Self-Regulatory Focus, Organizational Climate and Training Effectiveness

Open Access
- Author:
- Zhao, Xinyuan
- Graduate Program:
- Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- August 10, 2006
- Committee Members:
- Anna S Mattila, Committee Member
William L Harkness, Committee Member
James Lewis Farr, Committee Member
Albert Laurence Bartlett Iii, Committee Member
Karthik Namasivayam, Committee Chair/Co-Chair - Keywords:
- psychological safety
organizational climate
regulatory focus
training effectiveness
training motivation - Abstract:
- The current study was designed to investigate the effects of regulatory focus on training effectiveness, moderated by psychological safety. Specifically, the study wanted to test the hypothesized effects: (1) whether chronic promotion and prevention focus individuals have different acquired learning; (2) whether chronic and situation-induced regulatory foci have an interactive effect on individuals’ acquired learning; (3) whether psychological safety moderates the effects of regulatory focus on individuals’ acquired learning; and (4) whether different patterns of acquired learning lead to different behavioral patterns of employees. A laboratory experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses. 207 voluntarily recruited college students watched the 4½ minutes training video on six skills to select job applicants, and then provided human resources managers hire/reject recommendations of the given job applicants. The study found that chronic promotion focus individuals were more likely to acquire skills about how to select job applicants, whereas chronic prevention focus individuals were more likely to acquire skills about how to avoid mistakes in selecting job applicants. In addition, when psychological safety was high, chronic promotion focus individuals had different acquired learning across situational inductions of promotion focus and prevention focus, while chronic prevention focus individuals did when psychological safety was low. The relationship between acquired learning and individuals’ behavioral pattern was also demonstrated. However, the interaction effect between chronic and situation-induced regulatory foci was not statistically significant. The results of the study were discussed with limitations. Finally, the study was concluded with theoretical and practical implications.