The Influence Of Power Stability On Cooperative Behavior:the Mediating Role Of Perceived Uncertainty And The Moderating Role Of Need For Cognitive Closure

Cooperation is an ever-changing topic of the times and an inexhaustible driving force for social development.In recent years,there are many researches focus on the influence factors and psychological mechanism,among which some scholars investigated the effect of sense of power on cooperative behavior.According to the approach/inhibition theory of power,having power should be associated with the approach system,which can promote cooperative behavior;on the other hand,lacking power with the avoidance system,which lead to less cooperative behavior.However,in real life,power is not immutable,but in dynamic change,and no research has directly explored the internal mechanism affecting cooperative behavior from the perspective of power stability.Powerful people in the unstable environment will have perceived uncertainty,and then influence their cooperative behavior.In addition,according to uncertainty management theory,individual motivation differences may moderate this mediating effect,because need for cognitive closure can measure the degree of an individual’s tolerance to uncertainty,and can affect the way an individual deals with uncertainty.Therefore,this paper explores the psychological mechanism of the influence of power stability on cooperative behavior,and constructs a moderated mediation model.This paper examined the influence of power stability on cooperative behavior and its internal mechanism through three studies.In study 1,to explore the relationship between power stability and cooperative behavior,seventy students were tested by role-playing,recall and public goods task,which showed that power stability positively affected cooperative behavior.In study 2,the internal mechanism of influence of power stability on cooperative behavior was explored through laboratory experiment,and a total of 84 college students were selected for the test.The experimental results show that for students,the mediating and moderating effects of uncertainty on the influence of power stability on cooperative behavior had not been verified.Furthermore,considering that employees were more exposed to power and have stronger psychological sensitivity,192 employees were selected in this study to explore the mediating role of uncertainty and the moderating role of cognitive closure need.The results in study 3showed that:(1)Power stability positively affected cooperative behavior.(2)The perceived uncertainty of employees played a partially mediating role in the influence of power stability on cooperative behavior.(3)For on-the-job employees,the mediating effect of perceived uncertainty was moderated by the need for cognitive closure.Specifically,for individuals with high need for cognitive closure,perceived uncertainty significantly negatively predicted cooperative behavior;for individuals with low need for cognitive closure,perceived uncertainty had no predictive effect on cooperative behavior.This paper carried out the explanation on the result of the research.According to the approach/inhibition theory of power and uncertainty management theory,the internal mechanism between power stability and cooperative behavior in the organization had been probed into.This study confirmed the mediating mechanism of perceived uncertainty and the moderating effect of need for cognitive closure,which enriched the research on cooperative behavior under organizational change to a certain extent and helped deepen the understanding of inter-individual and inter-organizational cooperative behavior.