The effect of intrinsic and extrinsic goals on work performance. Prospective and empirical studies on goal content theory
| Published date | 04 June 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-03-2017-0086 |
| Date | 04 June 2018 |
| Pages | 900-912 |
| Author | Ying Zhang,Jian Zhang,Jingjing Li |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
The effect of intrinsic and extrinsic
goals on work performance
Prospective and empirical studies on goal
content theory
Ying Zhang, Jian Zhang and Jingjing Li
Donlinks School of Economics and Management,
University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
Abstract
Purpose –Based on the goal content theory (GCT), the purpose of this paper is to focus on the essence of
goals and examine the associations between different work goal contents (intrinsic and extrinsic goals) and
work performance.
Design/methodology/approach –The data were collected from 279 employees and their immediate
supervisors, and the theoretical hypotheses were tested by correlation and hierarchal regression analyses.
Findings –The results of the analyses showed that intrinsic goal content positively predicted task
performance, dedicative performance, interpersonal performance, and adaptive performance and that
extrinsic goal content positively predicted the task performance and adaptive performance; intrinsic goals
were also found to enhance the relationship between extrinsic goals and task performance.
Originality/value –The contribution of the current study is that it explores whether both extrinsic goals
and intrinsic goals can contribute to predicting work performance. Moreover, different from previous studies
that focus on discussing the separate effects of intrinsic and extrinsic goals on outcomes, the authors aim to
study the interaction effect between these goals, which enriches GCT.
Keywords Quantitative, Work performance, Interaction effect, Extrinsic goals, Goal content theory,
Intrinsic goals
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Individuals’goals represent different life aspirations and vary in importance, which may
serve as a guiding principle in their lives (Vansteenkiste, Soenens and Duriez, 2008;
Vansteenkiste, Timmermans, Lens, Soenens and Van den Broeck, 2008; Sheldon and
Krieger, 2014). Exploring the goals’effect of employees can help us understand why
employees perform well in their jobs, which is an important and recurring question in
organizational science (Kasser, 2016). Various researchers have developed multidimensional
models and theories to study this issue. Specifically, the goal setting theory (Locke and
Latham, 1990), which focuses on exploring the relationship between goal representation and
task performance, suggested that clear, challenging goal rather than simple and vague goals
may facilitate improvements in task performance. Achievement goal theory suggests that
employees’job performance depends on their goal orientations (Yperen and Janssen, 2002),
suggesting that a mastery orientation rather than a performance orientation can positively
predict job performance ( Janssenand Van Yperen, 2004; Van Yperen et al., 2015). However,
these theories and studies have been unable to explain why different goal content can lead
to different behavioral outcomes (Sheldon et al., 2004). For example, some employees view
Personnel Review
Vol. 47 No. 4, 2018
pp. 900-912
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-03-2017-0086
Received 28 March 2017
Revised 11 December 2017
Accepted 10 February 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
The authors would like to thank Professor Jacques Forest to improve and refine our thinking
throughout the paper. The research is supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of
China (Project No. 71771022) and the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science
project (Project No. 15YJA630099). The first author also receives the grant from China Scholarship
Council (CSC).
900
PR
47,4
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