When openness to experience and conscientiousness affect continuous learning: A mediating role of intrinsic motivation and a moderating role of occupation1

Research on the effects of personality on work behaviors has adopted either the motivational meditation perspective or the person‐situation interaction perspective. This study attempted to integrate both of the perspectives in a single causal model. Specifically, using data collected from systems engineers and car salespeople in Japan, we investigated the mediating role of intrinsic motivation in the links from openness and conscientiousness to continuous learning, and the moderating role of occupation on the mediation mechanism. The results indicated that, for systems engineers, the effects of those personality traits on continuous learning were completely mediated via intrinsic motivation. For car salespeople, however, the trait effects on the outcome variable are direct, rather than transmitted through intrinsic motivation. The meanings of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Investigating the role of psychological contract breach on career success: Convergent evidence from two longitudinal studies

The current study extends past research by examining leader–member exchange as a mediator of the relationship between employee reports of psychological contract breach and career success. In addition, we tested a competing perspective in which we proposed that performance mediators (i.e., in-role performance and organizational citizenship behaviors) will mediate the breach–career success relationship. Subjective and objective indicators of career success were assessed using supervisor-rated promotability and archival data on actual promotion decisions, respectively. In Sample 1, we found that supervisor-rated leader–member exchange (T1) mediated the relationship between breach (T1) and objective career success after 2 years. In sample 2, we replicated and extended these results using a three wave measurement over three years. Specifically, we found that leader–member exchange (T2) mediated the relationship between relational breach (T1) and subjective (T2) and objective (T3) career success. Performance-based mediators at T2 were no longer significant when regressed together with leader–member exchange and relational breach, ruling out alternative mediator explanations.