Welcome to the club? Unethical behavior and proactivity in promotion and derailment decisions

Abstract

SummaryChallenging research that touts positive career outcomes for proactive individuals, this study takes the organizational decision‐maker's perspective and draws on tournament theory to qualify and better understand the link between manager proactivity and subsequent promotion into the executive ranks. Results from three studies support a moderated mediation model wherein proactivity is associated with leader schema matching, which, in turn, enhances promotion and inhibits derailment. However, the positive effects of proactivity are nullified when managers also engage in unethical behavior, which operates as a boundary condition on the indirect relations between proactivity and subsequent job mobility. These findings help explain why some proactive managers are derailed rather than promoted into senior leadership.