Performance and Turnover Consequences of Goal Orientation Faultlines: A Self-in-Social-Setting View

Abstract

Teams are collections of interdependent people, each of whom bring their own personal motivational tendencies to their teams. Goal orientations are useful frameworks for categorizing the different motivational tendencies people have and that influence their interpretation of, and reactions to, achievement opportunities and outcomes. In this article, we examine the effects of differences in members’ goal orientation profiles in teams. We draw on the self-in-social-setting regulation view of self-regulation, which suggests that team contexts are ones in which people with different motivational tendencies can present a social hindrance to one another and impede one another’s goal pursuits. We argue that when that team members have different goal orientation profiles, goal orientation faultlines can emerge. We predict that teams with stronger goal orientation faultlines will report more stress (i.e., emotional exhaustion) than teams with weaker goal orientation faultlines and that emotional exhaustion mediates the effects of goal orientation faultlines on team performance and turnover. We tested our predictions using a sample of 131 teams (637 team members) in a field setting over 18 months, finding support for our hypothesized effects of goal orientation faultlines on emotional exhaustion and team turnover and suggesting a number of important theoretical, empirical, and managerial implications.