Do daily motivational demands promote or inhibit one’s performance and well-being? The role of appraisals and empowering leadership

Many of today’s jobs require employees to “set their own goals, decide how hard they work to achieve that goal, and decide when the task is complete” (i.e., motivational demands). However, when and how such motivational demands influence employee outcomes remains unclear. Building on transactional stress theory, we develop a dual-pathway model in which motivational demands link to employee outcomes (task performance, creativity, and exhaustion) through two independent mechanisms: (a) challenge and (b) hindrance appraisals, while controlling affective mediators (i.e., daily positive and negative affect). Further, we argue that as a job resource, empowering leadership will moderate the relationship between motivational demands and appraisals. We conducted a 10-day diary study in China to test our hypotheses (105 participants with 949 daily observations). Multilevel analysis revealed that daily motivational demands positively relate to creativity and task performance through challenge appraisal, whereas it is negatively linked to exhaustion through hindrance appraisal. In addition, we found that daily empowering leadership moderates the relationship between motivational demands and challenge appraisals. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.