How and When Competitive Climate Becomes a Hurdle for Employees? Exploring the Effects of Fear of Failure and Challenge Avoidance How and When Competitive Climate Becomes a Hurdle for Employees?

Abstract

Research on the dark side of competitive climate is still in nascent stages. Drawing on the conservation of resource theory, we have contributed in the existing literature by examining the negative effects of competitive climate on employee silence behavior such as quiescent silence. We further propose that fear of failure acts as an underlying mechanism between competitive climate and quiescent silence. The research also examines the moderating effect of challenge avoidance in relationship between competitive climate and fear of failure. Data was collected in three waves of time from 300 employees of service sector organizations of Pakistan through personally administered questionnaires by using Hayes’ Process Macro. The results of the study indicated the direct relationship between competitive climate and quiescent silence. Furthermore, results revealed that fear of failure mediates this relationship. Results also confirmed that challenge avoidance moderates the relationship between competitive climate and fear of failure. The findings have important implications for the service sector organizations which have been discussed at the end along with limitations and future research directions.