Abstract:

The rapid advancement of the digital intelligence era has significantly transformed the nature of work, bringing about a surge in emerging career opportunities while simultaneously increasing the complexity and uncertainty of career development. Traditional, organization-dominated linear career development path are increasingly being supplanted by individual-driven, boundaryless, and protean career paths. Within this context, proactive career behavior has become a critical strategy for individuals seeking to navigate uncertainty and achieve sustainable career development over time. Career proactive behavior refers to a series of future-oriented behaviors that individuals spontaneously adopt to influence, change, and improve their career environment and personal circumstances, thereby promoting career development.

Although existing research recognizes the importance of career proactive behavior, there are still three primary limitations persist in this domain. First, conceptual consensus on career proactive behavior remains elusive, lacking theoretical grounding with ambiguous definitional boundaries and dimensional clarity. On the one hand, proactive career behavior is represented by several closely related terms. On the other hand, its conceptual boundaries overlap with other constructs, which calls for further clarification. At the same time, there is a lack of measurement tools that meet the standards for reliability and validity. Second, research on the antecedents of career proactive behavior often focuses on individual factors and ignores the synergistic effects of the environment and the individual. Third, the impact mechanisms of career proactive behavior remain underexplored, predominantly concentrating on proximal outcomes.

Through a systematic literature review, this study will comprehensively explore the conceptual connotations, formation mechanisms, and influencing mechanisms of proactive behavior. Specifically, this research consists of three interrelated studies aimed at advancing the understanding of proactive career behavior. First, based on self-regulation theory, study 1 conceptualizes the construct and dimensions of career proactive behavior. We propose that proactive career behavior comprises three key components: career goal setting, career goal attainment, and career reflection and adjustment, and corresponding scales are further developed. Study 2, based on the proactive motivation model, investigates how individual, career, and organizational characteristics influence proactive career behavior through three motivational states: “can do,” “reason to,” and “energized to.” Specifically, we examined the effects of career calling, protean career orientation, career insecurity, leader career support, and coworker support on proactive career behavior. Furthermore, we investigated the mediating roles of future work self, career self-efficacy, and positive affect. This study provides a comprehensive and multi-level perspective on the antecedents of proactive career behavior. Study 3 adopts a career resources perspective to examine the long-term impact of proactive career behavior on sustainable career development. Specifically, it explores the mediating roles of four representative career resources—human capital, social capital, adaptability, and career identity—in the relationship between proactive career behavior and sustainable career outcomes.

This study makes several theoretical contributions. First, it provides a clear conceptualization and delineation of career proactive behavior from a process-oriented perspective, laying a solid foundation for future research. Second, by offering a comprehensive and multi-level research framework, this study enriches and extends the existing literature on career proactive behavior. Third, it bridges the domains of career studies and organizational behavior by incorporating the proactive motivation model and conservation of resources theory into the investigation of career proactive behavior. This integration offers deeper insights into its antecedents and consequences, contributes new theoretical perspective. This study also offers important practical implications. The findings provide valuable insights for individuals seeking to engage in career proactive behavior and achieve sustainable career development in complex and dynamic work environments. Moreover, they offer meaningful guidance and reference for organizational management practices.

Key words: proactive career behavior, proactive motivation, career resource, career sustainability