The Influence of Organizational Virtues on Employees’ Constructive Behavior: The Role of Constructive Responsibility Perception and Proactive Personality ()
1. Introduction
With the advent of the digital economy, the key to creating value within an organization changes from money and machines and equipment to knowledge-based employees associated with emerging technologies, and the outside of an organization becomes highly uncertain due to digital technology development, and organizational development faces a new crisis. In this context, companies can only adapt to the complex, dynamic and competitive external market environment by promoting internal organizational change and innovation. In the new era of the community of destiny and value creation, the evaluation of enterprises is not only limited to product value and service, but also respecting ethics and moral code and taking more social responsibility within the enterprise can gain wide attention and recognition from the society. Therefore, how to promote sustainable development and enhance organizational core competitiveness through practicing organizational virtues has become a key concern for corporate management.
Organizational virtue, as a concept combining positive psychology and business ethics, refers to the overall organizational ethical characteristics embodied by the collective or individual, climate, structure, and policy procedures in an organization (Bright et al., 2006; Liu, 2012). In recent years, the positive effects of organizational virtues on individuals and organizations have received increasing academic attention. The development of digital technology has led to changes in business models and organizational patterns, etc., as well as the generation of work behaviors beyond the scope of responsibilities of employees, and how to promote employees’ constructive behaviors in the new working conditions has also become a focal issue in the fields of organizational behavior and human resources. Advocacy behavior is an extra-role behavior in which employees initiate constructive ideas to improve their work or organizational status (Van & Lepine, 1998). This behavior is more closely related to the individual’s own intrinsic and organizational extrinsic motivational characteristics; therefore, it is possible that organizational virtue is an important antecedent variable of employee constructive behavior. A review of the relevant literature reveals that studies have examined the relationship between organizational virtue and related outcome variables, but fewer studies have examined the relationship between organizational virtue and employee constructive behavior. Therefore, this study examines the effect of organizational virtue on employee constructive behavior in the Chinese context.
Social exchange theory states that the provision of material or emotional resources by one party to another during social interactions based on the principle of reciprocity leads to a sense of responsibility on the part of the other party to maintain their exchange relationship in return. Constructive responsibility perception is the individual’s belief that it is his or her obligation as an employee within the organization to bring about constructive change (Fuller et al., 2006). Organizational virtues are the high ethical and moral characteristics presented by the organization such as optimism, integrity, trust, and tolerance, which create a good organizational context for the members of the organization and provide employees with a psychological feeling of tolerance and care, as well as help in their personal growth and career development, which in turn will motivate employees to actively participate in social exchange and actively and positively propose ideas that will help the organization to enhance organizational progress responsibility (Zhang et al., 2020). Employees with a high sense of constructive responsibility consider the organization from their hearts and perform behaviors that are beneficial to the organization’s development such as improving organizational processes and increasing organizational efficiency. Therefore, this study expected that organizational virtue would promote employees’ constructive responsibility perceptions to facilitate employees’ constructive behaviors. According to the individual-situational interaction theory, employees’ behavioral choices are influenced by both individual traits and the organizational context in which they are placed (Magnusson & Stattin, 1998), so it is hypothesized that proactive personality is likely to be a factor in employees’ perceptions of increased constructive responsibility perceptions brought about by organizational virtues and thus facilitates employees’ constructive behaviors. Therefore, based on social exchange theory and individual-situational interaction theory, this study investigates the influence of organizational virtues on employees’ constructive behaviors through the mediation of constructive responsibility perceptions, as well as the moderating mechanism of proactive personality to provide theoretical guidance and practical reference for later related studies.
The theoretical contributions of this study: First, it further expands the factors affecting employees’ constructive behavior and enriches the research on the relationship between organizational virtue and employees’ constructive behavior; second, it constructs and validates the theoretical model of organizational virtue → constructive responsibility perception → employees’ constructive behavior with constructive responsibility perception as the mediating variable, which better explains the “black box” affecting employees’ constructive behavior. Thirdly, it explores the moderating effect of employees’ proactive personality in the relationship between organizational virtue and employees’ constructive behavior, and better understands the mechanism of organizational virtue → constructive responsibility perception → employees’ constructive behavior, which provides new ideas for later research and also provides reference and reference for motivating constructive behavior.
