Abstract
Extant research on work-related identity discrepancy mostly has probed its effects on employees’ attitudes and emotions but has paid little attention to its impact on employee behaviors. Drawing on self-discrepancy theory, we examined the influencing mechanism and conditions of work-related identity discrepancy on employee innovation behavior. With data collected from 563 employees who personally experienced leadership transition in the workplace, we found that work-related identity discrepancy predicts employee innovation behavior through workplace anxiety. We also discovered that employees’ personality traits—promotion regulatory focus and prevention regulatory focus in particular—can intensify or buffer the negative relationship between work-related identity discrepancy and employee innovation behavior. We further discuss the conceptual and practical implications of these findings.
Highlights
In an era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) [1], leadership changes in organizations are more common than ever before [2]
Extant studies on work-related identity discrepancy have mostly focused on employees’ attitudes and emotions as consequences of work-related identity discrepancy but have largely ignored its impact on employee behaviors—what employees do in their jobs or what actions they take under certain circumstances in the workplace
We studied the effect of work-related identity discrepancy on employee innovation behavior, especially the moderated mediation effect of workplace anxiety and two types of regulatory focus
Summary
In an era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) [1], leadership changes in organizations are more common than ever before [2]. Our study explores the mediating role of workplace anxiety as well as the moderating role of regulatory focus in the relationship between work-related identity discrepancy and employee innovation behavior. Work-related identity discrepancy may prevent employees from doing their best job as they did in the old leader’s team (the ideal or ought self), contributing to negative emotions (e.g., workplace anxiety) that in turn negatively affect innovation behavior. Promotion regulatory focus and prevention regulatory focus moderate the mediating effect of workplace anxiety on the relationship between work-related identity discrepancy and employee innovation behavior, respectively. We further propose another pair of hypotheses: Hypothesis 4a (H4a).
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