Emotion and proactivity at work: Where are we now?

Abstract

Due to globalization and technology innovation, the business environment has become more complex and uncertain. To cope with such a changing environment effectively, employees are expected to be proactive, to respond to and master changes effectively, instead of waiting for their supervisors or organizations to instruct them what to do (Griffin, Neal, and Parker, 2007). Being proactive is about taking control to make things happen rather than watching things happen. To date, scholars in the field of organizational behaviour have invested lots of effort to study employee proactive behaviour (proactivity in brief), that is, self-initiating, future-oriented behaviour aiming to improve the work situations or oneself (Parker, Bindl, and Strauss, 2010). Proactivity is initiated by employees themselves owing to their interests, motivation or beliefs, instead of instructions or demands from others. Proactivity is future-oriented, as it is strongly based on anticipating and thinking about the longer-term future. Proactivity is change-oriented as it acts to address those anticipated challenges by improving or altering the status quo. It involves aspiring and striving to bring about change in the environment and/or oneself to achieve a different future (Grant and Ashford, 2008). That is, being proactive requires more motivational energy.

As a result, scholars have invested lots of effort to identify motivational forces that can drive proactive behaviour (for example, Parker, Bindl, and Strauss, 2010). As Mitchell and Daniels (2003) indicated, employees’ behaviour can be driven by cold (or cognitive) processes as well as hot (or affective) processes.