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Preserving the environment is fundamental to the planet’s long-term sustainability, but attempts to promote pro-environmental behaviours often do not take into account the motivational determinants of such behaviours. This study aims to present and critically evaluate the theoretical and empirical basis of goal-framing theory, which asserts that pro-environmental behaviours might stem from conflicting goals. This study compares the theory to other approaches used to explain pro-environmental behaviour, reviews the empirical evidence for it and comes up with suggestions for future research.

This study compares the theory with other popular theories to explain pro-environmental behaviour and behaviour change and systematically review 25 empirical research studies that adopt the goal-framing theory.

Most studies rely on survey data, focus on Europe and gather self-reported behaviours or hypothetical responses. Furthermore, many studies of goal frames neglect key situational factors. Thus, the directions for further research outlined herein emphasise the need for more experimental studies of real behaviours, with consideration of situational factors, using methods that can explicate unconscious processes too. Overall, goal-framing theory provides a promising approach for analysing pro-environmental behaviours, in that it explicitly deals with goal conflicts, takes situational factors into account and encompasses conscious and unconscious processes. The authors conclude that the theory can form a useful basis for the design of social marketing behavioural interventions to promote pro-environmental behaviours.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, as the first systematic review of empirical applications of goal-framing theory, this study provides refinement and validation. By also offering propositions and a research agenda, the authors hope to inspire researchers in social marketing to address the remaining gaps and refine the theory even further.

In this chapter we argue that self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) provides a useful conceptual tool for organizational researchers, one that complements traditional work motivation theories. First, we review SDT, showing that it has gone far beyond the “intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation” dichotomy with which it began. Then we show how the theory might be applied to better understand a variety of organizational phenomena, including the positive effects of transformational leadership, the nature of “true” goal-commitment, the determinants of employees’ training motivation, and the positive impact of certain human resource practices. We note that SDT may yield significant new understanding of work motivation, and suggest opportunities to refine the theory for research on work-related phenomena.

This paper responds to ongoing calls to develop alternative management theory to guide management practice. In particular, the purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the merit of developing sustainable management theory and organizational practices that parallel conventional management theory and practices. Sustainable theory is based on a variation of virtue theory that seeks to achieve multiple forms of well-being for multiple stakeholders in the immediate as well as distant future. To illustrate the approach, the authors develop a sustainable variation of goal setting theory.

The paper includes three parts. First, the authors establish the need for developing sustainable management theory (based on virtue theory) that parallels conventional management theory. Second, the authors identify and briefly review the main tenets of goal setting theory and then describe a Sustainable variation of this theory. Finally, the authors discuss the implications of the paper for management and organization theory and practice.

The conceptual arguments for a sustainable version of goal setting theory based in virtue are supported by research and practitioner examples.

Although there is growing concern regarding the shortcomings of management theory and practice based on a materialist-individualist moral-point-of-view, few alternatives have been discussed in detail. This paper presents an alternative based in virtue theory and illustrates how it relates to goal setting theory and practice.

Cognitive evaluation theory (CET; Deci, 1975), SDT's first mini-theory, was built from research on the dynamic interplay between external events (e.g., rewards, choice) and people's task interest or enjoyment – that is, intrinsic motivation (IM). At the time, this research was quite controversial, as operant theory (Skinner, 1971) had dominated the psychological landscape. The central assumption of operant theory was that reinforcement contingencies in the environment control behavior, which precluded the existence of inherently satisfying activities performed for non-separable outcomes. During this time, Deci proposed that people – by nature – possess intrinsic motivation (IM), which can manifest as engagement in curiosity-based behaviors, discovery of new perspectives, and seeking out optimal challenges (see also Harlow, 1953; White, 1959). IM thus represents a manifestation of the organismic growth tendency and is readily observed in infants' and toddlers' exploratory behavior and play. Operationally, an intrinsically motivated activity is performed for its own sake – that is, the behavior is experienced as inherently satisfying. From an attributional perspective (deCharms, 1968), such behaviors have an internal perceived locus of causality, as people perceive their behavior as emanating from their sense of self, rather than from experiences of control or coercion.

This paper aims to construct a new turnover theory to explain and predict employee voluntary turnover in a more in-depth and comprehensive way.

Based on the literature review and theoretical analysis, this paper constructs a new turnover theory called the psychological goal system driving theory of employee turnover.

