Municipal Employees’ Performance and Neglect: The Effects of Mission Valence

Abstract

This article relates mission valence to two performance outcomes of municipal employees: task performance and neglect. We propose that mission valence is positively associated with task performance through perceptions of meaning, and negatively associated with neglect through cynicism. However, based on the negativity bias principle, we expect the relationships to be stronger through cynicism than through meaning. We test our research hypotheses on a sample of 177 employees and their supervisors working in a rural Canadian municipality. Findings highlight that cynicism is a key mediating variable between mission valence and employees’ performance outcomes. Mission valence affects meaning and cynicism, but meaning is not related to task performance and neglect.