The effect of context-specific versus nonspecific subconscious goals on employee performance

被引:55
作者
Latham, Gary P. [1 ]
Piccolo, Ronald F. [2 ]
机构
[1] Univ Toronto, Rotman Sch Management, Toronto, ON M5S 3E6, Canada
[2] Rollins Coll, Roy E Crummer Grad Sch Business, Ctr Leadership Dev, Winter Pk, FL USA
关键词
subconscious goals; goal-setting theory; implicit motives; SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGY; MOTIVATION; IMPLICIT; QUESTIONNAIRE; ACHIEVEMENT; ACTIVATION; BEHAVIOR;
D O I
10.1002/hrm.21486
中图分类号
B849 [应用心理学];
学科分类号
040203 ;
摘要
We investigated the effect of context-specific versus general subconscious goals on job performance in a call center. Employees (n = 54) were randomly assigned to a condition where they were primed by (a) a photograph of people making telephone calls in a call center, (b) a woman winning a race, or (c) a control group. Job performance was measured by the (1) number of and (2) monetary value of pledges from donors. None of the participants in the two experimental conditions showed conscious awareness of a prime. Analysis of variance indicated that both a subconscious context-specific and a subconscious general goal aroused the implicit need for achievement as assessed by a projective measure, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). Both types of primed goals led to a significant increase in the number of pledges during a four-day workweek. Consistent with goal-setting theory, employees in the context-specific condition raised more money than those in the general achievement (one-tailed t-test) and control (two-tailed t-test) conditions. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
引用
收藏
页码:511 / 523
页数:13
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