When Is More Uncertainty Better? A Model of Uncertainty Regulation and Effectiveness
挑战了传统认为不确定性是负面状态的观点，提出一个不确定性调节模型，认为个体可以通过开启和关闭行为来调整偏好与实际的不确定性水平，并满足外部有效性要求，从而在不确定环境中实现更好的工作表现。
Across all fields of management research, uncertainty is largely considered an aversive state that people and organizations cope with unwillingly and generally aim to avoid. However, theories based on principles of uncertainty reduction overlook opportunities arising from uncertainty creation. Building on recent research in management, cognition and neuroscience, we expand current conceptualizations of uncertainty by introducing a model of uncertainty regulation where individuals employ opening and closing behaviors to achieve alignment between preferred and experienced levels of uncertainty and with exogenous requirements for effectiveness. We derive propositions for uncertainty regulation and work performance which extend existing concepts of adaptation in uncertain environments to include deliberate uncertainty creation and expansive agency. We discuss implications for dynamic models of agentic goal striving, organizational support for individuals’ uncertainty regulation, and extensions to team- and organization-level phenomena.