IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobhdp/v148y2018icp12-29.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A double-edged sword: How and why resetting performance metrics affects motivation and performance

Author

Listed:
  • Dai, Hengchen

Abstract

Inside and outside of workplaces, individuals’ performance on a metric (e.g., sales) is often decoupled from past performance (rather than being tracked as a continuation of past performance). How do people respond to such performance resets, a type of fresh start on performance records, particularly when resets are not anticipated? Three laboratory experiments and one field study analyzing 40 years of data from professional baseball players demonstrate their impact. Specifically, unanticipated resets increase self-efficacy and thus boost motivation and future performance when they follow weak performance. However, such resets decrease self-efficacy and thus harm motivation and future performance when they follow strong performance. By identifying the conditions that determine whether performance resets improve or harm motivation, and highlighting the role of self-efficacy, this paper provides novel insights into how different ways of tracking performance influence motivation, as well as how fresh starts change behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Dai, Hengchen, 2018. "A double-edged sword: How and why resetting performance metrics affects motivation and performance," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 12-29.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:148:y:2018:i:c:p:12-29
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2018.06.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597816308056
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.obhdp.2018.06.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seo, Myeong-gu & Ilies, Remus, 2009. "The role of self-efficacy, goal, and affect in dynamic motivational self-regulation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 120-133, July.
    2. Hengchen Dai & Katherine L. Milkman & Jason Riis, 2014. "The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2563-2582, October.
    3. Silver, William S. & Mitchell, Terence R. & Gist, Marilyn E., 1995. "Responses to Successful and Unsuccessful Performance: The Moderating Effect of Self-Efficacy on the Relationship between Performance and Attributions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 286-299, June.
    4. Robin L. Soster & Ashwani Monga & William O. Bearden, 2010. "Tracking Costs of Time and Money: How Accounting Periods Affect Mental Accounting," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(4), pages 712-721, December.
    5. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    6. Bandura, Albert, 1991. "Social cognitive theory of self-regulation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 248-287, December.
    7. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    8. Francis J. Flynn & Emily T. Amanatullah, 2012. "Psyched Up or Psyched Out? The Influence of Coactor Status on Individual Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 402-415, April.
    9. Joseph C. Nunes & Xavier Drze, 2006. "The Endowed Progress Effect: How Artificial Advancement Increases Effort," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(4), pages 504-512, March.
    10. Ran Kivetz & Oleg Urminsky & Yuhuang Zheng, 2006. "The Goal-Gradient Hypothesis Resurrected: Purchase Acceleration, Illusionary Goal Progress, and Customer Retention," Natural Field Experiments 00658, The Field Experiments Website.
    11. Alex Imas, 2016. "The Realization Effect: Risk-Taking after Realized versus Paper Losses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(8), pages 2086-2109, August.
    12. Yanping Tu & Dilip Soman, 2014. "The Categorization of Time and Its Impact on Task Initiation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 810-822.
    13. Huang, Szu-chi & Jin, Liyin & Zhang, Ying, 2017. "Step by step: Sub-goals as a source of motivation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1-15.
    14. Read, Daniel & Loewenstein, George & Rabin, Matthew, 1999. "Choice Bracketing," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 19(1-3), pages 171-197, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Koo, Minjung & Dai, Hengchen & Mai, Ke Michael & Song, Camilla Eunyoung, 2020. "Anticipated temporal landmarks undermine motivation for continued goal pursuit," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 142-157.
    2. Beshears, John & Dai, Hengchen & Milkman, Katherine L. & Benartzi, Shlomo, 2021. "Using fresh starts to nudge increased retirement savings," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 72-87.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hengchen Dai & Katherine L. Milkman & Jason Riis, 2014. "The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2563-2582, October.
    2. Feurer, Sven & Haws, Kelly L., 2022. "Justifiable justifications in sequential indulgent choice situations: A framework for future research based on perceived exceptionality," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 630-639.
    3. Dennis Kundisch & Tobias Rechenberg, 2017. "Does the Framing of Progress Towards Virtual Rewards Matter?," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 59(4), pages 207-222, August.
    4. Kanfer, Ruth & Chen, Gilad, 2016. "Motivation in organizational behavior: History, advances and prospects," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 6-19.
    5. Beshears, John & Dai, Hengchen & Milkman, Katherine L. & Benartzi, Shlomo, 2021. "Using fresh starts to nudge increased retirement savings," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 72-87.
    6. Chen, Yanyan & Mandler, Timo & Meyer-Waarden, Lars, 2021. "Three decades of research on loyalty programs: A literature review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 179-197.
    7. Chang, Yingying & Du, Xingqiang & Zeng, Quan, 2021. "Does environmental information disclosure mitigate corporate risk? Evidence from China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    8. Erkan, Asligul & Nguyen, Trung, 2021. "Does inside debt help mitigate agency problems? The case with investment inefficiency and payout policies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    9. Aguir, Iness & Burns, Natasha & Mansi, Sattar A. & Wald, John K., 2014. "Liability protection, director compensation, and incentives," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 570-589.
    10. Albertazzi, Ugo & Fringuellotti, Fulvia & Ongena, Steven, 2024. "Fixed rate versus adjustable rate mortgages: Evidence from euro area banks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    11. Erdem, Orhan & Varli, Yusuf, 2014. "Understanding the sovereign credit ratings of emerging markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 42-57.
    12. Borisova, Ginka & Fotak, Veljko & Holland, Kateryna & Megginson, William L., 2015. "Government ownership and the cost of debt: Evidence from government investments in publicly traded firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 168-191.
    13. ElBannan, Mona A., 2017. "Stock market liquidity, family ownership, and capital structure choices in an emerging country," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 201-231.
    14. Schlueter, Tobias & Sievers, Soenke & Hartmann-Wendels, Thomas, 2015. "Bank funding stability, pricing strategies and the guidance of depositors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 43-61.
    15. Elsayed, Mohamed & Elshandidy, Tamer & Ahmed, Yousry, 2022. "Corporate failure in the UK: An examination of corporate governance reforms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. Daniel Dejuán & Corinna Ghirelli, 2018. "Policy uncertainty and investment in Spain," Working Papers 1848, Banco de España.
    17. repec:cup:judgdm:v:11:y:2016:i:5:p:424-440 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Jushan Bai & Sung Hoon Choi & Yuan Liao, 2021. "Feasible generalized least squares for panel data with cross-sectional and serial correlations," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 309-326, January.
    19. Ntim, Collins G. & Lindop, Sarah & Thomas, Dennis A., 2013. "Corporate governance and risk reporting in South Africa: A study of corporate risk disclosures in the pre- and post-2007/2008 global financial crisis periods," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 363-383.
    20. Jannis Bischof & Holger Daske, 2013. "Mandatory Disclosure, Voluntary Disclosure, and Stock Market Liquidity: Evidence from the EU Bank Stress Tests," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 997-1029, December.
    21. Hsiaw, Alice, 2018. "Goal bracketing and self-control," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 100-121.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:148:y:2018:i:c:p:12-29. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/obhdp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.