Role Breadth Self-Efficacy and Foci of Proactive Behavior: Moderating Role of Collective,Relational, and Individual Self-Concept

This study aims to identify the interactive effect of role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) and the three levels of self-concept (collective, relational, and individual) in predicting of different foci of proactive behaviors. Results from 259 matched responses from an airline company in Taiwan showed that RBSE had a positive effect on (1) pro-organizational proactive behavior among those with higher collective self-concept, (2) pro-supervisor proactive behavior among those with higher relational self-concept, and (3) pro-self proactive behavior among those with higher individual self-concept. Our findings provide insights into the moderating role of different levels of self-concept on RBSE-proactive behavior process in terms of specific targets or beneficiaries. Further implications for organizational research and practice are discussed.     

Challenging the status quo: What motivates proactive behaviour?

To replicate and extend previous research regarding antecedents of proactive behaviour at work, we examined four forms of work motivation (job self‐efficacy, role breadth self‐efficacy, intrinsic work motivation and role orientation) in a sample of 98 employees in software development using co‐worker rated proactive behaviour as an outcome. Correlations indicate that whereas intrinsic motivation and job self‐efficacy were not related to co‐worker rated proactive behaviour, role orientation and role breadth self‐efficacy showed significant relationships. This study stresses the importance of role breadth self‐efficacy in enhancing proactive behaviour at work.     

“近朱者赤”：同事主动行为如何激发员工动机和绩效

以往有关主动性的研究通常聚焦员工本身, 忽略了团队或组织中同事会对员工行为产生影响这一重要管理实践和理论视角。为此, 本研究以社会学习理论为基础, 探讨了同事主动行为对员工自主动机和工作绩效的影响, 以及员工主动性人格的调节作用。通过多时点、上下级匹配问卷(研究1)及情景实验(研究2)两项研究, 本文发现, 同事主动行为可以激发员工的自主动机, 进而提升工作绩效; 并且, 员工主动性人格强化了同事主动行为对员工自主动机的正向作用。本研究不仅从理论上将现有关于主动行为的研究视角迁移到同事, 也为如何更好地激励员工提供了实践指导。     

中国跨国公司外派人员多目标主动行为的前因与后果——挑战性-阻碍性压力视角

传统研究强调跨文化多重压力阻碍外派成功, 但相对忽视压力具备的动力作用。该研究基于挑战性-阻碍性压力视角, 遵循“压力-动机-行为-结果”的逻辑框架, 对中国跨国公司外派人员多目标主动行为及结果的产生机制展开研究。依据自我决定理论分析挑战性-阻碍性两种不同属性压力如何通过影响动机和主动行为进而影响外派人员的职业发展、工作绩效及组织绩效的过程, 并根据工作要求-控制模型, 从组织和工作资源两方面识别两种压力影响外派结果的边界条件, 以及跨文化背景下主动行为发挥作用的边界条件。该研究揭示外派主动动机及行为在高不确定性跨文化背景下的价值功效, 可以为中国跨国公司挑选、培训、激励和保留国际化人才提供实践的参考。     

Pronostic de l’intention de départ chez les sapeurs-pompiers volontaires en France

The fire departments in France currently experience a growing need in volunteer stuff. At the same time the turnover rate among volunteers remains high. Intention to leave was mainly examined on the population of permanent workers, while the antecedents of intention to leave among volunteers are still undervalued. We suggest the existence of specific effects different from those previously coined out in standard organisational settings. Thus, the present study seeks to identify first- and second-order factors of intention to leave among volunteer fire-fighters. The literature review leads us to the proposition of three conceptual models that vary in terms of main mediators. Either job satisfaction, or organisational commitment, or both of them are envisaged as having the main mediating effect in the model. One hundred and thirty-nine volunteer fire-fighters returned completed questionnaires. The data was further analysed via path analysis in LISREL 8.80. The results partly confirm the model, according to which job satisfaction mediates the effects of organisational commitment, job involvement, perceived organisational support and motivation. Two variables – satisfaction with supervisors and length of service – are identified as main predictors of intention to leave. Job involvement and perceived organisational support are confirmed as second-order mediators of the effects exercised onto turnover intention by affective and normative commitment, satisfaction with colleagues and work, as well as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The results also indicate the necessity to examine the role of different dimensions of organisational attitudinal variables independently. Thus, the most salient dimension of satisfaction refers to the relationship with supervisors. As regards organisational commitment, its calculate dimension appears to have no significant effects at all; while affective one is characterised by a weak effect on intention to leave contrary to the results previously reported. The only individual variable having a significant effect on intention to leave is the volunteer fire-fighter's length of service. We conclude that instead of seeking to identify the appropriate selection criteria helping to reduce the existing turnover rate among volunteer fire-fighters, it is time to focus further research on the practices of organisational socialisation in order to reduce the current level of turnover. The main conclusion of the study emphasises the role the attitudes towards organisation plays in the decision of a volunteer fire-fighter to resign.     

