可干预的人格特质:自我分化对员工创新的影响

Traits of personality that can be intervened:Impact of self-differentiation on employee innovation

在企业数字化转型的关键时期,创新显得尤为重要。作为可干预的人格特质,自我分化是员工"以变应变"实现突破创新的关键因素。本文以资源保存理论为基础,对不同行业的企业组织中主管和员工进行调研,通过构建结构方程模型,从员工的内心和人际关系两个层面探讨自我分化对员工创新行为的影响,并进一步分析了心理距离在其中的中介作用。实证研究结果表明:(1)自我分化(内心层面和人际关系层面)对员工的创新行为有正向影响;(2)自我分化(内心层面和人际关系层面)通过心理距离的中介作用间接影响员工的创新行为。研究结果丰富了员工创新行为影响因素的相关研究,同时有助于管理者认识到自我分化这一人格特质的可干预性,对管理者激励高自我分化水平的员工发挥自身优势、引导低自我分化水平的员工挖掘自身潜能具有重要的实践意义。

Innovation is particularly important for companies facing digital transformation.Self-differentiation,as a personality trait amenable to intervention,plays a vital role in employees striving for innovation by changing to counter change.Based on the resource conservation theory,this paper explores the internal mechanism between self-differentiation and employee innovative behavior from the inner and interpersonal perspectives.By establishing a structural equation model,this paper discusses how self-differentiation affects employee innovative behavior,and tests the mediating effect of psychological distance in the process of self-differentiation affecting employee innovative behavior.Questionnaire surveys were conducted among companies in Beijing,Tianjin and Hebei to serve as an empirical sample.SPSS and AMOS were conducted to test the hypotheses.The empirical results show that self-differentiation(intrapersonal level and interpersonal level)positively affects employee innovative behavior.Self-differentiation(intrapersonal level and interpersonal level)indirectly affects employee innovative behavior through the mediating role of psychological distance.The results of this study give credence to the mechanism of self-differentiation on employee innovative behavior,and help managers appreciate the amenability of self-differentiation to intervention,which has important implications for the management practice of motivating employee innovative behavior.This study holds important practical significance for the management of employees at different levels of differentiation.It is imperative for managers to motivate employees with high self-differentiation level to give full play to their advantages and guide employees with low self-differentiation level to tap their potential.Based on the empirical results,this paper puts forward the following management suggestions:(1)Faced with the pressure of innovation brought by the digital age,highly self-differentiated employees are able to remain calm,think rationally and actively seek effective coping strategies.Managers should give such employees enough psychological security,provide them with professional technology and a platform to demonstrate their abilities,create an organizational atmosphere of active exploration and communication within the enterprise,and give full play to the advantages of highly self-differentiated employees.(2)Employees with low self-differentiation tend to react more emotionally.They have less control over their emotions at work,and exhibit submissive or domineering behavior in relationships.For such employees,on the one hand,managers should understand their working status in real time,control their role load and work pressure,reduce work-family imbalance caused by insufficient work resources,and reduce stress in time.On the other hand,managers should give recognition and support to their work performance,create a good sense of psychological security for employees,and reduce their concerns about carrying out out-of-role behavior,so that employees can overcome the resistance caused by risk aversion mentality when resources are insufficient.What′s more,work,in some sense,is a continuation of family life.As such,self-differentiation formed in family life may affect individual development at work.Managers should focus on helping employees keep a balance between work and family and normalizing the relationship by setting up a formal family support system(goodwill family policy,telecommuting,flexible work arrangements,child care services,etc.).Managers can also take the initiative to show low self-differentiation level employees informal family support by,say,helping them fulfill family obligations and balance work and family,so as to strengthen mutual commitment and trust between the company and the employee and redress resource imbalance caused by low self-differentiation or insufficient resources.