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The purpose of this study was to investigate how individual perceptions by employees of a goal‐setting program and personality traits influence job satisfaction and goal commitment.

Using the German version of Locke and Latham's goal‐setting questionnaire, 97 production employees judged the quality of the goal‐setting program in their company with regard to content‐related problems of goals (e.g. goal clarity), process in dyad (e.g. supervisor support), and setting‐related aspects (e.g. rewards). Data were also collected on the participants' conscientiousness and neuroticism.

The results showed that job satisfaction is predicted by content and setting‐related aspects, whereas content‐related aspects affected goal commitment. Conscientiousness explained variance in goal commitment independent of individual perceptions of the goal‐setting program, whereas neuroticism affected job satisfaction indirectly via the perceptions of goal content.

Performance management programs that incorporate goals belong to the most widely used management techniques worldwide. The study provides evidence on critical success factors from the view of staff members, which helps to design or optimize current goal‐setting programs. Furthermore, the study implies practical consequences in terms of person‐job fit based on personality traits.

The study helps to build a more comprehensive picture of how content, process, and setting‐related perceptions of a goal‐setting program influence job satisfaction and goal commitment. In addition, it provides important insights into the processes through which individual differences affect work behavior.

This study aims to examine the relationship between job search self‐efficacy, employment goals, job search planning, job search behaviors and effort allocated to job search.

The authors expected that employment goals would mediate the effect of job search self‐efficacy on job search planning, job search behaviors and effort allocated to job search. In total, 100 participants completed measures of these concepts. The results are discussed with reference to previous studies and to methodological choices.

Regression analyses did not confirm the hypotheses. Contrary to expectations, employment goals did not mediate the path between self‐efficacy, job search planning, job search behaviors and effort allocated to job search. Instead, self‐efficacy directly influenced job search planning and job search behaviors.

Few studies have investigated the effect of self‐efficacy on goals in job search domain. This paper fills some of the gaps.

New developments in concepts and approaches to job stress should incorporate all relevant types of resources that promote well-being and health. The success resource model of job stress conceptualizes subjective success as causal agents for employee well-being and health (Grebner, Elfering, & Semmer, 2008a). So far, very little is known about what kinds of work experiences are perceived as success. The success resource model defines four dimensions of subjective occupational success: goal attainment, pro-social success, positive feedback, and career success. The model assumes that subjective success is a resource because it is valued in its own right, triggers positive affect and emotions (e.g., pleasure, cf., Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), helps to protect and gain other resources like self-efficacy (Hobfoll, 1998, 2001), has direct positive effects on well-being (e.g., job satisfaction, cf., Locke & Latham, 1990) and health (Carver & Scheier, 1999), facilitates learning (Frese & Zapf, 1994), and has an energizing (Locke & Latham, 1990, 2002) and attention-directing effect (Carver, 2003), which can promote recovery by promoting mental detachment from work tasks in terms of absence of job-related rumination in leisure time (Sonnentag & Bayer, 2005).

The model proposes that success is promoted by other resources like job control (Frese & Zapf, 1994) while job stressors, like hindrance stressors such as performance constraints and role ambiguity (LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine, 2005), can work against success (Frese & Zapf, 1994). The model assumes reciprocal direct effects of subjective success on well-being, health, and recovery (upward spiral), and a moderator effect of success on the stressor–strain relationship. The chapter discusses research evidence, measurement of subjective occupational success, value of the model for job stress interventions, future research requirements, and methodological concerns.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of difficult and specific career visions on job satisfaction and turnover intentions seven years after students reported their visions.

Data for this study were collected in two waves, seven years apart, from the same cohort. At time 1 the career visions of MBA students were measured in terms of difficulty and specificity. At time 2 MBA students reported their job satisfaction and turnover intentions.

Results showed that MBA students with a specific and challenging career vision were less likely to report intentions to leave their work seven years after reporting their visions. Further, job satisfaction mediated this relationship.

The study was limited due to the small sample size used (n=74). Future studies should also test whether goal progress and job performance could be mediators between the quality of career vision and job satisfaction.

Results of this study indicate that individuals who formulated more specific career visions were more satisfied with their jobs seven years after reporting their visions. This finding has implications for career counsellors, coaches and managers who care for the development of their subordinates.

This is the first study that examined the impact of the quality of career visions (i.e. specificity and difficulty) on future job satisfaction and turnover intentions.

This research paper aims to develop and test a conceptual model which explains whether and how empowering leadership, through employee goal orientation and job conditions, influences employee proactivity. The authors suggest two simultaneous pathways from empowering leadership to employee proactivity based on path-goal theory and social exchange theory.

Data were collected from 253 frontline employees working in Indian NABH accredited hospitals. Regression analysis was performed to analyze the data with the help of SPSS 24. Further, SPSS process macro was used to test the parallel mediation effects with the help of bootstrapping procedures.

The important findings of this study are as follows: (1) empowering leadership has direct influence on employee proactivity; (2) empowering leadership, employees' goal orientation and job conditions are important antecedents of employee proactivity; (3) goal orientation and job conditions simultaneously partially mediate the relationship between empowering leadership and employee proactivity. In particular, employees' goal orientation is a more important mediating variable than job conditions in the studied relationship.

Organizations may reap the benefits of employee's proactive work behavior by hiring, training, and developing empowering leaders.

The study adds to the existing literature by building theory in the area of employee proactivity. In doing so, this study explains the less understood relationship between empowering leadership and employee proactivity.

Previous studies have vague views about whether employees who are required to complete large amounts of work (i.e. role overload) would proactively create a change in their job characteristics (i.e. job crafting), because the cognitive mechanism underlying the nexus between role overload and job crafting is unclear. The aim of this study is to identify why and when role overload has an impact on job crafting.

