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Is Being a Good Learner Enough? An Examination of the Interplay Between Learning Goal Orientation and Impression Management Tactics on Creativity
Author(s) -
Liu Dong,
Wang Sheng,
Wayne Sandy J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
personnel psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.076
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1744-6570
pISSN - 0031-5826
DOI - 10.1111/peps.12064
Subject(s) - creativity , psychology , goal orientation , impression management , social psychology , orientation (vector space) , longitudinal study , pedagogy , statistics , geometry , mathematics
This study explores how protégés’ learning goal orientation (LGO) and impression management (IM) tactics interact to explain mentors’ provision of mentoring functions and ultimately, protégés’ creativity. Using longitudinal data from 917 mentor–protégé dyads participating in an 8‐month mentoring program, we found that protégés’ mentor‐focused and self‐focused IM tactics strengthened the relationship between protégés’ LGO and the extent of mentoring provided by mentors, whereas job‐focused IM tactics weakened this relationship. Moreover, these IM tactics moderated the indirect effect of protégés’ LGO on protégés’ creativity through the extent of mentoring provided by mentors. Implications for organizational theory and practice are discussed.