Abstract
Proactive behavior has emerged as a key component in contemporary views of individual work performance. Hence, a central question in the literature is how to enhance employees' proactive behavior. We investigated whether the more that employees experience a sense of vitality (i.e., energizing positive affect), the more likely they are to show proactive behavior at work, and whether this applies only to employees with a low personal fear of invalidity [(PFI) i.e., the inclination to be apprehensive about the risks/negative consequences of making errors]. Experimental (N= 354) and cross-sectional field (N= 85) studies provided consistent evidence for a positive relation between employees' sense of vitality at work and their self-rated proactivity. The predicted moderation effect was observed only for manager-rated proactivity. We conclude that feeling energized in the workplace is not necessarily associated with observable proactive behavior. It is only when employees experiencing a sense of vitality at work are not prone to fearing the risks/negative consequences of making errors that they are more likely to show observable proactive behavior in an organization.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 2169 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Frontiers in Psychology |
Volume | 11 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 8-Sep-2020 |
Keywords
- proactive work behavior
- work performance
- anxiety
- affect
- well-being
- mental energy
- experimental study
- WORK-RELATED PROACTIVITY
- PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
- SUBJECTIVE VITALITY
- MECHANICAL TURK
- BEHAVIOR
- SELF
- ANTECEDENTS
- RESOURCES
- MODEL
- METAANALYSIS