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This paper sets out to examine proactive personality in relation to job demands, job resources and engagement.

The current study employed a two‐wave complete panel study among 794 Dutch government employees. Based upon the Job Demands‐Resources (JD‐R) model, previous studies, job crafting theories, and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, hypotheses on the associations of proactive personality with job demands, resources, and engagement were developed.

Analyses revealed that proactive personality was associated with an increase in engagement 18 months later. Moreover, proactive employees perceiving high social support reported the highest levels of engagement over time.

A first shortcoming is that proactive personality was only measured at one point in time, which restricted the testing of causal relationships of proactive personality with engagement. Second, this study only measured engagement as outcome measure and third variables may have affected the associations of proactive personality with job demands and resources and engagement. Third, only small effect sizes of proactive personality (and job demands and resources) on engagement over time were found. With regard to theoretical implications, this study suggests a refinement of the JD‐R model by perceiving proactive personality as a personal resource which coincides with job resources such as social support and/or is triggered by (low) external job demands in increasing engagement.

Since this study's findings suggest that proactive personality is a personal resource with beneficial effects on employees' levels of work‐related engagement, employers are advised to promote the behavior expressed by proactive employees. When employees are under challenged due to a low level of quantitative job demands or when they want to optimize their work environment in case of high job demands, proactive personality may have a positive impact on their engagement over time, in particular when combined with high levels of support from their colleagues and supervisor.

This study's value consists of its innovative effort to relate proactive personality to engagement 18 months later. In addition, the longitudinal design of this study made it possible to examine the associations of proactive personality, job demands and resources with engagement over time.

The aim of this paper is to investigate how social exchanges modify the relationship between psychological contract breach and work performance. It aims to present two concurrent hypotheses, based on theoretical interaction effects of social exchanges (conceptualized as social exchange relationships, POS, and trust).

Data were collected from a sample of 266 employees in a service sector company in the USA. Regression analysis was used to explore the moderating effects of social exchanges on the relationships between psychological contract breach and work performance (operationalized as in‐role behaviors and organizational citizenship behaviors).

It was found that the negative relationship between psychological contract breach and work performance was moderated by social exchanges, such that the relationship was stronger for employees with high social exchange relationship, perceived organizational support, and trust.

The data were collected cross‐sectionally, and thus causal inferences have to be made with caution. Moreover, the data were collected from a single source. The study shows that the relations between contract breach and outcomes are moderated by the existing relationship between employee and organization.

Although organizations may invest in long‐term relationships with their employees, psychological contract breaches have a profound impact on work performance. Therefore, organizations should diminish perceptions of contract breach; for instance by providing realistic expectations.

The paper provides new theoretical insights on how social exchange can have two distinct effects on the breach‐outcomes relations. It shows that social exchanges moderate the relations between contract breach and work performance.

In the last couple of years, attention to organisation socialisation has increased greatly; this is the learning process by which newcomers develop attitudes and behaviour that are necessary to function as a fully‐fledged member of the organisation. After all, the more effective and efficient the socialisation, the sooner a newcomer can be productive for the organisation. This is especially true for a specific group of newcomers, the future managers, as they frequently point out that they are not well prepared for their tasks and their new identity as managers, but are expected to propagate the company policy. The article discusses research that assists organisations to steer the socialisation of new employees. It also provides the framework whereby the link between abstract socialisation tactics and concrete personnel instruments, such as introduction programs, training and education, career planning, career counselling, and performance appraisals, will be realised.

Autonomy is a primary motive for a large majority of small business starters. As an explanation of why people want their own (autonomous) business it is tautological. This study sets out to focus on an explanation of the autonomy motive itself: why small business starters want autonomy.

Data were collected using semi‐structured interviews with a sample of 167 nascent entrepreneurs.

There are two types of autonomy motives: a proximal motive which is associated with task characteristics of being self‐employed (decisional freedom), and distal motives for which autonomy is instrumental (to avoid a boss or restrictions; to act in a self‐endorsed and self‐congruent manner; and to be in charge).