A Comparison of Work Motivation in Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Netherlands: Test of a Model

This article describes a study into the antecedents and consequences of job involvement and organisational commitment of workers in Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Netherlands. On the basis of the literature a general model of work motivation is developed which depicts job characteristics, opportunities to satisfy needs, and extrinsic work factors as determinants of job involvement and organisational commitment, and considers effort expenditure, performance, job satisfaction, turnover, and work stress as outcomes. Data from worker samples in the three countries obtained with equivalent instruments are used to test the validity of the model. Path analysis shows that the model has a modest fit when applied to the three samples simultaneously. A better fit and more meaningful results are obtained by developing optimal models for each country. The peculiarities of these models can be largely explained from cultural and economic factors. Since the differences between Bulgaria and Hungary are as great as the differences with the Netherlands, there seems to be little evidence for a motivational after-effect of communism.     

Proactive Customer Service Performance: Relationships With Individual,Task, and Leadership Variables

Despite the increasing interest in specific forms of proactive employee behavior in domains such as career development and organizational change, little research has investigated proactive behavior in the realm of customer service. Based on a review of the literatures on proactive behavior, customer service, and job performance, this study investigated relationships between a relevant set of individual and situational predictor variables and proactive customer service performance (i.e., individual service employees' self-started, long-term-oriented, and persistent service behavior that goes beyond explicitly prescribed requirements). Field survey data from 186 supervisor-subordinate dyads working in a large financial services organization demonstrated that proactive service performance, as rated by supervisors, was factorially distinct from prescribed task performance. Multiple regression analysis revealed that proactive service performance was significantly and positively associated with employee ratings of trait personal initiative, affective organizational commitment, task complexity, and participative leadership. The task and leadership variables explained incremental variance in proactive service performance beyond the individual predictors.     

Person–Organisation Fit Across Cultures: An Empirical Investigation of Individualism and Collectivism

The present study extended person–organisation fit research by concentrating exclusively on one national culture dimension affecting organisational values: individualism–collectivism (I–C). Volunteers ( N =581) from two matched organisations (hospitals and management consultancies) in Australia and in South‐East Asia completed questionnaires measuring individuals' orientations on I–C and other organisational variables. Two types of fit were analysed: interactions between (1) individual I–C and national culture, and (2) individual I–C and organisational culture. These interactions were tested in relation to three outcome variables: organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and tenure. Both national and organisational differences were found with respect to I–C. Asian organisations were more collectivistic than Australian organisations, and hospitals were more collectivistic than management consultancies. In support of person–nation fit hypotheses, collectivists were more committed to their organisations and had longer tenure than individualists in Asian, as compared to Australian organisations. Interaction terms were significant even in the presence of direct effects of collectivism on organisational commitment and tenure. The same results were not found for job satisfaction. Predicted effects of person–organisation fit were not found at the organisational level within cultures.     

Salesperson directive modification intention: a conceptualization and empirical validation

Salespersons represent an important and challenging set of employees for organizational management. Given frequently high autonomy levels and varied job roles, boundary spanning agents have ample opportunity and motivation to modify/ignore organizational directives. Based on a multi-theoretical perspective, this research sets forth a three-dimensional conceptualization of directive modification intentions and develops and empirically tests a scale designed to better explain this phenomenon while empirically validating its occurrence. Results indicate that boundary spanners have three distinct and relatively stable motivations for modifying/ignoring organizational directives, including customer-, organization-, and self-focused motivations, and that each motivation may potentially relate differently to important antecedent and outcome variables. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Approaching Success or Avoiding Failure? Approach and Avoidance Motives in the Work Domain

