Proactive personality triggers employee resilience: A dual-pathway model

The many uncertainties and challenges during an employee’s career journey have stimulated growing scholarly interest in developing employee resilience to cope with them. Adopting an intrapersonal perspective, we extended self-determination theory to the resilience-building context and explored the means by which proactive personality influences employee resilience. Using data obtained from a sample of 650 adults employed in workplaces in Mainland China, we found that proactive personality facilitates employee resilience via increasing work-related promotion focus and perceived insider identity. Our results provide insight into the development of employee resilience from a personality perspective through two different types of work-related motivation. The findings also have practical implications for managers of organizations seeking alternative elements for future employee resilience interventions.