Territoriality, motivational climate, and idea implementation: We reap what we sow

Drawing on the integrated perspectives of territoriality and motivational climate, we explored the relationship between employees’ territoriality and idea implementation. We tested our model with 46 research and development teams in China, comprising 359 employees and their supervisors, who completed measures of territoriality, social alienation, motivational climate (specifically, performance climate and mastery climate), and idea implementation. The results showed that social alienation mediated the relationship between territoriality and idea implementation, and that mastery climate and performance climate moderated the positive relationship between territoriality and social alienation. Our findings not only provide insight into the relationship between territoriality and idea implementation, but also clarify the effect of motivational climate on this relationship. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.