The impact of regulatory focus on job performance of higher education institution teachers in China based on double-mediating effect

Abstract

Nowadays with increasingly fierce competition among higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide, much attention has been given to upgrading school management level and building high-quality teaching staff. In recent years, China has issued various policies and regulations to strengthen the development of HEIs and has built the largest higher education system of the world. Thus, this research focuses on Chinese teachers to carry out relevant studies. More specifically, under the context of this research the word “teachers” only stands for those full-time teachers who mainly undertake the responsibility of both the teaching work and the academic research work in Chinese HEIs.

This research aims to study the correlation between regulatory focus and job performance based on the mediating effect of psychological empowerment and intrinsic motivation of teachers from Chinese HEIs. To provide a better insight into higher-education teaching staff, demographic factors including gender, age, education, work time, job rank and income are also discussed as control variables. Quantitative study method is adopted in this research, while SPSS and Amos software are used to conduct data analysis. Based on extensive literature research about regulatory focus theory, self-determination theory, incentive theory as well as empowerment theory, a questionnaire is designed and passes the pilot test. It is then distributed to over 500 Chinese HEI teachers through snowball sampling and convenience sampling procedures, and eventually 403 questionnaires are filled out and collected back.

According to the collected data, it is found that promotion focus, psychological empowerment and intrinsic motivation would be positively related to job performance respectively. It is also proven that there are positive and significant correlations between promotion focus and psychological empowerment as well as between promotion focus and intrinsic motivation. The negative and significant relationship between prevention focus and psychological empowerment is also verified. Moreover, this research steps forward by confirming that psychological empowerment and intrinsic motivation are significant mediators which could effectively pass the effects of promotion focus on job performance of Chinese HEI teachers. Psychological empowerment could also transfer the roles of prevention focus to job performance of the teachers. Consequently, the research findings indicate that school administrators should assign work to teachers based on the task kinds and teachers’ regulatory focus type. They should also create a comfortable, humanized working environment to help teachers feel truly empowered and intrinsically motivated from the heart, so as to attract and retain the first-class teachers and fully mobilize their enthusiasm and initiative, which would in turn contribute to the survival and development of HEIs.