Proactivity despite discouraging supervisors: The powerful role of prosocial motivation

Although considerable research demonstrates that employees are unlikely to be proactive when they view their supervisors as discouraging this type of behavior, we challenge the assumption that this is true for all employees. Drawing on motivated information processing theory, we argue that prosocial motivation can spark employees to be proactive even when supervisors are perceived as discouraging. Specifically, prosocial motivation may weaken the negative relationship between perceived discouraging supervisor behaviors and proactivity by driving employees to bring about change to impact coworkers or the organization. Because they are less focused on self-interest and more focused on benefitting others, prosocially motivated employees are able to maintain their reason-to (felt responsibility for change) and can-do (efficacy to be proactive) motivation even when supervisors do not welcome proactivity. We test our hypotheses across three studies, using multisource data from employees and supervisors in two organizations (Studies 1a and 1b), and lagged data from employees working in a range of industries (Study 2). By identifying the mechanisms driving prosocially motivated employees to be proactive despite having supervisors who are perceived to be discouraging, we offer novel theoretical and practical insights regarding the effects of context on proactivity at work. (PsycINFO Database Record