When does proactivity have a cost? Motivation at work moderates the effects of proactive work behavior on employee job strain

By K. Strauss, Sharon K. Parker, Deirdre O’Shea. 2017

154 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The literature on proactivity has focused primarily on its positive performance outcomes. However, the effects of proactive behavior on employees' well-being are relatively unknown. We theorize that when an individuals' motivation at work is characterized by pressure and coercion (high controlled motivation), with no compensatory intrinsic interest in or identification with the work (low autonomous motivation), proactive behavior is likely to deplete employees' resources, resulting in job strain. We tested this proposition in a lagged study of 127 employee-supervisor dyads across a variety of sectors. As expected, supervisor-rated proactive work behavior was positively associated with job strain when controlled motivation was high and when autonomous motivation was also low. Under all other conditions, there was no effect of proactive behavior on job strain. For example, when individuals experienced high controlled motivation yet also experienced autonomous motivation, there was no effect of proactive behavior on job strain. In sum, proactive behavior has costs in terms of job strain only when employees experience a sense of pressure and obligation in their work in the absence of any compensating autonomous motivation.

Subfields: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/454ba5809d60a603ab9e6b8c097afe05f238aef0

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In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis on self-determination theory’s multidimensional conceptualization of work motivation (2021, unknown): “…research indicates that the specific combination of high autonomous and low controlled motivation is associated with high levels of performance; while a combination of low autonomous and high controlled motivation is associated most strongly with distress (Grant et al., 2011; Strauss et al., 2017).”
A resources perspective on when and how proactive work behaviour leads to employee withdrawal (2019, methodology): “The notion that proactivity necessitates a considerable amount of resources has been discussed by a number of authors (Belschak, Den Hartog, & Fay, 2010; Bolino et al., 2010; Grant et al., 2011; Strauss et al., 2017).”