Better Together: Member Proactivity Is Better for Team Performance When Aligned with Conscientiousness
Date
2023-05-09
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Academy of Management Discoveries
Abstract
Proactivity, the tendency to create change in the work environment, typically improves team performance. This relationship is far from perfect, however. We explore inconsistencies in the team proactivity literature to shed light on an important question – when is member proactivity beneficial or dysfunctional for teams? First, we consider the composition of member proactivity at the team level and whether a simple ‘more is better’ heuristic neglects a more complex relationship linking member proactivity to team coordination and performance. Second, we explore whether proactivity is better when aligned with another individual difference focused on the propensity to plan and coordinate with others (i.e., conscientiousness). In two studies, we compare traditional additive and configurational compositional approaches to these two attributes with a new attribute alignment approach, allowing us to examine the co-occurrence of proactivity and conscientiousness within some team members relative to others. First, we find that team member proactivity-conscientiousness alignment (P-C alignment) predicts the performance of MBA consulting teams better than the other team composition models we considered. Then, we replicate this finding in a laboratory simulation, finding that it occurs because P-C alignment improves team coordination. Our results demonstrate that member proactivity is most effective for the team when it aligns with conscientiousness.
Description
This article was originally published in Academy of Management Discoveries. The version of record is available at:
https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2021.0208. Copyright 2023. This article will be embargoed until 05/09/2024.
Keywords
interpersonal & team processes, team composition, individual differences, personality, proaction, team development & building
Citation
Emich, Kyle, Li Lu, Amanda J. Ferguson, Randall Peterson, Michael McCourt, Sean Martin, Elizabeth McClean, and Col. Todd Woodruff. “Better Together: Member Proactivity Is Better for Team Performance When Aligned with Conscientiousness.” Academy of Management Discoveries, May 9, 2023, amd.2021.0208. https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2021.0208.