The Impact of High Quality Relationships on Proactive Behaviour

Abstract

While research exists to suggest that job context influences proactive behaviour in the workplace, much less is known about the role of social context, and in particular, the role of relationships in fostering such proactivity. Accordingly, this paper develops and tests a cross-level model, in which the individual-level proactive work behaviour of members of the nursing profession is modelled as a function of the quality of subjective relational experiences and mutual respect, the latter being an indicator of unit-level relationship quality. Hope and work engagement are proposed as mediators of the pathway between subjective relational experiences and individual-level proactive behaviour, while psychological safety climate is proposed as a mediator of the relationship between unit-level relationship quality and individual-level proactive behaviour. Finally, the impact of proactive behaviour on the work of individual nurses was assessed. Using a cross sectional survey design, multi-source data was collected from a representative sample of 256 staff nurses and their respective managers drawn from four privately owned hospitals. Results of multi-level regression analysis indicate that, at the individual level, subjective relational experiences are positively related to proactive behaviour. This relationship is mediated by hope but not by work engagement. At the unit level, results indicate that high quality relationships impact individual proactive behaviour indirectly via their impact on psychological safety climate. Proactive behaviour is also positively related to the job performance of individual nurses.