The Moderating Role of Lack of Needs Satisfaction on Proactive Motivation and Personal Initiative

Abstract

In a workforce marked by telecommuting, decentralization, and automation, the need for employees to take personal initiative is greater than ever before. Research suggests that employees are more likely to engage in self-motivation behaviors such as personal initiative when they possess a high level of proactive motivation (Parker, Bindl & Strauss, 2010), and when their intrinsic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are met (Deci & Ryan, 2000). However, this study extends and complicates this established relationship by demonstrating the moderating role a lack of needs satisfaction plays in the relationship between proactive motivation states and personal initiative. Our findings demonstrate that individuals with high “can do” proactive motivation in the form of self-efficacy take more personal initiative when their intrinsic needs for competence or relatedness are not met. Likewise, individuals with high “energized to” proactive motivation in the form of activated positive affect also take more personal initiative when their need for relatedness is not met. Our findings additionally demonstrate that individual personal initiative is positively related to supervisors’ perceptions of their promotability, suggesting that the dissatisfaction of intrinsic needs may actually benefit certain individuals.