The joint effects of promotion and prevention focus on performance, exhaustion and sickness absence among managers and non-managers

an article by Paraskevas Petrou, (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands), Machteld Van den Heuvel, (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and Wilmar Schaufeli, (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) published in Personnel Review Volume 46 Issue 8 (2017)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the main and interaction effects of self-rated promotion and prevention regulatory focus on self-rated work performance, emotional exhaustion and sickness absence for managers and non-managers separately. The authors expected that promotion focus relates positively to performance and negatively to sickness absence, while prevention focus relates positively to exhaustion and sickness absence, both for managers and non-managers. Furthermore, the authors expected that promotion focus relates positively to performance but also to exhaustion and sickness absence when prevention focus is high, only for managers (i.e. a manager’s dual regulatory focus can be an effective but also exhausting leadership strategy).

Design/methodology/approach
The authors tested the hypotheses via moderated regression analyses among two independent groups, managers (n=241) and non-managers (n=415).

Findings
Promotion focus was positively related to managers’ and non-managers’ performance and negatively to non-managers’ sickness absence, while prevention focus did not have any main effects. As expected, managers’ promotion focus was positively related to managers’ sickness absence when managers’ prevention focus was high (i.e. dual regulatory focus). Furthermore, managers’ promotion focus negatively related to managers’ performance when managers’ prevention was high, failing to support the hypothesis.

Practical implications
Promotion focus should be enhanced by organizations among leaders and employees. The authors also cautiously discuss the possibility of interventions comparing a promotion focus with dual-focus training.

Originality/value
The authors contribute to the literature by examining the joint (rather than main) effects of promotion and prevention focus on work behavior and the authors address these links among managers and non-managers.

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Trust me, I'm an expert: identity construction and knowledge sharing

an article by Lesley Crane (University of Derby) published in Journal of Knowledge Management Volume 16 Issue 3 (2012) Abstract

Purpose
Knowledge management (KM) is a global organizational practice that focuses on core questions around knowledge sharing and creation, and which is characterized by definitional issues and a schism over the nature of knowledge. Against this by definition problematic background, this study aims to investigate how KM practitioners construct identities as expert in an online discussion forum, showing how knowledge sharing is inextricably linked to identity construction.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a discourse analytic approach, grounded in the discourse psychology paradigm, and its underlying theory that all language, including both talk and text, is situated action in social interaction, marked by variation, function and consequences.
Findings
Analysis demonstrates how forum contributors deploy discursive devices constructively, actively and relationally to formulate membership of an expert élite group, and that group membership is marked by inter-group competitive rivalry. This has synergies with the theory of creative abrasion.
Practical implications
The study has implications for KM theories and practice in showing how attention to the social-interaction practices of talk and text can reveal deeper understanding of how people share knowledge, and in demonstrating the important and consequential relationship between identity construction and knowledge.
Originality/value
This is among the first studies to take a discursive approach to the study of language in the KM domain, and demonstrates the rich potential for future studies.

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