The Effectiveness of a Job Crafting, Strengths Use, and Deficit Correction Intervention on Employee Proactive Behaviors and Well-Being: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The present study evaluates the effectiveness of a mixed job crafting, strengths use, and deficit correction intervention on the proactive behaviors, work engagement, life satisfaction, and work-life balance of employees working in a home office setting. A two-armed (intervention vs. wait-list control group) randomized controlled trial with three measurement moments (pre-, post-intervention, and one-month follow-up) was designed to reach the study's goal. A sample of 80 participants part of a large multinational pharmaceutical company was randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 45) or wait-list control condition (n = 35). Mixed factorial analyses of variance showed that the combined job crafting, strengths use, and deficit correction intervention positively impacted life satisfaction (d = .47) and seeking challenging job demands (d = .44) in the short-term. There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding the other proactive behaviors, work engagement, or work-life balance. Moderator analyses revealed that autonomy and workload were moderators of the relationship between the intervention effectiveness and several outcomes (e.g., the intervention had a positive effect on the work-life balance of participants with low autonomy). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Line managers' middle-levelness and driving proactive behaviors in organizational interventions

PurposeThis paper explores line managers' proactive work behaviors in organizational interventions and ascertains how their management of their middle-levelness by aligning with the intervention, or not, influences their proactive work behaviors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors’ findings are based on thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews of university heads of departments responsible for managing organizational interventions.FindingsThe authors found that line managers engaged in a range of proactive work behaviors to implement the organizational intervention (i.e. “driving proactive behaviors”). Furthermore, line managers tended to engage in driving proactive behaviors when they aligned with the organizational intervention, but not to when unconvinced of the intervention's validity.Practical implicationsThese findings highlight the importance of senior management and HR investing sufficient time and quality in the preparation phase to ensure all actors have a shared understanding of the organizational interventions' validity.Originality/valueThis is the first study to explore line managers' proactive work behaviors to implement an organizational intervention, and how the line managers' management of their middle-levelness influence these proactive work behaviors.

The Role of Team–Member Exchange in Proactive Personality and Employees’ Proactive Behaviors: The Moderating Effect of Transformational Leadership

This study conceptualizes team–member exchange as a mediator and transformational leadership as a moderator to understand the role of proactive personality in two types of proactive behaviors (affiliative and challenging). Considering the issue of common method variance, data were collected following a multitemporal and multisource research design, and the hypotheses were tested on a sample of 210 participants. The results showed that after controlling leader–member exchange, team–member exchange mediated the relationship between proactive personality and employees’ proactive behaviors. In addition, transformational leadership strengthened the positive relationship between the team–member exchange and challenging proactive behavior. Moreover, transformational leadership had a stronger moderating effect on challenging proactive behavior than affiliative proactive behavior. Strengths, limitations, practical implications, and directions for future research are discussed.

Threat Upon Entry: Effect of Coworker Ostracism on Newcomers’ Proactive Behaviors During Organizational Socialization

Extant literature has underlined the importance of newcomer proactive socialization to the organization. However, the effect of coworker ostracism on newcomers’ proactive behaviors has not been noticed. Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, we proposed a model exploring how coworker ostracism impacted newcomers’ proactive behaviors via the mediation of psychological availability. Through an empirical study with a sample of 263 newcomers and three waves of longitudinal data, we found that coworker ostracism had a negative effect on newcomers’ information seeking and guanxi developing. In addition, emotional intelligence enhanced the negative effect of coworker ostracism on newcomers’ psychological availability and the indirect influence of coworker ostracism on newcomers’ proactive behaviors via psychological availability. Important theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Examining the mediating role of resources in the temporal relationship between proactive burnout prevention and burnout

Background Employees who engage in proactive burnout prevention can prevent burnout by changing aspects of the work, home, and personal domain. However, these proactive behaviors may be impeded by high initial levels of burnout. Based on the conservation of resources theory and the dual-pathway proactivity model, resources were expected to play a vital role in the relationship between proactive burnout prevention and burnout through two distinct processes: a resource-generation process in which proactive burnout prevention negatively affects burnout through an increase in resources, and a resource-depletion process in which proactive burnout prevention is hindered because high initial levels of burnout negatively affected resources. Methods A two-wave longitudinal panel design was used in which 617 employees, mainly employed in government agencies, healthcare and education, were asked to complete an online survey twice with an interval of 1 month. Results Results of structural equation modelling showed clear evidence for the resource-generation process in the work, home, and personal domain, and only limited evidence for the resource-depletion process. Solely in the personal domain a small negative indirect effect of burnout on proactive burnout prevention through personal resources was found. Conclusions The findings of this study confirm that employees can proactively prevent burnout by investing in resources, yet proactive actions should be taken before increased burnout-complaints impede employees to do so. This study contributes to scientific knowledge on proactive behaviors and burnout prevention by investigating the mechanism underlying the temporal relationship between proactive burnout prevention and burnout. An important practical implication of this study is that it highlights that more attention should be given to employees’ self-initiated actions to prevent burnout, as proactive burnout prevention can effectively reduce levels of burnout.

Thwarted enthusiasm: effects of workplace incivility on newcomer proactive behaviors

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between supervisor and coworkers’ workplace incivility and newcomer proactive behaviors. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors examined resource depletion as a mediator and newcomer proactive personality, as well as their current organizational tenure as moderators of the relationship between workplace incivility toward newcomers and their proactive behaviors. Design/methodology/approach A time-lagged research design was used to test hypotheses with data covering 322 newcomers and their immediate supervisors in two subsidiaries of a large food processing company in China. Regression analysis using the PROCESS macro in SPSS is used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results show that workplace incivility toward newcomers is negatively related to their proactive behaviors. This relationship is mediated by resource depletion. Furthermore, newcomers’ proactive personality moderates the relationship between workplace incivility and resource depletion. Moreover, both the direct effect of workplace incivility on resource depletion and its indirect effect on newcomer proactive behaviors are moderated by the combination of newcomer proactive personality and their current organizational tenure. Originality/value Drawing on COR theory, a theoretical framework is constructed that specifies the process through which workplace incivility affects proactive behaviors to expand collective understandings of workplace incivility in the newcomer context. Furthermore, the boundary conditions of the underlying process are investigated, which further enhances the contribution of this paper to the extant literature on workplace incivility.