Abstract:

People generally have two kinds of regulatory focus, i.e., motivational orientations, which are promotion focus and prevention focus. Regulatory focus influences individuals’ choices of goals (promotion focus sensitizes individuals to maximizing gains, whereas prevention focus sensitizes individuals to minimizing losses), and directs their attention toward different action preferences (promotion focus directs individuals’ attentions toward “approach” style, whereas prevention focus directs individuals’ attentions toward “avoidance” style). Regulatory focus theory has been widely applied in the leadership research, but one of the important yet seldom studied questions is the relationship between two regulatory foci and their joint impacts. By integrating the paradox perspective, the current study points out the importance and feasibility to study the “profile” of two regulatory foci and their joint influence.

Key words: regulatory focus, leadership, paradox theory