Goal Orientation, Goal Difficulty, and Incentive Values of Academic Goals

Should We Really Be Afraid of "Weakness"? Applying the Insights of Attribution Theory

It is widely assumed that the term "weakness" has negative psychological effects and should be replaced by "area for improvement." The present study is the first to examine the matter experimentally. It was hypothesised that effects of "weakness" (vs. "area for improvement") are most pronounced in those with low perceived self-efficacy in the relevant domain. Two experiments were conducted in the domain of self-regulation. In those with low perceived self-efficacy for self-regulation (PSESR), "weakness" apparently had a negative indirect effect on improvement expectancy by increasing the perceived stability (Experiment 1) or lowering the perceived controllability (Experiment 2) of the problem. Moreover, at low levels of PSESR in Experiment 2, estimated indirect effects of "weakness" on perceived value of improvement were both positive and negative. However, gender apparently moderated those effects. "Weakness" apparently lowered perceived controllability in both males and females but in women the negative effect was more pronounced when PSESR was low. In addition, "weakness" apparently increased perceived internality in males with low PSESR. Compared to "area for improvement," "weakness" may indeed have some (negative) psychological effects in people with low perceived self-efficacy in the relevant domain. Given the ubiquity of these terms in evaluative contexts and the widespread fears of the term "weakness," more experimental research needs to be conducted.

Setting goal difficulty in monetary incentives to physicians: evidence from an online health knowledge-sharing platform

Purpose

Prior studies on the impact of incentives on physicians’ online participation mainly focused on different incentives while ignoring the difficulty of setting monetary incentives efficiently. Based on goal-setting theory, the current research examines the relationship between incentives with goals of varying difficulty and professional health knowledge sharing (PHKS) in online health knowledge-sharing platforms (OHKSPs).

Design/methodology/approach

Four field experiments with different monetary incentives were conducted by one of China’s largest OHKSPs, with whom the researchers cooperated in data collection. Monthly panel data on 10,584 physicians were collected from September 2018 to December 2019. There were 9,376 physicians in the treatment group and 1,208 in the control group. The authors used a difference-in-difference (DID) model to explore the research question based on the same control group and the Chow test with seemingly unrelated estimation (sureg) to compare regression coefficients between four groups. Several robustness checks were performed to validate the main results, including a relative time model, multiple falsification tests and a DID estimation using the propensity score matching method.

Findings

The results show that the monetary incentive significantly positively affected the volume of physicians’ PHKS directly with negative spillover to the duration of physicians’ PHKS. Moreover, the positive effect of incentives with higher difficulty on the volume of physicians’ PHKS was significantly smaller than that of incentives with low difficulty. Finally, professional title had a positive moderating effect on the volume of goal difficulty setting and did not significantly moderate the effect on the duration of physicians’ PHKS.

Research limitations/implications

Some limitations of this study are: firstly, because the field experiments were enterprise benefit oriented, the treatment and control groups were not balanced. Secondly, the experiments for different incentive measures were relatively similar, making it challenging to validate a causal effect. Finally, more consideration should be given to the strategy for setting hierarchical incentives in future research.

Originality/value

The research indicates that monetary incentives have a bilateral effect on PHKS, i.e. a positive direct effect on the volume of physicians’ contributions and a negative spillover effect on the duration of physicians’ PHKS. The professional titles of physicians also moderate such bilateral switches of PHKS. Furthermore, when a physician’s energy is limited, the goal difficulty setting of the incentive mechanism tends to be low. The more difficult the incentives are, the more inefficient the effects on physicians’ PHKS will be.

Achievement Goals and Goal Progress as Drivers of Work Engagement

In two studies, we investigated the role of self-regulatory behavior in terms of achievement goals and goal progress for work engagement. Study 1 (N = 205) revealed that trait learning goals were positively related to work engagement and performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals were unrelated to work engagement. In a second study, employees were asked to either set a (state) learning, performance-approach, or performance-avoidance goal for the upcoming work week. Goal progress and work engagement were measured one week later (N = 106). Learning goals at the trait and state level were associated with higher work engagement and performance-avoidance goals were unrelated to work engagement. We found a positive relationship of goal progress with work engagement, in particular for employees who pursued learning or performance-approach goals. Our studies contribute to theory building by delineating the (combined) role of goal orientations (trait), state achievement goals, and goal progress for work engagement, as well as generating practical implications for the design of effective interventions to enhance work motivation in organizational practice.

The addition of anticipated regret to attitudinally based, goal-directed models of information search behaviours under conditions of uncertainty and risk

Social science attempts to incorporate emotions into models of judgment and decision making have faced significant theoretical challenges, as well as produced conflicting empirical results. The following study first contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a theoretical explanation for the observed conflicting results from such models. In fact, both extant theory and the results reported herein suggest that a certain amount of variability in results should be expected from empirical investigations based on such models, particularly related to differences in respondents' level of affective versus cognitive involvement. Second, an argument is presented for considering a special case of Perugini and Bagozzi's (2001) Model of Goal-directed Behaviours (MGBs) when investigating these issues using attitude-based explanations of goal-related behaviours. Specifically, empirical evidence is presented for broadening the MGB model by including anticipated regret as an explanatory variable independent of other anticipated emotions, and deepening the theory by calling for multidimensional conceptualizations of the attitude and perceived behavioural control constructs. The implications of the reported study are presented and discussed.