Goal orientation and employee resistance at work: Implications for manager emotional exhaustion with the employee
研究目标导向如何通过员工的建设性和功能性抵制行为影响管理者的情绪耗竭，基于565对管理者-员工配对数据，发现学习导向和证明导向促进建设性抵制，回避导向则相反，且抵制行为在目标导向与管理者情绪耗竭间起中介作用。
This study advances our understanding of goal orientation (GO) theory by relating GO to manager outcomes (i.e., manager emotional exhaustion with the employee) through interpersonal behaviour patterns (i.e., employee resistance). Specifically, we examine the mediating effect of constructive and dysfunctional resistance ( DR ) on the relationships between GO and manager emotional exhaustion with the employee. The findings from 565 manager–employee dyads in a Chinese company indicate that learning GO ( LGO ) and performance‐prove GO ( PPGO ) are positively related to constructive resistance ( CR ), and performance‐avoid GO ( PAGO ) is negatively related to CR and positively related to DR. CR and DR significantly mediate the relationships between LGO and PAGO and manager emotional exhaustion with the employee. The findings are discussed in terms of the importance of GO theory for understanding interpersonal behaviours and manager outcomes. Practitioner points First, organizations should educate and sensitize managers to the motivational orientations their employees bring to the workplace so that managers can better shape work experiences and challenges in ways that allow employees to attain their goal orientation (GO)‐related goals (e.g., avoid embarrassment, insure positive evaluations) without jeopardizing important interactions with others. Second, before managers coach employees with a performance‐avoid GO on how to provide constructive feedback and the benefits of doing so, they may set the stage by discussing how avoidance behaviours may lead to future embarrassment or negative evaluations rather than to prevent these outcomes. Managers can foster work climates that value learning and development and reward employees for offering constructive resistance rather than avoidance behaviours. Third, the findings linking GO with manager emotional exhaustion with the employee clearly indicate that the personal consequences for a manager make it worth their time and effort to coach employees on more adaptive and constructive behaviours.