Do individual differences in need strength moderate the relations between basic psychological need satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior?

An important theoretical debate in the literature on psychological needs concerns the potential moderating role of individuals’ need strength in the effects of basic psychological need satisfaction. The present study adds to the relatively small literature with inconsistent findings by examining whether the relations between work-related basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and organizational citizenship behavior (i.e., constructive voluntary job performance) are enhanced when employees’ work-specific explicit need strength increases. Survey data from two samples of employees in the United States (N = 353; M_Age = 38.13) and in the Netherlands (N = 298; M_Age = 44.57) consistently showed that across the need domains, need satisfaction was positively associated with organizational citizenship behavior through work engagement. However, we only found minor evidence for a moderating role of need strength. These findings largely endorse core self-determination theory assertions, as they underscore the relevance of employees’ psychological need satisfaction rather than fit between high psychological need satisfaction and high need strength in the workplace.

     

Limits of authenticity: How organizational politics bound the positive effects of authentic leadership on follower satisfaction and performance

The authentic leadership paradigm has been widely advocated as an effective leadership approach for organizations interested in promoting positive and ethical leader—member relations. Despite accumulating evidence concerning the positive follower effects of authentic leadership, research examining potential boundary conditions remains limited. The political influence theoretical perspective promises to shed new light on the effects of authentic leadership by proposing that authentic leadership may be less effective in political contexts, bounding its positive operation on followers. Specifically, we anticipate that organizational politics will erode the motivational power of authentic leaders on followers, reducing their ability to engender positive performance contributions in followers. We also predict that organizational politics will weaken the positive relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction by reducing the ability of employees to realize their goals at work. To explore these theoretical assertions, we incorporated a two-study functional replication (n₁ = 265; n₂ = 175) to ascertain how authentic leadership and organizational politics impact follower job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and task performance. We find that organizational politics consistently weaken the positive effects of authentic leadership on follower OCB across two studies. Furthermore, in Study 2, our findings suggest that organizational politics attenuate the positive impact of authentic leadership on follower job satisfaction and task performance. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.     

Perceived inclusion in youth soccer teams: The role of societal status and perceived motivational goal climate

ObjectivesOur aim was to investigate the link between youth soccer players' perceptions of the coach-initiated motivational goal climate within their team and their perceptions of inclusion as a function of societal status. Societal status refers to one's national background which numerically forms the majority or a minority in a particular society.Design and methodsSurvey data was collected among 245 male youth soccer players (M = 12.9 years, SD = 1.60), who all played in culturally diverse teams in the Netherlands. The societal status of 94 players (38.4%) was majority, and 151 players (61.6%) were classified as minority. To test our main hypothesis, perceived inclusion as the dependent variable was hierarchically regressed on coach-initiated mastery goal climate perceptions, performance goal climate perceptions, societal status, and their interactions.ResultsOverall, mastery goal perceptions and performance goal perceptions of intra-team competition were positively and negatively related, respectively, to perceived team inclusion. As hypothesized, only among players with a societal minority status, perceptions of inclusion were higher when mastery goal climate perceptions were higher and performance goal climate perceptions were lower.Discussion and conclusionOur findings suggest that a coach-initiated mastery-oriented team climate may enhance an inclusive soccer environment in culturally and nationally diverse teams. For societal minority players, intra-team competition should be de-emphasized by the coach in order to strengthen the experience of inclusion.     

A meta-analysis of the criterion-related validity of prehire work experience

Organizations frequently screen or select job applicants based on their work experience. Despite this, surprisingly little is known about the criterion-related validity of prehire experience, which reflects the amount, duration, or type of experience workers have acquired before they enter a new organization. To address this critical gap in the literature, we used meta-analysis to synthesize data from 81 independent samples that reported relations between prehire experience and performance or turnover. Results revealed overall corrected correlations of .06 for job performance (k = 44, n = 11,785), .11 for training performance (k = 21, n = 8,176), and .00 for turnover (k = 32, n = 11,676). Measures that capture prehire experience with tasks, jobs, or occupations relevant to workers’ current position also are only weakly related to the outcomes (e.g.,  = .07 for job performance). Two exceptions to our main findings are that (a) prehire experience is somewhat more predictive of job performance when workers first start a new job and (b) measures of task-level experience predict training performance, although these results are based on small subsets of primary studies. Overall, the present findings suggest that the types of prehire experience measures organizations currently use to screen job applicants generally are poor predictors of future performance and turnover. We therefore caution organizations from selecting employees based on such measures unless more positive evidence emerges.     

