Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam.
J Occup Health Psychol. 2017 Oct;22(4):429-442. doi: 10.1037/ocp0000042. Epub 2016 May 16.
The benefit of proactive work behaviors for performance-related outcomes has been well established. However, this approach to studying proactivity has not yet acknowledged its potential implications for the actor's well-being. Drawing on the fact that resources at work are limited and that the workplace is a social system characterized by interdependencies, we proposed that daily proactivity could have a negative effect on daily well-being. We furthermore proposed that this effect should be mediated by work overload and negative affect. We conducted a daily diary study (N = 72) to test the potential negative effects of proactivity on daily well-being. Data was collected across 3 consecutive work days. During several daily measurement occasions, participants reported proactivity, work overload, negative affect, and fatigue. They also provided 4 saliva samples per day, from which cortisol was assayed. Based on the 4 samples, a measure of daily cortisol output was produced. Multilevel analyses showed that daily proactivity was positively associated with higher daily cortisol output. The positive association of daily proactivity with bedtime fatigue was marginally significant. There was no support for a mediating effect of work overload and negative affect. Implications for theory-building on the proactivity-well-being link are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
主动工作行为对绩效相关结果的益处已得到充分证实。然而，这种研究主动性的方法尚未认识到它对行为者幸福感的潜在影响。根据工作中的资源有限以及工作场所是一个相互依存的社会系统这一事实，我们提出，日常主动性可能对日常幸福感产生负面影响。我们进一步提出，这种影响应该通过工作过载和负面情绪来介导。我们进行了一项每日日记研究（N=72），以检验主动性对日常幸福感的潜在负面影响。数据是在连续三个工作日内收集的。在几次日常测量中，参与者报告了主动性、工作过载、负面情绪和疲劳。他们还每天提供 4 份唾液样本，从中测定皮质醇。根据这 4 个样本，产生了一个衡量日常皮质醇输出的指标。多层次分析表明，日常主动性与更高的日常皮质醇输出呈正相关。日常主动性与睡前疲劳的正相关关系略有显著。工作过载和负面情绪的中介作用没有得到支持。讨论了关于主动性与幸福感联系的理论构建的意义。
