Multiple-Goal Approach Among Indonesian University Students

A total of 1006 students from three public and two private universities in Indonesia participated in the study of multiple goals profiling in the Indonesian context. Four multiple-goal clusters, with learning, performance approach, performance avoidance, and work avoidance goals as clustering variables, were educed. Learning goals correlated positively with both performance approach and performance avoidance clusters, and negatively to work avoidance goals. Performance goals correlated positively with both performance avoidance and work avoidance goals. Learning, performance approach and performance avoidance goals correlated positively with self-efficacy. These clusters were further examined in relations to attributions, self-efficacy, theories of intelligence, religiosity, racial/ethnic identity, and academic performance.

Temporal Dynamics Between Faculty Goals, Burnout/Engagement, and Performance in Teaching and Research: A Latent Change Score Approach

Motivation is posited to be central for faculty members’ professional experiences and performance. To this end, achievement goals have been associated with burnout/engagement and performance at work. However, the few studies that have examined this topic were cross-sectional and only considered one of the two equally important work domains of faculty members. In the present research, we analyze the temporal relationships between achievement goals and burnout/engagement as well as performance and investigate the domain specificity of goal pursuit by considering goals for teaching and goals for research. To this end, we conducted a longitudinal study including 681 German faculty members that were surveyed four times over a total of two years. Multivariate Latent Change Score modeling attested that in both domains, mastery-approach goals were positively related to subsequent development of performance, while performance was also positively related to subsequent development of mastery goals, creating a double positive loop. Performance goals and work-avoidance goals were differentially associated with performance in both domains, indicating that the effects of goals can be bound to different contextual features. For overall burnout/engagement, our results implied that for its development, primarily research goals mattered (with performance-avoidance and work-avoidance goals being risk factors), while high burnout levels were associated with subsequent reduction of adaptive mastery-approach goals in both domains. This highlights the relevance of achievement goals for burnout/engagement and performance of faculty and employees in general, and sheds light on their complex temporal dynamics that can also meaningfully inform achievement goal research in other contexts.

‘Unlocking Us’: Analyzing the US election and its aftermath

The American presidential election of 2020 ended in the early hours of Thursday 7 January 2021, when the US Congress counted and certified the ballots of the Electoral College in the aftermath of a violent, Trump-supporting mob breaching the US Capitol. The spectacle of this assault may be analyzed for years to come, yet it is immediately clear that it was the result of authoritarian impulses on the part of the defeated president. Critical Leadership Studies has concerned itself with the ‘problematization’ of leadership theory, often examining distributions of power both within society and within the discipline itself. This article takes its title from Brené Brown’s podcast, ‘Unlocking Us’, torqueing it in an effort to understand these events and their causes as a group dynamic that manifested between Trump and his supporters. I also make the argument that the anxiety fomented and falsely contained by Trump has its deeper origins in what Kuhn labeled ‘paradigm shifts’. To deconstruct the kind of leadership that took place in the run-up to and the aftermath of the 2020 election—darkly charismatic, authoritarian, and cultish—I employ three lenses of analysis: paradigm shifts as progenitors of crisis; ‘basic assumption’ patterns of work avoidance in groups; and ‘holding environments’ as the imposition of salutary boundaries that foster growth. In combination, these three lenses offer an interpretation of recent events in America that enhances the dialectical approach proposed by Critical Leadership Theory.

Researchers’ achievement goals: Prevalence, structure, and associations with job burnout/engagement and professional learning

Researchers’ motivations are important for high-quality research and the productivity of the scientific system, but remain largely uninvestigated. Using three studies, we tested the usefulness of Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) for describing research motivations, investigated which goals researchers pursue, and examined their associations with job burnout/engagement and professional learning. Interviewing 20 researchers (Study 1), we found that most of their goals in the research context were classifiable as achievement goals. Apart from mastery and performance goals that are well-established in the AGT literature, they also mentioned relational and work-avoidance goals. Mastery goals comprised task and learning standards, performance goals comprised appearance and normative strivings. In Study 2, we used a standardized questionnaire to assess these goals in 824 researchers, along with burnout/engagement, professional learning time, and professional learning gains. Results confirmed the separability of all conceptualized goals, measurement invariance across academic status, and differential patterns of associations with burnout/engagement and professional learning. In Study 3, we analyzed these constructs in 471 researchers at two time points, six months apart. Results attested measurement invariance over time. Cross-lagged analyses documented similar associations as in Study 2. Learning approach and relational goals had positive effects on professional learning; appearance avoidance and work-avoidance goals were negative predictors. In contrast, burnout was negatively predicted by normative avoidance goals. However, high initial burnout levels were associated with reduced task approach and learning approach, and stronger work-avoidance goals six months later. Taken together, the results highlight the usefulness of AGT for understanding researchers’ motivations, and their relatedness with professional learning and well-being at work.

