Employee Proactivity

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the current research on employee proactivity and indicate the need to unpack a relational basis of proactivity based on attachment theory. The chapter starts with phenomena to illustrate employee proactive behavior in organization. The chapter then provides a brief review on three different perspectives to conceptualize employee proactivity (i.e., individual differences, behavioral and process perspectives) and the three identified motivational mechanisms of proactive behaivor: whether individuals feel capable of being proactive, whether they have some sense that they want to bring about a different future, and whether they have positive affect to foster their proactive actions. The chapter is concluded by indicating the need to understand the role of social relationships in shaping individual proactive behavior and the value of using attachment theory to understand such influence.