The Moderating Effect of Work-Related Risk on the Relationship between Cognitive-trust in Supervisor and Proactive Behavior

Abstract

In occupational and organizational context, proactive behavior has attracted much attention over last decade. This study aims to examine how work-related risk influences the relationship between cognitive-trust in the supervisor and proactive behavior, using the data collected from 301 Chinese and 475 Japanese employees. By quadratic regression model, we found a fact in both Chinese and Japanese samples that the relationship between cognitive trust in supervisor and proactive behavior under Low-RISK situation tended to be a monotonic increasing curve, whereas a U-shape curve under High-RISK situation. Introduction Today’s market, technology, and employment environments become increasingly varied and uncertain. In such a situation, employees’ proactive behavior (PB), defined as self-initiated, anticipatory action that aims to change and improve the situation or oneself [1], is important for the success of both business and their career. In the organizational and occupational context, a key antecedent of employees’ PB is their cognitive-trust (CT) in the immediate supervisor [2, 3]. But little is known about how situational factors, such as work-related risk (RISK), moderate the relation between CT in supervisor and PB. As [4] points out, since thus moderating effect may be nonlinear, it is difficult to accurately predict them. The reason why CT tends to interact nonlinearly with RISK is that CT is essentially based on the calculation of benefit-cost ratio [4]. Empirical researches are required to clarify the interaction between CT and RISK. In this paper, we examine the moderating effect of RISK on the relationship between CT and PB.