Employee Proactivity Research Articles

Bringing our best selves to work: Proactive vitality management and strengths use predicting daily engagement in interaction.

The present research focused on bottom-up, proactive employee behaviors and personal resources that can contribute to more engagement and optimal functioning at work. Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) and Conservation of Resources (COR) theories, we tested direct and interactive relationships between strengths use (SU), daily proactive vitality management (PVM), and daily work engagement (WE). Eighty-seven (N = 87) employees from a multinational company completed self-reported questionnaires at the beginning of the study and throughout five consecutive workdays (N = 358), yielding a multilevel dataset. We have found a significant daily positive relationship between PVM and WE, which showed significant inter-individual variation and was significantly enhanced by SU at the individual level. This study showed that PVM as employee-initiated proactive behavior and SU as a proactive personal resource facilitate engagement independently but yield the strongest results when used together, suggesting an interactive mechanism between bottom-up effects postulated in the JD-R theory.

Proactive Personality as a Critical Condition for Seeking Advice and Crafting Tasks in Ambiguous Roles.

In increasingly ambiguous work contexts, advice-seeking and task crafting behaviors are becoming more significant than ever before. Drawing on the uncertainty reduction theory, this study examined how role ambiguity would affect advice-seeking and task crafting. We also investigated whether a proactive personality would moderate the effects based on the capacity-willingness-opportunity model. The results, based on a two-wave design with a sample of 160 employees in South Korea, revealed that role ambiguity did not affect advice-seeking and task crafting directly. However, it was found that, as role ambiguity increased, employees with proactive personality became more involved in advice-seeking and task crafting. These findings indicate that role ambiguity serves as an opportunity for proactive employees who have the capacity and willingness to seek advice and craft tasks.

Proactively Seeking Challenges for Job Satisfaction: The Interplay of Psychological Ownership Among IT Sector Professionals

The coronavirus pandemic has put the spotlight on employee happiness and well-being. Employees’ job satisfaction in a post-COVID-19 scenario is a vital concern for academics and organizations. It is a crucial research question to decipher if employees can proactively rise to challenging job demands and achieve job satisfaction. Also, though the role of job crafting has been studied as an antecedent of job satisfaction, it has not been examined in alliance with job-based psychological ownership (PO). Taking note of this, this study examines the mediating role of job-based PO between seeking challenging job demands (SCJD) and job satisfaction (JS). The study contributes to the growing understanding of post-pandemic employee JS. It provides preliminary empirical evidence of the enabling roles of job-based PO and proactive job crafting in achieving JS. Data for the study were collected from Information Technology (IT) and IT enabled Services (ITeS) sector employees in India using online questionnaires. One hundred eighty-four solicited responses were included in the data analysis and analysed using SPSS and AMOS. Results establish that employees SCJD experience higher job satisfaction. The mediating effect of PO on the association between SCJD and JS has been found. The results have both practical and theoretical implications. This study provides evidence of the beneficiary aspect of proactive employee behaviour. Managers can adopt mechanisms to enable job crafting and ownership. JS can be enhanced by raising the levels of PO and proactive crafting undertaken by SCJD to further learning opportunities at work. Limitations of the study have been discussed.

How does workplace event criticality spur employees’ proactivity? The roles of work engagement and mindfulness

This paper aims to generate insights about whether, how, and when workplace event criticality spurs employee proactivity. We conducted multilevel analyses with a three-wave time-lagged survey of 179 employees and their 55 direct leaders in China to test our proposed model. The findings indicate that workplace event criticality is conducive to stimulating proactive work behavior through improving employee engagement. Further, employee mindfulness amplifies the positive relationship between workplace event criticality and work engagement. Despite the increasingly unavoidable influence of events in the workplace on employee proactivity, empirical research around the relationship and its underlying mechanism has been rather sparse. Our event-oriented research advances this knowledge by unpacking the salient motivating role of workplace events' criticality in employee work engagement and proactivity. It also increases our understanding by illustrating that employee mindfulness will amplify and intensify the motivational potential of workplace event criticality for work engagement.

