员工积极主动行为的组态效应:基于过程的视角

An examination of configural effects of employees’proactive behavior:A process perspective

积极主动行为是一个既包含外显实施行为,又包含内在思维活动的行动过程。然而过往的文献却忽视了思维活动对积极主动行为有效性的影响。本文基于过程的视角,运用组态的思想和方法,研究了积极主动过程中的4个元素(预想、计划、实施和反思)对员工工作绩效和情绪耗竭的组态效应,并探讨了环境不确定性和员工感知的领导信任对这种组态效应的影响,以及上述组态的增量效应。运用fsQCA方法和回归分析,本文发现:1)仅有高水平的实施并不能充分地带来高工作绩效;2)无论环境不确定性是高还是低,4个元素都高(低)的组态,均可带来高(低)工作绩效;3)在环境不确定性高时,无论实施水平是高还是低,高水平的预想、计划和反思足以带来高水平的工作绩效;4)仅有高水平的实施,而预想、计划和反思处于低水平,会带来高情绪耗竭;5)当员工感知到领导高度信任自己时,无论实施水平是高还是低,高水平的预想、计划和反思会带来低情绪耗竭;6)总体而言,控制住个体差异和积极主动过程中各元素对结果变量的影响后,组态仍能预测结果变量,而各单独元素不再能够预测结果变量。最后,本文讨论了上述研究发现对于积极主动行为的理论价值和管理实践的启示。

In recent years,scholars have gradually realized that proactive behavior is a self-regulatory process including not only overt behavioral element(i.e.,enacting)but also covert behavioral elements(i.e.,envisioning,planning,and reflecting).However,previous research on proactive behaviors focused only on the influence of overt behavioral element on a variety of individual and organizational outcomes but neglected the influence of covert behavioral elements and the synergistic effect of all elements in a proactive process.It leads to an incomplete understanding of proactive behavior.To address this problem,we draw on a process perspective and a configural approach to investigate:1)the configural effects of all behavioral elements(i.e.,envisioning,planning,enacting,and reflecting)in a proactive process on employees’job performance and emotional exhaustion;2)the impact of task context(i.e.,environmental uncertainty)and social context(i.e.,felt trust)on the configural effects of all behavioral elements;and 3)incremental effect of configuration membership on employees’outcomes after controlling for the unique effects of each element and individual difference(i.e.,proactive personality and neuroticism).By using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis(fsQCA)and regression analysis,we conducted a longitudinal study to test our hypotheses and examine research questions.We examined the configural effects of all four elements on employees’job performance and emotional exhaustion,and then examined the impacts of task and social context and the incremental effect of these configurations.426 full-time employees and their direct supervisors from an education and training company in China participated in a questionnaire survey and reported data at two time points two weeks apart.Supervisors reported their subordinates’job performance at time 2.The final sample size was 383.The findings reveal that:1)a configuration with high level of enacting alone is not sufficient for generating high job performance;2)a configuration with low(high)levels on all four elements is sufficient for producing low(high)job performance regardless of the level of environmental uncertainty;3)when environmental uncertainty is high,a configuration with high level of envisioning,planning,and reflecting is sufficient for producing high job performance regardless of the level of enacting;4)a configuration with high level of enacting and low level of envisioning,planning,and reflecting is sufficient for generating high emotional exhaustion;5)when felt trust is high,a configuration with high level of envisioning,planning,and reflecting is sufficient for producing low emotional exhaustion regardless of the level of enacting;6)in general,after controlling for the unique effects of each element and individual difference,the configuration membership can still predict employees'job performance and emotional exhaustion whereas elements in a proactive process cannot.Our research contributes to the literature on proactive behavior.First,our research presents a novel perspective on the process of proactive behavior.The process perspective of proactive behavior provides a fresh window onto why the consequences of proactive behaviors vary between employees and studies.Second,our research advances the understanding of proactive behavior by revealing the configural effects of four elements in a proactive process on employees’outcomes.Third,our research demonstrates the usefulness of a configural approach in studying process-related issues in proactive behavior research.