Proactivity or proactive behavior refers to self-initiated behavior that endeavours to solve a problem before it has occurred. Proactive behavior involves acting in advance of a future situation, rather than reacting. It refers to taking control of a situation and making early changes, rather than adjusting to a situation or waiting for something to happen.
Reactivity, as a behaviour pattern, is a habitual mode of taking one's lead from the situation or a participant, rather than taking initiative to solve the problem on your own terms. In moderation, this can be an effective expression of social
risk aversion
In economics and finance, risk aversion is the tendency of people to prefer outcomes with low uncertainty to those outcomes with high uncertainty, even if the average outcome of the latter is equal to or higher in monetary value than the more c ...
. Taken to excess, reactivity is a form of
disempowerment.
History
The use of the word ''proactive'' (or ''pro-active'') was limited to the domain of
experimental psychology in the 1930s, and used with a different meaning. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (OED) credits Paul Whiteley and Gerald Blankfort, citing their 1933 paper discussing proactive inhibition as the "impairment or retardation of learning or of the remembering of what is learned by effects that remain active from conditions prior to the learning".
In another related meaning, the 1946 book ''
Man's Search for Meaning
''Man's Search for Meaning'' is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to ...
'' brought the word to the wider public domain. The author, Austrian existential
neuropsychiatrist
Neuropsychiatry or Organic Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that deals with psychiatry as it relates to neurology, in an effort to understand and attribute behavior to the interaction of neurobiology and social psychology factors. Within neuro ...
Dr.
Viktor Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997)
was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is pa ...
, used the word to describe a person who took
responsibility for his or her life, rather than looking for causes in outside circumstances or other people. Frankl stressed the importance of
courage,
perseverance
Perseverance may refer to:
Behaviour
* Psychological resilience
* Perseverance of the saints, a Protestant Christian teaching
* Assurance (theology)
Geography
* Perseverance, Queensland, a locality in Australia
* Perseverance Island, Seychelles
...
, individual responsibility and awareness of the existence of choices, regardless of the situation or context.
Proactive behaviour
Proactive behavior can be contrasted with other work-related behaviors, such as
proficiency, i.e. the fulfillment of predictable requirements of one’s job, or
adaptability, the successful coping with and support of change initiated by others in the organization. In regard to the latter, whereas adaptability is about responding to change, proactivity is about initiating change.
Proactivity is not restricted to
extra role performance behaviors. Employees can be proactive in their prescribed role (e.g. by changing the way they perform a core task to be more efficient). Likewise, behaviors labeled as
organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) can be carried out proactively or passively. For example, the
altruistic
Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core asp ...
OCB can be proactive in nature (e.g. offering help to co-workers before they ask for assistance).
It aims at the identification and exploring of opportunities in taking action against the potential problems and threats. Most of the individuals who are positive , energetic, intelligent, follow the path of proactivity.
See also
*
Journal of Applied Psychology
*
Onboarding
''Onboarding'' or organizational socialization is the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors in order to become effective organizational members and insiders. In the United States, for example ...
*
Personnel psychology
Personnel Psychology is a subfield of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Personnel psychology is the area of industrial/organizational psychology that primarily deals with the recruitment, selection and evaluation of personnel, and other job ...
*
Proactive communications
References
Bibliography
*
*Campbell, D. J. (2000). The proactive employee: Managing workplace initiative. Academy of Management Executive, 14(3), 52-66.
*
*
*Frese, M., Kring, W., Soose, A., & Zempel, J. (1996). Personal initiative at work: Differences between East and West Germany. Academy of Management Journal, 39(1), 37-63.
*Grant, A. M., & Ashford, S. J. 2008. The dynamics of proactivity at work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 28: 3-34. http://www.unc.edu/~agrant/publications.htm
*Griffin, M. A., Neal, A., & Parker, S. K. (2007). A new model of work role performance: Positive behavior in uncertain and interdependent contexts. Academy of Management Journal, 50(2), 327 - 347.
*Parker, S. K., & Collins, C. G. (2010). Taking stock: Integrating and differentiating multiple forms of proactive behavior. Journal of Management. 36, 633-662. https://web.archive.org/web/20110706123753/http://parker.zydec.net.au/publications/Parker%26collins_ProactivityDimensions_JOM_InPress.pdf
*Parker, S. K., Williams, H. M., & Turner, N. (2006). Modeling the antecedents of proactive behavior at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(3), 636-652. https://web.archive.org/web/20110706123805/http://parker.zydec.net.au/publications/parker_et_al_modelingProactiveBehavior_JAP_2006.pdf
*
External links
{{Aspects of organizations
Organizational theory