Autonomy measures should either operationalise autonomy only in a proximal sense without regard to underlying motive sources, or take distal motives into account and offer items that reflect these autonomy motive sources.

Persons who resist bosses and rules now must be a boss and set rules themselves. People who want to express their personality and creativity in their work might be so busy and occupied that there will be little space left for personality and creativity expression. People who want autonomy because of the power and control it brings them may find that as a small business owner they have to deal with several types of uncertainty. Practitioners must resolve these tensions.

In spite of the intimate relationship between freedom and entrepreneurial motivation, this is perhaps the first paper to focus exclusively on autonomy as a start‐up motive.

This paper examines the effects of the development of employees’ career competencies (knowing-why, knowing-how, and knowing-whom) on the employing organization and assesses the role of career satisfaction in this relationship. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to research on the consequences of employees’ boundaryless careers.

The study involves a two-wave quantitative investigation of alumni of a large public university in the Netherlands.

The results suggest that by investing in the development of their career competencies, employees contribute to organizational culture, capabilities, and connections. However, these contributions depend on employees’ level of perceived career satisfaction. If employees are satisfied with their careers, they contribute more to their organizations.

Further longitudinal research, strengthened by an additional, third wave of data collection, is needed to replicate the present findings.

The study highlights the importance of employees’ career development for organizations.

This study is the first empirical investigation of the link between the development of employees’ career competencies and employees’ contributions to their employers and one of a few studies that examines career satisfaction as a moderating variable.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the complex relationship between ethnic diversity, social capital, and objective career success in upward mobility systems over time. The authors conceptualize the underlying process of why intra-organizational career boundaries are more permeable for dominant ethnics compared to minority ethnics.

The authors conceptually explore and model this relationship by elaborating on three mechanisms of social capital return deficit proposed by Lin (2000), building the argument based on four underlying principles (stereotype fit, status construction, homophily, and reciprocity).

Based on a proposed reciprocal relationship between social capital and objective career success, the authors suggest the development of an upward career spiral over time, which is continuously affected by ethnic group membership. Consequently, the authors argue that dominant ethnics do not only advance to a higher level of objective career success, but that they also advance exponentially faster than minority ethnics.

The conceptualization provokes the question to what extent the permeability of intra-organizational boundaries constrains careers of some, while enabling careers of others.

The contribution lies in the exploration of the relationship between social capital and objective career success over time, of the permeability of intra-organizational career boundaries, and how both are affected by ethnic group membership.

The conditions and implications for the use of multi‐rater feedback or “360‐degree” methods are studied from both a psychological and an organizational perspective. Psychological research indicates that multi‐ratings cannot be put on the same footing as ratings obtained from more “objective” sources as for instance the assessment center. Multi‐rater feedback can be interpreted either as standing in the tradition of assessment centers, or originating from “total quality management”, but it seems more congenial to the TQM method of organizing “customer feedback”. Since multi‐rater feedback presupposes social interaction and consequently a work organization, the communicative conditions for such a feedback system are subsequently investigated from the perspective of organization science. It is investigated how various structural and cultural changes offer a fertile soil for the introduction of such kinds of feedback. However, the authors warn of the terror of “total feedback”.

The system of two career ladders, one for managers, the other for (top‐level) specialists or professionals, has worked satisfactorily up to a certain level. There are, however, indications that there will be a change in the “natural” career progression in the near future. Responsible for this are rising educational level of the workforce, onset of lean, knowledge‐driven companies which are competence‐based, and doubts about the effectiveness of the classical manager. Studies the concept of a “career”, and current changes in career motivations and opportunities of managers and professionals. To illustrate, describes how three large Dutch companies recruit their future top‐level managers and professionals. In particular, the career aspirations and opportunities of an important group of professionals, viz. engineers will be investigated. Finally, suggests how to align career path and motives with organizational requirements, both for managers and for professionals. Compares HRM policy with the way in which Japanese companies manage careers and transitions between managers and professionals.