Dear colleagues,

We are happy to announce an upcoming special issue of the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (JOOP) on "Proactivity at Work" (guest-edited by Frank Belschak, Deanne Den Hartog, & Doris Fay). The call for papers is open and review process follows JOOP standards. You will find the call for papers below.

We hope that you will consider submitting some of your work in this area to this special issue, and we would also much appreciate it if you could bring the attached call for papers to the attention of any of your colleagues who are doing research in this area.

Sincerely,

Frank Belschak.

Special Section of Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology – Call for Papers

________

Exploring positive, negative and context-dependent aspects of proactive behaviors at work

Guest Editors:

Frank D. Belschak (<st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Amsterdam</st1:placename>, the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Netherlands</st1:place></st1:country-region>),

Deanne N. Den Hartog (<st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Amsterdam</st1:placename>, the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Netherlands</st1:place></st1:country-region>) and

Doris Fay (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">University of Potsdam</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region></st1:place>)

Submission deadline: 30 November 2008

The Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (JOOP) announces a special section focusing upon the potential positive and negative consequences of proactive behaviors at work. It is anticipated that the special section will be published in the March 2010 issue of JOOP.

With this special section JOOP aims to contribute to the growing literature on proactivity at work with a special emphasis on the following issues. So far, we know more about antecedents of proactive behaviors than about their consequences. Furthermore, proactive behaviors have mostly been researched with the implicit assumption that they involve positive consequences for both the organization and the individual. This special section invites a more balanced view: what exactly are the benefits of proactive behavior, but is there also a dark side to proactivity? Are there any contextual factors that may lead to proactive behaviors coming at a price? Is there an optimal level or amount of proactivity or is more proactivity always better? A systematic investigation of the potential positive and negative effects of proactivity at work has not been presented yet. The current special section aims to help fill that gap.

This special section will consider papers that explore the benefits as well as the potential negative (side) effects of proactivity at work for the individual him/herself, colleagues, the work group, clients or other stakeholders, and/ or the organization as a whole. Topics that are consistent with this purpose include:

• Research investigating the effect of proactive behaviors on stress / burnout as well as well-being / work engagement: does proactive behavior also relate to negative well-being outcomes?
• Studies on emotions and proactivity, for example, how proactive behaviors might trigger negative emotions (e.g. rule-breaking might come with feelings of guilt);
• Research on supervising proactive behaviors: are highly proactive subordinates more rebellious or more difficult to lead? Do they need to be led differently?
• Studies into the interaction of proactive behaviors and employee skills and knowledge: do proactive employees with low skills/ knowledge fail more often than highly skilled proactive employees? Does proactive behavior by employees with lower skills yield negative results for themselves or the organization?
• Research on proactivity in teams or larger units: how does proactivity affect peers or larger units? When is a team more proactive? Should everyone in a team be as proactive as possible or is there an optimal level or distribution of proactivity?

The above list is meant to provide illustrations and by no means exhaustive. Other proposals for relevant papers in the field of proactivity at work are encouraged by the Guest Editors. While we welcome both empirical and purely conceptual manuscripts, we particularly encourage the submission of empirical papers. Informal enquiries on the Special Section can be made to Frank Belschak (F.D.Belschak@uva.nl).

Method of submission: Manuscripts, which should be clearly labelled as submissions intended for this Special Section, must be submitted through JOOP's online review system, Editorial Manager, in accordance with regular JOOP guidelines. All submissions will be anonymously reviewed, using the normal JOOP review criteria while also taking into account the contribution of the paper to understanding the potential effects of proactive behaviors and its capacity to stimulate and guide work on proactivity at work.