

     

Reexamining the Nature of Learner Control: Dimensionality and Effects on Learning and Training Reactions

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to advance learner control as a psychological construct by reexamining its dimensionality and effects on learning and reactions in the context of technology-delivered training.

Design/methodology/approach

Learners (n=384) completed a 2-h web-based Microsoft Excel training. The amount of instructional and scheduling control was manipulated in order to introduce variance in control perceptions. Outcome measures included off-task attention, declarative knowledge, and training reactions.

Findings

Learner control is a multidimensional construct with differential effects on training outcomes. By focusing on learners’ perceptions of control, we found that instructional control perceptions decreased learning by increasing off-task attention, while scheduling control perceptions increased learning.

Implications

Though both dimensions of perceived learner control are positively related to training reactions, they differentially predict learning. Combined with factor analytic evidence, our study suggests that learner control research should differentiate between objective and perceived learner control, and between instructional and scheduling control perceptions. Organizations should consider how learner control affects learning prior to designing training.

Originality/value

Scheduling control is an often used but rarely researched form of learner control. We address this gap by expanding the construct domain of learner control to include scheduling control. Further, this study provides the first empirical examination of learner control perceptions. Despite calls for learner control literature to differentiate between objective and perceived control, no study had previously examined control perceptions directly. Our results may be used to inform organizational decisions regarding the amount and type of control included in training.     

Training Leader Emotion Regulation and Leadership Effectiveness

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to test whether we could train the regulation of affective displays of leaders in terms of the emotion regulation strategy of deep acting (displaying feelings one also experiences) and display of positive affect. We also tested whether this resulted in improved leadership effectiveness (i.e., a mediation model in which the training results in greater leadership effectiveness through improved emotion regulation).

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained from a field experiment. We randomly assigned N = 31 leaders (rated by N = 60 subordinates) to a control group without training or an experimental group with emotion regulation training. Before and 2 weeks after the intervention, deep acting (leader-rated) and positive affective displays and leadership effectiveness (subordinate-rated) were assessed.

Findings

The training had positive effects on deep acting, positive affective displays, and leadership effectiveness. Deep acting and positive affect mediated the relationship between the intervention and leadership effectiveness.

Implications

We discuss how this helps build the case both for an emotional labor approach to leadership and for the leadership development potential of such an emotional labor approach.

Originality/Value

The findings of this study represent the first causal evidence that leader emotion regulation can be trained, improved emotion regulation results in greater leadership effectiveness and is one of the first empirical studies that integrates emotional labor theory to leadership effectiveness. It is therefore important from a theory development perspective.

     

Observer Effects without Demand Characteristics: An Inductive Investigation of Video Monitoring and Performance

Purpose

The purpose of these two studies was to explore the relationship between video monitoring and quantity of performance in the absence of demand characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered via two experiments involving business students working on a motor task. Participants were randomly assigned to the monitored and unmonitored conditions. Experiment 1 (n = 75) was inductive while Experiment 2 (n = 139) was partially inductive.

Findings

Experiment 1 showed that monitored participants’ performance was lower than that of unmonitored participants. Further, monitoring reduced outliers, increased interquartile variance, and normalized the distribution. Experiment 2 replicated the effect of monitoring on performance controlling for cognitive ability and emotions, demonstrated that negative emotions interacted with monitoring condition, and suggested that differences in performance were not due to cheating or variation in task-related strategies. We offer a grounded theory of video monitoring proposing that different implicit decision rules are activated when people are monitored as compared to when they are not monitored.

Implications

Future research needs to determine the extent to which our results extend to similar settings in the workplace and to other forms of observation. At this time, we believe organizations should carefully consider the consequences of electronic monitoring. Controlling expectations in the lab or workplace does not necessarily eliminate the independent effect of monitoring. Therefore, researchers must beware misinterpretation of effect sizes and overlooking the role of observation in their data.

Originality/value

These studies demonstrate that video monitoring can create observer effects in the absence of demand characteristics. Our inductive approach revealed the nature of the effects beyond mean differences and served as the basis for developing a testable theory of monitoring that goes beyond what was previously known.     

