Seminar (Dept. of Organization and Human Resources)

Title: How Spouse Support Fuels Employee Proactivity: An Attachment Theory Perspective

Speaker: Xiangyu Gao (School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University)

Time: 14:00 (Wednesday), January 8th, 2025

Venue: Room 1008, Mingde Business Building

Language: Chinese/English

ABSTRACT:

While prior research has primarily focused on on-the-job factors influencing employee proactivity, off-the-job factors remain underexplored. Grounded in attachment theory and the proactive motivation model, this study posits that spousal secure base support enhances employee proactive behaviors by boosting role-breadth self-efficacy, positive emotions, and intrinsic motivation, while employees’ learning goal orientation moderates these mediating effects. We tested this model in two studies. In Study 1, we found that spousal secure base support promotes employee proactivity by increasing role-breadth self-efficacy and positive affect, and that employees’ learning goal orientation strengthens these mediating effects. Study 2, an online vignette experiment, replicated these results, showing that the positive influence of spousal secure base support on employee proactivity through role-breadth self-efficacy is significantly stronger for employees with high learning goal orientation. We conclude by discussing the theoretical contributions and practical implications of these findings.