The aim of this chapter is to build a behavioural system model of proactivity based on attachment theory. Drawing on key propositions reviewed in Chapter Two, this chapter develops a behavioural system model of employee proactivity in two steps.

The next section adopts a behavioural perspective (see Chapter One) and elaborates why we can conceptualize proactive behaviour as a form of exploration. In brief, proactive behaviour, as a form to challenge the status quo, can be conceptualized as a form of exploration in which instigators aim to master their environment through self-directed change efforts. The following section, pp 58–62 uses the idea of the exploration behavioural system from attachment theory (see Chapter Two) to understand proactive behaviour and specifically to propose a behavioural system of proactivity. As a behavioural system is operated in a goal-corrected manner, in which individuals regulates their behaviour and goals in a feedback loop, the behavioural system of proactivity incorporates the process perspective of proactivity and helps integrate the identified motivational mechanisms of employee proactivity (see Chapter One).

Employee proactivity as a form of exploration

The meaning of exploration is rather unspecific in the original language of attachment theory, in part because the focus was on operationalizing exploration (as a child's investigation of new and unfamiliar environments) rather than outlining a detailed conceptual discussion. However Elliot and Reis's (2003) analysis of the exploration concept identified that exploration is closely tied to effectance motivation (White, 1959; Ainsworth, 1990), defined as ‘the desire for effective, competent interactions with the environment and … as an innate, organismic propensity that impels the individual to investigate, manipulate, and master the environment’ (Elliot and Reis, 2003: 318). Exploration can also be externally elicited by such stimuli as novelty and uncertainty (Berlyne, 1960) or violation of expectations (Hebb, 1955; Hunt, 1963; Piaget, 1969). Whether stimulated internally or externally, according to Loewenstein's (1994) information-gap perspective, exploration involves seeking information to reduce the knowledge gap between what one knows and what one wants to know. Exploration can thus be understood as behaviour aiming to master one's environment effectively by reducing knowledge gaps, especially in the face of novelty, complexity and uncertainty.