Regulatory focus and work-related outcomes: a review and meta-analysis

Regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) has received growing attention in organizational psychology,necessitating a quantitative review that synthesizes its effects on important criteria. In addition, there isneed for theoretical integration of regulatory focus theory with personality research. Theoretical integrationis particularly relevant, since personality traits and dispositions are distal factors that are unlikelyto have direct effects on work behaviors, yet they may have indirect effects via regulatory focus. Thecurrent meta-analysis introduces an integrative framework in which the effects of personality on workbehaviors are best understood when considered in conjunction with more proximal motivational processessuch as regulatory focus. Using a distal–proximal approach, we identify personality antecedentsand work-related consequences of regulatory foci in a framework that considers both general andwork-specific regulatory foci as proximal motivational processes. We present meta-analytic results forrelations of regulatory focus with its antecedents (approach and avoid temperaments, conscientiousness,openness to experience, agreeableness, self-esteem, and self-efficacy) and its consequences (workbehaviors and attitudes). In addition to estimates of bivariate relationships, we support a meta-analyticpath model in which distal personality traits relate to work behaviors via the mediating effects of generaland work-specific regulatory focus. Results from tests of incremental and relative validity indicated thatregulatory foci predict unique variance in work behaviors after controlling for established personality,motivation, and attitudinal predictors. Consistent with regulatory focus theory and our integrativetheoretical framework, regulatory focus has meaningful relations with work outcomes and is notredundant with other individual difference variables