title: Managing others like you were managed: how prevention focus motivates copying interpersonal norms.
abstract: In 5 studies, we investigated the relation between regulatory focus and the tendency to copy a role model's managing behavior after one experiences this behavior as its recipient and later takes on the same managing role. Because enacting role-related behaviors fulfills interpersonal norms that fit prevention concerns, we predicted a stronger tendency to copy among individuals with a stronger prevention focus on duties and obligations ("oughts") but not among those with a stronger promotion focus on aspirations and advancements (ideals). We also predicted that individuals with a stronger prevention focus would tend to copy a managing behavior regardless of their earlier hedonic experience with this behavior as its recipient. These predictions were first supported in 2 experimental studies, where a stronger prevention focus was measured as a chronic disposition (Study 1) and experimentally induced as a temporary state (Study 2). Further, we tested the mechanism underlying the relation between stronger prevention and stronger copying and found that concerns about the normativeness, but not the effectiveness, of a managing behavior motivated copying for individuals with a strong prevention focus (Studies 3 and 4). We generalized these experimental results to the field by surveying a sample of superior-subordinate dyads in real world organizations (Study 5). Across all studies, we found that individuals with a stronger prevention focus tend to copy more a role model's managing behavior--independent of their hedonic satisfaction with the behavior as its recipient and their perception of its effectiveness.
authors.affiliation: Management Division, Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. sz2225@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: E Tory
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Higgins
authors.forename: Guoquan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001240:Aspirations, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012380:Role; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology