When being overqualified helps or hurts: the double-edged sword effects of perceived overqualification on proactive behavior

This study advances newcomers’ socialization research by identifying and investigating the antecedents of newcomers’ proactive behaviors, a perspective often overlooked within the current studies, which primarily focuses on the outcomes of such behaviors. Based on the proactive motivation model, our core hypothesis is that inclusive leadership allows newcomers to experience psychological changes in control beliefs (can-do motivation), state promotion focus (reason-to motivation), and positive affect (energized-to motivation), which are stimulated following proactive behaviors. We further consider an individual values variable—individual power distance orientation—as the boundary condition on the influence of inclusive leadership. Research was conducted on 353 newcomers with less than one year of work experience to test the above hypothesis. The results show that inclusive leadership positively and indirectly influences the newcomers’ proactive behaviors via state promotion focus and positive affect. However, the mediating effect of control beliefs was not significant. Furthermore, the positive association between inclusive leadership and two kinds of newcomer proactive motivations, and their accompanying indirect impacts on newcomers’ proactive behaviors, was proved stronger at lower levels of individual power distance orientation. Additionally, it has been discovered in a follow-up complementary study that the effect of control beliefs on newcomers’ proactive behaviors is transmitted through positive affect.

This study investigates the influence of work characteristics on proactive behavior among healthcare staff at a private hospital in West Sumatera, Indonesia. The research applies the Proactive Motivation Model and Work Design Theory to assess how motivational state mediates the relationship between job design and proactive service behavior. Moreover, it explores how organizational cultural values moderate this link. Data were collected from 200 healthcare employees and analyzed using Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that task characteristics and contextual characteristics significantly affect motivational state, which in turn drives proactive behavior. Meanwhile, knowledge characteristics and social characteristics have no effect on motivational state, and thus cannot be mediated by motivational state to proactive behavior. Organizational cultural values strengthen the impact of motivational state on proactive behavior. These findings highlight the importance of well-structured job roles and internalized cultural values in enhancing proactive work behavior in healthcare

This study examines the pathways through which perceived employee overqualification (PEO) influences proactive work behavior of employees (PBE) in high-tech enterprises focusing on the mediating role of competitive status motivation (CSM) and the moderating effect of role breadth self- efficacy (RBSE). Data were collected from 470 research and development employees in the Shenzhen High-Tech Industrial Park using structural equation modeling and moderated mediation analysis. The results indicate that PEO positively affects PBE directly and indirectly through Prestige-Driven Competitive Status Motivation (PCSM) and Dominance-Driven Competitive Status Motivation (DCSM). The moderating effect of PCSM is stronger than that of DCSM with RBSE enhancing the positive influence of prestige-driven motivation on proactive behavior. This study integrates psychological and individual motivational theories to understand better how PCSM and DCSM influence and shape employee proactive behaviors. The practical implications suggest that high-tech enterprises should focus on recognizing and nurturing overqualified employees. Organizations can enhance proactive behaviors, ultimately improving overall organizational performance by fostering intrinsic prestige-driven motivation and promoting RBSE.

Extensive evidence indicates that burnout can have detrimental consequences for individuals as well as organizations; therefore, there is a great need for burnout prevention. While burnout prevention interventions initiated by the employer have previously been studied, the proactive behaviors employees deploy themselves to prevent burnout have received less research attention. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative interview study was to enhance our understanding of the self-initiated actions employees undertake to prevent burnout, using the model of proactive motivation and conservation of resources theory as theoretical frameworks. Findings indicated that most participants reported to engage in specific kinds of proactive burnout prevention behaviors. The reported self-initiated proactive actions were aimed at maintaining and/or increasing resources and/or reducing demands in the work, home, and personal domain. The study contributes to the literature by linking the proactive motivation process to the prevention of burnout and by focusing on both work and non-work factors. Results of this study can be used in further research into the (effectiveness of) employees’ proactive burnout prevention behaviors and serve as a starting point for developing interventions aimed at enhancing proactive burnout prevention.

How and when do uncertain factors affect employees’ different types of proactive behavior? Building on the strength model of self-control, the present study examines the different effects of job insecurity on individual-oriented and organizational-oriented proactive behaviors, and the moderating role of future work self salience (FWSS) and socioeconomic status (SES). Two-wave data collected from 227 employees in China were used to test our hypotheses. The results indicate that job insecurity is negatively associated with all the proactive behaviors. Moreover, the FWSS positively moderates the above relationship, and the moderating role on individual-oriented proactive behavior is stronger than organizational-oriented proactive behavior. The SES negatively moderates the relationship between job insecurity and the two types of proactive behaviors. In addition, the FWSS and SES have a three-way interactive effect on the relationship between job insecurity and individual task proactive behavior. The practical implications of these results are discussed.

