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Project

How employees are proactive in strategic behaviors

To succeed and thrive in the workplace, individuals increasingly need to be proactive, i.e., anticipate and behave in self-starting ways. Research shows that proactivity has benefits for individuals’ teams’, as well as for organizational performance. Despite the importance of proactivity in today’s organizations, research has predominantly focused on employees’ proactiveness in shaping their internal work environment, by for example exploring how employees can expand the boundaries of their own roles. When confronted with an unpredictable and rapidly changing external environment, however, employees also need to proactively detect and shape opportunities in their external environment. In this doctoral research proposal we therefore shift focus from internally to externally oriented proactivity, i.e., proactive strategic behavior, by developing the concept of proactive strategic behaviors, as well as identifying its correlates. Specifically we will develop and validate measures for proactive strategic sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring behaviors, and suggest that in situations with uncertainty, autonomy and accountability, individuals will be more likely to engage in proactive strategic behavior. Learning goal orientation and psychological safety will be analyzed as moderators.
Date:1 Mar 2020 →  31 Oct 2023
Keywords:proactivity, proactive strategic behavior
Disciplines:Organisation and management theory, Organisational management, Strategic management
Project type:PhD project