ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2022, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (5): 516-527.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00516

• 研究报告 • 上一篇    下一篇

“近朱者赤”:同事主动行为如何激发员工动机和绩效

张颖1, 段锦云2(), 王甫希3(), 屈金照1, 彭雄良1   

  1. 1中国人民大学劳动人事学院, 北京 100872
    2华东师范大学心理与认知科学学院, 上海 200062
    3中国农业大学经济管理学院, 北京 100083
  • 收稿日期:2021-03-12 发布日期:2022-03-23 出版日期:2022-05-25
  • 通讯作者: 段锦云,王甫希 E-mail:mgjyduan@hotmail.com;wangfuxi@cau.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金项目(72002035);国家自然科学基金项目(72002017);国家自然科学基金项目(72072058);中国人民大学2020年度拔尖创新人才培育资助计划成果

“Attraction of the like”: How does coworker proactive behavior stimulate employees’ motivation and job performance?

ZHANG Ying1, DUAN Jinyun2(), WANG Fuxi3(), QU Jinzhao1, PENG Xiongliang1   

  1. 1School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
    2School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
    3College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
  • Received:2021-03-12 Online:2022-03-23 Published:2022-05-25
  • Contact: DUAN Jinyun,WANG Fuxi E-mail:mgjyduan@hotmail.com;wangfuxi@cau.edu.cn

摘要:

以往有关主动性的研究通常聚焦员工本身, 忽略了团队或组织中同事会对员工行为产生影响这一重要管理实践和理论视角。为此, 本研究以社会学习理论为基础, 探讨了同事主动行为对员工自主动机和工作绩效的影响, 以及员工主动性人格的调节作用。通过多时点、上下级匹配问卷(研究1)及情景实验(研究2)两项研究, 本文发现, 同事主动行为可以激发员工的自主动机, 进而提升工作绩效; 并且, 员工主动性人格强化了同事主动行为对员工自主动机的正向作用。本研究不仅从理论上将现有关于主动行为的研究视角迁移到同事, 也为如何更好地激励员工提供了实践指导。

关键词: 同事主动行为, 自主动机, 工作绩效, 主动性人格, 社会学习理论

Abstract:

In the current age, employees are expected to work proactively in workplaces where the organizational structure is flatter and knowledge updating becomes faster than ever. There is a growing consensus on the importance of proactive behaviors from both scholars and practitioners. Proactive behavior, defined as “an anticipatory action that employees take to impact themselves and/or their environments” is thought to be self-initiated, future-oriented and change-oriented. Evidence showed that employees’ proactive behavior is beneficial for both individual performance and organizational competitiveness. Existing research regarding the impacts of proactive behavior mainly focuses on effectiveness of employees’ own proactive behaviors, such as promoting their job satisfaction or organizational commitment. However, no one is an isolated island. In a team or an organizational environment, employees’ attitudes and behaviors will inevitably be affected by their coworkers. Accordingly, this study focused on coworker proactive behavior and discussed its effectiveness in stimulating employees’ job performance. Drawing upon social learning theory, we hypothesized employee autonomous motivation will mediate the relationship between coworker proactive behavior and employee job performance. We further assumed that whether an employee possesses highly proactive personality determines the odds that employees might be motivated by their proactive coworkers.
These hypotheses were tested with a field sample of supervisor-employee dyads and an experimental study. For the field study, we conducted a three-wave research design and achieved 209 valid samples from employees and their supervisors in two high-tech enterprises based in Beijing and Hebei provinces. At Time 1, employees assessed their proactive personality and their coworkers’ proactive behavior, and provided their demographic information. At Time 2 (one month after Time 1), employees were asked to report their autonomous motivation. At Time 3 (two months after Time 1), supervisors provided performance evaluation of employees who engaged in the survey. For the experimental study, we recruited 86 full-time workers from a high-tech company located in Hebei province via its internal communication channel. These respondents were separated into two groups randomly, namely coworkers with high proactive behaviors (N = 74) and coworkers with low proactive behaviors (N = 76). First, respondents were asked to finish a measure of their proactive personality and report their demographics. Then, they were given a scenario, one of which depicted a situation where coworkers were proactive (or not proactive). Finally, after reading the scenario, respondents finished a manipulation check of coworker proactive behavior and reported the degree of their autonomous motivation. We applied confirmatory factor analysis, regression analysis and mixed model via SPSS 23 and Mplus 7.4 to analyze the data.
Empirical results supported our hypotheses and indicated the following: (1) Coworker proactive behavior had a significant positive effect on employee autonomous motivation; (2) Employee autonomous motivation played a mediating role in the relationship between coworker proactive behavior and employee job performance; (3) Employee proactive personality played a moderating role in the relationship between coworker proactive behavior and employee autonomous motivation, such that coworker proactive behavior was positively related employee autonomous motivation when employees’ proactive personality was high, while such relationship became negative when employees’ proactive personality was low.
This study makes several theoretical and managerial implications. First, by investigating the effectiveness of coworker proactive behavior, this study offers a new insight in proactive behavior research by incorporating the influence of coworker into consideration. Second, by examining the mediating role of employee autonomous motivation, this study enhances our understanding of how coworker proactive behavior translates into employee job performance. Third, by exploring the contingent role of employee proactive personality, this study shows the boundary condition under which employees are more likely to be motivated by their proactive coworkers.

Key words: coworker proactive behavior, autonomous motivation, job performance, proactive personality, social learning theory

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