Off-job experiences and daily proactive behavior

Abstract

Drawing on self-regulatory resource theory (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000) and the model of proactive motivation (Parker, Bindl, & Strauss, 2010), we examined how employees’ off-job experiences during the evening affect their next day proactive behavior using experience sampling methods. With the data of 183 employees across 10 workdays, multilevel analysis results indicated that the multiple types of off-job experiences have differential effects on daily proactive behavior, and the corresponding mechanisms underlying these relationships were distinct. Specifically, mastery experiences increased high-activated positive affect and role breadth self- efficacy, thereby enhancing proactive behavior; control over choice of off-job activities increased role breadth self-efficacy and desire for control, which lead to higher levels of proactivity; hassle experiences decreased high- activated positive affect and in turn reduced proactive behavior. Additionally, relaxation experiences were positively related to low-activated positive affect and psychological detachment from work had a decreasingly positive curvilinear relationship with low-activated positive affect, while these two types of off-job experiences were not related to proactive behavior.