Brockner, J., & Higgins, E. T. (2001). Regulatory focus theory: Implications for the study of emotions at work. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 86(1), 35-66.
Summary
Higgins’ regulatory focus theory (1997, 1998) deals with the process of self-regulation, or how people align themselves with certain goals or standards. A basic hedonic principle states that people approach pleasure and avoid pain. Focusing on approaching pleasure is referred to as a promotion focus, while focusing on avoiding pain is referred to as a prevention focus. Regulatory focus consists of three factors - needs, goals, and psychological situations. People who are promotion focused have needs of growth and development, whereas those with a prevention focus need security. Their goals of people with a promotion focus are associated with their ideal selves, while the goals of the prevention focused are associated with their ought self (who they think they ought to be). The psychological situation sought by the promotion focused is the pleasure of a gain, while the situation sought by the prevention focus is the pleasure of a nonloss (avoiding a negative outcome). An outcome can be viewed with either focus. In this way, regulatory focus overlaps with framing. The strength of one’s regulatory focus can be measured empirically through response latencies.
Regulatory focus deals with discrepancy between one’s self and a hypothetical self (whether ideal or ought). If the discrepancy is large, promotion focus will result in dejection and prevention focus will result in agitation. If the discrepancy is small, promotion focus will result in cheerfulness, while prevention focus will result in quiescence. In general, agitation is stronger than dejection, and cheerfulness is stronger than quiescence.
Application
It is unclear how stable a trait regulatory focus is, but knowing the regulatory focus of an employee in a particular situation should guide how a manager gives feedback.
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