An empirical study of the influencing mechanism of stretch goals over emotional exhaustion： Based on transactional theory of stress

Facing the fiercely competitive environment, many organizations have an increasing emphasis on inspiring creativity and innovation to achieve long-term survival and development. Thus, they seek many approaches to enhance performance and solve problems creatively. Setting a stretch goal, which is one of the methods, has been widely used because it can enhance motivation, learning, and innovation, thereby enhancing performance. Initially, most scholars focus on the beneficial effects of stretch goals. They consider that stretch goal may promote new ways of thinking and acting, so as to inspire creativity and innovation and therefore enhance the performance. In recent years, however, many scholars started to focus on the adverse effect of stretch goals. A growing line of research identifies specific side effects associated with goal setting, including a narrow focus that neglects non-goal areas, a rise in unethical behavior, distorted risk preferences, corrosion of organizational culture, and reduced intrinsic motivation. And that “stretch goals” may accentuate the already negative impact of organizational goals. Nevertheless, exploring the negative effects of stretch goals based on the viewpoint of stress and emotion is beyond the scope of the prior research. Therefore, this paper attempts to fill this gap. Specifically, this paper focuses on emotional exhaustion which may be triggered by stretch goals. For this purpose, this paper constructs a theoretical model based on the transactional theory of stress and examines the mediating role of hindrance appraisals and challenge appraisals in the link of stretch goals and emotional exhaustion. At the same time, in order to know how companies can alleviate the adverse effects of stretch goals, this paper also considers perspective taking which can moderate the relationship between stretch goals and employees’ primary appraisals. Moreover, to test the hypotheses, we conducted a questionnaire survey with MBA students at Xi’an Jiaotong University and Northwestern Polytechnical University and received a total of 109 responses. Furthermore, this paper used hierarchy regression analysis and path analysis with SPSS17.0 and AMOS18.0 tools to analyze the data. The results indicate that: (1) Stretch goals have a significantly positive effect on emotional exhaustion. (2) Hindrance appraisals partly mediate the relationship between stretch goals and emotional exhaustion. The mediation effect of challenge appraisals has not been supported because the relationship between stretch goals and challenge appraisals is not significant. But the challenge appraisals have a negative effect on emotional exhaustion. (3) Perspective taking moderates the positive relationship between stretch goals and hindrance appraisals. The positive relationship is weaker when employees’ perspective-taking level is higher. (4) Although the relationship between stretch goals and challenge appraisals is not significant, the interaction term of stretch goals and perspective taking has a significant positive effect on challenge appraisals. That is, the stretch goals would have a positive effect on challenge appraisals if the level of employees’ perspective taking is high. In summary, stretch goals can directly lead to emotional exhaustion, and they also can indirectly cause emotional exhaustion through hindrance appraisals.