The employee flexibility desired in changing and uncertain business environments is amplified in small business settings. How can small business leaders facilitate the employee flexibility needed in this context? In the present study, we proposed that mastery goal-oriented leaders who are concerned with learning and competence development would create a work climate that promoted employee flexibility in their firms. We tested our hypotheses with multi-wave, multi-level data collected from leaders and employees in 141 small accounting firms in Norway. Findings revealed that leaders’ mastery goal orientation (MGO) was positively related to employee flexibility through a work climate that encouraged learning and development (a mastery climate). Yet, we also found that leaders’ MGO was negatively related to employee flexibility through a work climate that emphasized the expectations to be adaptive and flexible (an adaptability climate). Taken together, our study suggests that leaders’ mastery goal orientation may fuel employee flexibility when encouraging flexible-related behavior yet backfire when they signal that the same behavior is expected.

在不断变化和不确定的商业环境中所需的员工灵活性在小型企业环境中被放大。在这种情况下，小型企业领导者如何促进员工的灵活性？在本研究中，我们建议关注学习和能力发展的掌握目标导向型领导者将创造一种工作氛围，促进员工在公司中的灵活性。我们使用从挪威 141 家小型会计师事务所的领导和员工那里收集的多波、多层次数据来检验我们的假设。调查结果显示，通过鼓励学习和发展的工作氛围（掌握氛围），领导者的掌握目标导向 (MGO) 与员工的灵活性呈正相关。然而，我们还发现，通过强调适应性和灵活性的期望（适应性气候）的工作氛围，领导者的 MGO 与员工的灵活性呈负相关。综上所述，我们的研究表明，领导者的掌握目标导向在鼓励与灵活相关的行为时可能会促进员工的灵活性，但当他们发出预期相同行为的信号时则适得其反。