The Effect of Leadership Aggressive Humor on Employee Proactive Behavior

The Effect of Leadership Aggressive Humor on Employee Proactive Behavior

Life insurance salespeople linking work stressors to proactive behaviors by passion: Servant leadership as a moderator.

As the main sales force of life insurance companies, salespeople have accounted for more than 50% of life insurance sales channels over the years, playing a pivotal role in the development of the industry. Since the adoption of the model of employment at an agency, the commission income of life insurance salespeople has largely relied on their sales volume, which requires employee proactivity under a great number of stressors. However, because previous studies have analyzed stressors in a single dimension, our understanding of the relationship between work stressors and proactive behaviors remains limited. Applying self-determination theory, we investigated differential relationships between challenge/hindrance stressors and proactive behaviors, which were expected to be mediated by passion and moderated by servant leadership. In the sample of 332 insurance salespeople, there was a positive (negative) relationship between challenge (hindrance) stressors and proactive behaviors. In addition, passion mediated the relationship between stressors and proactive behaviors, and servant leadership moderated the relationship between stressors and passion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Leader secure-base support and organizational learning culture: synergetic effects on employee state promotion focus and approach job crafting

PurposeLeader secure-base support, consisting of leader availability, noninterference and encouragement of growth, has important implications for stimulating employee proactivity. This study is aimed at examining whether, why and when leader secure-base support may motivate employees to engage in approach job crafting behavior. Drawing upon regulatory focus theory, we propose leader secure-base support is positively associated with employee approach job crafting via employee state promotion focus. Based on cue consistency theory, we further examine the moderating role of organizational learning culture in the associations of leader secure-base support with employee state promotion focus and subsequent approach job crafting.Design/methodology/approachTwo-wave data were collected from 281 Chinese workers. Path analyses with Mplus 7 were conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsAs predicted, we found that leader secure-base support was positively related to employee state promotion focus and, in turn, facilitated employee approach job crafting. Moreover, organizational learning culture accentuated the impact of leader secure-base support on employee job crafting process.Originality/valueThis study is the first to examine the influence of leader secure-base support on employee job crafting. It also identifies a boundary condition for such an influence.

When proactive employees meet the autonomy of work—A moderated mediation model based on agency theory and job characteristics theory

Building on Agency Theory and Job Characteristics Theory, this study examines how the autonomy of work interacts with individual proactivity and jointly enhances hotel frontline employees’ self-affirmation and performance. Using a longitudinal research design of three-wave data collection, the findings of this study suggested that the autonomy of work enhances employees’ perceived self-efficacy and sense of personal control. Although the perceived sense of control did not lead to employees’ organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), self-efficacy can facilitate employees’ OCBs directed toward both internal and external customers. In addition, the autonomy of work’s influence on employees’ perceived self-efficacy and sense of control was stronger among employees with relatively proactive personalities. The study adds empirical evidence to Agency Theory and Job Characteristics Theory and supports the importance of autonomy at the workplace as a necessary factor to encourage employees’ OCBs.

Linking empowering leadership with workplace proactivity: the mediating role of psychological safety and knowledge sharing

PurposeThis study aims to explore the association between empowering leadership and workplace proactivity.Design/methodology/approachThe data have been collected through questionnaires from both the medical and non-medical staff members working in four National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare (NABH)–accredited private hospitals in India. Confirmatory factor analysis has employed test reliability and validity and PROCESS MACRO (model 6) to test the proposed serial mediation model.FindingsThe results support the proposed hypotheses of the serial mediation model. Additionally, the authors have also found that psychological safety is a strong mediating variable than knowledge sharing between empowering leadership and workplace proactivity.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings should be interpreted by considering the cross-sectional research design and self-reported measures.Practical implicationsAn organization can use the findings to promote employee proactivity at the workplace.Originality/valueThe study makes an attempt to explore the underdeveloped relationship between empowering leadership and workplace proactivity in the context of Indian NABH-accredited hospitals based on the self-determination theory.

