The “sense” behind proactive behaviors: Feedback seeking, meaningfulness, and personal initiative

IF 5.2 1区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED

Journal of Vocational Behavior Pub Date : 2023-08-01 DOI:10.1016/j.jvb.2023.103896

Bin Ma , Siyao Zhu , Kriti Jain

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

With organizations increasingly requiring employees to proactively manage their job and career, researchers have examined various proactive behaviors, such as feedback-seeking behavior and personal initiative. However, few studies have explored the relationships and dynamics among these behaviors. Based on sensemaking theory, this paper argues that employees' feedback-seeking behavior is positively associated with their performance through two stages: meaningfulness and personal initiative. Our hypotheses were tested and supported using two samples: 196 supervisor-subordinate dyads from one large organization in China (Study 1) and panel data of 207 full-time employees from the UK (Study 2). Our findings highlight the importance of recognizing the distinctiveness of different forms of proactive behavior and the synergistic way they contribute to performance. We also demonstrate that employees can seek feedback and construct meaningful work experiences in an agentic manner, which contributes to the literature on career crafting and career self-management.

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主动行为背后的“感觉”:寻求反馈、意义和个人主动性

随着组织越来越多地要求员工主动管理自己的工作和职业，研究人员研究了各种主动行为，如寻求反馈行为和个人主动性。然而，很少有研究探索这些行为之间的关系和动态。基于意义制造理论，本文认为员工的反馈寻求行为与绩效之间存在着意义性和个人主动性两个阶段的正相关关系。我们的假设得到了两个样本的检验和支持:来自中国一家大型组织的196对上下级人员(研究1)和来自英国的207名全职员工(研究2)的面板数据。我们的研究结果强调了认识不同形式的主动行为的独特性及其对绩效的协同作用的重要性。我们还证明了员工能够以一种代理的方式寻求反馈和构建有意义的工作体验，这对职业塑造和职业自我管理的文献有贡献。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Vocational Behavior PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED-

CiteScore

13.10

自引率

5.40%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Vocational Behavior publishes original empirical and theoretical articles offering unique insights into the realms of career choice, career development, and work adjustment across the lifespan. These contributions are not only valuable for academic exploration but also find applications in counseling and career development programs across diverse sectors such as colleges, universities, business, industry, government, and the military. The primary focus of the journal centers on individual decision-making regarding work and careers, prioritizing investigations into personal career choices rather than organizational or employer-level variables. Example topics encompass a broad range, from initial career choices (e.g., choice of major, initial work or organization selection, organizational attraction) to the development of a career, work transitions, work-family management, and attitudes within the workplace (such as work commitment, multiple role management, and turnover).