Proactive personality and employee outcomes: The moderating role of team autonomy

Abstract

We used self-determination theory to investigate the effects of proactive personality on employees' work engagement and helping behavior, as well as the moderating role of team autonomy in this relationship. Twowave data were collected from 75 sales teams (75 team leaders and 464 team members) from a large private company in South China. Multilevel path model analysis was used to test our hypotheses. The impact of proactive personality was amplified in teams with a higher level of team autonomy. Our findings not only provide empirical support for self-determination theory, but also contribute to the proactive personality literature by revealing the critical boundary condition of the effectiveness of proactive personality. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.