Research on proactivity has so far mainly considered proactivity as an individual's action and used a sell-regulation perspective to understand employee proactive behaviour at work. Nevertheless, proactivity is very often relational, in part because it is often necessary to manage disapproval and resistance from other stakeholders in the work context (Morrison and Bies, 1991; Frese and Fay, 2001; Ashford et al, 2003; Parker et al, 2010). Similarly, when behaving proactively, an individual often needs to interact closely with and influence peers and supervisors in order to obtain the information and resources needed to bring about change (Thompson, 2005). As such, the extent to which employees are proactive is determined by how they interact with other stakeholders in the work context. Building on attachment theory, this book has proposed that attachment security is the key that activates and facilitates operation of the behavioural system of proactivity (Chapter Four) and suggested that attachment styles and different stakeholders in the work context (that is, leaders, work teams and the organization) can be sources of attachment security in shaping employee proactivity at work (Chapter Five).

The aim of this chapter is to highlight the implications for employee proactivity research of the model proposed in Chapters Four and Five. First, the chapter discusses how attachment theory provides a different angle from alternative approaches for understanding the relational basis of employee proactivity. Next, it elaborates how the attachment theory strengthens a dispositional approach to understanding employee proactivity, and then highlights the value of the proposed model in integrating the different conceptualizations and motivational mechanisms in proactivity research. Finally, it indicates avenues for future research on employee proactivity specifically and extends the discussion to elaborate how attachment theory can help understand work behaviour broadly.

Relational basis of employee proactivity

Although different approaches can be adopted capture the relational basis of proactivity, the approach in this book, of building on attachment theory, provides a stronger theoretical foundation for unpacking the relational basis of proactivity. For example, in order to examine whether those who tend to build positive relationships with others will be more proactive at work, previous studies have examined the association between trait agreeableness from the ‘big-five’ personality framework (i.e., a trait theory of personality focusing on the five broad traits – conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion) and employee proactive behaviour (for example, LePine and Van Dyne, 2001; Major et al, 2006; Crant et al, 2011).