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Drawing upon the feedback intervention theory, this study aims to focus on the concept of negative feedback change (increase or decrease) to analyze the dynamics of performance feedback and its relationships with goal orientation, feedback utility and task performance.

The authors conducted a two-wave survey by tracking 195 employees and their supervisors from two representative semiconductor-related equipment companies in China for one month.

Results showed that learning goal orientation positively moderates, and performance-approach goal orientation negatively moderates the indirect relationship between negative feedback change and employees’ task performance through employees’ perceptions of feedback utility.

This study provides new directions for performance feedback research by treating negative feedback from a dynamic perspective and addressing the mediating and moderating mechanisms. Furthermore, the findings also remind managers to not only consider feedback actions at a single moment but also manage it as a series of actions in the ongoing stream of time.

Goal orientation shapes employees’ approach to and interpretation of workplace aspects such as supervisors’ behavior. However, research has not fully examined the effect of goal orientation as an antecedent of abusive supervision. Drawing from victim precipitation theory, this study aims to fill this research gap by investigating how employees’ goal orientation influences their perception of abusive supervision.

Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. In Study 1, 181 employees in 45 departments participated in the survey, and multilevel confirmatory factor analysis, two-level path model and polynomial regression were used. In Study 2, 108 working adults recruited from a professional online survey platform participated in a two-wave time-lagged survey. Confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical linear regression and polynomial regression were used.

This study found that employees’ learning goal orientation was negatively related to their perception of abusive supervision. In contrast, performance-avoidance goal orientation was positively related to their perception of abusive supervision, whereas performance-approach goal orientation was unrelated to this perception. Moreover, employees’ perception of abusive supervision was greater when learning and performance-approach goal orientation alignment occurred at lower rather than higher levels, and when performance-avoidance and performance-approach goal orientation alignment occurred at higher rather than lower levels.

This research identified two novel victim traits as antecedents of abusive supervision – employees’ learning goal orientation and performance-avoidance goal orientation. Furthermore, adopting a multiple goal perspective, the authors examined the combined effects of goal orientation on employees’ perception of abusive supervision.

Grounded in the resource-based view of the firm, this study aims to examine the effects of goal orientation and the mindfulness of entrepreneurs on firm innovation capability and analyzes that capability’s subsequent impact on firm performance. The authors also analyze whether mindfulness interacts with goal orientation to intensify its effect on firm innovation capability.

Simple random sampling was used to obtain the sample of Thai firms listed in the Department of Business Development database (n = 304). The data analysis was done by using partial least square structural equation modeling.

Goal orientation and mindfulness are positively associated with firm innovation capability. The analysis also supports the interaction effect of goal orientation and mindfulness on firm innovation capability. Moreover, firm innovation capability is positively associated with firm performance.

Goal orientation and mindfulness should be considered two essential soft skills that entrepreneurs must develop to build up their firms’ innovation capability. Because entrepreneurs are the key drivers of economic growth and sustainable development, the government agencies responsible for the entrepreneurship development should consider goal orientation and mindfulness as parts of their entrepreneurship training program and development policy.

The finding about the interaction effect of goal orientation and mindfulness on firm innovation capability provides new evidence that was not documented in previous research. The authors clarify that these are entrepreneurial characteristics that could supplement each other to maximize the potential of entrepreneurs and strengthen the innovation capability of their firms.

Despite the literature on subordinates' destructive responses to abusive leadership, an emerging body of literature proposes that subordinates may react constructively to abusive supervision under certain conditions. The authors contribute to this line of research by proposing and testing the moderating effects of performance-approach and -avoidance goal orientation on the relationship between abusive supervision and task performance, and by testing work effort as a mechanism underlying this moderating effect.

The study hypotheses were tested in two studies. In Study 1 (field survey, N = 230), the moderation hypotheses were tested. Study 2 (experiment, N = 116) extended Study 1 and examined the mediated moderation model.

