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Proactivity is a type of goal-directed work behavior in which individuals actively take charge of situations to bring about future change in themselves or their organization. In this chapter, we draw on goal-regulation research to review conceptual and empirical evidence that elucidates some of the complex links of affective experience and employee proactivity. We identify the different ways in which affective experience influences different stages of proactivity, including employees’ efforts in setting a proactive goal (envisioning), preparing to implement their proactive goal (planning), implementing their proactive goal (enacting), and engaging in learning from their proactive goal process (reflecting). Overall, our review suggests an important, positive role of high-activated positive trait affectivity and moods in motivating proactivity across multiple goal stages, as compared to low-activated positive affectivity and moods. The role of negative affect is mixed, and likely depends on both its valence and the stage of proactivity that is being considered. We identify a lack of research on the role of discrete emotions for employee proactivity. We discuss future avenues for research, particularly the roles of intra- and inter-personal emotion regulation for proactivity and of affective embeddedness of proactive processes in the social environment of organizations.

In this chapter, we empirically examine leaders’ proactivity by taking the goal-process view of proactivity and from a multiple-rating source perspective. We proposed five behavioral indicators (envisioning and following goals, planning, solving problems, creating ideas, and championing change) to evaluate the key stages in the process of achieving proactive goals. We collected 360-degree ratings from leaders themselves, their supervisors, colleagues, and subordinates on these key indicators. The specific aim of this study is to (1) assess factorial validity of these five proactivity-related constructs, and (2) gauge whether different rater groups have consistent or different views in evaluating target leaders’ proactivity. Data were collected from a total of 535 part-time EMBA students, and data were analyzed by a Correlated Trait-Uncorrelated Method (CTUM) model. Results showed that (1) the five proactivity-related indicators were highly intercorrelated and can be influenced by a higher-order proactivity factor, and (2) ratings on the same construct but from different raters consistently converged on the same factor, revealing that different raters have a consistent perception in evaluating leaders’ multiple dimensions of proactivity.

This chapter discusses proactive leadership by elaborating the meaning of leaders' proactivity, the required competencies of proactive leadership, and the potentially different evaluations of leaders' proactivity by different observers, including leaders themselves, their supervisors, peers, and subordinates. Specifically, based on the goal generation – goal striving process view of proactivity, we define leaders' proactivity as “generating and enacting self-initiated and future-focused leading actions that are persistently sustained to bring changes toward the environment.” In line with the process view, we also propose the competency requirement of proactive leadership, by benchmarking against a scientifically developed, comprehensive competency dictionary, the Universal Competency Framework (UCF). Finally, we discuss the possibility that leaders' proactivity can be observed and evaluated differently by raters at different positions. Overall, this chapter provides a conceptual analysis of proactive leadership and points to potential research directions subject to empirical investigation.

Conceptually, management control of an organization requires managers to link decision making to strategic objectives and to link performance outcomes to the implementation of these decisions. However, it is often difficult to determine what management decision processes and actions are most effective in translating strategic objectives into achieved performance. Using data from a cross-section of industrial firms that have an explicit interest in environmental management, we present and test a model of environmental management control and performance that evaluates the associations between specific managerial actions, environmental proactivity, and environmental performance. Our results demonstrate a positive relationship between five specific management control actions and environmental proactivity, which is in turn positively associated with environmental performance. This study helps to define the concept of proactive environmental management through the identification of discrete managerial actions that link to proactivity and environmental performance outcomes.

Scholars have argued that different forms of proactive behaviors (e.g., career initiative, feedback seeking, and taking charge) all involve employees’ self-initiated and future-focused efforts to bring about change in a situation (Parker et al., 2006). There are at least three important elements that define proactivity: future-focus, change-orientation, and self-initiation (Frese & Fay, 2001; Parker et al., 2006). First, proactive behavior is future-focused, which means that this action is targeted at anticipated problems or at opportunities with a long-term focus. Second, proactive behavior is change-oriented, involving not just reacting to a situation but being prepared to change that situation in order to bring about a different future. Third, and underpinning the prior two elements, proactive behavior is self-initiated, which means that employees initiate a proactive goal without being told to, or without requiring explicit instructions from supervisors. Accordingly, proactivity has also been conceived of as a process in which employees generate and implement, under their own direction, a proactive goal to bring about a different future (Bindl, Parker, Totterdell, & Hagger-Johnson, 2012; Frese & Fay, 2001; Grant & Ashford, 2008).

Purpose – We investigate the impact of overlapping crises of COVID-19 and the George Floyd protests on one major US police department, focusing on staffing and officer proactivity.

Methodology/Approach – The study investigates the impact of the two crises on operational capacity. Using Bayesian interrupted time-series analysis, the authors investigate if officer proactivity levels were adversely impacted in the short and long terms.

Findings – A statewide stay-at-home order (SAHO) was associated with a sharp decline in proactive contacts, but that effect dissipated quickly. However, the Floyd protests were associated with a sharp decline in proactivity, which persisted throughout the study period.

