深谋远虑:前瞻行为研究的回顾与展望

前瞻行为是一个自我发起、未来导向以及试图改变现状的积极行为,能够为个人与组织带来正面的影响.本文旨于回顾前瞻行为的本质、前导因素、动机历程以及结果效应,也特别回顾笔者近期针对前瞻行为所进行的研究.首先,关于前瞻一词可以从不同的角度进行理解,包括个别差异观点、行为观点与历程观点.由于过去文献多从行为观点进行研究,本文的回顾亦以行为观点为主轴.其次,本文逐一回顾目前文献所提出的三个关于促进前瞻行为的动机历程:能力、缘由与情绪.再者,笔者讨论各种能够促发前瞻行为的前导因素,包括个人因素、环境因素,以及两者间的交互作用如何影响前瞻行为的展现.笔者也基于过去的研究发现,总结前瞻行为所能导致的结果,包括工作态度与绩效.最后,在近期研究的介绍中,笔者介绍了三个根据个别差异的观点所进行的研究.此研究路线旨在了解人格特质对前瞻行为的影响,并且勾勒情境所扮演的调节效应.全文最终总结前瞻行为的研究现状,以及提出未来可能探索的研究方向.

Thinking and Acting in Anticipation: A Review of Research on Proactive Behavior

Being proactive involves self-initiated, future-focused, and change-orientated behaviors. Such proactivity has been recognized as a positive way of behaving that can lead to the increased performance and effectiveness of individuals and organizations, especially when employees operate in contexts of unpredictable and changing demands. Because of its well-documented benefits, the antecedents and mechanisms of proactive behavior have been widely examined in an effort to identify how to promote such behavior in organizations. In this article, the authors first review various ways of conceptualizing proactivity, which includes an individual differences perspective, a behavior perspective, and a process perspective. A behavior perspective is mainly adopted in this article as this perspective is dominant in literature. Next, three mechanisms representing “can do”, “reason to” and “energized to” processes that can trigger proactive behavior are introduced. A review on antecedents of proactive behavior, including dispositional factors, situational factors and their interactions, is followed. The authors also summarize consequences that proactive behavior can bring, including job attitudes and performance. In addition to providing reviews, as the second part, the authors introduce their recent research that considers expanded dispositional predictors of proactive behavior (i.e., need for cognition, attachment style) as well as how these predictors interact with the situation. To conclude, the authors summarize what is well established in the literature, as well as what warrants further inquiry.