The study empirical evidence from the two studies showed that (1) abusive supervision was more positively related to an employee's task performance when that employee's performance-approach goal orientation was high (vs low), (2) abusive supervision was not more positively related to task performance when performance-avoidance goal orientation was high (vs low) and (3) the employee's work effort mediated the moderating effect of performance-approach goal orientation.

This research suggests that organizations and subordinates should be aware of the positive contextual role of performance-approach goal orientation, which may shape subordinates' subsequent work behavior in response to supervisors' hostility, and should invest more time and effort in reinforcing subordinates' performance-approach goal orientation.

This study has identified a new condition and offers new evidence of the potential functional effect of abusive supervision. Specifically, the study finding of the positive moderating role of performance-approach goal orientation adds to the literature examining when abused subordinates respond constructively to abusive supervision. The study analysis of the mediating effect of work effort further reveals the mechanism of this effect.

The emphasis on short-term by project-based firms (PBFs) implies the adoption of project efficiency and impact on the team as project success drivers in PBFs context. Good performance by employees, as individuals in a team, can be explained by their behaviors, associated with goal orientation theory. Learning and performance orientations are associated with teams’ effectiveness and overall project performance. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships between the dimensions of goal orientation, especially learning orientation, and project efficiency and impact on the team, in PBFs context.

A quantitative approach was adopted, based on data from a survey of 714 respondents, representing project managers, that turned into a valid sample of 315 composed only by PBFs respondents. The results were analyzed through multiple linear regression and, mainly, mediation analysis methods.

Performance-avoid orientation is a predictor of project efficiency; performance-prove orientation, a predictor of impact on the team. Learning orientation relates positively to both project success criteria. Project managers should balance/induce the proper orientation within the team, favoring learning orientation according to the results, to have short-term project success in PBFs.

There is a direct relationship between learning orientation and project efficiency, but it is fully mediated by impact on the team, which it was not found in previous studies. This study argues that they are not parallel constructs, constituent parts of equal weight in project success, but that impact on the team precedes project efficiency when learning orientation is considered.

The purpose of this study is to unfold the role of managerial characteristics in developing the dynamic capabilities necessary to serve foreign customers and compete in export market ventures.

The authors test their proposed model using path analysis with data collected from export managers working in 204 small- and medium-sized Turkish exporters operating in various sectors.

The findings suggest that the positive effect of export managers’ process thinking skills on dynamic capabilities increases when the export managers’ learning and avoid orientations are low and prove orientation is high and export venture experience (duration and scope) increases. In addition, it has been found that export managers’ process thinking skills have an indirect effect on export performance through export venture dynamic capabilities.

This study makes three contributions. First, the authors conceptualize and operationalize dynamic capabilities in the context of exporting. The authors empirically validate export venture dynamic capabilities as a higher-level construct composed of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring elements pertinent to the firm’s export market operations. Second, based on the micro-foundations approach of competitive advantage, the authors study managers’ process thinking skills in exporting firms and how these abilities support dynamic capability development in export ventures. Finally, the authors investigate how the impact of export managers’ process thinking skills on export venture dynamic capabilities is influenced by their goal orientations and certain objective exporter characteristics pertaining to different aspects of export venture experience.

This study aims to explore the relationships between employees’ training orientation, organizational support for training and employees’ training satisfaction. It also investigates the mediating role of perceived value of training in the relationships.

Based on a literature review on training, the study proposes a theoretical model that links employees’ training orientation and organizational support for training to training satisfaction directly and indirectly via perceived value of training, while employees’ training satisfaction may influence affective commitment. The model was tested using responses from 364 Chinese employees in Macao.

Results of partial least square-structural equation modeling showed that employees’ training orientation influenced training satisfaction directly and indirectly through perceived value of training, while organizational support for training also influenced employees’ training satisfaction indirectly through perceived value of training. Training satisfaction had a positive effect on affective commitment.

