挑战性压力源对员工失败学习的影响机制研究——二元工作激情的中介作用

The Effect of Challenge Stressors on Employees'Learning from Failure:The Mediating Role of the Dualistic Work Passion

基于情绪认知评价理论,通过对267份员工问卷数据进行实证检验,揭示挑战性压力源、二元工作激情、员工失败学习(单环与双环)之间的关系。结果表明:挑战性压力源对单环失败学习产生正向影响,对双环失败学习产生倒U型影响;挑战性压力源对和谐型激情产生倒U型影响,对强迫型激情产生正向影响;和谐型激情、强迫型激情在挑战性压力源与单环失败学习、双环失败学习的关系中均发挥中介作用,且和谐型激情在挑战性压力源与双环失败学习之间的中介效应更显著,强迫型激情在挑战性压力源与单环失败学习之间的中介效应更显著。

Innovation failure refers to a deviation of innovation projects between the actual situation and the target expecta-tion.Due to the increasing volatility,uncertainty,complexity and ambiguity in modern business environment,innovation projects tend to fail more often than they succeed.Enterprises can only obtain competitive advantages through continuous trial and error.Employees'learning from failure describes the process in which individuals spontaneously reflect on innova-tion failure events and avoid similar failures by adjusting behaviors.The existing literature has explored the causes and effects of learning from failure from the perspectives of attribution,cognition,emotion and so on.However,there is little attention to the mode of learning from failure.It is not clear what factors can affect the choice of learning mode.In addi-tion,with the word“996”(working from 9:00 a.m.to 9:00 p.m.every day for six days a week)appearing on various network media platforms,the effect of challenge stressors has become a hot issue again.In practice,challenge stressors are essential for enterprises to maintain innovation performance after failure.According to the theory of learning under oc-cupational stressors,there is a reciprocal relationship between stress and learning.However,few scholars have focused on the relationship between challenge stressors and learning from failure,and there is insufficient response to the double-edg-ed effect of stress.Therefore this study aims to open the black box between challenge stressors and learning from failure by exploring the relationship among challenge stressors,dualistic work passion and employee's learning from failure(sin-gle loop learning and double loop learning)based on the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion.This study selects employees from technology-intensive enterprises as the sample,because they experience challenge stressors more frequently compared with employees from traditional manufacturing industries and service industries.The survey is limited in Guagndong Province,the most economically active region in China.Shenzhen and Zhuhai are selected as the representative cities.After consulting the management committee,the enterprises whose innovation projects failed to reach the expected goals in the past three years are screened out.With the help of executives,employees with failure experiences are selected as research samples,and a total of 500 questionnaires are commissioned.Finally,267 valid ques-tionnaires are collected.The results show that challenge stressors have a positive effect on single loop learning,and an inverted U-shaped effect on double loop learning;challenge stressors have an inverted U-shaped effect on harmonious passion,and a positive effect on obsessive passion;both harmonious passion and obsessive passion have a mediating effect on challenge stressors and single loop learning or double loop learning.Moreover,the mediating effect of harmonious passion between challenge stressors and double loop learning is more significant,while the mediating effect of obsessive passion between challenge stressors and single loop learning is more significant.The theoretical contributions of this research are as follows.First,from the perspective of learning depth,this study breaks the cognitive entrenchment of the mode of learning from failure in previous literature,and provides new directions for the future.Second,the empirical results show that challenge stressors can activate learning behaviors to a certain ex-tent,but also induce defensive behaviors.This conclusion is a supplement and extension of the theory of learning under occupational stressors.Third,this study confirms the mediating role of dualistic work passion between challenge stressors and employees'learning from failure.On the one hand,it responds to scholars'call for research on the complex relation-ship between stress and passion.On the other hand,it deeply explains the reason why employees choose different modes of learning from failure under the same level of challenge stressors,providing a new perspective for understanding the for-mation process of employees'learning from failure.Enterprises are suggested to attach importance to the mode of learning.The empirical results show that employees are more inclined to adopt single loop learning after innovation failure.Single loop learning pursues efficiency and short-term performance,while double loop learning contributes to the improvement of strategic goals and long-term perform-ance.Both of them are indispensable.Enterprises should also treat the challenge stressors dialectically and focus on culti-vating harmonious passion,including establishing a post rotation system,providing professional skills training courses,improving fault tolerance and correction mechanism.