This study examines subordinate subjective congruence resulting from personal ethical identity and perceived ethical leadership (PEL) on followership behaviors, including: obedience, proactive, and constructive resistance behaviors through identification with supervisors. Using polynomial regressions, results from self‐reported data of 208 employees in China supported that higher level of identification with supervisor occurs because of the following: (1) ethical congruence rather than ethical incongruence; (2) high‐high rather than low‐low congruence; (3) incongruence when personal ethical identity is lower than PEL rather than when personal ethical identity is higher than PEL. Moreover, such perceived ethical congruence facilitates followership obedience and proactive behaviors but not constructive resistance behavior via identification with supervisors. Relevant theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between servant leadership and proactive behaviors. Apart from this, drawing on the cognitive evaluation theory, we regard that proactive behaviors are driven by intrinsic motivation and further propose three psychological constructs to clarify the underlying mechanisms of servant leadership on employees’ proactive behaviors: Job autonomy, leader-member exchange and role breadth self-efficacy. Using a sample of 227 leader-employee dyads from two companies, the empirical results show that: 1) Servant leadership had positive effects on individual task proactivity and team member proactivity; 2) The relationship between servant leadership and individual task proactivity was mediated by job autonomy and role breadth self-efficacy, while leader-member exchange and role breadth self-efficacy mediated the influence of servant leadership on team member proactivity. All hypotheses were supported. Overall, this study enriches and develops related theories of proactive behaviors’ influencing factors. It uses cognitive evaluation theory to integrate the mechanisms that motivate employees’ proactive behaviors. It species the different psychological processes that servant leadership promotes employees’ proactive behaviors directed to different targets. It provides important references for managers to effectively encourage employees’ individual task proactivity and team member proactivity. Besides, limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed at the end of the article.

While proactive work behavior is proposed to be valuable to organizations as it can improve performance and decision making, our understanding of the range of consequences of proactivity and their contingencies is still limited. Here we explore when proactive behavior is contagious and relates to proactivity of observers. We take a role modeling perspective and investigate when leaders form role models for their followers when showing proactive behavior at work. In particular, we test the role of proactive motivational states (“reason to,” that is outcome expectations/expectancies, “can do,” that is self-efficacy expectations, and “energized to,” that is positive affect) as moderators of the leader proactivity—follower proactivity relationship. Results from two multi-source field studies among Dutch employees from a wide range of industries and professional backgrounds support the idea that leaders form role models of proactive behavior for their followers and suggest that followers’ positive affect and self-efficacy act as moderators of the relationship between leader and follower proactive behavior. While positive affect strengthens the relationship between leader and follower proactivity, self-efficacy acts as a substitute for leadership as role modeling is only found for followers low on self-efficacy. With regard to expectancies, role modeling effects of leader proactivity only occurred when both expectancies and positive affect were high (three-way interaction).

Entrepreneurship education (EE) exerts a profound impact not only on the individuals’ career trajectories and entrepreneurial activity, but also on organizational innovation and competitiveness, thus being needed to grasp its meaning and consequences further. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, this study explores the relationship between EE and proactive behavior by examining the mediating role of career attitudes and moderating role of perceived organizational support (POS). Quantitative data were collected from a time-lagged survey of 331 employees in China. Hypotheses were tested via hierarchical regression analysis, following a series of preliminary checks, including common method variance test, analyses of confirmatory factor, reliability, validity, and correlation. The findings indicated that (1) EE is positively related to proactive behavior; (2) two distinct career attitudes, namely, boundaryless and protean, both mediate this relationship; (3) POS enhances both the direct relationship between these career attitudes and proactive behavior, and the indirect effects of EE on proactive behavior via these attitudes. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications for EE and proactive behavior are discussed, and suggested directions for future research.