Preventing Conduct Disorder and Callous Unemotional Traits: Preliminary Results of a School Based Pilot Training Program

This study investigated whether a school-based pilot prevention program is effective in reducing Conduct Disorder (CD) symptoms and callous unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., lack of empathy and guilt) in a community sample of children. A total of 304 children from three schools in Cyprus were randomly assigned at school level to either a prevention group that received a skill building training program (N = 94; M _age  = 7.91, SD = .74; 52.1% female) or a control group that received no training (N = 210; M _age  = 7.82, SD = .81; 50.5% female). To evaluate the effectiveness of the program, CD symptoms and CU traits were assessed before the implementation of the training program and at 3 and 9 months after training. Additionally, the child’s impulsivity, parental involvement and friend support were assessed pre- and post-prevention. Significant post-training reductions in CU traits were identified for the prevention, but not the control, group at both 3-month and 9-month follow-ups and in CD symptoms at the 9 month follow-up. Furthermore, children in the prevention group scored lower on impulsivity and higher on paternal involvement and friend support compared to the control group after participating in the training program. This study provides preliminary evidence that child focused training delivered in the school setting can provide lasting benefits by preventing the development of CU traits, impulsivity, and CD. The program was also successful in improving the child’s social relationships with peers and parents. These findings emphasize the importance of school based prevention efforts.     

目标理论述评

目标理论是近年来成就动机研究领域的一个热点 ,学者们基于对目标概念、目标功能的不同理解 ,提出了各种目标理论。本文着重介绍了目标设置理论、动机系统理论和成就目标理论 ,剖析了不同学者对目标结构的性质、功能及其作用机制的理论观点。     

It’s About Time: The Role of Locomotion in Withdrawal Behavior

Introduction

Locomotion is defined as a self-regulatory orientation that involves committing personal resources to initiate and maintain goal-directed activities Kruglanski et al. (J Personal Social Psychol 79: 793, 2000). This article examines the relation between locomotion and withdrawal behaviors in organizational setting.

Materials and Methods

In the first study, police officers’ (N = 203) locomotion was negatively related to self-report measures of absenteeism and lateness. In the second study, bank employees’ (N = 297) locomotion was negatively related to withdrawal behaviors as evinced by organizational records including hours of absenteeism, lateness, and early departures. In the third study, a two-wave research design replicated the results of Study 2 by demonstrating that telecommunication employees’ (N = 69) locomotion measured at Time 1 was negatively related to their respective withdrawal behaviors 3 months later at Time 2.

Conclusion

Overall, these three studies support the notion that locomotion impacts a plurality of withdrawal behaviors in different organizational settings. Consequently, locomotion can be a pertinent and valuable psychometric tool for managers and human resources interested in improving organizational effectiveness.

     

Workload,Risks, and Goal Framing as Antecedents of Shortcut Behaviors

Purpose

Shortcut behaviors are methods of completing a task that require less time than typical or standard procedures. These behaviors carry the benefit of increasing efficiency, yet can also carry risks (e.g., of an accident). The purpose of this research is to understand the reasons individuals engage in shortcut behaviors, even when doing so is known to be risky.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We present two laboratory studies (N = 121 and N = 144) in which participants performed an air traffic control simulation. Participants could improve efficiency by taking shortcuts; that is, by sending aircraft off the prescribed flight paths. This design allowed for direct and unobtrusive observation of shortcut behaviors.

Findings

Individuals who were told that efficiency was an obligation tended to believe that shortcut behaviors had utility for managing high workloads, even when the risks associated with shortcuts were high. Downstream, utility perceptions were positively related to actual shortcut behavior.

Implications

Although communicating risks may be used to help individuals balance the “pros” and “cons” of shortcut behaviors, goal framing is also important. Subtle cues indicating that efficiency is an obligation can lead to elevated perceptions of the utility of shortcut behaviors, even when knowing that engaging in shortcut behaviors is very risky.

