Would people persist in proactive work behavior? Comparing the motivation and resource-depletion pathways

Scholars have long argued that effective changes require persistence in proactive work behavior and regarded persistence as a critical part of individual proactivity, but seldom have they examined whether, why, and under what conditions would people persist. Based on Cangiano and Parker’s ( 2016 ) model of PWB and well-being, we propose that proactive work behavior has contrasting effects on subsequent behavior through motivation and resource-depletion pathways, captured by role-breadth self-efficacy and emotional exhaustion respectively. We further propose that organizational management uncertainty would enhance the resource depletion effect and weaken the motivation effect, because it makes proactive work behavior more resource-demanding and makes it more difficult for people to apply their previous experiences to future acts. Across two studies, we showed that the indirect effect through emotional exhaustion was dependent on organizational management uncertainty, but that through role-breadth self-efficacy was not. These findings help us better understand the persistence in proactive work behavior and the influence of uncertainty at work.