Search results

This article aims to provide knowledge on the antecedents and consequences of individual proactive behaviour. The proposed research model includes two unexplored antecedents (experienced meaningfulness of work and industry competitive intensity) and one consequence (individual proficiency).

Data were collected from 297 salespeople working at 105 enterprises in a range of industries. Data analysis was performed by applying confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

The results show (1) a positive association between industry competitive intensity and salespeople’s experienced meaningfulness of work and their proactivity at work; (2) a positive relationship between salespeople’s proactive behaviour and their individual proficiency and (3) that salespeople’s proactivity mediates the relation between industry competitive intensity and the experienced meaningfulness of work and individual proficiency.

The results suggest that managers could stimulate proactive behaviour by increasing the experienced meaningfulness of work. They also indicate that it is not only individual factors that are relevant in stimulating proactive behaviour at work, as contextual factors (particularly external ones) can also influence individual decisions with regard to engaging or not in proactive behaviour. Our findings regarding the positive relationship between proactivity and proficiency would help managers to encourage salespeople’s proactive behaviour.

Although high-performance work systems (HPWS) have been shown to promote employees' proactive behavior, only a limited number of studies have examined this process. This study explores how HPWS promote proactive behavior through learning goal orientation (LGO) and customer-oriented behavior (COB).

A questionnaire survey was conducted with 279 healthcare workers in nursing homes. Structural equation modeling was conducted to test the hypotheses.

The results show that HPWS positively influenced proactive behavior through COB and that HPWS positively influenced proactive behavior through LGO and subsequently through COB. The findings indicate that COB is vital in linking HPWS to proactive behavior in healthcare service organizations.

The results suggest that HPWS provide job resources that enable health care workers to take initiatives to change their work environment through performance management, incentive systems and training programs. This study is the first to identify the mediating role of COB in linking HPWS to proactive behavior.

Based on person-job fit and self-determination theory, this paper examined the effects of (in)congruence between autonomy expectation and perceived autonomy on proactive behaviour, and the moderating role of humble leadership in this relationship among Chinese public employees.

Data were collected from a two-wave survey, and the research model was tested using polynomial regression and response surface methodology.

Results suggested that employees' proactive behaviour will be highest when autonomy congruence was achieved, while autonomy incongruence led to different levels of proactive behaviour based on the specific situations. Furthermore, the moderating effect of humble leadership was proved such that it accentuated the positive influence of autonomy congruence on proactive behaviour.

Managers should be fully aware of the benefits and importance of person-job fit and strive to reduce autonomy incongruence. Meanwhile, humble leadership should be considered in the context of granting autonomy to boost proactivity.

This paper re-emphasises the importance of autonomy by utilising a congruence perspective to understand the effects of autonomy on proactive behaviour. Meanwhile, it incorporates an important boundary condition, humble leadership, on the effects of autonomy congruence and thus offers a more nuanced understanding. Further, this paper not only highlights the significance of underexplored concepts among public employees, but also extends autonomy (in)congruence study to a new context and culture.

Although learning goal orientation (LGO) has shown to promote learning and performance in employees, only a limited number of studies have explored its situational antecedents. The main purpose of the present research was to examine the effects of role modeling on employee LGO and proactive behavior.

A two-wave survey was conducted to collect data from medical employees (n = 478) at an acute hospital in Japan.

The results of structural equation modeling showed that role model proactive behavior promoted employee LGO, mediated through perceived role model LGO; and that perceived role model LGO enhanced employee proactive behavior, mediated through employee LGO.

As the sample was limited to employees in a nursing department at a Japanese hospital, the characteristics of the national culture and occupation may have potentially affected the results.

Proactive employees can act as role models to enhance the level of employees' LGO and proactive behavior in organizations. It is imperative to develop employee role modeling to enhance LGO and proactive behavior.

This study may be the first to identify the influence of role modeling as an antecedent of LGO. The role model may provide employees with job resources to develop their LGO and proactive behaviors.

This study examined how inclusive leadership in the workplace promotes proactive behavior in employees based on self-determination theories and a model of motivation for proactive behavior.

Using a sample of 270 employees from various provinces in China, we investigated the relationship between inclusive leadership (measured at Time 1), workplace gratitude (measured at Time 1) and proactive behaviors (measured at Time 2). To test our hypotheses, SEM analysis was conducted to measure the path coefficients, followed by bootstrapping analysis to assess the indirect impacts of gratitude at work.

The results suggest that inclusive leadership could enhance subordinates’ propensity to be grateful, which in turn will increase the frequency of their proactive behaviors.

First, the evidence presented further validates the proposed association between inclusive leadership and proactive behavior, and it also enriches related theories. Second, our study introduced workplace gratitude as a mediator, deepening the understanding of the mechanisms linking inclusive leadership and proactive behavior.

The literature on leadership is quite extensive; however, this study explains the impact of leadership styles on career success, career competence and career adaptability in the health sector. It explains the impact of servant leadership on career competence and career adaptability with a serial mediating impact of psychological safety and proactive behavior as well as self-efficacy and proactive behavior.