Originality/Value

Past research has provided limited insights into the reasons individuals sometimes engage in shortcut behaviors even when doing so is known to be risky. The current research speaks to this issue by identifying workload and obligation framing as antecedents of the decision to take shortcuts.

     

Comparison of Offender and Non-offender Young Men to Setting Goals for Life and Attributing Meaning to Life

The main goal of the present study is to compare male offenders and non-offenders in terms of how they attribute meaning to life and set life goals. The samples were chosen from among offenders (n = 50) and non-offenders (n = 50) who were between ages 19–26. Mixed method was used in this study. The scale of setting life goals and interview form were used to collect data. To analysis of the data, the content analysis technique and t test and were used. Findings of the present study show that offenders tend to have troubles setting life goals when compared to non-offenders. Furthermore, the results of this study could be used in rehabilitating offenders and preventing those at risk of committing criminal acts from doing so.     

Disaggregating Job Satisfaction: Effects of Perceived Demands,Control, and Support

Purpose

Our purpose was to inductively examine how employees’ perceptions of stressor and resource work characteristics relate to nine distinct facets of job satisfaction, in accordance with the demand–control (–support) [JDC(S)] theory. Job satisfaction is a multidimensional construct composed of various facets that differ greatly from one other. However, most stress studies have examined job satisfaction at the global level. This may be problematic for managers looking to redesign the workplace to increase employee job satisfaction based on established recommendations from previous research.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained from employees of a public sector human services organization that provides services to protect children from neglect and other forms of abuse (n = 343). A series of t tests for dependent correlations determined facet-level differences in satisfaction with demand and resource work characteristics.

Findings

We found different patterns of correlations across facets for all seven demand, control, and support workplace characteristics.

Implications

Those re-balancing types of demands, control, and support for workplace redesign should not presume consistent effects on all aspects of satisfaction with work. By doing so, expected positive outcomes may fail to materialize, perhaps to the detriment of workplace redesign as a whole in the minds of management. A more detailed approach to workplace redesign is recommended.

Originality/Value

This is the first study which adopts the JDC(S) framework to examine job satisfaction at the facet level. Our findings shed new light on how workplace characteristics relate to different aspects of satisfaction.     

Exploring the Effects of Value Diversity on Team Effectiveness

Purpose

The goal of the present study was to explore the potential impact of within-team value diversity with respect to both team processes and task performance.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We explored value diversity within a comprehensive framework such that all components of basic human values were examined. A sample of 306 participants randomly assigned to 60 teams, performed a complex hands-on task, demanding high interdependence among team members, and completed different measures of values and team processes.

Findings

Results indicated that value diversity among team members had no significant impact on task performance. However, diversity with respect to several value dimensions had a significant unique effect on team process criteria. Results were consistent with respect to the nature of the impact of value diversity on team process outcomes. Specifically, the impact of team value diversity was such that less diversity was positively related to process outcomes (i.e., more similarity resulted in more team cohesion and efficacy and less conflict).

Implications

The results indicated that disparity among teammates in many of these values may have important implications on subsequent team-level phenomena. We suggest team leaders and facilitators of teambuilding efforts could consider adding to their agendas a session with team members to analyze and discuss the combined value profiles of their team.

Originality/Value

This is the first study to highlight the unique impact of many unexamined, specific components of team diversity with respect to values on team effectiveness criteria.     

The Moderating Role of Locus of Causality in the Relationship Between Source of Information and Psychological Contract Breach Perceptions

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of information-seeking behaviors on the relationship between personality and psychological contract (PC) breach.

Approach

This study takes an interactionist (person × situation) perspective to examine how PC breach can be reduced in organizations. Survey data were obtained from 184 graduate students from psychology departments across the United States on variables related to personality, information-seeking behaviors, and PC breach.

Findings

Results indicated that external locus of causality (LoCa) is positively associated with PC breach, while information seeking from supervisors is negatively associated with breach. From an interactionist perspective, the positive association of external LoCa attribution style with breach was lessened as information seeking from supervisors increased, but heightened for participants who obtained information from peers, but not supervisors.

