Goal Setting

An Examination of the Moderating Effect of Core Self-Evaluations and the Mediating Effect of Self-Set Goals on the Primed Goal-Task Performance Relationship

Abstract

An understudied issue in the goal priming literature is why the same prime can provoke different responses in different people. The current research sheds light on this issue by investigating whether an individual difference variable, core self-evaluations (CSE), accounts for different responses from the same prime. Based on the findings of experiments showing that individuals with high CSE have higher performance after consciously setting a task-related goal than individuals with lower CSE, two hypotheses were tested: (1) Individuals who score high on CSE perform better following a subconsciously primed goal for achievement than do individuals who score low on CSE, and (2) this effect is mediated by a self-set goal. Two laboratory experiments (n = 207, 191) and one field experiment (n = 62) provided support for the hypotheses. These findings suggest that personality variables such as the CSE can provide an explanation for the “many effects of the one prime problem”.
Yaara Turjeman-Levi, Guy Itzchakov and Batya Engel-Yeger
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Organizational Behavior and Social Psychology
Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often face significant deficits in executive function and adverse work-related outcomes. This study aimed to explore the role of executive function deficits in job burnout of employees with ADHD. We hypothesized that employees with ADHD, relative to employees without ADHD, will experience higher levels of job burnout and deficits in executive function. We also hypothesized that the ADHD-job burnout relationship would be mediated through executive function deficits, specifically by selfmanagement to time and self-organization/problem-solving. A field study with 171 employees provided support for the research hypotheses and mediation model in which the employees’ ADHD-job burnout relationship was mediated through executive function deficits. Additional mediation analyses indicated that the specific executive function of self-management to time and self-organization/problem-solving mediated the effect of ADHD on job burnout and its facets. Specifically, for physical fatigue, the mediation was realized through self-management to time, and for emotional exhaustion and cognitive weariness, the mediation was significant through selforganization/problem-solving. The present findings shed light on the relevance of referring ADHD among employees, their vulnerability to job burnout, and the role of executive function deficits in job burnout of employees with ADHD.
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Guy Itzchakov, Justin B. Keeler, Walter J. Sowden, Walter Slipetz, and Kent S. Faught
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Listening
Creating positive change in the direction intended is the goal of organizational interventions. Watts et al. (2021) raise this issue of “side effects,” which include changes that are unintended and often in the opposite direction of the organizational intervention. With our expertise in applied psychology, military psychiatry/neuroscience, organizational behavior, and corporate safety, we argue for three additional factors for consideration: avoiding harm, the benefits of high-quality interpersonal listening, and a discussion of side effects as a natural part of the change process. We offer these as a means of extending the conversation begun by Watts et al.
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