Psychological empowerment as moderator of the relationship between core self-evaluation and proactive work behaviour

This study examined the relationships between core self-evaluation, psychological empowerment, and proactive work behaviour. Oriented by situation strength theory, the study also examined the moderation role of psychological empowerment in core self-evaluation and proactive work behaviour relationships. This study relates personal characteristics of core self-evaluation, the situational variable of psychological empowerment, to organisationally desirable employee outcomes of proactive work behaviour. While core self-evaluation and psychological empowerment were analysed as one-dimensional variables, proactive work behaviour has four dimensions: problem prevention behaviour, individual innovation behaviour, voice behaviour, and taking charge behaviour. Two hundred and fifty-five employees sampled from public and private organisations were used for data analysis. Data were analysed with the PROCESS tool hosted in SPSS regression. The results showed that psychological empowerment was positively associated with proactive work behaviour and moderated the relationship between core self-evaluation and proactive work behaviour. The study contributes to the body of knowledge with the potential for a middle-range theory on psychological empowerment and proactive work behaviour relationship, substantially supports situation strength theory, and provides knowledge on the best combination of core self-evaluation and psychological empowerment for proactive work behaviour.Human resource strategies, particularly staff selection and training, are heavily influenced by personality. This study looked at the efficiency of a powerful personality model (core self-evaluation) in predicting proactive work behaviour, a type of employee behaviour that significantly impacts organisational productivity since it boosts individual and team performance. Because personal dispositions interact with situational circumstances to affect employee behaviour, this study looked at psychological empowerment in core self-evaluation and proactive work behaviour links as a moderation factor. Three key takeaways for HR professionals emerged from the data. First, proactive work conduct is not supported by critical self-evaluation attributes. Second, to promote proactive job behaviour, an employee must have a low or average level of psychological empowerment. Third, cultivating a low or moderate level of psychological empowerment in employees is required to diminish the organisation’s proactive work behaviour characteristics if the organisation’s selection approach has resulted in individuals with core self-evaluation features.