Goal orientation and employee resistance at work: Implications for manager emotional exhaustion with the employee

This study advances our understanding of goal orientation (GO) theory by relating GO to manager outcomes (i.e., manager emotional exhaustion with the employee) through interpersonal behaviour patterns (i.e., employee resistance). Specifically, we examine the mediating effect of constructive and dysfunctional resistance (DR) on the relationships between GO and manager emotional exhaustion with the employee. The findings from 565 manager-employee dyads in a Chinese company indicate that learning GO (LGO) and performance-prove GO (PPGO) are positively related to constructive resistance (CR), and performance-avoid GO (PAGO) is negatively related to CR and positively related to DR. CR and DR significantly mediate the relationships between LGO and PAGO and manager emotional exhaustion with the employee. The findings are discussed in terms of the importance of GO theory for understanding interpersonal behaviours and manager outcomes.