2. Theoretical Basis and Research Hypothesis
2.1. The Influence of Organizational Virtue on Employees’ Constructive Behavior
The term “virtue” originates from an ancient Chinese philosophical concept, which first appeared in the Zhong Yong: “Therefore, the gentleman respects virtue and the way of learning”, i.e., the gentleman respects moral cultivation and pursues knowledge and learning. According to Confucianism, “virtue” here refers to the natural endowment of human beings. Modern Neo-Confucianism also defines virtue as moral qualities. The understanding of “virtue” in traditional Chinese philosophy and ethics is equivalent to “de”, and it has two meanings. One is the “virtue of man”, which emphasizes the internal cultivation of “virtue” and regards it as an ideal state; the other is the “external establishment of its virtue”, which emphasizes the external practice of “virtue” and regards it as a code of conduct, and advocates that human words and actions should have the virtue of conforming to etiquette and having ideal personality and inner moral characteristics. The term “virtue” has been commonly used in Western philosophy and ethics, initially at the individual level to describe individual characteristics, i.e., the high ethical temperament or moral appearance unique to an individual (Aristotle, 1995). Later, the study of virtue at the organizational level gradually emerged in the West with the development of positive organizational science. Formal organizations can also act like a person who possesses what is evaluated as a virtuous or evil character within the organization (Klein, 1988). Unlike the individual level, organizational virtue is a presentation of the holistic ethical characteristics of the organization and is a concentration of the elements within the organization in terms of ethical qualities (Bright et al., 2006). It has been shown that organizational virtue not only has a positive effect on individual affective commitment (Cameron et al., 2004), organizational loyalty (Rego et al., 2011), insider identity perception (Wang et al., 2019) and sense of organizational support (Wang et al., 2020), but also positively predicts employee extra-role behavior and organizational performance (Rego et al., 2010; Searle & Barbuto, 2011).
Employee suggestion behavior is an extra-role behavior in which employees take a proactive approach to offer constructive work-related opinions in order to contribute to the improvement of organizational management processes and long-term sustainability (Morrison, 2014), which can facilitate organizational adaptation to developmental changes and improve organizational efficiency (Organ et al., 2006; Liang et al., 2012) categorized employee suggestions into facilitative and inhibitory suggestions. The former refers to new ideas and approaches that involve improving organizational effectiveness, while the latter refers to suggestions that involve unfavorable organizational work practices. Since employee suggestion behavior is a behavior that disrupts the existing situation and environment of the organization, expressing views and ideas may be perceived by leaders or colleagues as a disruptor of the balance, which in turn exposes the suggestion maker to interpersonal risks, and it is a behavior with certain risks and challenges (Wang & Duan, 2021), employees need to obtain recognition from within the organization when implementing suggestion behavior. Studies have shown that in a high organizational virtue context, employees support and recognize the organization’s behaviors and values, develop a high sense of identification and belonging, and are more willing to actively devote their energy and time to organizational development (Rego et al., 2011) and actively offer all constructive opinions. When employees perceive a high organizational virtue situation, they are more likely to enhance their cognition and emotion towards the organization, view organizational development as one with their personal development, and contribute to driving organizational change (Kooshki & Zeinabadi, 2016), thus willingly engaging in extra-role behaviors beyond the scope of their job responsibilities; furthermore, in a high organizational virtue organization, employees understand each other, trust and tolerance, forming harmonious interpersonal relationships within the organization, which can reduce the interpersonal risks of employees due to their constructive behaviors, and thus are more conducive to motivating positive expressions of views and opinions among employees. Therefore, this paper proposes the following hypothesis.
Hypothesis 1: Organizational virtue has a significant positive effect on employees’ constructive behavior.
2.2. The Mediating Role of Constructive Responsibility Perception
Responsibility perception reflects a belief in the degree to which individuals are responsible for the outcome of their own work (Hackman & Oldham, 1976). Constructive responsibility perception, which originates from responsibility perception, is an important self-worth concept that refers to an individual’s belief that he or she has an obligation to bring about constructive change in the development of the organization and reflects the individual willingness of employees to proactively invest more resources to achieve organizational process improvement and development and thus make the organization better (Culbert, 1974; López-Domínguez et al., 2013). High constructive responsibility perception employees have a strong motivation to serve the organization’s development (Zhu & Akhtar, 2019), will try to overcome difficult problems, take the initiative to do more and contribute to the organization, and start all actions in the interest of the organization, which is conducive to the development of organizational change (Fuller et al., 2012). Organizational virtue refers to the moral traits presented by the organization as a whole (Bright et al., 2006), and consists of five main aspects namely optimism, trust, compassion, integrity, and forgiveness, which are considered to be the main motivators to further motivate the members of the organization to maintain internal dynamics (Cameron et al., 2004). Organizations with high organizational virtues create an inclusive work environment, which encourages employees to enhance the sharing of knowledge, information, and skills among each other, which promotes harmonious interpersonal relationships among members and makes employees realize their responsibility and mission as a member of the organization, and thus better contribute to the development of the organization (Wang & Kim, 2013). According to the social exchange theory, employees in an organizational virtue situation perceive the care and sincerity brought by the organization, and based on the principle of reciprocity, they will consider organizational development as their own responsibility at work, take the initiative to bear the burden of the organization, and deeply realize that they should do what is right for organizational change and development, which will lead to a strong sense of constructive responsibility (Wu et al., 2006). In addition, an organization in an organizational virtue context is tolerant of its employees and does not impose serious costs on them for mistakes in their words or actions, which brings employees pleasure in their work and makes them feel fulfilled to do what is good for the organization and enhances their experience of constructive responsibility perceptions (Fuller et al., 2006). Therefore, this paper proposes the following hypothesis.
