How Positive Feedback Seeking Benefits Promotability: Roles of RBSE and Flexible Role Orientation

Abstract

This study extends career advancement literature by investigating how employees take an agentic approach to enhance career success. Drawing on the agentic perspective of social cognitive theory, we theorize how and when positive feedback seeking from the social environment promotes supervisor-rated promotability. Specifically, role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) is a mediating process that links seeking positive feedback to supervisor-rated promotability. In addition, we propose flexible role orientation substitutes for the positive effect of positive feedback seeking on RBSE and the subsequent supervisor-rated promotability. Results based on a two-wave, multisource survey design provide support for our hypotheses. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of how and when employees can proactively pursue their career advancement.