When performance demands enable change: How employees can overcome emotional dissonance and organizational underappreciation

Abstract

This study investigates the unexplored relationship between employees' experience of emotional dissonance and their engagement in change-oriented citizenship behavior, with a particular focus on the mediating role of organizational underappreciation and the moderating role of a performance-oriented work climate in this process. Survey data collected among employees across various industries show that experienced discrepancies between felt and organizationally desired emotions curtail employees’ voluntary efforts to improve the organizational status quo because they develop a belief that their organization does not value them. When they operate in work environments that focus on performance comparisons though, this harmful dynamic becomes subdued. Organizations accordingly should avoid giving employees a reason to criticize their employer for treating them as unworthy members because this criticism generates a channel by which conflicting emotions escalate into work-related complacency, which might prevent the experienced hardships from being addressed. Instead, organizations should try to nurture stimulating work cultures that focus on performance to disrupt this counterproductive process.