The psychological goal system driving theory of employee turnover advocates that there are psychological goals in the individual psychological world that point to the future and seek self-realization, and that there is a synergistic or competitive relationship among different psychological goals, and thus forming a psychological goal system and the dominant goals (including single goal or goal group) that exist in it; the individual’s dominant goals are the source of motivation, which initiate and organize the individual’s cognition and behavior; when the dominant psychological goals are difficult to achieve or destroyed in the original organization, they will produce continuous negative emotions and drive the individual to choose new and suitable job opportunities to realize themselves. Therefore, the dominant psychological goal is the organizer and driver of the employee turnover behavior, and when they are threatened, they will drive individuals to actively terminate the employment relationship with the current organization to better promote or protect their own realization process and sustainable growth.

This paper constructs a new turnover theory based on the self-organization goal system theory of motivation and personality.

This chapter proposes the development of a compound personality trait termed “goal propensity”. Motivation is a key determinant of performance in virtually all contexts, and personality has long been viewed as an important influence on motivation. Despite the long history of exploring how personality influences motivation, we do not have a clear understanding of the linkage between individual differences in personality and work motivation or the tools to reliably and accurately predict individual differences in motivation. Advances in our understanding of personality and the convergence of motivation theories around models of self-regulation present the opportunity to achieve that understanding and predictive efficacy. Goal propensity would be a theoretically derived trait that would explain the role of personality in self-regulation models of motivation as well as allow the prediction of tendencies to engage in self-regulation. This chapter provides the rationale for the development of this construct, articulates the nature of the proposed goal propensity construct, and explores the value of such a construct for theory, future research, and human resource practice.

As the workforce is aging and becoming increasingly age diverse, successful aging at work has been proclaimed to be a desirable process and outcome, as well as a responsibility of both workers and their organizations. In this chapter, we first review, compare, and critique theoretical frameworks of successful aging developed in the gerontology and lifespan developmental literatures, including activity, disengagement, and continuity theories; Rowe and Kahn’s model; the resource approach; the model of selective optimization with compensation; the model of assimilative and accommodative coping; the motivational theory of lifespan development; socioemotional selectivity theory; and the strength and vulnerability integration model. Subsequently, we review and critically compare three conceptualizations of successful aging at work developed in the organizational literature. We conclude the chapter by outlining implications for future research on successful aging at work.

This paper aims to show how organisation theory can be used to understand the controversy between the shareholder and the stakeholder perspectives. Rationalistic and open system theories may enhance research on corporate governance by offering well-defined concepts and by specifying core relationships.

This paper applies descriptions of the two perspectives in organisation theory as a “method” for illustrating how they are linked to and support the shareholder versus the stakeholder perspectives.

The controversy stems from the fact that the shareholder and the stakeholder perspectives address different relationships. The shareholder perspective captures two relationships that accord with rationalistic organisation theory: shareholders are managing the managers and the organisation, and managers are managing the corporation on behalf of the owners. The stakeholder perspective focuses on three relationships that are not concordant with system theory: managers are managing the shareholders (i.e. the symbolic management of stockholders), managers are managing the corporation (i.e. general management theory) and managers are managing the stakeholders.

Organisation theory provides suggestions for more fruitful definitions of the often-used concepts of direction, control, administration and influence. These terms may be substituted with the well-defined concepts of management, power and control.

Proponents of organisation theory find it theoretically difficult to deal with the topic of corporate governance, if they do at all. When they do, they do it only perfunctorily.

Organisation theory may strengthen research on corporate governance if we insist on both theoretical clarifications of major relationships and on the use of more strictly defined concepts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the destructive effects of stretch goals on employees’ work–family conflict (WFC). Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examines the mediating role of resource scarcity. By integrating the paradox theory with the COR theory, this study explores the moderating role of employees’ paradox mind-set.

Two-wave data were collected from a sample of MBA students in Northwestern China (N = 294). PROCESS was used to assess a moderated mediation model.

This study found a positive relationship between stretch goals and WFC, and resource scarcity mediated this relationship. For employees with a high paradox mind-set, the relationship between resource scarcity and WFC was weak; and the indirect effect of stretch goals on WFC via resource scarcity was weak.

Organizations should provide enough resources to employees when using stretch goals. Human resource managers could recruit candidates with high paradox mind-set and foster employees’ paradox mind-set through training.

This study makes contributions to the literature on stretch goals by examining the negative spillover effect of stretch goals on the family domain and exploring the mediating mechanism. This study also extends the paradox theory by using it at micro level to address questions on WFC.