Melvyn R. W. Hamstra

To Win, or Not to Lose, At Any Cost: The Impact of Achievement Goals on Cheating

We examined the relations between achievement goals and cheating in two studies. The findings from Study 1 show that the extent to which people intend to behave unethically in the areas of work, sport and education is a function of their dominant achievement goals in these particular settings. An even more important addition to the extant literature may be the finding from Study 2 that imposing achievement goals on individuals affects actual cheating behaviour during task performance. Consistent across both studies, performance-based goals (i.e. goals grounded in an interpersonal standard) were more strongly associated with cheating than mastery-based goals (i.e. goals grounded in an intrapersonal standard). We conclude that recognizing and understanding the effects of achievement goals on cheating behaviour may enable business leaders, organizations and their employees to create ethical organizations.

A Resource Perspective on Abusive Supervision and Extra-Role Behaviors: The Role of Subordinates’ Psychological Capital:

Abusive supervision (perceived enduring hostile verbal and nonverbal behavior) results in a host of detrimental consequences for the individual subordinate and for the organization. In the current research, we tested whether abusive supervision relates negatively to beneficial extra-role behaviors of subordinates (individual-directed and organization-directed citizenship behaviors; OCBI and OCBO) and positively to deviant extra-role behaviors of subordinates (individual-directed and organization-directed counterproductive work behavior; CWBI and CWBO). Moreover, reasoning from a resource perspective, we examined whether subordinates’ psychological capital (PsyCap: hope, resilience, self-efficacy, and optimism) mediates these relations. PsyCap is a resource variable that is amenable to situational influences such as leadership. This makes PsyCap align with a theoretically viable, but previously not explicitly tested, mechanism underlying the effects of abusive supervision. We conducted a time-lagged, multisource study among 408 university faculty members. Abusive supervision and PsyCap were measured at Time 1 from focal participants. At Time 2, data for OCBs were collected from their supervisors and data for CWBs were collected from their peers. Results indicate that PsyCap mediated the relations between abusive supervision and OCBI, OCBO, CWBI, and CWBO. Shedding light on this process helps researchers and practitioners develop ways in which to mitigate the consequences of abusive supervision, for example, by seeking to develop PsyCap using different resources.

Room for advancement: The regulatory fit of bottom-rank intermediate feedback

Abstract This research tests the hypothesis that promotion‐focused individuals experience regulatory fit from bottom rank, intermediate performance‐feedback. Prior research suggests promotion‐focused individuals experience fit in high social ranks (power). Bottom performance ranks may appear psychologically opposite to high power, which might lead one to expect that promotion‐focused individuals experience fit at top ranks. We propose that the opposite occurs in intermediate performance ranking feedback, in that promotion‐focused individuals experience regulatory fit at a bottom rank, because bottom rank implies having something to gain (yielding eagerness), whereas top rank implies having something to lose (yielding vigilance). Study 1 (N = 261) supports the notion that ranks affect eagerness/vigilance. Study 2 (N = 199) extends these findings by examining engagement from regulatory fit.

Imagining Success: Multiple Achievement Goals and the Effectiveness of Imagery

ABSTRACT Imagery (richly imagining carrying out a task successfully) is a popular performance-enhancement tool in many domains. This experiment sought to test whether pursuing two achievement goals (vs. one) benefits performance after an imagery exercise. We examined mastery goals (aiming to improve skill level) and performance goals (aiming to outperform others) among 65 tennis players who were assigned to a mastery goal condition, a performance goal condition, or a mastery goal and performance goal condition. After reading instructions for a service task, which included the goal manipulation, participants completed 20 tennis services. They then completed an imagery exercise and, finally, completed another 20 services. Postimagery service performance was better in the dual-goal condition than in the other conditions.

Person–environment fits as drivers of commitment

This chapter describes how employees’ fit experiences drive their commitments to their job, supervisor, team, and organization. Employees commit – that is, become attached – when they experience positive affective reactions as a consequence of the correspondence (versus discrepancy) between their attributes and those in their work environment. Because work environments comprise varying domains (for example, the job, the supervisor, the team, and the organization) to which employees may connect, the authors suggest that employees can experience multiple fits, which combine into holistic fit perceptions and result in various types of commitment. They distinguish two types of fit that inform these holistic perceptions: the needs, preferences and values that all people share (universal fits) and those that vary among individuals (distinctive fits). Finally, the authors delineate several opportunities for research and practice relating to how different fit perceptions emerge, how they combine, and how they might inform an organization’s selection and change practices.

Authentic Leadership & Follower Performance Outcomes: Mediating Role of Learning Goal Orientation

The current study sought to examine whether and why authentic leadership predicts followers’ in-role and extra-role performance. Working from a social learning perspective on authentic leadership, we developed the prediction that authentic leadership predicts followers’ learning goal orientation (the goal to develop and improve skill). In turn, given that learning goal orientation determines how employees approach their work and their relationship to the organization, we expected that learning goal orientation predicts followers’ in- role performance and their (civic virtue) extra role performance. The model was tested in a four-wave, multi-level, multi-source field study conducted in the telecommunication sector in Pakistan and including 115 supervisors and 345 direct reports. The results indeed indicated indirect relationship between authentic leadership and (a) follower in-role performance and (b) extra-role performance (civic virtue) that were mediated by followers’ learning goal orientation.