The Joint Impact of Achievement Goals and Performance Feedback on Information Giving

Abstract

This research examined how performance feedback moderates the effects of individuals' achievement goals on information exchange when carrying out a novel and complex task. Experiment 1 demonstrated that mastery goal individuals who received positive performance feedback gave less modified information about their task performance to their exchange partner relative to both mastery goal individuals who received negative feedback and performance goal individuals (who received either negative or positive feedback). In Experiment 2, we found that relative to performance goals, mastery goals led to a stronger reciprocity orientation and a weaker exploitation orientation. Also, mastery goal individuals provided information of higher quality than performance goal individuals, thereby explaining the observed findings in Experiment 1.Information exchange may be helpful to acquire task-related problem solutions, particularly when people are engaged in carrying out new and complex tasks. However, the ability to give meaningful task-related information to others at a certain point during task execution depends on the performance level one has actually reached at that point. To make an assessment of their current task proficiency, individuals often use feedback information about the effects of their task activities they obtain from the task process itself or from constituents in the task environment. For example, when a coworker asks you how to use a specific software package that you yourself just successfully have learned to use, it is probably easy for you to provide this coworker with useful information. However, if you are still unable to operate the program yourself, it is obviously much harder for you to give your colleague meaningful information and you may therefore decide to invest extra effort in enhancing your skills before starting to provide your colleague with advice to use the program.Although task-related information exchange may take place without any ulterior motive, in this article we argue that people often use information giving to facilitate the attainment of their achievement goals. Achievement goals reflect the aim for an individual's achievement pursuits in a particular situation (Elliot, 2005). Take, for example, a young and high-performing lawyer who wants to exchange information with coworkers to further enhance her job-related performance. With her high task performance in mind, she may decide to share relevant information with a particular associate. This information giving goes hand in hand with the possibility of receiving desired information back, either immediately or at a later time, and thus might eventually contribute to further improving her individual jobrelated skills and enhancing her job performance.However, when the same lawyer has received feedback indicating that she is performing rather poorly, she may find herself in a difficult position of not being able to give her partner valuable task information, unless she first makes an investment in her task performance. Also problematic ...

Perverse Effects of Other-Referenced Performance Goals in an Information Exchange Context

“…This finding is in line with earlier research showing that mastery goal individuals adopt an orientation toward reciprocity when engaged in information exchange (Poortvliet et al 2007). Such an orientation also coincides with making attempts to provide an exchange partner with valuable information, even when one's own competence turns out to be low (Poortvliet et al 2009b). In accordance with such a cooperative mindset, the current study showed that mastery goal individuals are willing to give accurate information to both lowly and highly competent exchange partners.…”

“…In their work on leader-member exchange, Janssen and Van Yperen (2004) showed that performance goals, but not mastery goals, were negatively related to the perceived quality of the exchange relationship between supervisors and employees. Research by Poortvliet et al showed that performance goals, relative to mastery goals, lead to a reduced willingness to share valuable information with exchange partners (Poortvliet et al 2007(Poortvliet et al , 2009b. Also, relative to performance goals, mastery goals were related stronger to backing up behavior, the provision of resources and effort to help team members who are apparently failing to perform well (Porter 2005).…”

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

“…Although people with mastery-avoidance goals may believe that others may help them to reach their mastery goal (Poortvliet et al, 2009b), we posit that long-term striving for mastery-avoidance goals is a rather taxing form of achievement regulation. Indeed, like De Lange et al (2010) mention, "mastery-avoidance goals include a negative outcome as anchor for self-regulation."…”

“…Earlier studies have demonstrated that mastery-approach goals give rise to interpersonal mechanisms that may support successful goal attainment such as a focus on reciprocal helping (e.g. Poortvliet, Janssen, Van Yperen, & Van de Vliert, 2009b), while these mechanisms are absent in the pursuit of performance goals. Indeed, performance goals may even give rise to rather competitive tendencies (Poortvliet, Anseel, Janssen, Van Yperen, & Van de Vliert, 2012).…”

“…Hence, we argue that instrumental exchanges with colleagues can serve as an important means by which they can reach their individual goal of self-improvement and individuals with mastery-approach goals be rigged towards establishing instrumental working relationships. Earlier research has indeed indicated that mastery-approach goals lead to a reciprocity orientation -the expectation that giving valuable task-information to exchange partners leads to receiving valuable information in return (Poortvliet et al, 2009b). However, such an orientation serves a primarily instrumental motive and individuals with mastery-approach goals will typically only invest in social exchange when this serves their own self-improvement goal (Poortvliet, 2013;Poortvliet, Janssen, Van Yperen, & Van de Vliert, 2009a).…”