Could you give me some advice? How and when leader consultation sparks employee proactivity

PurposeThis study examined the dynamical and positive effects of leader consultation on employee proactivity from a motivational perspective.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected twice a day from 107 employees in a week by using an experience sampling method.FindingsOn a daily basis, leader consultation had a positive effect on employees’ state work engagement, which in turn promoted employees’ proactivity. Moreover, authoritarian leadership weakened the positive relationship between leader consultation and employees’ state work engagement.Originality/valueThe findings provided a new perspective regarding the potential dynamic motivational effect of leader consultation on employees and generated interesting implications for paradoxical leadership theory.

Sensory Processing Sensitivity as a Predictor of Proactive Work Behavior and a Moderator of the Job Complexity–Proactive Work Behavior Relationship

This study investigates the role of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) as a predictor of employees’ proactive work behavior. SPS is a multidimensional concept that depicts differences in people’s sensory awareness, processing, and reactivity to internal and external influences. Based on research on SPS as grounded in a heightened sensitivity of the behavioral inhibition and activation systems, it was argued that the relationships with task proactivity and personal initiative as indicators of proactive work behavior differ for the three SPS dimensions. Furthermore, based on the person–environment fit perspective, SPS was assumed to moderate the relationship between employees’ job complexity and proactivity. The hypotheses were tested in two two-wave studies (N = 215 and N = 126). Across both studies, ease of excitation (EOE; i.e., the tendency to be easily overwhelmed by changes) was unrelated to proactivity. Low sensory threshold (LST; i.e., unpleasant arousal from external stimuli) was negatively related to personal initiative, only in Study 2, but it did not predict task proactivity. Meanwhile, aesthetic sensitivity (i.e., AES; awareness of and openness to positive stimuli) was positively related to proactivity, but in Study 2, this relationship could only be established for personal initiative. Moreover, job complexity was positively related to proactivity for those employees high but not for those low in AES. EOE and LST did not act as moderators. This study offers evidence of positive behavioral implications among highly sensitive persons when dealing with job complexity. Overall, the study presents an interesting point of departure for the role of SPS in employee proactivity that calls for more research.

Egalitarianism and Employee Proactivity: The role of altruism and social capital

Employee proactivity is one of the important dimensions of work role performance. However, the literature lacks of research on the mechanisms through which proactivity is enhanced. To address this issue, we develop a conceptual model to examine how egalitarianism at both individual and organizational level affects employee proactivity through social capital. Specifically, we hypothesize that (1) individual level egalitarian mindset interacts with organizational level egalitarian HR practices to facilitate social capital; (2) egalitarian mindset enhances employee proactivity through altruism and then relational social capital mechanisms; and egalitarian HR practices improve relational social capital which, in turn, leads to employee proactivity. Using a sample of 511 employees from service organizations in New Zealand and Australia, we find support for our conceptual arguments. Theoretical and practical implications derived from our results are discussed.

Proactive Personality, Flexible Work Arrangements, and Work- Family Conflict

Despite the prevalence of flexible work arrangements (FWAs), such as flextime and flexplace, offered by organizations around the world, there is still much to learn regarding who is more likely to use FWAs to alleviate work- family conflict (WFC) and under what conditions the use of FWAs actually reduce WFC. Drawing on conservation of resources theory and boundary theory, we developed a moderated mediation model regarding the relationships between proactive personality, FWA use, work-to-non work boundary permeability, and WFC. We tested the model using survey data collected at two time points from 217 employees. Results demonstrate that, regardless of their level of boundary permeability, proactive employees are more likely to use flextime to alleviate WFC. However, proactive employees’ use of flexplace can exacerbate WFC. Only when proactive employees have a low work-to-nonwork boundary permeability does their use of flexplace alleviate WFC.

