Do adaptable employees always display high performance? Dual roles of proactive behavior and self-construal

Abstract

We examined a dual-path model to explain the opposite roles of career adaptability and organizational performance. We used a time-lagged survey of 53 supervisors and 327 employees in China to collect data. Results show that career-oriented proactive behavior mediated the negative effect of career adaptability on performance, and work unitoriented proactive behavior mediated the positive effect of career adaptability on performance. Moreover, the effects of career adaptability and career-oriented proactive behavior on performance were significant only for employees with high independent selfconstrual, and the effects of career adaptability and work unit-oriented proactive behavior on performance were significant only for employees with high interdependent self-construal. This study extends career construction theory in the organizational behavior field and has practical significance for the effective guiding of adaptable employees' contribution to organizational performance.