Anna Steidle, Christine Gockel and Lioba Werth
Regulatory focus theory (RFT) can successfully predict and describe organizational behaviour and managerial decision making. However, no empirical study has tested its central…
Abstract
Purpose
Regulatory focus theory (RFT) can successfully predict and describe organizational behaviour and managerial decision making. However, no empirical study has tested its central assumption in an organizational context. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between employee's regulatory focus and their work priorities.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 307 employees from the public and private sectors in Germany participated and three organizational priorities were confirmed in a confirmatory factor analysis: growth, existence, and relatedness aspects. Their relationship with employee's regulatory focus was analyzed using multi‐level modeling.
Findings
It was found that employees' promotion and prevention focus were related to specific work priorities: the higher a person's promotion focus, the more the person valued growth aspects. The higher the prevention focus, the more the person valued existence‐related work aspects. Both regulatory foci increased the importance of good relationships at work.
Research limitations/implications
The findings provide new insights into previous research on the impact of personality traits, especially regulatory focus, on job‐related attitudes like job satisfaction or job commitment.
Practical implications
The results are useful for leaders and human resource managers aiming to understand the driving forces behind employee's job motivation and decisions.
Originality/value
This is the first study to address the central question of different priorities associated with promotion and prevention focus in the organizational field. Results provide insight into previous findings on the impact of regulatory focus on job‐related attitudes and offer practical implications for practitioners interested in job motivation and decision making.
Details
Keywords
Inho Hwang, Sanghyun Kim and Carl Rebman
Organizations invest in information security (IS) technology to be more competitive; however, implementing IS measures creates environmental conditions, such as overload…
Abstract
Purpose
Organizations invest in information security (IS) technology to be more competitive; however, implementing IS measures creates environmental conditions, such as overload uncertainty, and complexity, which can cause employees technostress, eventually resulting in poor security performance. This study seeks to contribute to the intersection of research on regulatory focus (promotion and prevention) as a type of individual personality traits, technostress, and IS.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey questionnaire was developed, collecting 346 responses from various organizations, which were analyzed using the structural equation model approach with AMOS 22.0 to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicate support for both the direct and moderating effects of security technostress inhibitors. Moreover, a negative relationship exists between promotion-focused employees and facilitators of security technostress, which negatively affects strains (organizational commitment and compliance intention).
Practical implications
Organizations should develop various programs and establish a highly IS-aware environment to strengthen employees' behavior regarding IS. Furthermore, organizations should consider employees' focus types when engaging in efforts to minimize security technostress, as lowering technostress results in positive outcomes.
Originality/value
IS management at the organizational level is directly related to employees' compliance with security rather than being a technical issue. Using the transaction theory perspective, this study seeks to enhance current research on employees' behavior, particularly focusing on the effect of individuals' personality types on IS. Moreover, this study theorizes the role of security technostress inhibitors for understanding employees' IS behaviors.