Investigating the Uniqueness and Usefulness of Proactive Personality in Organizational Research: A Meta-Analytic Review
verifiedrich profile · Human Performance · 2015
Spitzmuller, Matthias; Sin, Hock-Peng; Howe, Michael; Fatimah, Shereen
How this was studied
A meta-analytic synthesis — it pools many primary studies rather than running a single design, so there is no single-study diagram.
What this article reports
The findings we extracted from this work, normalized into Principia’s relationship form (X → Y). Each feeds the synthesized models below.
proactive personality → job satisfaction
Models this article informs
The meta-analytic priors this article contributes evidence to — its place in the broader synthesis.
In the authors’ words
The article’s own abstract.
Using meta-analysis (283 effect sizes from 122 studies), we extend prior qualitative and quantitative reviews of research on proactive personality in a number of meaningful ways. First, we examine the discriminant and incremental validity of proactive personality using meta-analytic regression analyses. Our results reveal that more than 50% of variance in proactive personality is unrelated to the Big Five personality traits collectively. Also, proactive personality accounts for unique variance in overall job performance, task performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors, even after controlling for the Big Five personality traits and general mental ability (for overall job performance and task performance). Moreover, we find no subgroup differences in proactive personality, highlighting its potential use in selection contexts. In conclusion, we discuss implications of our findings for research and practice.
What the literature says about it
Attributed, open-access quotes from other works that cite this article, plus the citation-graph verdict tally. Corroborations and disputes, in one place — the honest-broker view.
supports “…with several traits of the Big Five personality (i.e. extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness) (Gürbüz, Costigan, et al., 2022), it is a conceptually distinct construct and accounts for considerable additional variance in the prediction of task performance (Spitzmuller et al., 2015).”
supports “In keeping with previous primary and meta-analytic research (Li et al., 2017; Spitzmuller et al., 2015), the results show a positive link between proactive personality and newcomers’ job satisfaction, reported after 5 months of socialization.”
supports “TABLE 6 Summary of Meta-Analytic Hierarchical Regression Analysis: Regressing Individual-Targeted Organizational Citizenship Behavior on Proactive and Big Five Personality Traits True Score Validity Operational Validity Variable β SE B R2 R2 β SE B R2 R2 Step 1 .072∗ .062∗ Neuroticism −.09∗ .02 −.10∗ .02 Extraversion .07∗ .02 .07∗ .02 Openness to Experience .02 .02 .02 .02 Agreeableness .13∗ .02 .12∗ .02 Conscientiousness .12∗ .02 .11∗ .02 Step 2 .120∗ .048∗ .088∗ .026∗ Neuroticism −.07∗ .02 −.08∗ .02 Extraversion −.05∗ .02 .00 .02 Openness to Experience −.10∗ .02 −.03 .02 Agreeableness .21∗ .02 .15∗ .02 Conscientiousness −.01 .02 .05∗ .02 Proactive Personality .31∗ .02 .20∗ .02 ∗p .05.”
supports “Meta-analytic research has shown that proactive personality constitutes an important antecedent of several key work outcomes, such as job performance and job satisfaction (Spitzmuller et al., 2015).”
supports “In addition, this study also confirmed the claim that a proactive personality has a positive effect on job performance (Bakker et al., 2012; Hsiao et al., 2020; Spitzmuller et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2020).”
supports “Several studies have shown that having a proactive personality can have a positive impact on various important aspects of organizational success, such as job performance (Bakker et al., 2012; Hsiao et al., 2020; Spitzmuller et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2020).”
supports “…these findings are aligned with previous research supporting the meaningful role of proactive personality for predicting job satisfaction (e.g., Spitzmuller et al., 2015), but also extend previous knowledge by specifically showing that the positive effect of this personality variable also…”
supports “As described, extant research supports the positive influence of proactive personality on job satisfaction (e.g., Spitzmuller et al., 2015).”
supports “Meta-analytic research has shown that proactive personality constitutes an important antecedent of several key work outcomes, such as job performance and job satisfaction (Spitzmuller et al., 2015).”
supports “D ow nl oa de d by [ Si ng ap or e M an ag em en t U ni ve rs ity ] at 1 8: 46 0 4 Ja nu ar y 20 18 366 SPITZMULLER, SIN, HOWE, FATIMAH TABLE 7 Summary of Meta-Analytic Hierarchical Regression Analysis: Regressing Organization-Targeted Organizational Citizenship Behavior on Proactive and Big Five Personality Traits True Score Validity Operational Validity Variable β SE B R2 R2 β SE B R2 R2 Step 1 .050∗ .043∗ Neuroticism −.08∗ .02 −.09∗ .02 Extraversion .03 .02 .03 .02 Openness to Experience −.00 .02 −.00 .02 Agreeableness .03 .02 .03 .02 Conscientiousness .17∗ .02 .16∗ .02 Step 2 .075∗ .025∗ .059∗ .016∗ Neuroticism −.07∗ .02 −.08∗ .02 Extraversion −.06∗ .02 −.02 .02 Openness to Experience −.09∗ .02 −.04∗ .02 Agreeableness .08∗ .02 .05∗ .02 Conscientiousness .07∗ .02 .11∗ .02 Proactive personality .22∗ .02 .15∗ .02 ∗p .05.”
Ancillary research
Neighbouring works in the citation graph around this article.
- 10.1080/09585192.2024.2429125
- 10.1007/s12646-024-00805-2
- 10.1016/j.jvb.2009.05.008
- 10.20473/jmtt.v16i3.46808
Assembled from Principia’s registry — bibliographic record, extracted effect sizes, the models they inform, and open-access citing literature.