In our set of studies, we extended research on approach and avoidance motivations by investigating (i) motives in a work setting, (ii) interactions among approach and avoidance motives, and (iii) motives at implicit levels. Results of Studies 1 through 3 provided support for the construct validity of our work motives measure by demonstrating that approach and avoidance work motives are markers of more general approach and avoidance temperaments, they are distinct from other individual difference variables commonly studied by organisational psychologists (e.g. conscientiousness, regulatory focus and cognitive ability) and they are stable over time. In Studies 4 through 7, we confirmed our predictions that approach and avoidance motives predict employees' goal orientations, job appraisals and attitudes (e.g. job satisfaction and perceived support) and supervisor‐rated job behaviours (e.g. task performance and citizenship behaviour). Importantly, we provide the first empirical evidence that approach and avoidance motives interact to predict task performance and that the motives operate at implicit levels. Copyright © 2012 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Job insecurity in a sample of Canadian civil servants as a function of personality and perceived job characteristics

Economic downturns and organisational changes have stimulated studies on the importance of job security for public employees; however, there has been some disagreement as to whether job insecurity should be defined using a single- or a two-factor model, on how to measure it and which antecedents and consequences are linked to it. Questionnaires measuring job insecurity as well as personality traits and job characteristics as possible antecedent variables, and job performance and job satisfaction as possible consequences were completed by a sample of 71 federal government employees during recent important government downsizing. A multiple regression analysis indicated that job insecurity, defined as a combination of organisational or personal vulnerability, was significantly related to only two antecedent variables, i.e., Neuroticism and job characteristics. Further regression analyses indicated that job insecurity was a statistically significant moderator but only between one consequence, i.e., intention to quit, and the job characteristics variable. These results along with methodological issues and further research, are discussed.     

Mindful Emotion Regulation,Savouring and Proactive Behaviour: The Role of Supervisor Justice

The global financial crisis and recession-prompted budget cuts represent significant challenges to public sector organisations, limiting their ability to make changes to job design and increasing job demands. In such environments, primary interventions targeted at changing the job or the work are not always viable. In this research, we examine the effectiveness of a mindful emotion regulation (MER) intervention versus a “control” savouring nature (SN) intervention in terms of facilitating the investment of work engagement into proactive behaviours. We also examine how the job resource of supervisor justice impacts these relationships. We collected data from an Irish public sector organisation using a cluster randomised controlled trial design. The final sample comprised 108 participants (MER = 74; SN = 34). Results highlight the valuable role that job resources play as boundary conditions of psychological-based interventions since the success of MER and SN depended on the participants’ perceptions of supervisor justice. When supervisor justice was high, a restorative SN exercise was effective in promoting proactive behaviours. When supervisor justice was low, a more complex cognitive and emotional exercise in the form of MER was required. We explain these results and consider their implications for future research.     

Predicting innovative performance through proactive personality: Examining its criterion validity and incremental validity over the five‐factor model

Innovation has emerged as a key work outcome for modern organizations. The present paper answers recent calls from several researchers for further empirical research on the validity of personality variables for predicting individual innovative performance. More specifically, it is focused on the validity of proactive personality. Using a sample of 170 software engineers and their direct supervisors from a multinational information technology firm, we found that this individual disposition represents a valid and meaningful predictor of individual innovative performance, when assessed through supervisor ratings. Further analyses have also shown that proactive personality remains a significant predictor of this criterion, when the big five factors of personality are taken into account. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are presented and discussed.     

Dissociable influences of reward motivation and positive emotion on cognitive control

It is becoming increasingly appreciated that affective and/or motivational influences contribute strongly to goal-oriented cognition and behavior. An unresolved question is whether emotional manipulations (i.e., direct induction of affectively valenced subjective experience) and motivational manipulations (e.g., delivery of performance-contingent rewards and punishments) have similar or distinct effects on cognitive control. Prior work has suggested that reward motivation can reliably enhance a proactive mode of cognitive control, whereas other evidence is suggestive that positive emotion improves cognitive flexibility, but reduces proactive control. However, a limitation of the prior research is that reward motivation and positive emotion have largely been studied independently. Here, we directly compared the effects of positive emotion and reward motivation on cognitive control with a tightly matched, within-subjects design, using the AX-continuous performance task paradigm, which allows for relative measurement of proactive versus reactive cognitive control. High-resolution pupillometry was employed as a secondary measure of cognitive dynamics during task performance. Robust increases in behavioral and pupillometric indices of proactive control were observed with reward motivation. The effects of positive emotion were much weaker, but if anything, also reflected enhancement of proactive control, a pattern that diverges from some prior findings. These results indicate that reward motivation has robust influences on cognitive control, while also highlighting the complexity and heterogeneity of positive-emotion effects. The findings are discussed in terms of potential neurobiological mechanisms.     