Originality/Value – The findings of this study contribute to ongoing research agendas that seek to understand the impact of dual, overlapping crises on US police departments and the communities they serve. The authors demonstrate a methodological approach capable of disentangling both crises’ effects on police activity levels.

This chapter briefly reviews findings from recent socialization research to provide an updated view of the socialization literature. To help advance the literature, this chapter then takes an instructional system approach, viewing socialization fundamentally as a process of learning about a new or changed role and the environment surrounding that role. As such, attention will first be given to further understanding exactly what needs to be learned during socialization. In doing so, an expanded socialization content typology is presented. In addition, two other components are added to this typology to reflect the fact that (a) each of those content dimensions needs to be learned relative to different organizational levels (e.g., job, work group, unit, organization) and (b) socialization occurs over several months and there are temporal considerations relating to the different socialization content dimensions. This chapter then examines how to best facilitate the learning of that expanded socialization content. The Gagné-Briggs theory of instruction is used in connecting socialization content with the means of learning that content. The socialization and orienting activities commonly used by organizations to help new employees in the adjustment process are also identified and then mapped onto the learning outcomes they could best help facilitate. Finally, the conceptual, measurement, and research needs suggested by these extensions to the socialization literature are identified.

Firms embrace environmental management strategies for a number of reasons. Government regulation pushes firms to comply with environmental standards, thereby creating a need for companies to manage environmental performance outcomes. Pressure for good environmental performance is also exerted by a variety of stakeholders including investors, customers, non-governmental organizations, local communities, and employees. Increasingly, the investment community has recognized that environmental performance is closely linked to firm value. In Measuring the Future: The Value Creation Index, a 2000 study of intangible drivers of firm value by Cap Gemini Ernst and Young, environmental performance was ranked as a key intangible driver of firm value. Financial measures of firm value have also been empirically linked to environmental liabilities (Barth & McNichols, 1994; Blacconiere & Northcut, 1997; Hughes, 2000), environmental awards (Klassen & McLaughlin, 1996), and to toxic emissions (King & Lenox, 2002). Increasingly, customer demands drive firms to embrace better environmental management practices. For example, both Ford and General Motors require that their suppliers achieve environmental management certification under the International Standards Organization (ISO) 14001 guidelines, and many other large organizations are following suit. From a starting point in 1995 of just 257 ISO 14001 certifications awarded to facilities in 19 countries, the latest data available for 2004 shows that over 90,000 certifications have been awarded to facilities in 127 countries around the world (ISO, 2005). In addition to implementing an environmental strategy as a reaction to external pressures, managers realize that effective environmental performance leads to more favorable internal outcomes. The operational performance outcomes associated with implementing a proactive environmental strategy include reduced waste and discharges, increased efficiency, reduced energy and resource costs, lower risk and liability, better corporate reputation, and reduced compliance costs (Sharma & Vredenburg, 1998; Hart & Ahuja, 1996; Hart, 1995).

Purpose – This study explores the role of local employees, external partners, and public authorities in supporting and providing information to foreign firms in the context of foreign investment in Southeast Europe (SEE), and the effects on foreign market success.

Methodology – This quantitative study assessed the perception of managers of Austrian companies with business activities in SEE by applying ordinary regression analysis. The hypotheses are tested using survey data of 80 Austrian firms operating in SEE countries.

Findings – Results indicate that information provision by external partners has a positive and significant influence on firm performance, while no significant relationship between information provision by public authorities and firm performance could be found. The results also show that proactivity of local employees facilitates information provision by external partners.

Research limitations – The conclusions drawn are only preliminary as the study did not control for differences in information internalization, was focused on a narrow set of variables determining market performance, and did not control for cultural contingencies of the results.

Practical implications – Western companies operating in the region have to recognize the importance of drawing on external information holders as well as the role of proactive employees in this process for market success.

We examine how input- (vs. output-) based performance evaluation and incentive intensity impact employees’ autonomous motivation, thereby influence their proactive work behaviors.

We collected survey responses from 309 employees of different firms. Multi-group Structural Equation Modeling analyses were used to analyze the data.

Input-based evaluation had a positive effect on autonomous motivation and proactive work behaviors when task uncertainty was high, but a negative effect when it was low. Autonomous motivation had a positive effect on proactive work behaviors.

Our results on the moderating effect of task uncertainty provide insights into inconsistencies in earlier studies. Moreover, applying self-determination theory of motivation to incentive research can provide some insights into why sometimes, incentives can negatively affect performance.

The study of proactive work behaviors is important because despite their necessity in the fast-changing business environment, they are relatively unexplored in the incentive literature. Proactivity is especially important for tasks that are high in uncertainty because the exact tasks to achieve those goals are hard to specify.

We investigate the effect of performance management system on proactive work behaviors, mediated by autonomous motivation and moderated by task uncertainty.