The study’s limitations include a cross-sectional design and the characteristics of Macao’s economic structure. Although the causality of relationships was grounded in prior studies, reverse relationships might exist between some selected variables. It is suggested that a longitudinal study shall be carried out to confirm the causality of relationships. Additionally, Macao’s economy is dominated by its service sector. Future research can be carried out in other cities that have the manufacturing and high-technology sectors.

The study unveiled that employees’ training orientation including their general attitude towards training and training goal orientation and organizational support for training are key antecedents of training satisfaction. Human resources professionals in organizations must develop innovative ways, such as simulation games and competitions, to enhance the awareness of the importance of training to their employees. Additionally, they must advocate and demonstrate organizations providing supportive environments for training.

This study aims to contribute to the enrichment of the literature by examining the impact of cross-cultural training on expatriates’ adjustment of Nigerian bankers on expatriate assignments in other African countries.

Data on cross-cultural adjustment from expatriate employees in five banks that collectively accounted for over 80 per cent of Nigerian banks with subsidiaries in other African were systematically selected for the investigation. This data was collected quantitatively via a survey instrument. Independent sample t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis were deployed in analyzing the data.

The study found that cross-cultural adjustment varied significantly across the different categories of gender, age, marital status, previous expatriate training, previous expatriate experience, and duration of expatriation. The study concludes that in order to attain higher levels of adjustment African banks and other organizations should provide a more comprehensive cross-cultural training program that mirrors the needs of employees following a detailed needs analysis. Also, the training must be sequential and not a one-off approach.

The literature though still nascent is largely focused on expatriate preparation and adjustment for expatriates moving from Western-to-western contexts and very little exists in the literature on how multinationals from Non-Western contexts like Africa prepare their staff for expatriation and its consequent impact on their adjustment. This study aims to enrich the literature by examining the impact of cross-cultural training on expatriates’ adjustment of Nigerian bankers on expatriate assignments in other African countries.

Despite the growing body of empirical research on leader anger expressions, the issue of how and when leader anger expressions shape newcomers’ proactive career behavior and work alienation in the construction industry has been largely overlooked. Building upon social information processing theory, this research identifies newcomers’ organization-based self-esteem as a mediator, and suggests that newcomers’ performance goal orientation could moderate the relationship.

A questionnaire study was conducted on the construction industry in China, and the PROCESS program developed by Hayes was used to test the hypothetical model with 215 valid cases.

The results suggest that leader anger expressions are negatively associated with newcomers’ organization-based self-esteem, and organization-based self-esteem mediated the link between leader anger expressions and newcomers’ proactive career behavior and work alienation. Furthermore, the newcomers’ performance goal orientation moderates the negative impact of leader anger expressions on newcomers’ organization-based self-esteem.

Due to the cross-sectional nature of this study, causal implications are difficult to draw. Moreover, all data we received was based on participant self-reports, which may raise concerns about common method variance.

In this paper, we contribute to a deeper understanding of the mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions by which leader anger expressions influence newcomers’ proactive career behavior and work alienation from social information processing perspective, in addition to providing valuable insights for management of newcomers in the construction industry.

Drawing on goal orientation theory, this study intends to investigate whether, how and when developmental leadership influences employees’ feedback seeking behavior (FSB) and feedback avoidance behavior (FAB).

The authors used a two-wave survey of 416 full-time employees in China. The hypotheses were tested with path analyses.

Developmental leadership exerts a positive influence on employees’ FSB and a negative impact on FAB through learning goal orientation (LGO). Additionally, leaders’ high performance expectations (LHPE) not only strengthen the positive effects of developmental leadership on FSB but also intensify its weakening effects on FAB.

The findings enrich current understanding by associating developmental leadership with employees’ FSB/FAB, offering a new viewpoint on its positive impacts. This study also provides deeper insights into when the benefits of developmental leadership are intensified.