Uncovering the trail of positive affect in the job attitudes literature: A systematic review

A review of the organisational psychology literature suggests that researchers have examined at least four job attitude constructs: job satisfaction, work/task satisfaction, job involvement, and organisational commitment. Less, however, is known about why the four different job attitudes vary in magnitude as predictors of vital organisational outcomes. In this systematic review, I propose that positive affect is central in explaining the differential effects of these job attitudes on organisational outcomes. The review then explicates patterns of results underlying prior studies on these job attitudes and presents an overarching proposition: Accurate conceptualisation and measurement of the affective component underlying each job attitude will help illustrate how, and to what extent, each job attitude leads to desirable organisational outcomes. Finally, four key suggestions for further job attitudes research are presented: (a) enhancing conceptualisation and measurement of positive affect in job attitudes, (b) developing an overarching theory of positive affect, (c) focusing on discrete positive emotions, and (d) looking beyond existing current job attitude constructs. This work complements the current affective epoch of job attitudes research, uncovering the trail of positive affect as it has informed the job attitudes literature historically and suggesting its theoretical and practical developments for the future.     

专念对工作重塑的影响：工作投入的中介作用

基于工作要求-资源理论,检验工作投入在专念与工作重塑之间的中介作用。以238名医务人员为研究对象,开展两阶段的追踪问卷调查。专念对工作重塑有积极的直接预测作用。另外,在横断数据中,工作投入在专念与工作重塑之间的中介作用显著。在纵向数据中,专念(T1)能正向预测工作投入(T2),进而影响工作重塑(T2),中介效应显著。专念(T1)能正向预测工作投入(T1),但工作投入(T1)不能显著正向预测两个月后的工作重塑(T2)。在一定的时间范围内,专念可以通过激发工作投入,进而促进工作重塑行为。     

Linking Proactive Personality to Creative Performance: The Role of Job Crafting and High-Involvement Work Systems

This study proposed that job crafting serves as a mechanism reflecting how proactive personality affects creative performance, and this study explored whether these relationships are moderated by high-involvement work systems. Drawn from the conservation of resources theory to develop a cross-level moderated mediation model, a three-wave longitudinal study was conducted with 346 employees and their supervisors in 27 high technology firms in China. This study found that proactive personality was positively related to creative performance and that job crafting mediated the relationship between proactive personality and creative performance, and an indirect effect of proactive personality on creative performance through job crafting was significant when high-involvement work systems was low but not high. Thus, the research results indicate that when human resource management involves less participatory management, incentive rewards, extensive training and information sharing, proactive employees can draw from their personality to craft their job tasks, relations and cognitions, thereby improving creative performance. The theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.     

The dark and the bright sides of proactive work behaviour and situational constraints: Longitudinal relationships with task conflicts

We investigated relationships of a job stressor (situational constraints) and specific proactive behaviours with change in task conflicts over time. We introduced two distinct types of proactive work behaviour (promotion-oriented initiative and prevention-oriented initiative) and examined their positive but also negative relationships with change in task conflicts. Study 1 supported the construct validity of promotion-oriented initiative and prevention-oriented initiative for 363 student assistants: Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that both types of proactive behaviour were distinct constructs and also distinct from active coping; patterns of correlations were similar to those of a prior concept of proactive behaviour. Study 2 was a longitudinal online survey with 197 employees over 3 weeks. Consistent with our hypotheses, situational constraints and promotion-oriented initiative predicted an increase in task conflicts, whereas prevention-oriented initiative predicted a decrease in task conflicts.     

Job Control and Job Stressors as Predictors of Proactive Work Behavior: Is Role Breadth Self-Efficacy the Link?

Previous research showed that job stressors are positively related to proactive work behavior. This study examines if these relations can be generalized to supervisor-rated proactive behavior and if relations of job stressors (time pressure, situational constraints) and job control with proactive behavior can be explained by role breadth self-efficacy as an underlying mechanism. We used supervisor ratings of proactive behavior (personal initiative, taking charge) from 140 employees working in small and medium-sized companies. Multilevel path analyses supported a partial mediation model. Job control and time pressure were positively related to role breadth self-efficacy, and role breadth self-efficacy was positively related to proactive behavior. Job control had also a direct relation with proactive behavior. The relation between situational constraints and proactive behavior was not significant.