Is Competition Engaging? Examining the Interactive Effects of Goal Orientation and Competitive Work Environment on Engagement
研究员工的学习、证明和回避三种目标导向如何与竞争性工作环境交互影响工作投入，发现学习导向正向预测投入，回避导向负向预测投入，竞争环境会调节学习导向和证明导向与投入的关系。
Contemporary work environments are growing increasingly competitive. However, some employees may “fit” with such environments better than others. This study examined how the relationship between employees’ goal orientations (learning, proving, and avoidance) and engagement is influenced by the competitive environment of their workplace. By investigating the interactive effect of goal orientation and competitive work environment, this research expands our understanding of factors leading to engagement. We tested our model using a sample of 345 working adults from a variety of organizations across several different industries. Results indicate that learning goal orientation was positively related to engagement while avoidance goal orientation was negatively related to engagement. Competitive work environment (CWE) interacted with learning orientation and proving orientation to predict engagement. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our results for human resource management. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.