From passive to proactive motivation: The importance of flexible role orientations and role breadth self-efficacy

Despite the widely held belief that a proactive workforce is necessary for competitive advantage, research investigating how to assess and promote suc h change is limited. Two potentially important precursors to proactivity in clude flexible role orientation (FRO) and role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) . These concepts have been shown to have construct validity and to be disti nct from related dispositional variables, but their discriminant validity i n terms of outcome variables has not been demonstrated. In this article, I show that FRO and RBSE are factorially distinct from outcomes commonly used in organisational research (job satisfaction, organisational commitment, a nd job strain). I also show that, as expected, the proactive motivation and traditional outcome variables have different relationships with various pr edictor variables. I outline the study implications, and suggest a broader research agenda on proactive motivation.