Proactive Personality and Job Satisfaction: the Mediating Effects of Self-Efficacy and Work Engagement in Teachers

Abstract

Proactive personality has been demonstrated to be positively correlated with individual’s job satisfaction in addition to big five traits. However, what is less clear are the intervening mechanisms underlying this relationship, the present study examined the mediating effects of self-efficacy and work engagement on the association between proactive personality and job satisfaction. Three hundred and fifty-two (194 females and 158 males) primary and middle school teachers completed the proactive personality scale, the teachers’ self-efficacy scale, the work engagement scale and the short-form Minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire. Results revealed that proactive personality was positively related to teachers’ job satisfaction. In addition, mediation analyses showed that the relation between proactive personality and teachers’ job satisfaction was simple mediated by self-efficacy and work engagement and sequentially mediated by self-efficacy–work engagement. These findings contribute to the complex nature of the relationship between proactive personality and job satisfaction. The possible explanations and limitations are briefly discussed.