Sustainable Development of Mastery Goals and Innovative Behavior: Evidence from Chinese Faculty Members

Abstract

It is well-acknowledged that organizational sustainability largely depends on employees’ innovative behavior, which is the same case with higher education institutions. This study aimed to explore the characteristics of and relationships between faculty members’ mastery goals and innovative behavior under the framework of achievement goal theory in the research context. Results from an anonymous questionnaire survey of 621 Chinese faculty members revealed a four-dimensional structure of mastery goals (task-approach goals, task-avoidance goals, learning-approach goals, and learning-avoidance goals) and a five-dimensional structure of innovative research behavior (opportunity exploration, generativity, formative investigation, championing, and application). The faculty members reported a high level of mastery goals for research and a moderate level of innovative research behavior respectively. Male faculty scored higher on opportunity exploration, formative investigation, championing, and application than their female counterparts. Innovative research behavior showed significantly positive associations with task-approach goals, negative associations with learning-approach goals, and no significant association with mastery-avoidance goals except the positive link of learning-avoidance goals to championing. These results have implications for understanding faculty research motivations and behaviors and effectively stimulating their innovativeness in research for sustainable development of higher education institutions.