ACTING COMPETITIVELY IN A CONSTANTLY CHANGING CONTEXT - A quantitative study on competitive employee behaviour

Abstract

For organisations to stay competitive in current circumstances entailing great uncertainties, swift changes, and continuous development, they need employees who are willing to both initiate and adapt to such changes. Therefore, the focus of this study has been to analyse both individual and organisational antecedents of employees’ change-oriented behaviours. By examining previous research and by following the notions of self-regulation theory, we found that an extensive focus had been placed on individual change-oriented actions, simply acknowledging them as proactive, whilst less focus had been placed on the contrasts between being adaptive and being proactive. As such, individuals’ levels of self-efficacy have been shown to impact their use of the change-oriented behaviours while organisational conditions have been suggested to generate further effects. Our results confirmed that individuals’ beliefs in their own capabilities had a positive impact on their use of both change-oriented behaviours. However, by differentiating between adaptive and proactive behaviours, we also found indications that this impact was stronger on adaptive than proactive behaviours. Furthermore, we found that employees who perceived high levels of ambiguity in their organisation were less likely to use adaptive behaviours, whilst employees that perceived high levels of accountability were more likely to use proactive behaviours. As such, we propose that a differentiation of the concepts is needed, both in future research on the matter and for organisations that strive to remain competitive. Moreover, we discuss how the results of this study can provide direction for both researchers and organisations when tackling the uncertain future.