Shaping leaders, driving results.

Making Things Happen: Proactive Behavior in the Workplace
Sharon K. Parker
Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield
s.parker@sheffield.ac.uk
http://www.shef.ac.uk/psychology/staff/academic/sharon-parker.html
Making things happen, or being proactive, is critical in today’s decentralized work place where there is much competition and pressure for innovation. In this presentation, I discuss findings from a program of research aimed at better understanding proactive behavior at work. The work presented considers what proactive behavior is, the motivational dynamics underpinning proactivity, and antecedents of proactive behavior. For example, in regard to the latter, I present studies that consider a range of antecedents (personality, motivation, values, affect, work design, climate, leadership) across several contexts, including: the proactive problem solving amongst production staff;  the proactive care of nurses, the proactive performance of scientists; and the proactive behavior of managers. I focus particularly on an intervention study aimed at enhancing the proactive patient care displayed by junior doctors.

 

The Call of the Wild: Zookeepers, Callings, and the Double-Edged Sword of Deeply Meaningful Work
Jeffery A. Thompson
Romney Institute of Public Management, Brigham Young University
jeff_thompson@byu.edu
http://marriottschool.byu.edu/employee/employee.cfm?emp=jat237
A qualitative examination of work meaning in the zookeeping profession pointed to the centrality of the notion of work as a personal calling.  The view of calling expressed by zookeepers was, however, closer in basic structure to the classical conceptualization of the Protestant reformers than it was to more recent formulations.  We used qualitative data from interviews with U.S. zookeepers to develop hypotheses about the implications of this neoclassical conceptualization of calling for the relationship between individuals and their work.  We found that a neoclassical calling is both binding and ennobling.  On one hand, zookeepers with a sense of calling strongly identified with and found broader meaning and significance in their work and occupation.  On the other hand, they were more likely to see their work as a moral duty, to sacrifice pay, personal time, and comfort for their work, and to hold their zoo to a higher standard.  Results of a survey of zookeepers from 157 different zoos in the U.S. and Canada supported the hypotheses from our emergent theory.  These results highlight how meaningful work can become a double-edged sword.