Hypothesis 2: Organizational virtue has a positive effect on the perception of constructive responsibility.
Constructive responsibility perception is an important psychological driver of employees’ constructive behavior (Fuller et al., 2012), and when employees realize that they have a strong sense of responsibility to the organization at work, they not only help to do well in their duties, but also look for other ways or means to improve organizational effectiveness (Yan et al., 2020). Employees with a high constructive sense of responsibility believe that they deserve to give themselves to the organization, and if they choose to “lie flat” in the organization, they will have a strong sense of guilt (Yang et al., 2016), see challenging and risky ideas as opportunities to improve their work, and are willing to take the risks associated with new ideas (Zhou & Qian, 2021). Empirical studies have shown that constructive responsibility perceptions can promote employees’ constructive ideas for corporate development as their outward expression (Liang, 2014), and constructive responsibility perceptions promote employees’ constructive behaviors (Yan & Hao, 2020). In summary, organizational virtue not only provides a cordial organizational context for employees to propose new ideas and perspectives, but also strengthens employees’ perceptions of organizational responsibility and mission through intra-organizational communication and exchange learning. According to the social exchange theory, employees get psychological support and career development opportunities from the organization, and will be more willing to give back to the organization and take up responsibilities beyond their work duties. With the further increase of constructive responsibility perception, employees will clarify the relationship between self-worth and organizational goals, and take the initiative to produce behaviors that break the existing pattern and facilitate the organization’s adaptation to the competitive environment. Therefore, this study expects that organizational virtues will enhance employees’ constructive responsibility perceptions and motivate employees’ advocacy behaviors. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed in this paper.
Hypothesis 3: Constructive responsibility perception plays a mediating role in the influence of organizational virtue on employees’ constructive behavior.
2.3. The Moderating Effect of Proactive Personality
Proactive personality refers to a unique personality trait that is relatively stable in individuals who are able to take the initiative to act positively and try to change things (Bateman & Crant, 1993). In general, individuals with proactive personality traits are good at grasping new opportunities, adopting appropriate ways and means to try to change the status quo, and achieving certain results through persistent efforts; on the contrary, individuals with low proactive personality traits are less sensitive to new opportunities, usually adopt a compromising attitude toward the reality of the organization, have difficulty in identifying opportunities and actively seeking changes, and remain in a state of passive acceptance (Seibert et al., 2001; Zhang et al., 2012). Existing research shows that employees with high proactive personality have a positive effect on changing their environment and seeking opportunities, which is conducive to better work outcomes (Horng et al., 2016); employees with high proactive personality respond to the changing and complex environment of the organization with a positive mindset and do not choose behaviors that are detrimental to the organization (Zhang et al., 2022). Therefore, employees with different levels of proactive personality react differently to the environment they are in, and employees with higher levels are more sensitive to the external environment and will engage in proactive behaviors (Su & Lin, 2018).
Based on the individual-situational interaction theory, individual traits and organizational situations are a complex and dynamic system, and a single individual or organizational factor cannot determine individual attitudes and behaviors, but only when they both interact with each other will they further influence individual perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors (Magnusson & Stattin, 1998). The present study suggests that proactive personality moderates the relationship between organizational virtues and constructive responsibility perceptions. Employees with a high proactive personality treat environmental changes more sensitively, actively and positively seek opportunities, and when they perceive a harmonious and inclusive organizational virtue situation from within the organization, they will put more effort in order to work and perceive themselves as having a greater role in influencing organizational responsibility, and will see the various work elements done for organizational development as their responsibility and duty (Zhang & Yang, 2017) and thus generate a stronger perception of constructive responsibility. In contrast, employees with low initiative personality will lack initiative, they will not actively make specific behaviors to change problems, and even in good organizational virtue situations, they will maintain a more restful, get-it-done state at work out of the instinct to avoid harm (Su & Lin, 2018), and they will only be responsible for things within the scope of their duties, and they will not be responsible for organizational duties outside of other things or new problems of organizational development are faced with a negative attitude, and they do not consider organizational development as their own responsibility and obligation, which in turn produces less constructive responsibility perceptions among employees. Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis.
