Social Preferences, Goal Orientation and Team Performance

Previous research on Goal Orientation (GO) and Social Value Orientation (SVO) examined and found relationships between performance and each construct. This study is built on GO and SVO literature and proposes that there is a relationship between the tendency to adopt learning or performance goals and social value orientations and that both constructs jointly influence team performance. Two sets of participants were asked to answer scales about GO, SVO, and Team Performance. Structural equation models tested the hypotheses. Goal and social value orientations are closely related. Individuals with a higher performance orientation tend to be more proself and do not significantly relate to team performance. On the other hand, a higher learning orientation significantly increases team performance. Among prosocials, those who tend to adopt performance goals are more likely to be motivated by joint outcome maximization. The more learning oriented a prosocial individual is, the more likely the individual is to increase team performance. Further experimental studies with different team compositions could bring new insights into performance. Organizations can increase team performance by managing incentives in a way that fosters learning goals and a prosocial orientation. This study brings further understanding of the performance construct. To our knowledge, this is the first study that measures both goal and social value orientation, as well as their joint relationship with team performance.