Leadership plays a pivotal role for employees’ proactive work behaviours. A recently researched concept is playful work design (PWD), a proactive process wherein employees redesign their work activities to infuse elements of fun and competition, has garnered significant attention for its positive outcomes, including for employee wellbeing. However, the underlying factors through which leaders can influence such proactive behavior over time remains relatively unexplored. Further, information on which leadership style enables PWD remains unclear. Bridging this gap and adopting a resource-based work-centric perspective, our study investigates the underlying psychological pathways through which servant leadership influences employee PWD. Using three-wave time-lagged data from 234 workers in Ghana, the study identifies four key psychological pathways. First, an affective pathway, where servant leaders boost PWD through positive affect. Second, a motivational pathway, where servant leaders enhance PWD by fostering meaningful work. Third, a complex motivational pathway, where meaningful work leads to work engagement, which in turn, promotes PWD. Finally, an affective-motivational pathway, where positive affect and work engagement sequentially mediate the relationship between servant leadership and PWD. These findings suggest that integrating servant leadership into leadership development programs can effectively encourage PWD, enhancing employee engagement and wellbeing.

PurposeWorking arrangements’ hybridity has become paramount, particularly after the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. A remote working environment has indubitable advantages (e.g. the ability to work from anywhere and at any time). However, such flexibility comes at the cost of being virtually always connected. This duality poses challenges for talent management (TM) in determining who can thrive under these specific conditions and how. This study explores how employees respond to this extended connectivity – namely, work connectivity behaviour after-hours (WCBA) – and its influence on proactive talent behaviour by constructing and testing a theoretical model that differentiates employees’ reactions to this condition.Design/methodology/approachThis study collected data from 400 mainland Chinese employees using online and offline methods. Owing to the potentially varied effects of working in digital environments on employees, a dual mediation regression model was employed to test the hypotheses.FindingsRemote and hybrid work and, specifically, the increased connectivity experienced by employees can be a “double-edged sword” in influencing their proactive behaviour (PB). While employees experience increased organisation-based self-esteem, which positively correlates with more intense PB, this prolonged exposure may also cause emotional exhaustion (EE), which has a negative correlation with PB. Jointly considering both mediation effects revealed that WCBA’s total effect on PB remained negative.Originality/valueThis study enriches the debate regarding the development of TM practices specifically designed for remote work. It recommends paying greater attention to how employees react to increased connectivity experienced in remote and hybrid working environments. Increased self-esteem or passive EE are possible elements for identifying employees’ talent potential. The separation between work and after-work is becoming blurred in the digital age, which reduces employees’ motivation and ability to exploit their inner talents. Therefore, organisations must find alternatives to preserve their talent pools. This study enriches theoretical research on WCBA, promoting an in-depth application of the theory of job-demand resources in the digital age.

This article studies proactive work behavior from a within-person perspective. Building on the broaden-and-build model and the mood-as-information approach, we hypothesized that negative trait affect and positive state affect predict the relative time spent on proactive behavior. Furthermore, based on self-determination theory we argued that persons want to feel competent and that proactive behavior is one way to experience competence. In an experience-sampling study, 52 employees responded to surveys 3 times a day for 5 days. Hierarchical linear modeling confirmed the hypotheses on trait and state affect. Analyses furthermore showed that although a higher level of experienced competence at core task activities was associated with a subsequent increase in time spent on these activities, low experienced competence predicted an increase in time spent on proactive behavior.

Proactive people take initiative when others do not and persist in improving their environment or themselves. Although scholars assume that how we feel influences how proactive we are, there is no experimental research yet to support this. This experiment therefore tests whether positive and negative affect influence proactive behavior and additionally investigates whether engaging in proactivity also has affective consequences. While current theory proposes that positive affect enhances proactive behavior by stimulating broad-flexible thinking, we argue that negative affect should make people proactive through stimulating systematic-persistent thinking. Furthermore, we propose that proactive behavior increases subsequent positive affect rather than positive affect increasing proactive behavior. Last, we hypothesize that affective causes and consequences of proactive behavior are different for people who are rarely proactive (trait-passive-reactive individuals) and people who are often proactive (trait-proactive individuals). We pre-tested 180 participants on trait-proactivity. In the lab, we manipulated affect (negative/positive/neutral), measured proactive behavior in a team interaction task, and repeatedly measured participants’ affective experiences and physiological activation. Results showed that the link between affect and proactive behavior differed depending on participants’ trait-proactivity. First, positive affect made trait-proactive individuals less proactive, whereas negative affect made passive-reactive individuals more proactive. Second, passive-reactive individuals reported decreased negative affect after engaging in proactivity, whereas proactive individuals reported increased positive affect. These results suggest that proactive behavior can serve an affect regulation purpose, which is different for trait proactive individuals (up regulating positive affect) than for trait passive-reactive individuals (down regulating negative affect). These results are limited to core affect (feeling pleasant or unpleasant) and do not apply to specific emotions (feeling proud or anxious), and they are limited to short term and successful proactive behavior and do not apply to more long term, or unsuccessful proactive behavior.

