Implicit motives as the missing link between visionary leadership, approach and avoidance motivation, and vision pursuit

An unresolved question in visionary leadership research is, why must visions be high in imagery to cause affective reactions and be motivationally effective? Research in motivation psychology has shown that pictorial cues arouse implicit motives. Thus, pictorial cues from vision-induced imagery should arouse a follower’s implicit motives just like a real image. Hence, our fundamental proposition is that follower implicit motives and follower approach motivation serially mediate the relationship between leader vision and followers’ vision pursuit. We also examine the case of negative leader visions, with the central propositions that a negative leader vision arouses a follower’s implicit fear motives and that the follower’s implicit fear motives and follower avoidance motivation serially mediate the relationship between negative leader vision and the follower’s fear-related behaviors. Lastly, we assert that multiple implicit follower motives aroused by a multithematic leader vision exert additive as well as interaction effects on the follower’s vision pursuit.

Arousing Motives or Eliciting Stories? On the Role of Pictures in a Picture–Story Exercise

Picture–story exercises (PSE) form a popular measurement approach that has been widely used for the assessment of implicit motives. However, current theorizing offers two diverging perspectives on the role of pictures in PSEs: either to elicit stories or to arouse motives. In the current study, we tested these perspectives in an experimental design. We administered a PSE either with or without pictures. Results from N = 281 participants revealed that the experimental manipulation had a medium to large effect for the affiliation and power motive domains, but no effect for the achievement motive domain. We conclude that the herein chosen pictures cues function differentially across motives, as they aroused the affiliation and power motives, but not the achievement motive.

Re-creating the Past - On the Quality of Archaeological Reconstruction on Gotland

Re-creating the past in full-scale, open-air reconstructions has been done for a long time, but the phenomenon has been accelerating and changing character during the last two decades. The article examines how the reconstruction activities are motivated. Explicit aims are contrasted with implicit motives inherent in reconstruction. Public utility is proposed as an important excuse for the reconstruction activities. As a consequence of the relationship between explicit aims and public utility, we get a rigid form of quality thinking that expresses elitism. Instead of fruitless criticism we can express more clearly what we expect from a reconstruction, and why. Examples used are taken from the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.

Under Attack! CEO Implicit Motives and Firm Competitive Responses Following Short Seller Activism

We investigate how CEOs’ implicit motives can shape firms’ competitive intensity in response to external threats. We examine this phenomenon in the context of short seller activism, which occurs when an activist short seller publicly denounces a firm to drive down its stock price. Implicit motives are motivational dispositions that operate outside of an individual’s conscious awareness. We find that CEOs’ implicit needs for achievement and power are associated with a decrease in competitive intensity following short seller activism, implying that implicit motives can lead CEOs to avoid behaviors that they fear may result in failure or the exposure of weakness in the wake of an external threat. This study contributes to research on external threats and corporate governance by highlighting the role of CEOs’ implicit motives in shaping firms’ responses to activists. We emphasize the importance of integrating implicit motives into upper echelons research.

Is there a relationship between implicit motives and eating action types: An exploratory study in Germany

Investigating unconscious human behaviours is a complex issue, given that people have hardly access to their unconscious. Food-related behaviour is one of these behaviours in which the unconscious plays a central role. Therefore, the connection of the unconscious and food-related behaviour is difficult to comprehend. Hence, our exploratory study deals with the relationship between implicit motives as an important part of the unconscious and their relationship with food-related behaviour. For this purpose, we used the Operant Multi-Motive Test (OMT), which offers information about implicit motives of individuals. Based on 37 qualitative problem-centred interviews conducted in Bavaria, Germany, we identified seven eating action types that we combined with the results derived from the OMT. These deliver profound insights into how people eat due to their identity. The approach of this study is explorative and provides a first insight into a possible relationship between implicit motives and food-related behaviour that are presented descriptively. Our initial results show that a relationship between implicit motives and food-related behaviour can be assumed, although it cannot be directly deduced from the sole analysis of food-related behaviour. However, nutrition consultancies, food companies, policy makers and advisors may be interested in these insights related to understanding the impact of the unconscious on food-related behaviour.

Distal and proximal motivational processes related to flow experience: Investigating the role of implicit motives, affective and cognitive preferences, and perceived abilities

One of the prominent questions in flow research is the investigation of conditions that need to be met so that people will get involved in an activity for the sheer sake of doing it. The present study examined the relationship between distal (i.e., implicit motives) and proximal (i.e., affective preferences, cognitive preferences, perceived abilities) motivational processes and flow experience based on assumptions of the compensatory model of motivation and volition. In order to arouse the implicit agentic motive, 63 participants worked on an online platform in an open innovation environment. Results showed that affective preferences mediated the effect of the implicit agentic motive on flow experience. Moreover, a hierarchical regression analysis with simple slope tests yielded that, at the proximal level, the congruence of affective preferences, cognitive preferences, and perceived abilities was associated with flow experience. The present research adds some new and essential ingredients to Csikszentmihalyis’ traditional conception of flow.

People Prefer Politicians with Matching Implicit Motives: A Study on the Achievement and Affiliation Motives

ObjectiveFor centuries, researchers have been interested in the factors determining political preference. These four studies tested the prediction that a match between political leaders’ and voters’ implicit motives – i.e., non-conscious tendencies to strive for particular social rewards – predicts the appeal of leaders.MethodWe used student samples in all studies (Study 1a: N = 100; Study 1b: N = 52; Study 2: N = 72; Study 3: N = 62). We assessed two implicit motives: (a) the achievement motive, which refers to striving for excellence, and (b) the affiliation motive, which refers to striving for social harmony. Correlational analyses and polynomial regression with response surface analysis were used to assess the relation between implicit motives and political preference.ResultsParticipants were more likely to positively evaluate and vote for politicians whose speeches indicated a motive profile that matched their own implicit motives. Thus, people who are relatively achievement-motivated prefer relatively achievement-motivated candidates, and participants who are relatively affiliation-motivated prefer relatively affiliation -motivated candidates. Conversely, explicitly measured motives did not have these predictive effects.ConclusionsThese results indicate that individual differences in implicit motives play a significant role in political preference.