As hypothesized, data from 170 employees of a Dutch firm showed that the quality of leader-member exchange mediated positive relationships between a mastery orientation and leader-rated in-role job performance, leader-rated innovative job performance, and job satisfaction. In contrast, a performance orientation was negatively related or unrelated to those outcomes. These findings suggest that employees with stronger mastery orientations are more effective on the job because they tend to establish higher-quality exchanges with their supervisors.

Research on social comparison processes has assumed that a comparison in a given direction (upward or downward) will lead to a particular affective reaction. In contrast, the present two studies proposed and found that a comparison can produce either positive or negative feelings about oneself, independent of its direction. Several factors moderated the tendency to derive positive or negative affect from upward and downward comparisons. In Study 1, cancer patients low in self-esteem and with low perceived control over their symptoms and illness were more likely to see downward comparisons as having negative implications for themselves. Those low in self-esteem were also more likely to perceive upward comparisons as negative. In Study 2, individuals with high marital dissatisfaction and those who felt uncertain about their marital relationship were more likely to experience negative affect from upward and downward comparisons. The implications of these findings for social comparison theory and for the coping and adaptation literature are discussed.In the seminal work on social comparison, Festinger (1954) suggested that when individuals are uncertain about their opinions or abilities, they will compare themselves with others to evaluate their own situation. Schachter (1959) expanded the domain of social comparison activities to include emotions. In a number of experiments, he showed that fear evoked in most subjects the desire to wait with someone else, preferably an individual in the same situation who reacted with a similar degree of emotional intensity. Schachter reviewed a number of explanations for these findings, but, in line with Festinger's theorizing, clearly favored the idea of self-evaluation. More recently, social comparison theory has been expanded to include motives for social comparison other than self-evaluation, including self-enhancement (eg., restoring one's self-esteem by comparing oneself with others worse off; Wills, 1981), and selfimprovement (eg., seeking a positive example of the domain under evaluation; cf. Wilson & Benner, 1971).The direction of comparison, namely whether one compares to a better-off or worse-off other (termed upward and downward comparisons, respectively), has been a central part of the theory (Latane, 1966). A great deal of research has substantiated that under conditions in which self-evaluation and selfimprovement predominate, individuals prefer to compare thenstate with that of a slightly better-off other (eg, Gruder, 1971;Wheeler, 1966;Wilson & Benner, 1971; see also Wheeler et al., 1969). On the other hand, a substantial body of literature indicates that when a comparison is motivated by self-enhancement, as is the case when self-esteem is threatened, the preferred target of comparison is one who is worse off (Crocker, In this last line of research, differences in comparison target selection have been assumed to derive from differences in the effects of each type of information. In his downward comparison theory, Wills (1981) maintained that, under conditions of t...

As hypothesized, data from 170 employees of a Dutch firm showed that the quality of leader-member exchange mediated positive relationships between a mastery orientation and leader-rated in-role job performance, leader-rated innovative job performance, and job satisfaction. In contrast, a performance orientation was negatively related or unrelated to those outcomes. These findings suggest that employees with stronger mastery orientations are more effective on the job because they tend to establish higher-quality exchanges with their supervisors.

In two studies, individuals' dominant achievement goals were assessed using a new, simple, and conceptually precise measure based on Elliot and McGregor's (2001) 2 x 2 framework. Next, the four groups were compared in terms of achievement-relevant variables, including need for achievement, perfectionism, perceived competence, interest, and graded performance. As expected, a very high percentage (approximately 85%) of people indicated they had a dominant achievement goal. Furthermore, the results suggest that individuals with different dominant achievement goals have clear, distinct profiles that can be characterized as positively valenced (mastery-approach), both positively and negatively valenced (performance-approach), negatively valenced (performance-avoidance), or neither positively nor negatively valenced (mastery-avoidance).

During the past three decades, the achievement goal approach to achievement motivation has emerged as an influential area of research, and is dedicated to understanding the reasons behind the individual’s drive to achieve competence and performance. However, the current literature on achievement goals is segmented rather than integrated. That is, citations across the three major and distinct achievement domains (work, education, and sports) are more the exception than the rule and similarities and differences between findings for the different achievement domains have yet to be tested. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between self-reported achievement goals and nonself-report performance through meta-analysis, and the moderating potential of achievement domain. Identifying achievement domain as moderator improves our understanding to which contexts we can (not) generalize conclusions to, it helps to understand seemingly inconsistent findings, and opens avenues for future research on the underlying processes. Because the achievement goal (AG) measure used in a study is partially confounded with achievement domain, we examined the moderating role of this variable as well. Our findings suggest that – overall – approach goals (either mastery or performance) were associated positively with performance attainment, whereas avoidance goals (either mastery or performance) were associated negatively with performance attainment. These relationships were moderated by achievement domain. For example, relative to the education or work domain, in the sports domain, we did not observe negative correlations between avoidance goals and performance. The absence of statistical moderation due to AG measure suggests that the observed moderation of achievement domain cannot be explained by the AG measure utilized. We suggest further steps to integrate the achievement goal literature, and accordingly, to broaden and deepen understanding of performance attainment in competence-relevant settings, including the workplace, the sports field, and the classroom.