Effects of school-based interventions on motivation towards physical activity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis

IntroductionAssuming that motivation is the key to initiate and sustain beneficial health behaviors, the aim of this systematic review was to analyze the effects of school-based physical activity interventions on a variety of motivational outcomes towards PA in school-aged children and adolescents.MethodsA comprehensive literature search was carried out in six electronic databases to identify randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental trials examining the effects of PA interventions implemented during the regular school day, e.g., during physical education lessons or lunch breaks. Primary outcomes of interest were students' motivation, basic psychological needs, goal orientation, enjoyment, and motivational teaching climate in physical education. Meta-analyses were conducted for these outcomes using Comprehensive Meta-analysis software. Secondarily, intervention effects on students' PA behaviors were examined and the findings summarized narratively. Methodological quality of studies was evaluated using the Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias for randomized trials; certainty of evidence on outcome level was evaluated using the GRADE approach.ResultsIn total, 57 studies carried out between 2001 and 2018 were included in this review. Sixteen individual meta-analyses were performed and revealed significant pooled effects for the outcomes enjoyment (g = 0.310), perceived autonomy (g = 0.152), identified regulation (g = 0.378), intrinsic motivation (g = 0.419), self-determination index (g = 0.672), task/mastery climate (g = 0.254), ego/performance climate (g = −0.438), autonomy supportive climate (g = 0.262), task goal orientation (g = 1.370), ego goal orientation (g = −0.188). The narrative data synthesis indicated an increase in students' PA behavior. The overall risk of bias was high across all studies and certainty of evidence of meta-analyzed outcomes ranged from very low to moderate. Moderate certainty of evidence was found for ego/performance climate and ego goal orientation. Conclusions: Meta-analyses suggest that school-based PA interventions may be effective in increasing a variety of motivational outcomes. However, the certainty of evidence was limited in the majority of outcomes. Further research is needed to identify effective intervention strategies that increase students’ motivation towards PA.     

Values and adolescents' self-esteem: The role of value content and congruence with classmates

The study examined the relations between adolescents’ self-esteem and two aspects of values: content and congruence with classmates. Using a large sample of Israeli adolescents (N = 1,683; M_age = 14.36, SD = 2.24, range = 11–18, 54.31% females), we found that self-esteem related negatively to self-enhancement values and positively to conservation values using zero order correlations. Multilevel polynomial regressions, controlling for demographic differences, found significant quadratic associations of self-esteem with self-enhancement, self-transcendence, openness-to-change, and conservation values. Furthermore, using Response Surface Analyses, it was found that adolescents who were congruent with their classmates’ self-enhancement and self-transcendence values showed the highest levels of self-esteem. The findings point to the importance of social context for the relations between values and self-esteem among adolescents.     

The Effect of a Context-Specific Primed Goal on Goal Commitment and Team Performance

The effect of a context-specific prime for cooperation on goal commitment and team performance were examined. In the first experiment, the participants (n = 139) performed the Lost on the Moon simulation (Hall & Watson, 1970) individually and as a team (n = 50). The teams were randomly assigned to a condition where they were assigned the same goal. They were then primed (n = 23) through a photograph of cooperation or to the control condition (n = 27). Consistent with NASA’s directions for performing the simulation, performance was measured by how well a team performed relative to the answers of experts, namely, staff at NASA. The results showed that a primed behavioural goal to cooperate has a positive effect on team performance. These results were replicated in a second and third experiment involving a social dilemma where both a pro-social, group-centric goal and a pro-self, egocentric goal could be self-set for the amount of points to make. Thus the positive effect of a goal primed for cooperation on a team’s performance was shown to be robust even when there was an explicit mixture of cooperative and competitive incentives. This finding was replicated in a third experiment with actual money. Consistent with goal setting theory, commitment to the team’s goal moderated the primed goal-performance relationship.     

