How other-oriented perfectionism differs from self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism

Over the past 20 years we have gained a comprehensive understanding of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism, but our understanding of other-oriented perfectionism (OOP)—and how it differs from the other two forms of perfectionism—is still underdeveloped. Two studies with university students are presented examining OOP’s relationships with social goals, the dark triad, the HEXACO personality dimensions, and altruism. OOP showed unique positive relationships with narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy and unique negative relationships with nurturance, intimacy, and social development goals. Furthermore it showed unique relationships with social dominance goals (positive) and emotionality, agreeableness, and altruism (negative) dependent on the OOP measure used. The findings suggest that OOP is a “dark” form of perfectionism associated with antisocial and narcissistic personality characteristics

Building and Sustaining Proactive Behaviors: The Role of Adaptivity and Job Satisfaction

© 2013, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Purpose: The purpose was to investigate how job satisfaction and adaptivity influence proactivity over time. Proactivity describes employees’ efforts to initiate positive change in the organization and can be differentiated from adaptivity: the positive behavioral response to ongoing change. We investigated how adaptivity supports subsequent proactivity and how job satisfaction can be a motivational resource for maintaining high levels of proactivity over time. Design/Methodology/Approach: We surveyed 75 employees on two occasions separated by a period of 2 years. Findings: Our findings provide initial support for the role of adaptivity in facilitating proactivity over time. Highly satisfied employees maintained their level of proactivity, whether high or low, over the 2-year period. Employees low in job satisfaction who showed high levels of proactive behavior at Time 1 did not report high levels of proactive behavior at Time 2. Implications: In uncertain environments, organizations rely on their employees to support and promote change and innovation. Our results suggest that high adaptivity can build proactivity, while high satisfaction can sustain proactivity. Originality/Value: Distinguishing adaptivity from proactivity provides a better understanding of the nature of proactivity in organizations. Inconsistent results concerning the link between satisfaction and proactivity are addressed

The Theory of Planned Behaviour as a Frame for Job Crafting: Explaining and Enhancing Proactive Adjustment at Work

Rapid changes in the work environment require employees to proactivity shape their job characteristics to sustain motivation, energy, and performance. Traditionally, job redesign was mainly a top-down process, where the management of an organisation was in charge of defining the most appropriate job description of a mansion. Today, such an approach does not respond anymore to the challenges of the work environment, and awareness has developed among scholars and practitioners about the importance of empowering individuals to let them adjust their job characteristics to reach organisation goals, i.e. through job crafting interventions. In this theoretical contribution, we propose the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as a framework to design positive psychology interventions aiming to enhance adaptive job crafting behaviours. We argue that the TPB provides a solid foundation to explicate the mechanisms by which job crafting positive interventions are expected to exert their effects on behaviour. Such an approach allows targeting the content and the tools of the interventions based on participants\u2019 needs, effectively addressing the causal determinants of behaviour and behaviour change in multicultural organisational contexts

Sustainable Careers, Vulnerability, and Well-Being: Towards an Integrative Approach

Career landscapes have changed over the recent decades with a de-standardization of career paths. Globalization, more flexible labor markets, and new ways of working are just a few of the many factors that erode the boundaries of a well-defined career path. Today, many workers are thus confronted by the vulnerability paradox, where diverse career opportunities and an emphasis on personal agency carry a share of uncertainty, inequity, and pressure to keep fit at all times. This chapter discusses the idea of sustainable careers as an antipode to occupational vulnerabilities in the modern world of work. Indeed, promoting sustainability in flexible and deregulated labor markets can be very difficult. However, this sustainability is necessary to promote employees’ well-being. To elaborate these crucial challenges, we will develop an integrative theoretical approach encompassing both micro- and macro-level factors that may influence occupational trajectories and workplace experiences