A dynamic approach to the study of organizational phenomena

The past 15 years have seen a rise in the use of experience sampling and diary studies in applied psychology and organizational research. These methods are extremely helpful in investigating dynamic within-person processes involving transient organizational phenomena, as well as cross-level effects of stable characteristics on dynamic processes (Fisher & To, 2012). In this talk, we will present two studies aimed at investigating: (1) inertia of negative emotions at work, and (2) the relation between self-set goals and performance. In the first study (n = 128), we used ESM to investigate the role of exhaustion, the core dimension of burnout, in predicting temporal dependency (in terms of emotional inertia) of negative emotional states at work. According to the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR, Hobfoll, 1989), exhaustion occurs when individuals experience a net loss of physical, cognitive or emotional resources, ingenerated by a prolonged exposure to work stress (Hobfoll & Shirom, 2001). Within this theoretical framework, we hypothesized that exhaustion may affect emotion dynamics, by contributing to an emotional slowing down or higher persistence of negative emotional states across time, reflected in higher levels of inertia of negative emotions. Findings supported our hypothesis and suggested the relevance of emotional inertia in the work setting. The second study (n = 147), used a diary method to investigate the role of self-set study goals in predicting academic performance (in terms of self-reported performance and exam grades) within the framework of the Goal-Setting Theory (GST, Locke & Latham, 1990). GST is a motivational theory created and developed to manage people within organizations by focusing on the use of specific and challenging objectives in order to achieve higher job performance. Although the validity of GST is widely recognized, most of the supporting evidence has been obtained in laboratory and field experiments that did not involve self-set goals (Locke & Latham, 2013). Results of our study showed that: (a) the relation between daily self-set goals and daily performance is moderated by the levels of goal specificity and difficulty, (b) daily performance increases over time until the day of the examination, (c) an increase of daily performance predicts exam grade, and (d) an increase of daily performance mediates the relation between goal specificity/goal difficulty and exam grade.