Motivational climate and changes in young athletes’ achievement goal orientations

Development of achievement-related motives in young athletes is believed to be influenced by the motivational climate created by coaches. In a longitudinal multilevel design utilizing 47 youth basketball teams, coach-initiated motivational climate was used to predict changes in 9–13 year old athletes’ achievement goal orientations over the course of a season. Mastery climate scores on the Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sports were associated with significant increases in mastery goal orientation and decreases in ego orientation scores on the Achievement Goal Scale for Youth Sports. Ego motivational climate scores were significantly related to increases in ego goal orientation scores. These relations were not influenced by athletes’ age or gender. Intraclass correlations indicated low within-team consensus in athletes’ motivational climate scores, suggesting an individual- rather than team-level perceptual construct. These and other findings indicate that achievement goal orientation research can be extended downward to children below the age of 11.

Perceptions of Ethical Climate and Research Pressures in Different Faculties of a University: Cross-Sectional Study at the University of Split,Croatia

We determined the prevailing ethical climate at three different schools of a single university, in order to explore possible differences in the ethical climate related to different research fields: the School of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Naval Architecture; the School of Humanities and Social Sciences; and the School of Medicine. We used the Ethical Climate Questionnaire to survey the staff (teachers and administration) at the three schools, and used the research integrity and organizational climate (RIOC) survey for early-stage researchers at the three schools. The dominant ethical climate type perceived collectively at the three university schools (response rate 49%, n = 294) was Laws and professional codes, which is associated with the cosmopolitan level of analysis and the ethical construct of principle. Individually, the same climate predominated at the schools for engineering and humanities, but the School of Medicine had the Self-interest ethical climate, which is associated with the individual level of analysis and the egoism ethical construct. In the RIOC survey (response rate 85%; n = 70), early-stage researchers from the three university schools did not differ in their perceptions of the organizational research integrity climate, or in their perceived individual, group or organizational pressures. Our study is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to show differences in perceived ethical climate at a medical school compared to other schools at a university. Further studies are needed to explore the reasons for these differences and how they translate to organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction, commitment to the institution and dysfunctional behaviour, including research misconduct.

     

Opposition to Immigration and (Anti-)Environmentalism: An Application and Extension of the Social Dominance-Environmentalism Nexus with 21 Countries in Europe

The social dominance–environmentalism nexus proposes that orientations for inequality and domination are expressed both in human–human and human–nature relations. In two studies, the present work applies and extends this proposition to understand endorsement of environmental values, concern with climate change, support for climate policies, and responsibility for climate action. In study one, using a representative random sample from Portugal (N = 1270, 53.3% female; European Social Survey, ESS8), social dominance orientation showed unique associations with concern with climate change. Moreover, opposition to immigration (as expression of anti-egalitarianism in intergroup relations) showed unique associations with all four measures of environmentalism. In study two, multi-level analyses using representative random samples from 20 other countries in Europe (N = 38830, 51.5% female; ESS8) confirmed the associations between opposition to immigration and environmentalism, controlling for a set of sociodemographic covariates, political orientation, and nesting at the country level. However, there were differences in the strength and direction of these associations based on country levels of societal development (i.e., Human Development Index; HDI). These differences reinforce the notion that context or situational variables may shape the links between diverse expressions of (anti-)egalitarianism and (anti-)environmentalism. Inputs for applied research on hierarchy-affirming tendencies toward others and the natural environment are proposed and discussed.     

An Examination of the Moderating Effect of Core Self-Evaluations and the Mediating Effect of Self-Set Goals on the Primed Goal-Task Performance Relationship

An understudied issue in the goal priming literature is why the same prime can provoke different responses in different people. The current research sheds light on this issue by investigating whether an individual difference variable, core self-evaluations (CSE), accounts for different responses from the same prime. Based on the findings of experiments showing that individuals with high CSE have higher performance after consciously setting a task-related goal than individuals with lower CSE, two hypotheses were tested: (1) Individuals who score high on CSE perform better following a subconsciously primed goal for achievement than do individuals who score low on CSE, and (2) this effect is mediated by a self-set goal. Two laboratory experiments (n = 207, 191) and one field experiment (n = 62) provided support for the hypotheses. These findings suggest that personality variables such as the CSE can provide an explanation for the “many effects of the one prime problem”.     

