Making things happen : the role of affect for proactive behaviours at work.

In this thesis, I investigate how affective experience influences proactivity at
work. Proactivity is a special type of goal-directed behaviour in which individuals
actively take charge of situations to bring about change in a future-focused way for
themselves or their organisation. Firstly, I draw on self-regulation research to
conceptualise and empirically validate a model of proactive goal regulation that
comprises employees' efforts in setting a proactive goal (envisioning), preparing to
implement their proactive goal (planning), implementing their proactive goal
(enacting) and engaging in learning processes concerning the outcomes of their
proactive goal (reflecting). Secondly, I draw on affect research to argue that different
types of work-related moods and emotions have an impact on the elements of
proactive goal regulation in important ways. I investigate the relationship between
affective experience and proactive goal regulation in three empirical studies:
In Study 1, I use a cross-sectional survey design to investigate the role of
moods for work-related proactive goal regulation in a study of call centre employees
(N=227). In Study 2, I replicate and extend findings from Study 1 in the context of
career-relatedp roactive goal regulation.S pecifically, I draw on longitudinal surveys
of undergraduatem edical students( N=250) over four time pointsa crosst he
academicy ear in order to test how moodsa ndc areer-relatedp roactive goal
regulation are related over time. In Study 3, I employ a qualitative interview
approach in a sample of call centre employees (N=39) to explore the role of emotions
in employees' accounts of past proactive goal regulation.
The findings of this thesis provide initial empirical support for the model of
proactive goal regulation. Results also indicate that work-related moods and
emotions are significant predictors of proactive goal regulation and that the role of
affective experience for proactivity at work is more nuanced than previously
assumed.