Organizational Agility: Routine Dynamics, Work Design and Proactive Behavior

This overview article integrates recent empirical research on agile work practices (AWPs) with more established findings on work design and employee proactivity. Through this integration, we develop a new understanding and multilevel model of organizational agility. The proposed model seeks to explain the implications of agility at various levels of organizations (i.e., employee-, team-, and leader-level). Specifically, we theorize that the well-being and productivity benefits of AWPs depend on the relationships of these practices with job demands, job resources, and their effects on proactive work behavior. Our integrative multilevel model addresses recent calls for research on (1) system-level antecedents of work design and (2) contextual antecedents of proactive behavior. Our model suggests that organizational agility does not emerge automatically with the implementation of agile methods such as Scrum or Kanban. In contrast, we propose that organizations must focus on improving their routines, work design, and employee proactivity, in order to enable true agility.

A New Perspective on Wise Proactivity: Configural Effect of Proactivity Process

Proactivity literature has come to realize that employee proactivity is a process including a set of actions rather than a one-off action (e.g., Bindl et al., 2012; Parker et al., 2010). We provide a new perspective about when is proactivity wise by examining configural effect of four elements of proactivity process (envisioning, planning, enacting and reflecting, Bindl et al., 2012). Specifically, we explore what configurations of high or low level of such four elements be sufficient to employees’ high or low performance and well-being (i.e., high or low burnout and role overload). Further, we include contextual factors (environmental uncertainty and leader trust) by examining the configural effect of proactivity process and such contextual factors, to broaden our understanding about the effect of proactivity process configurations. Using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) across two studies, we find 11 original configurations. Further, we identify 4 primary and robust configurations from them by combining fsQCA and regression analysis. The primary and important results we find are :(1) high enacting alone is not sufficient for producing high performance; (2) when the other three elements are low, no matter the envisioning is high or low will lead to low performance; (3) no proactivity process configurations could lead to low burnout or low role overload, but leader trust could well buffer the burnout and role overload caused by proactivity process. Our research contribute to proactivity literature by providing a new process perspective to better understand the effect of proactivity, revealing a synergistic effect of proactivity prcoess configurations and going beyond the traditional regression analysis. Besides, our research first explore the effect of proactivity process empirically, and find a new point to examine action regulation process.

Sustainability and Digitalization: Behavioral Visibility explaining Organizational Change

Sustainability and digitalization are two megatrends posing an impetus for change and challenging organizations. Particularly in the case of sustainability, research emphasizes the impact of proactive employee actions for identifying and realizing sustainability change opportunities. However, it remains unclear why sustainability seemingly mobilizes more employee engagement, despite digitalization also offering opportunities for and benefitting from employee impulses. Building on a qualitative inductive study, we reveal how sustainability and digitalization can be successfully integrated into the organizational change management. Applying a behavioral visibility lens, we provide an explanation, why sustainability activates an additional emergent and employee-driven change, while digitalization does not, as sustainable behavior is more visible within the organization. We provide a model to understand the phenomenon of emergent vs. organizational change in the light of complex and diffuse megatrends, by explaining how behavioral visibility is a filter for enacting emerging change opportunities. We identify four different key parts for sustainability and digitalization change: 1) change enactment, 2) behavioral visibility, 3) emergent change cycle, and 4) organizational change. In addition, we derive managerial recommendations.

Proactive Events and the Nature of Event Chains: An EST Perspective on Employee Participation

Event System Theory (EST) suggests that understanding event chains is essential to our comprehension of organizational change dynamics. However, the question of whether different proactive events trigger different event chains remains unresolved. In this study, we analyze the effects of proactive employee participation (EP) events on the nature of event chains in planned change. Our analysis shows that different EP event types lead to different event chains in terms of development over time and across hierarchical levels. Also, the impact of the event chains on the organization is triggered by the chosen EP timing strategy. This adds to our understanding of EST by proposing that event type is an important variable when determining the nature of event chains. Our findings point to a research agenda focused on the relationship between EP timing strategies, the event chains, and the impact of planned change initiatives.

