Proactive personality in the workplace and its relevance in South Africa (original) (raw)
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Proactive personality and proactive behaviour: Perspectives on person-situation interactions
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
We conducted a field survey of leaders and their followers to examine factors that moderate the relationship between employee proactive personality and proactive behaviour. As hypothesized, random coefficient modelling analysis showed that two situational factorstransformational leadership and a climate of innovation and flexibilitymoderated the relationship between employee proactive personality and proactive behaviour. Conceptually, we draw from situational strength theory to predict the pattern of these interactions. Our findings indicated that organizations desiring proactive employee behaviour would be well advised to take one of three courses of action: select employees with proactive personality who will generally behave proactively regardless of the situation; develop transformational leaders who will motivate, inspire, and support proactive employee behaviour; or cultivate a climate of innovation and flexibility which will create a strong situation that fosters proactivity regardless of employee individual differences.
Toward a Tripartite Model and Measurement of Proactive Personality
Journal of Personality Assessment, 2018
Although proactive personality (Bateman & Crant, 1993), as a relatively stable disposition to bring about change in one's environment, is a central construct in the management and organizational behavior literature, questions have arisen about its definition and structure. To answer these questions, we present a tripartite model of proactive personality consisting of 3 dimensions: perception (i.e., perceiving opportunities for change), implementation (i.e., planning and executing change), and perseverance (i.e., persisting until the change is realized). Exploratory factor analysis informed the construction of a 14-item scale, and confirmatory factor analyses supported the validity of the scale. The new scale demonstrated satisfactory reliability and accounted for significant variance in task performance above that of original proactive personality, personal initiative, conscientiousness, and social desirability. Tripartite proactive personality might provide a more nuanced view of dispositional proactivity and greater predictive power than the original unidimensional proactive personality.
Employee proactivity in organizations: A comparative meta-analysis of emergent proactive constructs
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 2010
ABSTRACT This meta-analysis of 103 independent samples provides a comparative evaluation of the relationships associated with four emergent proactive constructs including proactive personality, personal initiative, voice, and taking charge. This study investigates comparative relationships among these focal proactive constructs and key organizational variables (i.e., job performance), personality traits (i.e., the Big Five), and individual variables (i.e., work experience). Results reveal significant correlations between proactivity and performance, satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and social networking. Results also provide evidence that differentiates focal proactive constructs from the Big Five as well as individual differences in work experience, age, and general mental ability. Current progress towards a more integrative understanding of proactivity research is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology is the property of British Psychological Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
A validation of the Proactive Personality Scale
2009
In a study, we carried out a validation of the Proactive Personality Scale (PPS; Seibert, Crant, & Kraimer, 1999), that measures the inclination to take action and change the environment to realize one's goals. Participants were 139 employees, working in two companies. The majority of participants were blue-collar workers. The instrument used was a questionnaire. A 7-item version of the scale was constructed. Moreover, by applying confirmatory factor analysis, we demonstrated the distinction between proactivity and other individual difference variables: work-related self-efficacy, selfempowerment, locomotion. Also the predictive validity of the scale was shown. As expected, proactivity influenced organizational citizenship behaviors; it was not correlated instead with organizational commitment and turnover intentions. We discussed this lack of correlation in terms of the category of employees examined (mostly blue-collar workers).
Proactive personality is an individual difference factor capturing the behavioral tendency toward displaying proactive behaviors to enact positive situational changes. Drawing from the Job Demands-Resources framework and trait activation theory, we conducted two studies to extend the proactive personality literature by responding to calls to explore how and under which circumstances proactive personality affects work outcomes. We found that work proactive personality related to performance (i.e., task performance and counterproductive work behaviors) through its relationship with engagement in a field study of 340 employee-supervisor dyads (study 1). In order to explore what organizational factors can be targeted to intervene or support employees who lack proactive personality, we explored the boundary conditions and organizational circumstances of the proactive personality-engagement relationship. We conducted a multilevel study of 52 teams (study 2) and showed that perceived organizational support and team proactive personality composition (mean) moderated the relationship between individual proactive personality and work engagement. Specifically, this positive relationship was found to be stronger among employees who had low perceived organizational support, and who worked in teams with high team proactive personality means.