Hypothesis 4: Employee proactive personality plays a moderating role in the positive relationship between organizational virtues and constructive responsibility perceptions. That is, the higher the employee’s proactive personality, the stronger the positive effect of organizational virtues on constructive responsibility perceptions; and vice versa, the weaker the positive effect.
Constructive perception of responsibility transmits the influence of organizational virtues on employees’ constructive behavior, but the magnitude of this influence is regulated by proactive personality. Organizational virtues create a good organizational context for employees, so that they see organizational development as their responsibility and duty based on the principle of reciprocity, help the organization improve its problems and adapt to the needs of the digital age, and thus generate positive behaviors for the benefit of the organization. Highly motivated employees understand the current needs of the organization and do what they can to advance the organization, while less motivated employees believe that doing their jobs is sufficient and are less likely to engage in extra-role positive behaviors to advance the organization. Therefore, we propose the mediating role with moderation hypothesis.
Hypothesis 5: Organizational virtue is mediated by proactive personality through constructive responsibility perceptions on employees’ constructive behaviors. That is, the higher the employee’s proactive personality, the stronger the mediating effect of constructive responsibility perception on the relationship between organizational virtue and employee’s constructive behavior (Figure 1).
3. Study Design
3.1. Sample Selection and Data Collection
This study used online research to obtain the sample data, and the selected research subjects were employees of state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and other enterprises and institutions, through two surveys across time, in April 2022 and June 2022, respectively. A total of 862 questionnaires were collected in the two surveys, of which 456 were collected for the first time and 406 for the second time. The second collection was based on the screening of the first 456 questionnaires, and contact information was kept for 406 valid questionnaires after eliminating invalid ones. The recovery rate of valid questionnaires was 76.6%. Among the 311 questionnaires, 50.80% were men and 49.20% were women; 58.20% were under 25 years old, 36.33% were 25 - 30 years old, and 5.47% were over 30 years old; 5.47% were educated in college and below, 67.85% in bachelor’s degree, and 26.69% in master’s degree and above; 44.05% were under 1 year of work experience, and 44.05% were under 1 year of work experience. 44.05%, 1 - 3 years 42.12%, 3 - 5 years 8.68%, more than 5 years 2.57%; state-owned enterprises accounted for 26.69%, private and foreign enterprises accounted for 42.13%, institutions accounted for 31.19%.
3.2. Variable Measurement
1) Organizational virtue uses a scale developed by Cameron et al. (2004), which includes 15 questions on five dimensions: optimism, trust, compassion, integrity, and tolerance, such as “We are optimistic that we will succeed, even if we encounter great challenges”, “Employees trust each other”, “Compassionate behavior is common”, “The company has a high sense of integrity”, “It is a tolerant and compassionate company”, etc. The Cronbach’s α values for each dimension were 0.865, 0.876, 0.850, 0.873 and 0.868, and the total Cronbach’s α value was 0.974.
2) Constructive responsibility perceptions were based on a five-item scale developed by Liang et al. (2012), such as “I have an obligation to express my own opinion to the organization”, with a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.930.
3) The 10-item scale developed by Liang et al. (2012), which includes two dimensions of facilitative and discouraging constructs, was used to measure employees’ constructs, such as “I will actively make suggestions that are beneficial to the organization’s development” and “I will discourage my colleagues from doing behaviors that are detrimental to job performance. I will discourage my colleagues from behaving in a way that is detrimental to their work performance”. The Cronbach’s alpha values for each dimension were 0.897 and 0.891, respectively, and the total Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.964.
4) Proactive personality was measured using a 10-item scale developed by Seibert et al., 2001, e.g., “I am always looking for new ways to improve my life.” The Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.950.
Define abbreviations and acronyms the first time they are used in the text, even after they have been defined in the abstract. Abbreviations such as IEEE, SI, MKS, CGS, sc, dc, and rms do not have to be defined. Do not use abbreviations in the title or heads unless they are unavoidable.
4. Empirical Analysis
4.1. Common Method Bias Test and Validation Factor Analysis
In this study, the Harman one-factor test was used to verify the common method bias, and the results showed that the unrotated first factor explained 39.084% of the variance (less than 40%), and there was no serious common method bias. In addition, validation factor analysis was performed using AMOS 24.0, and the results are shown in Table 1. Each fit index of the four-factor model was better than the other models and met the standard requirements, λ2/df = 2.705, RMSEA = 0.074, CFI = 0.908, IFI = 0.909, and TLI = 0.901. each variable had good discriminant validity.
