Beyond being proactive: what (else) matters for career self‐management behaviors?

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the relationship between proactive personality and career self‐management behaviors (job mobility preparedness and developmental feedback‐seeking behaviors), providing evidence for one mediator (career resilience) and one moderator (public self‐consciousness) on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach – Data from 127 employees in one work organization, analyzed using regression analysis. Findings – Proactive personality is positively related to career self‐management behaviors. Career resilience mediates this relationship. In addition, proactive personality and public self‐consciousness have an interactive effect, with developmental feedback‐seeking behaviors as the outcome. Research limitations/implications – Despite the cross‐sectional nature of the study, the findings uncover mechanisms through which proactive personality is related to career self‐management behaviors. According to the findings, this relationship is subject to important intervening (career resilience) and boundary (public self‐consciousness) conditions. Practical implications – The findings serve as a resource for practitioners interested in interventions. Specifically, practitioners in organizations where the results generalize can design interventions directed at enhancing the direct effect of proactive personality on career self‐management. These interventions can be directed to managing employees' career resilience and cognitively restructuring their public self‐consciousness perceptions. Originality/value – This study adds to the literatures on career self‐management behaviors and proactive personality and explicates important intervening mechanisms in this relationship.