Paradoxical Effects of Performance Pressure on Employees’ In-Role Behaviors: An Approach/Avoidance Model

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• Exposure to performance pressure, individuals practice self-objectification when they treat themselves as objects or tools for achieving instrumental goals, such as attaining performance goals

• “the urgency to achieve high-performance levels because performance is tied to substantial consequences”

• The findings suggest that performance pressure can activate employees’ self-objectification, thereby encouraging them to become more engaged in their in-role behaviors. However, such pressure can also produce workplace anxiety, thereby hampering employees’ in-role behavior

• More specifically, anxiety increases attention to performance pressure, subsequently reducing attentional focus on current task-relevant behaviors