Welcome to the club? Unethical behavior and proactivity in promotion and derailment decisions

Summary Challenging research that touts positive career outcomes for proactive individuals, this study takes the organizational decision‐maker's perspective and draws on tournament theory to qualify and better understand the link between manager proactivity and subsequent promotion into the exe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of organizational behavior Vol. 44; no. 9; pp. 1340 - 1361
Main Authors Crossley, Craig, Taylor, Shannon G., Treviño, Linda K., Taylor, Regina, Rice, Darryl
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chichester Wiley Periodicals Inc 01.11.2023
Subjects
Ethics
Leadership
Occupational mobility
Organizational behavior
Proactivity
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Summary:Summary Challenging research that touts positive career outcomes for proactive individuals, this study takes the organizational decision‐maker's perspective and draws on tournament theory to qualify and better understand the link between manager proactivity and subsequent promotion into the executive ranks. Results from three studies support a moderated mediation model wherein proactivity is associated with leader schema matching, which, in turn, enhances promotion and inhibits derailment. However, the positive effects of proactivity are nullified when managers also engage in unethical behavior, which operates as a boundary condition on the indirect relations between proactivity and subsequent job mobility. These findings help explain why some proactive managers are derailed rather than promoted into senior leadership.
ISSN:0894-3796
1099-1379
DOI:10.1002/job.2736