How and when supervisors’ challenge appraisals impact employee bottom-line mentality? The roles of supervisor duty orientation and employee positive affectivity

The goal of our study is to extend the research on challenge appraisals. For this purpose, we integrate transactional model of stress and social cognitive theories to explain and demonstrate how and when supervisors’ challenge appraisals impact employee bottom-line mentality (BOLM). Specifically, we propose that supervisor challenge appraisals are viewed as opportunities for growth that leads to a heightened sense of obligation to loyally serve their employees and organization. As such, challenge appraisals positively impact duty orientation. In turn, as duty-oriented supervisors model the importance of faithfully serving others, the organization, and honoring ethical principles, this decreases BOLM adoption among their employees. Thus, we position supervisor duty orientation as a key mediator between supervisor challenge appraisals and employee BOLM. We also find that the impact of supervisor duty orientation on employee BOLM is stronger when employee positive affectivity is high compared to low. The findings from our multi-source field study supports our second-stage moderated-mediation model.