It is a quantitative study, and it tested the suggested model in hospitals in Pakistan. The data were collected from 310 health practitioners from the hospitals, and it was analyzed with partial least square structural equation modeling.

The findings suggest that psychological safety and proactive behavior serially mediate the impact of servant leaders on career competence and career adaptability; hence, servant leadership tends to increase career competence and career adaptability of individuals. One more serial mediation has been tested with positive results between servant leadership and career competence and career adaptability.

The study takes a very well theoretically linked model which tests the serial mediating path of servant leadership to career competencies and career adaptability.

This study investigated the impact of entrepreneurship education on the international entrepreneurship intention of the university students while considering the mediating roles of entrepreneurship alertness, proactive personality, innovative behaviour and the moderating role of global mindset in this relationship.

The research employs a survey methodology, utilising a structured questionnaire for data collection. The study specifically concentrates on students enrolled at Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED) in Ghana, drawing its sample from six academic programmes within the university. Data analysis is conducted using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The findings of this research revealed that entrepreneurship education exerts a positive influence on the international entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, entrepreneurship alertness acts as a mediator in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and innovative behaviour. Similarly, a proactive personality serves as a mediating factor between entrepreneurship education and innovative behaviour. Moreover, innovative behaviour operates as a mediator in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and international entrepreneurship intention. Additionally, a global mindset plays a crucial moderating role in the connection between entrepreneurship education and international entrepreneurship intention.

This study makes a significant contribution to the field by shedding light on the mediating roles of proactive personality, entrepreneurial alertness, innovative behaviour and global mindset moderating the relationship between entrepreneurship education and international entrepreneurship intention. These insights offer fresh perspectives on the complex dynamics at play in the realm of entrepreneurship education and its impact on students' intentions for the international entrepreneurship.

Based on the Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Stress, this study aims to reveal the mechanism of peer abusive supervision on bystander proactive behavior through two different paths: bystander assertive impression management motivation and bystander defensive impression management motivation. Besides, the moderating effects of bystander uncertainty tolerance on the two paths are also explored.

In this study, 438 employees and their direct leaders from eight Chinese companies were surveyed in a paired survey at three time points, and the empirical data was analyzed using Mplus 7.4 software.

Peer abusive supervision leads bystanders to develop assertive impression management motivation and, thus, to exhibit more proactive behaviors. At the same time, peer abusive supervision also causes bystanders to develop defensive impression management motivation, which reduces the frequency of performing proactive behaviors. In addition, this study finds that bystander uncertainty tolerance plays a moderating role in influencing bystander assertive impression management motivation and bystander defensive impression management motivation in response to peer abusive supervision.

Starting from the bystander perspective, this study verifies the double-edged sword effect of peer abusive supervision on bystander proactive behavior as well as the mechanism of differentiated effects through cognitive appraisal, which broadens the scope of the research on abusive supervision, and deepens the academic understanding and development of the Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Stress. At the same time, it also provides new ideas for organizations to reduce the negative effects of workplace abusive behavior.

This research examined the presence of career orientation profiles by investigating how young workers combined protean career orientation attitudes, motivation to learn to develop one's career and an optimistic future perspective on their career. It explored how a differentiated endorsement of these attitudes and motivation (i.e. career orientation profiles) were associated with the adoption of multiple career-enhancing behaviors, namely proactive career behaviors (i.e. career planning, networking and skill development) and learning behaviors with technologies.

Latent profile analysis was conducted among young individuals starting their career (N = 767) and found four distinct profiles.

The first profile revealed that 17.2% of workers in this sample were displaying low levels in protean career orientation, motivation to learn and optimistic future time perspective (profile 1). Two differentiated profiles showed either low levels of protean career orientation and high levels of motivation to learn (profile 2) or high levels of protean career attitudes and low levels of motivation to learn (profile 3). These profiles presented an average level of future time perspective and represented 13.8 and 40.6% of the sample. Finally, 28.4% of the sample showed high levels on all these variables (profile 4).

Only young workers who showed high levels on all these indicators also presented high levels of proactive behaviors and learning with technologies. The other three profiles were associated with suboptimal levels on these outcomes. Taken together, these results offer new insights into the psychological state of mind of workers most adapted to succeed in a modern career.

Despite the detrimental effects of supervisor knowledge hiding on employees and organizations, little research has focused on how subordinates cope with it. Drawing on the impression management theory, this study proposes a mediated moderation model to explain who and how cope with supervisor knowledge hiding.

Using a sample of 340 full-time participants in various organizations and industries in China, the proposed model was tested using ordinary least squares regression with the PROCESS 3.5.

The results support the mediated moderation model, indicating that proactive subordinates are motivated to manage their impression towards supervisors and engage in upward ingratiation to cope with supervisor knowledge hiding. In contrast, subordinates with low level of proactive personality trait have less impression management motive and engage in fewer upward ingratiatory behaviors.

Based on the impression management theory, the current paper contributes to the literature on supervisor knowledge hiding by expanding the consequences of supervisor knowledge hiding, identifying a boundary condition of supervisor knowledge hiding on subordinate’s subsequent behaviors and enriching the mechanism underlying the effect of supervisor knowledge hiding with proactive personality.