促进还是抑制:科技人员外部目标追求对创新绩效影响研究

Facilitate or inhibit: Research on the influence of scientific and technical personnel's extrinsic goal pursuit on creative performance

激发科技人员对物质财富、名誉地位等外部目标的追求,从而提高创新绩效是目前众多组织普遍采用的创新管理措施。然而外部目标追求是促进还是抑制创新绩效,目前尚无一致的结论。本研究基于权变视角,依据―过犹不及‖效应,将外部目标追求区分为―适度‖追求与―过度‖追求,运用自我决定理论,对上述议题进行了探究。结果表明:1.科技人员外部目标追求对其创新绩效具有倒U型影响,适度追求外部目标可以起到促进作用,而过度追求则显示抑制作用;2.该影响关系是通过基本心理需要满足的中介作用产生的,主要体现在自主需要和胜任需要的满足;3.知识作业难度具有调节作用,知识作业难度越高,外部目标追求与自主需要、胜任需要的倒U型关系就越明显。

At present, motivating scientific and technical personnel＇s pursuit of extrinsic goals, such as material wealth, reputation, and social status, is a widely used innovation management strategy by many organizations. However, as for whether such pursuit will facilitate or inhibit creative performance, practical results haven＇t given a clear answer, and academic circle has not reached an agreement either. Behavioral-oriented researchers represented by Eisenberger consider that behaviors may be drived by the positive results individuals expect. Moreover, extrinsic goals（material wealth, reputation and social status, etc.） may motivate scientific and technical personnel to innovate, thus facilitating creative performance. On the opposite side, cognitive-oriented researchers represented by Amabile and Deci argue that pursuing extrinsic goals may undermine scientific and technical personnel＇s interest in the creative task itself, thereby undermining internal motivation, and inhibiting creative performance. This study aims at clarifying the influence mechanisms between technical personnel＇s extrinsic goal pursuit and their creative performance.Some researchers point out that contingency approach may be a new path to solving the controversy. Besides, some other researchers recommend that future research should explore adaptability of some opinions under certain context, rather than examine which one of these views is absolutely true. The Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing effect（TMGT effect） proposed by Grant and Schwartz points out that some commonly positive antecedents may reach inflection points, after which their relations with desired outcomes may shift from positive to negative effect. This provides theoretical basis for differentiating situations between scientific and technical personnel＇s extrinsic goal pursuit from the contingent perspective. The Self-Determination Theory（SDT） proposed by Deci and Ryan holds that the perception of individual-environment interaction may influence satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and affects performance accordingly. This theory provides a good theoretical framework to explain how technical personnel＇s extrinsic goal pursuit inflences their creative performance. Based on the above, this study firstly divides extrinsic goal pursuit into moderate pursuit and excessive pursuit in terms of Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing effect, in order to explore the relationship between technical personnel＇s extrinsic goal pursuit and creative performance. In addition, this study applies the self-determination theory to demonstrate the inherent influence mechanism between extrinsic goal pursuit and creative performance with the mediating effect of basic psychological needs. Finally, the study introduces knowledge task difficulty as a moderating variable to analyze the moderating effect of job characteristics on technical personnel＇s extrinsic goal pursuit influencing creative performanc.Based on empirical analysis of 456 questionnaires, some valuable conclusions have been achieved. 1. There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between scientific and technical personnel＇s extrinsic goal pursuit and creative performance. This finding indicates that a moderate pursuit of extrinsic goals may serve as a facilitating factor but become an inhibiting factor if it exceeds a certain level. 2. An individual＇s basic psychological needs play a mediating role between scientific and technical personnel＇s extrinsic goal pursuit and their creative performance by the means that extrinsic goal pursuit firstly influences satisfaction of the need for autonomy and competence, and then influences their creative performance accordingly. 3. Knowledge task difficulty plays a moderating role, indicating that the more difficult a task is, the more significant inverted U-shaped relationship between scientific and technical personnel＇s extrinsic goal pursuit and their needs for autonomy and competence is. This study conducts some valuable exploration by integrating theoretical divergences of past researches and demonstating the inherent mechanism of those divergences. The conclusions are not only useful complements for individual innovation theories, but also provide theoretical guidance for improving scientific and technical personnel＇s creative performance by motivating their pursuit of extrinsic goals.