This study builds a second-stage moderated mediation model. Using a two-wave panel field study of 213 employee–supervisor matched data, this study examines the proposed hypotheses.

Results show that role overload decreases construal level, which can determine the tendency of employees to focus on the feasibility (low level of construal) or desirability (high level of construal) of behaviors. Goal self-concordance is the degree to which employees pursue their personal goals based on feelings of personal interests and values. The authors find that goal self-concordance guides employees who have higher levels of construal to exert more effort in job crafting. The authors further find that goal self-concordance moderates the mediating role of construal level. Specifically, for employees in pursuit of self-concordant goals, role overload reduces their construal level, resulting in less effort in job crafting. For employees who do not pursue self-concordant goals, role overload decreases their construal level, thereby improving job crafting.

The findings of this study enrich the literature on role overload and job crafting by revealing the mechanism and boundary conditions of the relationship between role overload and job crafting.

Perceived employability (PE) is considered as a significant psychological resource that aids individuals in tackling the complex career snags he/she faces. The purpose of this study is to develop and empirically test a theoretical model that explains how PE affects two types of job search behaviour (JSB) by bringing in job search learning goal orientation (JSLGO) as mediator and work experience as a moderator. The model is conceptualised in the backdrop of self-regulation theory and conservation of resource theory.

Using a cross-sectional study of 319 management graduates, the authors examined the effect of JSLGO and PE on both active and preparatory job search of graduates. Structural equation modelling (SEM) using IBM-AMOS was conducted on the cross-sectional data collected from management graduates in India.

An empirical analysis using SEM unravelled that JSLGO mediated the relationship between preparatory job search and PE but did not intervene in the relationship between active job search and PE. The study also looked into the moderating role of work experience and it was found to be a significant moderator in the PE and job search – active relationship.

Work experience helps students in active job search stage which can lead to quick employment gains. Real job experience could be gained through work-integrated learning and on the job training, as they will enhance the exposure of students to real-life work situations. Higher levels of JSLGO indicate a more strategic approach and aiming a quality career. Learning goal orientation training should be embedded in the curriculum, as management education is all about preparing students for the world of work.

The current research has uniquely contributed to the limited literature on the importance of developing PE amongst management graduates and its consequence on job search. The study makes an important contribution to the theory and practices on job search by enhancing our understanding of the mechanism that governs PE and JSB relationship through goal orientation.

The purpose of this paper is to paper examine goal orientation and organizational commitment in relation to employees' job attitudes and performance in a hospital. Specifically, it investigates the effects of mastery and performance goals on different facets of organizational commitment and how these effects impact individuals' job outcomes.

The paper utilized an online survey to collect data from 497 hospital employees. The conceptual model was tested using a three‐step mediation procedure of structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation.

The results indicate that while mastery goal is related to the three components of organizational commitment, performance goal is only related to affective commitment. Although affective and normative commitment are both related to job satisfaction, only the former is linked to employees' performance.

The survey is conducted in an East Asian hospital. To ensure greater generalizability of the results, future research should be conducted using a broader Asian sample, preferably, in a different organizational setting, and using longitudinal methods in addition to online surveys.

When managing employees with Asian backgrounds, establishing mastery goal orientation can potentially cultivate higher organizational commitment. Managers may consider aligning affectively and normatively committed employees with more complex job assignments because these employees typically exhibit desirable job attitudes and innovative job performance.

The contributions are two‐fold: managerially and scholarly. Identifying employees' mindset in relation to goal orientation and commitment allows firms to effectively manage employees' performance. The paper also provides evidence for rethinking constructs' relevancy outside of North America.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of self-regulation during job search by integrating goal-orientation theory with a resource allocation framework.

The author surveyed job searching new labor market entrants at two time points and hypothesized that the effects of job seekers’ state goal orientations on indicators of self-regulation during the job search process (procrastination, anxiety, and guidance-seeking behaviors) depended on levels of employment goal commitment (EGC).

Results indicate that for job seekers with higher levels of EGC, a state learning-approach goal orientation (LGO) was beneficial for the job search process and a state performance-approach goal orientation (PGO) was detrimental. For job seekers with lower levels of EGC, a state LGO was detrimental to the search process, while a state PGO was beneficial.

This research extends the understanding of state goal orientation in the context of job search. Future research may replicate these findings with different samples of employed and unemployed job seekers and extend this research with additional conceptualizations of resource limitations.

The present research suggests that the effectiveness of learning-approach goal-orientation training methods in the context of job search must be considered in light of individual differences in resource availability. In particular, individuals with lower resources available for job searching may benefit from interventions focusing on increasing state PGO.

The present results suggest that EGC is an important moderator of the impact of job search goal orientation on indicators of self-regulation during job search, and therefore present important boundary conditions regarding the role of state goal orientation in the job search process.

Job involvement is an important predictor of how well employees perform and feel at work. However, despite fruitful findings, little is known about how person–job (P–J) fit affects job involvement.

This study used a cross-sectional design and collected data from 375 employees and 50 managers. Multivariate regression was applied to test the moderated curvilinear model.

This study found an inverted U-shaped relationship between P–J fit and job involvement. For employees with a strong performance goal orientation, maximum job involvement occurred at a higher level of P–J fit, whereas for employees with a strong learning goal orientation, maximum job involvement occurred at a moderate level of P–J fit.

Managers should be aware that solely maximizing fit may not constantly yield positive outcomes, and that ignoring differences in employee needs and goals may be counterproductive.

The study challenges the conventional wisdom that a high P–J fit is always productive by showing that a high fit may sometimes jeopardize job involvement, particularly for certain employees.