The quality of working life from a person-centred perspective: linking job crafting, work environment types and work engagement

PurposeThe current study inspects pathways through which job crafting relates to the quality of employees' working lives. To date, this has been mostly done either by linking job crafting to individual job characteristics or by investigating its association with separate aspects of occupational well-being (such as work engagement), whereas empirical evidence about how it may affect one's overall work situation remains scarce.Design/methodology/approachTo address this question, the authors conducted latent profile analyses based on selected job resources and job demands, which allowed the authors to derive distinct work environment patterns prevailing in a heterogeneous sample of 1,064 employees. Four patterns were identified denoting a passive, high-strain, low-strain and optimally balanced work environment types. The authors then tested the hypothesis that job crafting would relate to employees' odds of exposure to these patterns and that the latter would differentiate between high and low work engagement.FindingsApproach job crafting was related to higher odds of being exposed to a favourably balanced work environment, and the reverse was true of avoidance crafting. Work engagement differed as a function of the quality of the work environment. Furthermore, the results suggested a potentially indirect link between approach job crafting and work engagement via exposure to different work environment types, whereas avoidance crafting related to lower work engagement only directly.Originality/valueThe findings contribute to theory testing and practice by providing a holistic representation of the work environment and then interlinking its features with employee proactivity and engagement.

How peer coaching fosters employee proactivity and well-being within a self-managing Finnish digital engineering company

• Peer coaching partially fills a leadership void in self-managing organizations. • Peer coaching enhances employee proactivity and well-being. • Peer coaching facilitates organizational level outcomes. • Employees’ needs are the major driving force of the peer coaching system at Nitor. • Employees’ needs are multidimensional, dynamic, and diverse. Pressure is increasing on traditional organizations to transform by moving away from old hierarchical structures towards more self-management in order to respond to nimble and agile entrepreneurial ventures and start-ups. In order for organizations to succeed in such transformations we need to know more about how radically self-managing organizations function, and what makes employees thrive and struggle in such settings. In this paper, we delve into an innovative peer coaching system used by Nitor, a self-managing digital engineering company, which challenges the mainstream belief how profitable companies should be organized and managed. In our study we explore the key characteristics of this peer coaching system, the mechanisms through which it enables employee proactivity and well-being, the key organizational outcomes and the challenges of successfully implementing it. The study suggests that peer coaching is especially helpful in self-managing firms as it is able to replace some of the key roles that middle management plays in traditional organizations.

Inclusive Leadership and Employee Proactive Behavior: A Cross-Level Moderated Mediation Model

PurposeThe proactive behavior of employees is one of the key determinants of organizational development in a rapidly changing business environment. While much attention has been paid to the antecedents of employees’ proactive behavior, little is known about the mechanisms that influence their psychological state and work behavior. The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between inclusive leadership (IL) and proactive behavior, along with mediating role of employee trust and the moderating role of procedural justice climate.MethodsThe data were collected from 40 independent project teams from 30 companies in China, and the hypotheses were tested on 304 available samples, followed by the null model to conduct the cross-level regression analysis.ResultsThe results indicated that IL significantly affects the employee proactive behavior, in which employee trust played a mediating role. Moreover, procedural justice climate respectively moderates the positive relationship between IL and employee proactive behavior, and the positive relationship between IL and employee trust.ConclusionIL not only provides emotional support to increase employee trust but also inspires subordinates with a non-active personality to take initiative. Team-oriented organizational structures should promote procedural justice measures to create a trusting and fair work environment that more effectively furthers the effectiveness of IL on positive work behaviors of employees.