Fuse and Fracture? A Dual-Pathway Model of Proactive Personality and Ostracism

Abstract

Although there is consensus that the proactive personality is beneficial in the workplace, an unanswered question is whether proactive individuals are always appreciated by peers. This research depicts an “initiative paradox” by examining how peers respond to the focal proactive team member. Drawing upon trust literature and relative deprivation theory, we argued that peers respond to the proactive member in two different ways: showing trust to the proactive member or feeling relatively deprived of their common resources, and accordingly, less or more likely to ostracize the proactive member. The proactive member’s prosocial motive and proself motive moderate these relationships. In study 1, we collected a three-wave hospital data (including 799 nurses nested in 116 nursing teams) and found that prosocial motive strengthens the positive effect of proactive personality on peers’ trust and proself motive strengthens the positive effect of proactive personality on peers’ feelings of relative deprivation. In study 2, we tested the full model (the first-stage moderated mediation model) with a three-wave data from 448 waiters in 132 restaurants in the catering industry in China. Results show that prosocial motive strengthens the indirect effect of proactive personality on ostracism through peers’ trust and proself motive strengthens the indirect effect of proactive personality on ostracism through peers’ feelings of relative deprivation.