The Relevance of Stability and Change of Achievement Goals for Self-regulated Motor Learning Processes and Outcomes

Self-regulated motor learning is a frequent and important achievement activity in sport and exercise contexts. Therein, individual learners’ achievement goals can be considered relevant for motor learning processes and outcomes. To better understand their role, we first examined the temporal stability of achievement goals during self-regulated motor learning. Next, we tested the relevance of the goals and their temporal variability for the learning process (learning time, effort, and motivational problems) and learning outcomes (performance and continuance intentions). To this end, 93 individuals completed a total of 1,017 daily diary entries about their goals (learning-approach, performance-approach, performance-avoidance, work-avoidance goals) and learning processes across sixteen days while learning juggling basics. Afterwards, they completed a post-test assessing their learning outcomes. Multi-level analyses indicated that goals contained both temporally stable and temporally variable fractions that were both relevant for learning processes. For learning outcomes, not only mean levels, but also temporal trends mattered.

Structure and Relationships of University Instructors’ Achievement Goals

The present study examines the achievement goals of university instructors, particularly the structure of such goals, and their relationship to biographic characteristics, other aspects of instructors’ motivation, and teaching quality. Two hundred and fifty-one university instructors (184 without Ph.D., 97 with Ph.D., thereof 51 full professors; 146 males, 92 females) answered a questionnaire measuring achievement goals, self-efficacy, and enthusiasm in altogether 392 courses. Teaching quality was assessed using reports from 9,241 students who were attending these courses. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed mastery, performance approach, performance avoidance, work avoidance, and relational goals as being distinguishable from each other. Distinct relationships were found between different instructors’ achievement goals, and gender, age, and career status as well as self-efficacy and enthusiasm. Hierarchical linear models suggested positive associations of instructors’ mastery goals with teaching quality, while negative associations were indicated for performance avoidance goals and work avoidance goals in relation to teaching quality. Exploratory analyses conducted due to a quite large correlation between performance approach and performance avoidance goals indicated that for university instructors, differentiating performance goals into appearance and normative components might also be adequate. All in all, the study highlights the auspiciousness of the theoretical concept of university instructors’ achievement goals and contributes to making it comprehensively accessible.

Higher Education Instructors’ Usage of and Learning from Student Evaluations of Teaching – Do Achievement Goals Matter?

Identifying what motivates higher education instructors in their self-regulated learning from stu-dent evaluations of teaching (SET) is important for improving future teaching. In a longitudinal online field study, we investigated how higher education instructors’ achievement goals predict the use of SET(s), processing its results and learning from it. We expected beneficial effects of learning (approach and avoidance) goals and performance approach goals, while performance avoidance goals and work avoidance goals should be detrimental for the learning process. In to-tal, 407 higher education instructors with teaching commitments reported their achievement goals. Out of these participants, 152 instructors voluntarily conducted SET(s) and subsequently reported their learning intentions regarding this student feedback. Using structural equation modelling, we found that learning avoidance goals were positively associated with conducting SET(s) and learning approach goals were positively associated with learning intentions. These findings highlight the importance of learning goals for instructors’ use of SET(s).

University Instructors’ Implicit Theories of Intelligence, Achievement Goals for Teaching, and Teaching Quality

University instructors’ goals for teaching are important for teaching quality. However, studies examining factors that shape instructors’ goal adoption are lacking. Using data from 785 instructors, we investigated whether implicit theories (ITs) about the malleability of intelligence constitute one such factor. Following achievement goal theory and Dweck’s (1999) achievement motivation framework, we analyzed whether differences in teaching goals are attributable to differences in ITs, and whether goals mediate the relation between ITs and instructional quality. Structural equation modeling yielded the expected relations between goals and instructional quality (positive for mastery and performance approach goals; negative for performance avoidance and work avoidance goals). As hypothesized, stronger endorsement of incremental ITs was positively related to mastery, and negatively to work avoidance goals. However, ITs were unrelated to performance goals. Indirect effects of ITs on teaching quality via goals were significant but rather weak. Implications for research and fostering teaching motivation are discussed.

Interactions of Approach and Avoidance Job Crafting and Work Engagement: A Comparison between Employees Affected and Not Affected by Organizational Changes

Job crafting describes proactive employee behaviors to improve the design of their work and working conditions, and to adapt their job to better suit their abilities and needs. During organizational changes, employees may use job crafting to adjust to the changes in their work and protect their well-being and motivation, i.e., work engagement. However, research shows that although the effects of job crafting strategies that expand the design of work (approach job crafting) have been positive on work engagement, the effects of job crafting strategies that diminish the scope of work (avoidance job crafting) have often been negative. This study investigated the effects of the interactions between different job crafting strategies on work engagement, an aspect that has not thus far been studied. Specifically, we hypothesized that avoidance job crafting is not harmful for work engagement when it is conducted in combination with approach job crafting, particularly during times of organizational change. A two-wave, 18-month follow-up study was conducted among public sector workers who either experienced (n = 479) or did not experience (n = 412) changes in their work. Latent moderated structural equation modeling revealed that avoidance job crafting did not reduce work engagement when combined with approach job crafting behaviors. Moreover, job crafting best benefited work engagement when it was combined with these opposing strategies. However, job crafting was beneficial for work engagement only among employees who were affected by organizational changes, that is, among employees whose job design had changed. Practically, organizations implementing changes could encourage proactive job redesign approaches among their employees—particularly both approach and avoidance types of job crafting strategies.