Challenge at work : a matter of give and take
Job challenge is highly relevant for employees and their organizations. Despite the growing amount of research on job challenge, many issues concerning the conceptualization, antecedents, processes, and outcomes of job challenge remain to be examined. This dissertation comprises five empirical chapters with seven studies employing multiple samples and research methods that aimed to examine the issues as mentioned above. These studies have increased our understanding of job challenge in multiple ways. First, job challenge is a broad concept including task and context characteristics, and people’s subjective perceptions of challenge as positive stimulation, competence testing, and uncertainty. Second, people’s goal orientations are not only important for task choices but also for the motivational and mood outcomes of performing challenging tasks. People with a mastery-approach orientation tend to choose challenging tasks and, when challenged, they show more positive affective and motivational reactions. Third, supervisors’ goal orientations tend to influence employees’ opportunities for performing challenging tasks. Performance-approach oriented supervisors could withhold their employees from challenging experiences which, in turn, may undermine employees’ learning and development. Finally, because of its positive influence on on-the-job learning, job challenge will decrease rather than increase voluntary turnover.