Achievement goal adoption: the interplay between strategic task framing and regulatory focus

• Autor(a) principal: Delden, Dave Van
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/39718
• topic: Achievement goals; Motivation; Goal orientation; Strategic task framing; Regulatory focus; Regulatory fit.; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

In the present study, I investigate whether employees' achievement goal adoption (mastery goal on skill development versus performance goal on outperforming others) can be predicted based on the regulatory fit or misfit between the means required by strategic task framing (eagerness versus vigilance) and individuals' regulatory focus (promotion focus on gains versus prevention focus on non-losses). Specifically, I argue that mastery goals will be more strongly pursued for tasks framed in a fitting, relative to misfitting way, mainly as a result of the autonomous feeling one experiences when executing a task with a preferred strategy. In contrast, performance goals are expected to be pursued in case of tasks that are framed in a misfitting, relative to fitting way, mainly due to the externally controlled feeling one perceives when executing a task with an assigned strategy that would not be one's preferred strategy. These expectations are tested in an experiment in which I measured individuals' (N = 186) regulatory focus, after which they engaged in an eager-framed or vigilant-framed task, in relation to which their achievement goals were assessed (prior to the task). Results indicated the existence of a fitting effect, since prevention focus is positively related to mastery goals when tasks required vigilance, but negatively when tasks required eagerness. In addition, prevention focus was found to be positively related to performance goals when tasks required eagerness, and negatively when tasks required vigilance. However, no significant findings occurred for promotion focus. These findings provide initial support for the notion that managers can predict and influence employees' achievement goal adoption.