From Finite To Extreme: Research On The Influence Of Extreme Goals Under The Conditions Of Digital Technolog

Stretch goals are goals that organizations set for employees that seem impossible to achieve with existing resources and capabilities.In the era of digital economy,increasingly companies are changing the traditional approach for goal setting,adopting stretch goal settings to stimulate employees’ morale and creativity.However,employees may perceive stretch goal as a crisis that difficult to deal with,and there is also a lack of targeted discussions in the academic fields.Previous studies,in general,paints stretch goal as detrimental,for example,stretch goal can cause employees’ unethical behaviors through various mechanisms.However,the research on the positive effect of stretch goal is still limited.Only one study confirmed that stretch goal can improve employees’ creativity,while the underlying mechanism though which stretch goal promotes employees’ creativity remains unexplored.The positive effect of stretch goal in management practice is obvious to all,but the theoretical research on positive effects of stretch goal is still in its infancy,which will hinder us from accurately and comprehensively understanding the role of stretch goal.In view of this,the present study aims to explore the mechanisms and boundary factors that stretch goal affect job creativity,so as to promote the development of stretch goal research.In view of this,based on the grounded method,this study constructs a conceptual model of stretch goal coping strategies and their outcomes by analyzing interview materials of 26 employees in different industries.The study found that(1)Stretch goal enhanced creativity via employees’ job crafting and leisure crafting.Moreover,job crafting could be meaningfully distinguished into resource-based job crafting,role-based job crafting,and cognition-based job crafting,while leisure crafting included four facets such as knowledge crafting,relationship crafting,cognitive crafting,and leisure activities crafting.(2)Digital technology strengthened the positive effect of stretch goal on employees’ job crafting and leisure crafting.Specifically,the use of digital technologies(e.g.,the use of human-technology interaction tools and technology-mediated communication tools)facilitated employees to craft their job and leisure time in coping with stretch goal.Based on the process model of job crafting and socio-technical systems theory,study 2 proposed that stretch goal will be more positively linked to job crafting and creativity when the level of ICT use is high rather than low.This research adopted leader-follower paired method and collected two waves of data through field survey in China.A total of 364 valid questionnaires were collected for data analysis.The research results confirmed that stretch goal and ICT use interact to influence promotion-oriented skill crafting,promotion-oriented relationship crafting,promotion-oriented task crafting,and promotion-oriented cognitive crafting,such that the relationship would be positive when the level of ICT use is high rather than low.It was further found that promotion-oriented task crafting and promotion-oriented cognitive crafting mediate the interactive effect of stretch goal and ICT use on employees’ creativity such that the indirect effect would be positive when the level of ICT use is high rather than low.Study 3 developed and validated a scale to measure leisure crafting behavior.The factor structure,reliability,and validity of the leisure crafting were examined in Study 3.The results indicated that there were four independent leisure crafting dimensions,namely leisure knowledge crafting,leisure relationship crafting,leisure cognitive crafting,and leisure activities crafting.These dimensions could be reliably measured with 14 items.Using a lagged study design,study 3 tested the indirect effect of stretch goal on employees’ creativity through leisure knowledge crafting,leisure relationship crafting,leisure cognition crafting,and leisure activities crafting.In addition,the moderating role of ICT use in the process of stretch goal affecting creativity through leisure crafting was also elucidated.Through the analysis of 307 valid data,the results found that stretch goal was positively related to leisure knowledge crafting,leisure relationship crafting,leisure cognition crafting,and leisure activities crafting.Futher,the positive relationship between stretch goal and leisure knowledge crafting,leisure relationship crafting,leisure cognition crafting,and leisure activities crafting would be stronger when the level of ICT use was high rather than low.It was further found that the indirect effect of stretch goal on creativity via leisure knowledge crafting,leisure cognition crafting,and leisure activities crafting would be enhanced as the level of ICT use at work increases.This study may contribute to relevant research in several ways.First,as noted at the outset,the existing theory and research on stretch goal has overwhelmingly focused on the positive effect of stretch goal on employees’ unethical behavior.In contrast,and consistent with the notion that increasingly companies are changing the traditional approach for goal-setting in an attempt to stimulate the morale and creativity of employees through stretch goals,the present study reveals that when ICT use is high,stretch goal can promote employees’ job creativity through promotion-oriented job crafting and leisure crafting.It adds to an emerging stream of research that examines how and when stretch goal may affect employees’ job creativity.Second,this research extends the application of socio-technical systems theory in the organizational sciences.Although useful,socio-technical systems theory has historically been used in the organizational sciences,it is rarely used in the field of goal and job crafting.Our results answer Guest et al.(2022)call for more research on socio-technical systems theory in organizations by examining the interactive effect of stretch goal and ICT use on job crafting and leisure crafting.Third,our findings specify when stretch goal may have positive effect on promotion-oriented job crafting and leisure crafting by uncovering the moderating effect of ICT use.Our study indicates that,in addition to social factors and task characteristics,technological factors play an important role in the process of employees’ goal promotion,which widen the boundary condition of goal research.Fourth,in this research,we reveal that stretch goal can promote job crafting and leisure crafting when the level of ICT use is high.Thus,we extend the job crafting and leisure crafting literature by identifying stretch goal as their important but neglected antecedent in the workplace.Other practical implications and the directions for future research have also discussed.