Imitation of Goal Engagement and Disengagement Processes in Romantic Relationships

Individual differences in goal engagement and goal disengagement processes have been demonstrated to be related to goal attainment, health, and emotional well-being. However, there is a dearth of studies on the developmental conditions of individual differences in these processes. Social learning processes contribute to the formation of individual dispositions even in adulthood. As one pathway of learning, we investigated observational learning of goal regulation processes in romantic relationships in two experimental studies. Study 1 (N = 67 couples, M = 32.65 years) replicated a previous finding that observing partners imitated their partner's goal regulation processes in the same task and extended it by showing transfer effects to another task. Study 2 (N = 60 couples, M = 25.9 years) demonstrated that—given a lack of praise of the modelled actions—partners still imitated goal regulation processes but to a smaller extent. These findings lend support for observational learning as a pathway to individual differences in the application of goal regulation processes. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Quality of written record following mock eyewitness testimony: Note taking should be a minimum standard!

By using a video‐based narrative (unidirectional) eyewitness statement of an alleged victim, participants were asked to imagine they were police officers. We compared the quality of mock police officer written records in a between‐subjects design comprising three conditions: (a) a free recall (n = 27), (b) a free recall by using recall strategies of the cognitive interview (n = 27), or (c) note taking while watching the video (n = 26). The quality of the reports was determined by the amount of correctly recalled details, omitted details, added details (commission errors), and changed details (confabulations). As predicted, the number of correct details was higher in the “Note Taking” condition whereas performance in the “Free Recall” and in the “Cognitive Interview” conditions did not differ. Higher verbal memory ability resulted in a better quality of the written records. Our results suggest that note taking facilitates the quality of written records.     

Promoting an equitable and supportive school climate in high schools: The role of school organizational health and staff burnout

In response to persistent racial disparities in academic and behavioral outcomes between Black and White students, equitable school climate has drawn attention as a potential target for school reform. This study examined differences in Black and White students' experiences of school climate and explored whether indicators of school organizational health and staff burnout moderated differences in students' school experiences by race. Utilizing hierarchical linear modeling with a sample of 18,397 Black students (n = 6228) and White students (n = 12,169) and 2391 school staff in 53 schools, we found a consistent pattern of racial inequalities, such that Black students reported less positive experiences than White students across three indicators of school climate (caring γ = − 0.08, p < .001; equity γ = − 0.05, p = .007; and engagement γ = − 0.05, p < .001). In addition, we found significant, positive associations between aggregated staff-report of school organizational health and student-reported school climate (e.g., staff affiliation and student-perceived equity, γ = 0.07, p < .001). Surprisingly, a number of school organizational health indicators were more strongly associated with positive perceptions of school climate among White students than Black students, translating into greater racial disparities in perceived school climate at schools with greater organizational health (e.g., supportive leadership by race on student-perceived engagement, γ = − 0.03, p = .042). We also found negative associations between staff-reported burnout and students' experience of equity, such that the racial gap was smaller in schools with high ratings of burnout (γ = 0.04, p = .002). These findings have implications for educators and education researchers interested in promoting school social contexts that equitably support student engagement and success.     

Children and adolescents coordinate group and moral concerns within different goal contexts when allocating resources

Coordinating complex social and moral concerns when allocating resources is a key issue in late childhood and early adolescence. This study explored resource allocation in three goal contexts that required children to focus to differing degrees on moral and group concerns. Children (9–11-years, M^age = 9.84, n = 190) and adolescents (14–16-years, M^age = 14.92, n = 154) were informed their school peer group held an in-group norm (competition, cooperation). Participants allocated resources between their in-group and an outgroup within one of three goal contexts (prosocial, learning-focused, and group-focused). Participants allocated in favour of their in-group to achieve a prosocial goal but attenuated this when the goal was focused on learning and cooperation. Adolescents, more than children, reasoned about the goals of resource allocation to justify their decisions. From 9 years old, children begin to coordinate peer group norms and goal information when deciding how to allocate resources within intergroup contexts.     

Should research experience be used for selection into graduate school: A discussion and meta‐analytic synthesis of the available evidence

Prior research experience is widely considered by graduate school admissions committees in the United States of America. Here, we use meta‐analytic methods and data from 18 unique samples and a total sample size of 3,525 students to shed light on the validity of prior research experience as a predictor of graduate school performance. Prior research experience was largely unrelated to academic performance (ρ = .01, k = 8, N = 1,419), degree attainment (ρ = .05, k = 3, N = 140), professional/practice performance (ρ = .06, k = 4, N = 1,120), and publication performance (ρ = .11, k = 7, N = 1,094). We also discuss whether consideration of prior research experience may unfairly disadvantage the students with lower levels of SES, students with childcare or eldercare responsibilities, and students from institutions at which research opportunities are limited.     