Implications

Such knowledge can potentially be used to help inform norm-setting strategies of organizations to possibly reduce the unwanted negative effects of PC breach.

Originality

This finding helps advance our theoretic understanding of the intersection between individual differences and situations and is the first study to examine interactions between LoCa and information sources with respect to PC breach.     

A Conceptualization and Test of the Influences of Individual Differences in Goal-Setting Situations1

This research tests a hypothesized model of the relationships among several individual differences and variables associated with the setting of goals. Participants were randomly assigned to a self-set goal condition, or to moderately or very-difficult assigned-goal conditions. By aggregating scores of performance, personal goals, ratings of self-efficacy, and goal commitment over multiple goal-setting and task-performance occasions, the overall relationships among these variables and need for achievement, self-esteem, and locus of control were determined. Results provide strong support for Locke and Latham's (1990a, 1990b) model of the goal-performance relation, but fail to support the hypothesized role of individual differences. The implications of these findings and individual differences in goal-setting situations are discussed.     

Legal Risk in Selection: An Analysis of Processes and Tools

Purpose

This paper reviews a decade of employment litigation to illuminate the most legally dangerous selection devices and employment practices.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A sample (n = 312) of court cases drawn from 10 years of Bloomberg BNA case briefs was analyzed to determine which selection tools (e.g., biographical information blank, interview, cognitive ability test, and psychomotor test) and which selection processes (e.g., violations of the four-fifths rule, administrative inconsistencies, lack of documentation, failure to provide accommodations) are most at risk for litigation for unfair employment practices.

Findings

Results demonstrate that while some selection tools do attract legal scrutiny, dangerous hiring practices such as favoritism against protected classes and improper human resource documentation put employers at far greater risk of suit. When considering cases settled outside of court and those that continued to trial, the data reveal that employers lose employment discrimination cases at a rate nearing 90 % and suffer an average payout of over $1.5 million per case.

Implications

Just as legal challenges once drove the search for selection tools free of adverse impact, the current legal landscape demonstrates the necessity of fair and consistent selection processes. This paper provides evidence of common mistakes in implementing selection systems—mistakes that lead to costly legal battles.

Originality/Value

This paper reduces cumbersome legal records into useful evidence of trends in recent employment law cases. Selection system designers and organizations who implement them will benefit from avoiding the risky hiring practices presented in this paper.     

Using implicit bias training to improve attitudes toward women in STEM

Implicit biases can foster negative attitudes and lead to damaging stereotypical behaviors. Stereotypes can negatively affect the education, hiring, promotion, and retention of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study evaluated the impact of diversity training on university faculty ( \(N = 234\) ) by assessing changes in implicit associations and explicit attitudes toward women in STEM. Personal implicit associations about women in STEM improved for men, but not for women who already tended toward more positive implicit associations at pre-test. Men were more likely than women to explicitly endorse stereotypes about women in STEM at both pre- and post-test, and these attitudes did not change as a result of the diversity training. These findings suggest that participation in a brief diversity training can improve implicit associations about women in STEM.     

Proactive Personality Heterophily and the Moderating Role of Proactive Personality on Network Centrality and Psychological Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study

Purpose

In a social network study, this research investigates proactive personality dissimilarity as a basis for friendship ties over time. It also examines the moderating role of proactive personality on the relationship between network centrality and satisfaction/stress.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Longitudinal network data (two periods) were collected from business students (T1, n = 197; T2, n = 212). We captured the early stages of network formation and observed the changes in network structure over time.

Findings

Findings demonstrate proactive individuals develop ties with less proactive individuals over time, providing evidence of personality heterophily. In addition, proactive personality positively moderates the relationship between network centrality and satisfaction/stress. Interestingly, people’s perceptions of their network position (out-degree ties) were more strongly associated with their personal outcomes than their number of ties as nominated by others.

Originality/Value

This research is among the first to provide evidence of personality heterophily over time (relationships form because of differences in personality). Moreover, proactive personality is important to both the benefits and costs associated with network participation, pointing to paradoxical effects of proactive personality.