Effect of Learning Goal Orientation on Performance: Role of Task Variety as a Moderator

Building on trait activation and attention capacity theories, we hypothesized and tested the moderating effect of task variety on the relationship between learning goal orientation and performance. The results of the analyses using multiple sources of data collected from 155 employees in nine South Korean firms showed that task variety significantly moderated this relationship. Specifically, learning goal orientation had an inverted U-shaped relationship with performance when task variety was high. However, we did not find a significant positive relationship between learning goal orientation and performance when task variety was low. Implications and future directions for this study were discussed.