Date of Award
7-29-2020
Publication Type
Master Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Psychology
Keywords
personality, proactive behaviour, psychological safety, three-way interaction
Supervisor
Greg Chung-Yan
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Although there are employees with a propensity to be proactive (i.e., proactive personality), it does not mean that they will behave proactively regardless of the work situation. Contextual factors at work can both facilitate or deter employees from acting proactively, and this study explores whether psychological safety is one of these contextual factors. Full-time employees in Canada completed an online questionnaire assessing both individual and organizational factors related to proactivity in the workplace. It was found that psychological safety did affect the relationship between proactive personality and proactive behaviour. When the level of psychological safety decreases, inherently proactive employees exhibited highest levels of proactive behaviour. On the other hand, when psychological safety increases, the role of proactive personality diminished such that proactive behaviour increased even among employees who were not dispositionally predisposed to being proactive. Proactive behaviour was also found to be positively related to job satisfaction and affective commitment toward the organization. Overall, the study findings suggest that organizations that desire employees to behave proactively can do so by cultivating a psychologically safe work environment for employees.
Recommended Citation
Thirumangai Alwar, Siddardh, "The Role of Psychological Safety in Predicting Proactive Behaviour" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 8422.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/8422