命运天定还是逆天改命:探索劣势者成见的“傀儡效应”与“黑马效应”

Accept or change your fate:Exploring the Golem effect and underdog effect of underdog expectations

职场中总有一些员工被视为前景黯淡,赋予劣势者成见。现有研究关注到它作为社会情境线索对员工行为的影响,但忽视了它与个体特质的交互作用,因而形成截然不同的结论。为弥合上述矛盾,文章基于特质激活理论,沿着“特质×情境→行为/意图→绩效”主线,探讨了不同心态特质被劣势者成见激活时对任务绩效的影响,尝试回答“不被看好的员工因何沦为被命运摆布的傀儡又何时逆袭成为职场黑马”。两项问卷研究和一项现场研究的数据分析揭示:(1)劣势者成见与固定心态的交互作用正向影响反馈回避行为进而降低任务绩效;(2)劣势者成见与成长心态的交互作用正向影响证明他人错误进而增强任务绩效;(3)聚焦任务抑制劣势者成见对固定心态员工行为的激活作用,聚焦未来增强劣势者成见对成长心态员工行为的激活作用。研究揭示了职场中“傀儡效应”与“黑马效应”的成因及其干预条件,表明心态特质在加工“不被看好”这类负面信息上存在不同的影响路径,从而为整合“劣势者员工”和“领头羊员工”研究奠定基础,也为当前“躺平”、“佛系”等丧文化的产生和流行提供了理论解释和转化思路。

In organisations,some employees are heralded as rising stars,whilst others are considered underdogs with no prospects.Scholars define individuals’perceptions that others view them as unlikely to succeed as underdog expectation.The traditional view indicates that when individuals experience underdog expectations from others,they will reduce their subsequent performance through a sense of self-efficacy.This phenomenon,in which one’s performance is manipulated by someone else’s negative assessment,is also known as the Golem effect.Indeed,some studies have suggested that underdog expectations can enhance their desire to prove others wrong to improve performance.However,such studies have only focused on the influence of underdog expectations on employee behavior as social-situation cues but have disregarded its interaction with individuals’traits.By integrating the preceding arguments,we proposed a comprehensive model based on trait activation theory,which examines the Golem and underdog effects.Specifically,under the moderating effect of underdog expectations,employees with fixed mindsets have a negative impact on subsequent task performance through feedback-avoiding behavior.Meanwhile,employees with growth mindsets have a positive impact on subsequent task performance by proving others wrong.The task context(task focus vs.future focus)plays a role in inhibiting and amplifying the two interactions.This study aimed to explore the reasons why employees who are trapped in underdog expectations become a Golem manipulated by fate and how to counter strike and become an underdog in the workplace.This study constructed a three-term interaction model of nested moderated mediation model.Three studies were designed to explore the internal and intervention mechanisms of the Golem and underdog effects activated by underdog expectations.In the first study,the existence of three interactions was initially examined through a multi-source,multi-point questionnaire of 341 employees.To test the stability of the three interactions and the extensibility of the research conclusions in different groups,a second multi-source and multi-time questionnaire survey involving 650 employees and a field study based on a quasi-experiment were designed for retesting.Regression analysis,bootstrap method and Johnson−Neyman(J−N)technology were used to analyse the questionnaire data to examine the moderated mediation effects of the three-term interaction.T-tests were used to analyse data from the field study.The analyses of the study showed the following results.(1)The interaction between underdog expectations and fixed mindsets positively affects subsequent task performance through feedback-avoiding behavior.(2)The interaction between underdog expectations and growth mindsets positively affects subsequent task performance through the desire to prove others wrong.(3)Lastly,task focus reduces the positive moderating effect of underdog expectations on fixed mindsets,and future focus strengthens the positive moderating effect of underdog expectations on growth mindsets.Findings of our research have several theoretical and practical implications.This study revealed the causes of the Golem and underdog effects,thereby enriching and expanding the research on implicit theory.It showed that fixed and growth mindsets have different paths in processing negative information,which is helpful in integrating the research on underdog and topdog employees.It also provided a theoretical explanation and transformation idea for the emergence and popularity of the depressed culture represented by the lie down and Buddha-like mindsets.