The Effects of Coachee Personality and Goal Orientation on Performance Improvement Following Coaching: A Controlled Field Experiment

This study presents a field experiment to test the question: What are the individual characteristics that influence whether coaching is beneficial for people’s performance? We focus our attention on the Big Five personality traits, core self-evaluations, and goal orientation. Using a control group for comparison, coaching was provided to a sample of working adults (N = 84) and both self-ratings and supervisor-ratings of performance (N = 74) were measured over three time points. Our analysis indicates that individuals high in Openness, who avoid goal orientation and are low in core self-evaluations benefit the most from coaching. We contribute to the literatures on coaching effectiveness and the wider learning and development literatures by providing an empirically robust examination of the interaction between individual differences and coaching and the subsequent impact on performance. Furthermore, our findings suggest that coaching may be an effective development technique for individuals who tend to perform less well in other forms of instructional learning due to their individual characteristics.     

Relations between self-efficacy beliefs,self-presentation motives,personal task goals,and performance on endurance-based physical activity tasks

We conducted two studies with the aim of examining the relations between self-presentation motives and physical activity task performance. In study 1, prior to performing an endurance-based physical activity task, 133 undergraduate participants (M_age = 20.89, SD = 5.21) reported acquisitive-agentic and protective-agentic self-presentation motives alongside task self-efficacy, self-presentational efficacy, and their personal task goals. Using a different endurance-based physical activity task in study 2, we also assessed undergraduate participants' (n = 150; M_age = 20.23, SD = 3.34) dispositional exercise-related self-presentation motivation alongside the variables measured in study 1. Bayesian path analyses revealed indirect relations between agentic self-presentation motives and task performance via participants' personal task goals. Findings also indicated that agentic self-presentation motives may act as intermediaries in indirect pathways linking efficacy beliefs and dispositional exercise-related self-presentation motivation to goal processes and task performance. The results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between self-presentation motivation and task performance.     

Multidimensional Perfectionism and the Big Five Personality Traits: A Meta‐analysis

Multidimensional perfectionism includes the dimensions perfectionistic concerns and perfectionistic strivings. Many studies have investigated the nomological network of multidimensional perfectionism by relating perfectionistic concerns and perfectionistic strivings to the Big Five personality traits. Results from these studies were largely inconsistent. In the present study, we meta‐analytically integrated 672 effect sizes from 72 samples (N = 21 573) describing relations between multidimensional perfectionism and the Big Five personality traits. Perfectionistic concerns correlated positively with Neuroticism (r = 0.383) and negatively with Extraversion (r = ?0.198), Agreeableness (r = ?0.198), Conscientiousness (r = ?0.111), and Openness (r = ?0.087). Perfectionistic strivings correlated positively with Conscientiousness (r = 0.368), Openness (r = 0.121), Neuroticism (r = 0.090), and Extraversion (r = 0.067) and were unrelated to Agreeableness (r = 0.002). The measures of perfectionistic concerns and perfectionistic strivings moderated most of these relations. Meta‐analytic structural equation modelling allowed controlling each perfectionism dimension for the respective other. This partialling increased all correlations with the exception of the previously positive correlation between perfectionistic strivings and Neuroticism, which ceased to be significant. The findings support the distinction between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns and demonstrate how multidimensional perfectionism is situated in the context of broader personality traits. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Reflection as a strategy to enhance task performance after feedback

An unanswered question in employee development is how reflection can be used for improving performance in organizations. Drawing from research and theory on dual-process models, we develop and test a reflection strategy to stimulate deeper learning after feedback. Results of two studies (N = 640 and N = 488) showed that reflection combined with feedback enhanced performance improvement on a web-based work simulation better than feedback alone. Reflection without feedback did not lead to performance improvement. Further analyses indicated that the proposed reflection strategy was less effective for individuals low in learning goal orientation, low in need for cognition, and low in personal importance as they engaged less in reflection. Together, these findings provide a theoretical basis for the future study of reflection in organizations and suggest a practical and cost-effective strategy for facilitating employee development after feedback in organizations.