Core self-evaluations and job performance: The mediating role of employees’ assimilation-specific adjustment factors

This study investigates a new multiple mediation model, in which the relationship between core self-evaluations (CSE) and job performance is mediated by assimilation-specific adjustment comprising task mastery, fitting in, standing out, role negotiation, interpersonal relationships, and membership identification. Self-report data from luxury hotel/resort samples on China's Hainan Island indicate that: (1) the specific indirect effects of CSE on job performance are significantly and respectively transmitted by task mastery and standing out, when the rest four assimilation-specific adjustment factors simultaneously present in the multiple mediation model, and (2) the total indirect effect of CSE on job performance is collectively and significantly transmitted by all the six assimilation-specific adjustment factors. These findings as well as their implications are discussed within the context of organizational assimilation research, core self-evaluation theory, and human resource development practices in the hospitality and tourism domain.

► The mediating roles of assimilation-specific adjustment (ASA) factors are explored.
► The total indirect effect of core self-evaluations (CSE) on job performance is collectively transmitted by ASA factors.
► The specific indirect effects of CSE on job performance are transmitted by task mastery and standing out, respectively.
► The specific indirect effects are detected after controlling for the other four ASA factors (e.g., role negotiation).