Newcomer Proactive Personality and Creative Behavior

Organizational socialization may have unintended outcomes for newcomers. To extend this line of research, we integrate the proactive process model and trait-activation theory to explore whether and when newly-graduated proactive newcomers express or suppress their creative behavior during the socialization processes. We hypothesize that this positive relationship between newcomer proactive personality and creative behavior is weaker during the early socialization stage, but it becomes positive and stronger during the later socialization stage. Further, we examine demands-abilities fit perception as a critical boundary condition in activating proactive newcomers to express more creative behavior during the early socialization stage. Based on 290 newly-graduated newcomers with data collected at four critical transition stages, including one month before entry, during the first month after entry, three months after entry (the early socialization stage), and six months after entry (the later socialization stage), the results supported our hypotheses. Our findings provide theoretical and practical implications on how and when newcomers’ trait proactivity will be suppressed or released into creative outcomes during the socialization processes.