Mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goals and their relation with exhaustion and engagement at work: The roles of emotional and instrumental support

Abstract

The results of two cross-sectional studies (N = 220 and N = 258) indicate that employees' workrelated mastery-approach goals (i.e. the striving to improve one's performance at work) were positively associated with work engagement. Further, this relationship is explained by high levels of instrumental support. In contrast, employees' work-related mastery-avoidance goals (i.e. the striving to avoid performing worse than one aspires to) are positive predictors of job detachment and fatigue. The relationships between mastery-avoidance goals and these detrimental work outcomes are explained by low levels of perceived emotional support. Altogether, these results suggest that workers with mastery-approach goals tend to invest in their social work environment by establishing instrumental exchange relationships. Such relationships are considered functional for task performance and explain the positive relationship with work engagement. Employees who hold mastery-avoidance goals, on the other hand, tend to withdraw from the social structure of the workplace which explains the negative relationship with emotional support. In turn, given the lack of emotional support, psychological detachment and fatigue may emerge. These results are discussed in relation to the surging interest in the social mechanisms that result from the pursuit of achievement goals.

Goal orientation and employee resistance at work: Implications for manager emotional exhaustion with the employee

“…We extend the findings of achievement goal theory (Darnon, Butera, et al ., ; Darnon, Doll, et al ., ; Darnon et al ., ; Poortvliet & Giebels, ; Poortvliet et al ., , , ; Sommet et al ., ) by adding a focus on how avoid orientation impacts passive‐aggressive and dysfunctional behaviour patterns, and the potential detrimental impact an avoid orientation can have on managers. Our study is consistent with recent findings reporting that mastery approach and mastery avoidance goals are related to job engagement and fatigue through instrumental exchange relationships and emotional support (Poortvliet, Anseel, & Theuwis, ). This reinforces the need for additional research examining the relationships between GO, interpersonal exchanges, and managers’ emotional exhaustion.…”

The effect of learning goal orientation and communal goal strivings on newcomer proactive behaviours and learning

“…Indeed, empirical evidence has shown that performance goal orientation is unrelated to learning and performance in challenging situations (Chen & Mathieu, 2008;Payne, Youngcourt, & Beaubien, 2007). We thus keep in line with past advocates to examine exclusively how learning goal-oriented individuals navigate challenging organizational environments (Brophy, 2005;Huang & Luthans, 2014;Poortvliet, Anseel, & Theuwis, 2015), by extending its investigation into the newcomer socialization context.…”

The first and second order measurements of context specific market orientation in relation to performance of higher education institutions

“…Although, hypothesis H1b, and H1c held strong support from PLS-path modeling results, yet, despite enough literature support for significant role of administration leadership (ADML) in organizational performance (García-Morales et al, 2008;Bryman, 2007;Amey, 2006), the empirical results for H1a (β=-0.033, t=0.544, p=0.293) couldn't empirically support H1a to materialize the significant positive relationship between ADML and UP. The insignificant result regarding H1a is also in line with previous findings (Poortvliet et al, 2015;Menguc et al, 2013;Karatepe and Olugbade, 2009;Wu et al, 2013).…”