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Work motivation research is at a crossroads with the discovery of the causal effects of primed subconscious goals in addition to those of consciously set goals on performance. Although social psychologists continue to demonstrate positive effects of primed goals on a multitude of dependent variables, priming research has been criticized for its lack of generalizability beyond tightly controlled laboratory experiments. Addressing this skepticism, a field experiment was conducted in a for-profit organization, where the CEO used goal priming to motivate job performance. A performance goal for achievement was primed with achievement-related words embedded in an email from the CEO to employees. The goal priming by the CEO necessitated little to no costs yet it increased objectively measured performance effectiveness by 15% and efficiency by 35% over a 5-day work-week. This field experiment illustrates a new alternative for increasing employee performance. In a second experiment, we conducted a conceptual replication of the field experiment in the laboratory with a larger sample size, and we extended theory by testing a measure of motivation level as a mediator of the primed goal-performance effect. The results affirmed the hypothesized motivational influence. These two experiments increase understanding of subconscious motivation processes.

The Big Five personality traits and self-efficacy independently relate to a multitude of outcomes across domains of functioning. Yet, only a small number of studies examined these variables together as part of the same conceptual model, and findings are mixed. We revisit their joint relationships, and test three conceptual models of influence on academic performance of college students over a semester. Because of the key role college graduates will play in society, many have a stake in better understanding their performance. The trait model specifies that the Big Five traits influence performance directly and indirectly through partial mediation of self-efficacy. In the independent model, the Big Five traits influence self-efficacy and performance independently, without mediation of self-efficacy. In the intrapersonal model, the effects of the Big Five traits on performance are fully mediated by self-efficacy. We collected data in five samples, three Universities, and two countries, N = 875, and conducted a meta-analytic path-analysis. Self-efficacy positively related to academic performance across the models, conscientiousness and emotional stability were predictive of self-efficacy and performance in some analyses, and the significance of the other three traits was fleeting.

In conceptualizations presented in social cognitive theory (SCT), humans are not passive objects shaped and shepherded by contingent consequences of an environment. People are agentic; they proactively make their way through the intricacies and dualities of life. To attain desired outcomes, people make judgments about the interplay among environment, personal factors, and consequences of their behavior. SCT conceptualizes these cognitive appraisals in terms of triadic, reciprocal, and asymmetric influences among the environment, person, and behavior. The belief system formed by the model’s cognitive dynamics is shaped by one’s current working conception of the world. This belief system guides behavior adaptively toward desirable pursuits and away from undesirable consequences. As people set goals, devise accordant courses of action, and anticipate outcomes, they act on this thread of beliefs. People operate on the environment, they monitor and analyze their actions, reflect on the consequences, and react to course-correct. These behaviors rely on self-awareness, self-reflection, and adaptive self-regulation. To explain and predict the fluent vagaries of social life, nuanced conceptions of interactive factors are conferred by SCT in the triadic model. A transformative contributor to adaptive self-regulation in SCT is perceived self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is a malleable belief formed by personal appraisal of how well a person can execute courses of action required to deal successfully with a given prospect. Self-efficacy does not signify people believe they can walk on water; it simply implies they believe they can enact the potential they already have. Even when people have acquired the knowledge and ability to succeed, cherished outcomes are forsaken if they harbor doubt in their capacity to self-regulate.

Perceptions of who makes an effective leader are altered in crises. One perspective from which leadership effectiveness can be evaluated is gender differences. In this panel symposium, we will disc...

Although support for the positive effect of group efficacy on group performance is copious, our understanding of how group efficacy forms is scant. Much remains unanswered about how the four efficacy antecedents, defined by social cognitive theory as enacted mastery, vicarious learning, social persuasion, and affect, concurrently influence group efficacy. Complementing the homology assumption of social cognitive theory, the authors propose and test a differential moderation model of group trust, in which group trust interacts synergistically or compensatorily with the four antecedents of group efficacy depending on the information content they provide. The results, based on 100 work groups in a manufacturing plant in China, showed that past group performance and group social persuasion were positively related to group efficacy, but that group vicarious learning and group positive affect were not. A significant interaction with group trust was found for group vicarious learning and for group positive affect. Finally, group efficacy was positively related to subsequent group performance, even after controlling for the four efficacy antecedents and group trust. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Practitioner points Group efficacy is a significant predictor of group performance., Building trust in work groups is a credible and critical managerial action for group efficacy formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goals regulate workplace behavior day after day, but employees still occasionally veer off course. Goal pursuit can be sidetracked perceptibly and undetectably. If conscious goals are discernably c...

This symposium includes research that builds theory on the interaction of conscious and primed subconscious behavior and examines the effectiveness and applicability of various priming techniques i...