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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.

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.

Retailers can use their mobile app to send location-based advertisements to consumers in the store. Goal congruence is an important driver for this type of ad's effectiveness. However, evidence of goal congruence influence on positive and negative outcomes and, in turn, on product purchase intention, is lacking. Research also leaves out the moderating effect of shopping motivation and price promotion level. The paper tests the impact of goal congruence on purchase intention through attitude to the ad and its intrusiveness, as well as the moderating effect of shopping motivation and price promotion.

Two online experiments are conducted to investigate these effects. The first experiment investigates the influence of goal congruence (i.e. low vs high) and the moderating effect of shopping motivation (i.e. utilitarian vs hedonic) on attitudes to the ad, level of perceived intrusiveness and, ultimately, purchase intention. The second experiment introduces the moderating effect of price promotion.

Goal congruence has a positive effect on attitude to the ad but no impact on intrusiveness. Goal congruence and shopping motivation further have a significant effect on attitude to the ad, as well as on purchase intention. Finally, no interaction effect of price promotion level is found.

This study tests the effect of goal congruence for in-store mobile apps on attitude towards the ads and intrusiveness and ultimately purchase intention. It further tests the moderating effect of shopping motivation (i.e. utilitarian vs hedonic) and price promotion level on these relationships.

To investigate individual and contextual antecedents of learning, transfer of learning, training generalization and training maintenance in a work context.

The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis on data obtained from 119 employees who attended training programs.

The data supported the relationship between continuous‐learning culture and supervisor support and training motivation. Although training motivation was directly related only to training maintenance, it interacted with performance goal orientation in affecting training transfer and generalization.

Practitioners interested in designing interventions directed at increasing similar training outcomes can use various approaches aimed at assessing and monitoring factors such as continuous‐learning culture, supervisor support and training motivation. More importantly, based on the current results, practitioners can manage selectively the performance goal orientation of their trainees, given its differential relationship with training outcomes.

The findings are valuable for researchers and practitioners. From a theoretical perspective, the study offers a better‐specified model of training effectiveness by including both contextual and individual factors important for improving training effectiveness. Practitioners can use these ideas to design corresponding training and training transfer interventions.

Mastery goals and intrinsic motivation have separately been found to predict employee turnover and turnover intention, respectively. The purpose of the present study was to examine their relative and combined influence on turnover intention in terms of a direct model and a moderated model.

A cross‐sectional survey was conducted among employees representing more than 400 organizations from a wide range of industrial sectors. The theoretical or subject scope of the paper was to integrate motivational antecedents for employee turnover.

When assessed jointly, intrinsic motivation was the strongest predictor of turnover intention. Mastery‐approach goals were positively related to turnover intention, but this relationship was moderated by intrinsic motivation. The relationship between mastery‐approach goals and turnover intention was only positive for employees low in intrinsic motivation.

The two most important limitations are the cross‐sectional nature of the study and the reliance on self‐reported questionnaire data. Consequently, experimental and/or longitudinal studies are needed to examine causality issues.

The results suggest that intrinsic motivation holds a salient role for predicting turnover intention. For managers and organizations, then, emphasis should be placed on facilitating work environments supportive of intrinsic motivation in order to maintain employees' turnover intention at low levels.

The most interesting finding is that intrinsic motivation held a substantially stronger relationship with turnover intention than that of mastery‐approach goals. In addition, support for the buffering role of intrinsic motivation was found, as mastery‐approach goals were unrelated to turnover intention when intrinsic motivation was high.

This paper aims at examining the relationship between proactive personality and training motivation among older workers (aged over 55 years) in a context characterized by the growing ageing of the global population. First, the authors hypothesized that proactive personality predicts the motivation to learn among older workers and that this relationship is mediated by goal orientation. In particular, the authors hypothesized that learning goal orientation may mediate the relationship between proactive personality and learning motivation.

The employees of an Italian bank completed an online questionnaire. AMOS 17 was used to carry out confirmatory factor analysis, and the SPSS macro was used to test the meditational model.

The results confirmed both the hypotheses, demonstrating the influence of proactive personality on training motivation of older workers, as mediated by goal orientation and, in particular, by learning goal orientation.

From an applicative point of view, this study may have implications for organizations that aim to increase the employability of older people by encouraging them to undertake more training. In particular, interventions aimed at increasing learning goal orientation could contribute in strengthening proactive personality that, in turn, may affect levels of training motivation.

Even if proactive personality has already been found as a predictor of learning motivation, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study demonstrates that the relationship between proactive personality and training motivation is mediated by goal orientation among older workers.

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.

The researchers aim to investigate the role of psychological capital (PsyCap) in facilitating intrinsic motivation and goal-commitment among employees at the workplace, affecting outcome variables, namely, in-role and extra-role job performance.

Data were collected from 640 employees working in the information technology sector of India. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Analysis revealed a significant positive impact of PsyCap on the two behavioral facets of job performance. Intrinsic motivation and goal-commitment were found mediating the influence of PsyCap on the two facets of job performance.

The information technology sector is characterised by continuous change. It requires voluntary prosocial behavior from employees, where the employees are expected to display multifaceted job performance behaviors, where they go beyond their job duties to cater for the dynamics of the IT sector. The present study provides means by which intrinsic motivated and goal-committed behavior are facilitated for both the in-role and extra-role job performance.

The present study is among the few preliminary studies that have provided evidence that intrinsic motivation and goal-commitment are the two variables which aid PsyCap in predicting both the prescribed and voluntary job performance behaviors.

In this section, we will highlight three overlapping concepts that are currently used in both the motivation and emotion literatures: goals, agency and expectancy. We recognize that there are other potential overlapping constructs (e.g. interest); however, we focus on these three.

Over the last decades, the accounting and control literature has featured much studying of and debate about the role and designing of incentives. Over the last year or so, the debate over incentives and bonuses has become a much more public one, as illustrated by the current public furor over bankers' bonuses and frequent calls to limit them and/or tax them more heavily. The public nature of the debate is new, but the emotional intensity is not; an intense emotionality has often characterized discussions of these subjects in print, as recently illustrated by a controversy between supporters and opponents of goal setting published in Academy of Management Perspectives.

This chapter tries to structure the debate by defining – and clarifying the interactions between – key components of the debate. I then review some – by no means all – of the evidence available in three streams of research: goal setting, self-determination theory, and economics. A surprisingly large number of commonalities emerge from this review. I then revisit in light of this review two accountability models I had introduced at a previous conference as well a forthcoming field study of the sophisticated approach developed by a successful multinational corporation.