Video games have a strong incentive effect and a hedonic experience effect, and have obvious advantages in attracting individual engagement. Inspired by it, the application of gamification within the enterprise has been greatly developed in practice in recent years. Enterprise internal gamification is the application of game elements to task design, performance appraisal, career management and other employee incentive management. It has important reference value for reshaping employees’ workplace experience and then transforming their behavior mode. However, at present, the application of gamification in enterprises is still a relatively new research field. Some concepts in gamification research field need to be concretized and contextualized into research concepts in the organization field. The incentive effect of gamification in enterprises has not been unanimously recognized; especially the basic theoretical research on gamification is still insufficient.In view of this, based on the situational perspective, this paper believes that the game elements, such as points, leaderboards, virtual roles, content unlocking, team competition and so on, can help employees find the meaning and fun of work, enhance the sense of interconnection with others in the process of work, and thus obtain a transcendental positive psychological experience, that is, to obtain the promotion of workplace spirituality, and then increase the proactive behavior in the work. Based on this, this paper constructs theoretical hypotheses.The research is conducted in the form of questionnaire survey to collect data. Mature scales are used to establish items. The survey selects employees from service industry, high-tech industry and Internet industry as the objects. Finally, 435 valid samples are collected. Through reliability and validity analysis, correlation analysis, homologous method deviation test and multiple regression analysis, the theoretical hypotheses are empirically tested.The results show that:（1）Immersion and social elements will promote employees’ proactive behavior, while achievement elements will inhibit it.（2）Immersion elements drive employees’ proactive behavior mainly by enhancing their inner experience; social elements promote employees’ proactive behavior mainly by enhancing their sense of work meaning; on the contrary, achievement elements inhibit employees’ proactive behavior mainly by reducing employees’ sense of work meaning.（3）Employees with different game behavior patterns have different responses to the three kinds of game elements, which will affect the incentive effect of game elements. The negative interaction effect will be produced between low competition orientation and achievement elements, and low others orientation and social elements, while the positive interaction effect will be produced between high others orientation and social elements.The main contributions of this paper are as follows: It explains the incentive mechanism of gamification driving employees’ proactive behavior from the situational perspective, which not only expands the theoretical perspective and explanation path of gamification driven individual engagement, but also builds a direct dialogue platform for gamification theory and enterprise incentive theory, and provides an index for the situational turn of enterprise incentive theory. In particular, with the “player generation” becoming the main force in the workplace, gamification has a good development prospect in reshaping and strengthening employees’ meaningful experience in the workplace by creating new situations with strong sense of relevance or non-utilitarian meaning system. The research of this paper provides inspiration for enterprises to design and apply gamification more reasonably.

In recent years, faced with a complex economic development environment and the evolving dynamics of the Chinese workplace, talent has become a precious resource that is invaluable yet scarce for every enterprise. As Generation Z employees have gradually entered the labor market, they contribute new perspectives and energies to various enterprises and pose unique challenges. The traditional step-by-step approach no longer meets the needs of today's businesses. Companies require more proactive talents to drive superior performance. Individuals with proactive behavior can effectively plan their career paths and are better equipped to fulfill core organizational tasks. Therefore, it is crucial for organizations to effectively mitigate the perceived negative impacts of proactive behavior, encouraging individuals to exhibit more positive proactive actions. Based on the proactive motivation model, this study investigates the effects of mentoring, balanced psychological contract, proactive behavior, and agreeableness on the proactive behaviors of new employees. The research surveyed 417 new employees from Guangdong Province, China, who had graduated within the last three years, with a gender distribution of 49.4% male and 50.6% female. Structural Equation Modeling was used for data analysis, and the following results were obtained: First, mentoring positively affected the balanced psychological contract and new employees' proactive behavior. Second, mentoring positively affected the new employees' proactive behavior through the balanced psychological contract. Third, agreeableness played a moderating role in the relationship between mentoring and new employees' proactive behavior, and in the relationship between mentoring and the balanced psychological contracts. Finally, the positive indirect effect of mentoring through the balanced psychological contract on new employees' proactive behavior is positively moderated by agreeableness. The results of this study offer new insights into mentoring research for new employees and provide practical guidance for fostering the balanced psychological contract and proactive behavior among new employees. This research enriches the existing literature on mentoring for new employees by demonstrating the integral roles of agreeableness and a balanced psychological contract in fostering proactive behavior, offering valuable insights for organizational practices aimed at enhancing employee proactivity.