How Are Newcomer Proactive Behaviors Received by Leaders and Peers? A Relational Perspective

Abstract

Although most studies have shown that newcomers benefit from proactive behaviors, such behaviors are not always viewed positively by others in the workplace, resulting in negative consequences for newcomers. Drawing on uncertainty reduction and social cognitive theories, we contend that newcomer proactive behaviors are viewed positively by competent leaders and peers but negatively by leaders and peers who are low in competence. Further, we argue that newcomer proactive behaviors impact leader and peer threat perceptions and subsequent relationships with them, which in turn influences newcomer turnover. We empirically tested our hypotheses in two three-wave multi-source studies, utilizing a sample of 665 newcomers (288 newcomers for Study 1 and 377 newcomers for Study 2), 232 leaders (100 leaders for Study 1 and 132 leaders for Study 2), and 2044 peers (1323 peers for Study 1 and 721 peers for Study 2). Supporting our hypotheses, when leaders and peers are high in competence, through impacting leader and peer threat perceptions, newcomer proactive behaviors resulted in higher quality exchange relationships with leaders (LMX) and stronger friendships with peers, respectively. These cascading effects reduce newcomer voluntary turnover. Implications for how newcomer proactive behaviors impact relationships in the workplace and turnover are discussed.