Impact of Proactive Personality on Career Satisfaction
The nature of work and employment is changing due to advancements, complex hierarchal structures and career planning and development needs. This requires the employees to exhibit self-directed, proactive behaviour so that they can cope up with complex situations. The tendency to get involved in proactive behaviour is termed as a construct--proactive personality--by the researchers. Proactive personality is a dimension of proactive behavior construct. Proactive behaviour means to identify the problem and find out the solution. The proactive behaviour has gained considerable attention in research field since past decade. Proactive behavior and personal initiative have become essential for the achievement of both personal and organizational success (Bateman and Crant; 1993).
Modeling the antecedents of proactive behavior at work
Journal of Applied Psychology, 2006
Using a sample of U.K. wire makers (N ϭ 282), the authors tested a model in which personality and work environment antecedents affect proactive work behavior via cognitive-motivational mechanisms. Selfreported proactive work behaviors (proactive idea implementation and proactive problem solving) were validated against rater assessments for a subsample (n ϭ 60) of wire makers. With the exception of supportive supervision, each antecedent was important, albeit through different processes. Proactive personality was significantly associated with proactive work behavior via role breadth self-efficacy and flexible role orientation, job autonomy was also linked to proactive behavior via these processes, as well as directly; and coworker trust was associated with proactive behavior via flexible role orientation. In further support of the model, the cognitive-motivational processes for proactive work behavior differed from those for the more passive outcome of generalized compliance.
Proactive personality and job performance
International journal of health sciences
The performance of midwives in health service on infants is shown based on the complete KN coverage report and Neonatal Complications treated. Proactive personality became a dominant factor in the increase in the job performance of midwives. The research aims to analyze the effect of proactive personality on job performance in midwives. The analytical research with a cross-sectional study in this research involved 151 midwives as samples that are taken with proportional random sampling. The proactive personality and job performance variables are measured using questionnaires and analyzed using simple linear regression. The analysis results showed that the sig. and t count scores showed that proactive personality has an effect on the job performance of midwives. The regression coefficient also showed that the direction of the variable effect is positive. Midwives with proactive personality are able to push themselves to develop themselves more thereby the performance of midwives in p...
Human as a Change Agent in Proactive Behavior at Work: A 70-Year Review
international Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2020
Proactive employees have become the core focus as the main mechanism through which to achieve an organizational goal centered on profit-making and productivity. From a classical behaviorist perspective, individual differences are the predominant factor in maintaining proactive behavior. However, individual differences vary, ranging from individual personality to motivational determinant. Although a proactive personality is believed to have led to proactive behavior, contemporary studies have found otherwise. Indeed, studies have discovered that proactive behavior is supported mainly by the motivational mechanism. Individuals will engage in proactive behavior only if they have the confidence to do so and understand the reasons behind such conduct. These findings are consistent with Bandura’s research on behavior that emphasizes the importance of human internalization in behavior engagement.
A Systematic Review of Proactive Work Behavior: Future Research Recommendation
Journal of Behavioral Science, 2023
Fifteen years since it was first put forward, proactive work behavior has become the attention of academics within the scope of organizational behavior. The development of proactive work behavior can be observed from the increasing number of studies every year. In response to these developments, five literature reviews were conducted to provide direction for the development of proactive work behavior research. However, only one literature review has mapped out previous research on proactive work behavior. Therefore, this systematic literature review (SLR) aimed to do a broader mapping by including research samples, measurement instruments, antecedents, and consequences of proactive work behavior. A total of 70 research articles published in the Scopus database during 2007-2022 were used for this SLR. The mapping results show the dominance of employees as a research sample which covers more than half of the research articles. Meanwhile, instruments with fewer items tend to be adopted to measure proactive work behavior. The findings related to antecedents and consequences are dominated by individual aspects and do not explore team/group and organizational aspects. In response to these findings, further research needs to be directed to explore proactive work behavior in certain professional and organizational contexts. Furthermore, the measurement instrument for proactive work behavior needs to be further developed by considering organizational characteristics, both private and public sector. Regarding antecedents and consequences, team/group and organizational dynamics need to be explored further by future research so that there is no stagnation in the progress of the development of proactive work behavior studies.