Introduction

Individuals’ goals represent different life aspirations and vary in importance, which may serve as a guiding principle in their lives (Vansteenkiste, Soenens and Duriez, 2008; Vansteenkiste, Timmermans, Lens, Soenens and Van den Broeck, 2008; Sheldon and Krieger, 2014). Exploring the goals’ effect of employees can help us understand why employees perform well in their jobs, which is an important and recurring question in organizational science (Kasser, 2016). Various researchers have developed multidimensional models and theories to study this issue. Specifically, the goal setting theory (Locke and Latham, 1990), which focuses on exploring the relationship between goal representation and task performance, suggested that clear, challenging goal rather than simple and vague goals may facilitate improvements in task performance. Achievement goal theory suggests that employees’ job performance depends on their goal orientations (Yperen and Janssen, 2002), suggesting that a mastery orientation rather than a performance orientation can positively predict job performance ( Janssen and Van Yperen, 2004; Van Yperen et al., 2015). However, these theories and studies have been unable to explain why different goal content can lead to different behavioral outcomes (Sheldon et al., 2004). For example, some employees view their jobs as opportunities to develop their competences and make meaningful contributions to society, which is associated with greater well-being, whereas others primarily focus on obtaining contingent approval or external signs of worth and occupying a prestigious position at work; the latter are less likely to experience a strong sense of well-being and may even feel diminished well-being (Unanue et al., 2017). Intrinsic and extrinsic goals are more encompassing and clear, and they cannot be simply be classified as mastery or performance goals. Thus, we aim to address this issue by considering goal content effects. Kasser and Ryan (1993, 1996) introduced a new theory, goal content theory (GCT), which distinguished between intrinsic goals (e.g. personal growth and community contribution) and extrinsic goals (e.g. money and fame) and argued that intrinsic goal-oriented individuals move toward self-actualization, whereas the pursuit of extrinsic goals may focus on garnering self-worth through external validation (Akhtar, 2000; Malka and Chatman, 2003; Schwartz, 1999). According to GCT, a high valuation of intrinsic goals can predict many positive outcomes, such as learning performance and physical self-worth, while pursuing extrinsic goals were associated with negative outcomes, such as exercise anxiety, poorer performance and less persistence in physical exercising and academic area (Vansteenkiste et al., 2004; Sebire et al., 2009). Researchers also focused on examining the relationship between employee work goals and turnover intentions, job satisfaction, well-being and job flexibility (Vansteenkiste et al., 2007; Van den Broeck et al., 2010; Unanue et al., 2017). However, to the best of our knowledge, relatively little research has examined the relationship between extrinsic or intrinsic goal orientations and work performance, which has been the core focus of industrial and organizational psychology for many years (Wen et al., 2011).