Research On The Structure,Impacts,Formation And Transformation Mechanism Of Goal Content Of The Employees

Financial success has long been a core component of many modem societies,and those societies all suggested that success and happiness depend on procuring monetary wealth.It is undeniable that pursuing material wealth has promoted the development of society rapidly,but it also brought a lot of negative effects for individuals.And employees in our country also seem to have lost control in the pursuit of money and status.Therefore,there is a problem that needed to be solved:if it is necessary for the employees to change or transform their goal pursuit?If yes,how to transfer it?Self-determination Theory(SDT)is a macro-theory of motivation,emotion,and personality in social contexts that has been under development for nearly fifty years.Goal Content Theory(GCT)is the mini-theory of SDT,which distinguished individuals’ intrinsic goals(e.g.,personal growth,close relationships,community contribution)from extrinsic goals(e.g.,money,fame).In order to solve the problems we raised,based on GCT,we adopted literature analysis,field data research,behavioral experiment research,dynamic computational model for theoretical research and empirical test.Combing the results of the existing goal researches and goal content theory,this study revised the research related to goal content theory and the goal transformation research.Based on the literature review,this study used field research and conducted hundreds of questionnaire on dozens of companies in Shandong,Shanxi,Inner Mongolia and Beijing,and introducing Three-point longitudinal tracking study.In addition,100 students were enrolled as participants to conduct behavioral experiments.Through data collection and analysis,we explored the structure of the employees’goal content,the impacts of different goals on job performance and well-being,and the reasons behind the different goal orientation.Finally,dynamic computational model was used to simulate the process of goal transformation of employees over time.And we then solve the problem of whether the goals of Chinese employees need to transform and how to transform.The main conclusions of the present study are as follows:Firstly,we explored the structure of employees’goal content.On the basis of the existing Chinese version Aspiration Index,we used semi-structured interviews,open questionnaires,exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to develop a goal content questionnaire of Chinese employees.The questionnaire includes seven dimensions,namely self-acceptance,affiliation,health,community feelings,job interest,financial success and social recognition.The revised employees’ goal content scale in this study has good reliability and validity,and provides a reliable tool for the follow-up empirical research.Secondly,using the longitudinal supervisor-employee paired data,we then explored the relationship between the employees’ goal orientation and their work performance and psychological well-being,as well as the moderating effect of employees’ causality orientations.The results show that intrinsic goals significantly positively predicted overall work performance and its dimensions,including task performance,interpersonal performance,dedicative performance and adaptive performance;intrinsic goals also positively predicted employees’psychological well-being.Extrinsic goals positively predicted task performance and dedicative performance,and the overall work performance;but extrinsic goals also negatively predicted employees’psychological well-being.The results of the moderating effect showed that high autonomy orientation can enhance both the effects from intrinsic and extrinsic goals on their work performance.Besides,when the employees have high autonomous orientation,their intrinsic goals can have a more positive impact on their well-being,and the moderating effect of control orientation has not been verified.The results suggested that the extrinsic goals do have a negative impact on employees themselves,which means that they need to transform their extrinsic goals.Thirdly,we aimed to identify the reasons behind the different goal orientations and provide a basis for the transformation of goals.Using both three-point empirical research and the behavioral experimental research method,we found that employees’ perception of supervisors’ autonomy-supportive environments satisfied employees’ basic psychological needs and promote their intrinsic goals;controlling environments frustrated their basic psychological needs and promote their extrinsic goals.Finally,we aimed to explore how to promote the transformation of employees’ extrinsic goal,and then solve the scientific problems raised in this study.The results of computational dynamics simulations showed when employees’ perception of their environment changes from controlling to autonomy-supportive,their basic needs will be better satisfied,and they will change their goal orientations from extrinsic to more intrinsic.And we then solve the problem of how to transform employees’ extrinsic goals.At the end of the study,the general discussion,conclusions the limitions and the future research were proposed.