4.2. Descriptive Statistics and Correlation Analysis
The means, standard deviations and correlation coefficients of the variables are shown in Table 2. organizational virtue was positively correlated with constructive responsibility perception (r = 0.214, p < 0.001), employee constructive behavior (r = 0.454, p < 0.001), proactive personality (r = 0.343, p < 0.001); constructive responsibility perception was positively correlated with employee constructive behavior (r = 0.243, p < 0.001), proactive personality (r = 0.253, p < 0.001) were positively correlated; employee constructive talk behavior was positively correlated with proactive personality (r = 0.252, p < 0.001). The correlations between the variables provide the prerequisites for the mediation analysis below.
4.3. Research Hypothesis Testing
From M1 in Table 3, it can be seen that organizational virtue positively acts on employee constructive responsibility behavior (β = 0.457, p < 0.001) and hypothesis 1 holds. According to M2, it is known that organizational virtue has a significant positive effect on constructive responsibility perception (β = 0.215, p < 0.001) and constructive responsibility perception has a positive effect on employee constructive talk behavior (β = 0.243, p < 0.001), and hypothesis 2 is verified.
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Table 1. Results of validation factor analysis.
Note: Single-factor model: organizational virtue + constructive responsibility perception + employee constructive behavior + proactive personality; two-factor model: organizational virtue, constructive responsibility perception employee constructive behavior + proactive personality; three-factor model: organizational virtue, constructive responsibility perception, employee constructive behavior + proactive personality; four-factor model: organizational virtue, constructive responsibility perception, employee constructive behavior, proactive personality (This table is from the author).
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Table 2. Results of descriptive statistics and correlation analysis of variables.
Note: N = 311; ***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05 (This table is from the author).
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Table 3. Stratified regression results of mediation and moderating effects.
Note: N = 311; ***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05 (This table is from the author).
Meanwhile, organizational virtue and constructive responsibility perception were put into the regression analysis, and it can be seen from M5 that the coefficient of the effect of organizational virtue on employees’ constructive behavior decreased from 0.457 to 0.424, and constructive responsibility perception played a partial mediating role between organizational virtue and employees’ constructive behavior, and hypothesis 3 was verified. In addition, Bootstrap was used to further test the mediating effect, as shown in Table 4, the value of the mediating effect of constructive responsibility perception is 0.030 with 95% confidence interval [0.008, 0.061], which does not contain 0. This indicates that the mediating effect is significant and hypothesis 3 is valid.
To verify the moderating role of proactive personality between organizational virtue and constructive responsibility perceptions, first put in will organizational virtue, proactive personality, and test the effect on constructive responsibility perceptions, and then put in the interaction of organizational virtue and proactive personality. The results are shown in Table 3 (M3), and hypothesis 4 is supported by the positive moderating effect of proactive personality between organizational virtues and constructive responsibility perceptions (β = 0.626, p < 0.001)). In order to visualize the moderating role of proactive personality, this paper draws a moderating role diagram based on the suggestion of Aiken and West (1991). Figure 2 shows that the higher the employee’s proactive personality, the stronger the positive relationship between organizational virtue on constructive responsibility perceptions.
Bootstrap was used to test the mediated effect with moderation, and the results are shown in Table 5. When proactive personality was high, the mediated effect value for constructive responsibility perception was 0.126 with a 95% confidence interval of [0.045, 0.217], which did not contain 0. When proactive personality was low, the mediated effect value for constructive responsibility perception was −0.058 with a 95% confidence interval of [−0.101, −0.021], which does not contain 0. This indicates that the mediating effect of being moderated is significant and hypothesis 5 holds.
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Table 4. The mediating role of constructive responsibility perceptions in the relationship between organizational virtue and employee constructive behavior.
Note: This table is from the author.
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Table 5. Mediating effects at different levels of the moderating variables and their 95% confidence intervals.
Note: This table is from the author.
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Figure 2. The moderating role of proactive personality in the relationship between organizational virtue and constructive responsibility perception. Note: This figure table is from the author.
5. Study Results and Discussion
The study concludes that 1) organizational virtues can positively influence employees’ constructive behaviors. The characteristics of optimism, integrity, trust, compassion and tolerance presented by organizational virtues create a more relaxed and trustworthy atmosphere for employees, which provides a harmonious environment for the generation of employees’ constructive behaviors and enables employees to integrate their self-worth with organizational values and believe that their own behaviors are beneficial to their career development and organizational development, and are more likely to generate more constructive behaviors for the benefit of the organization; 2) Organizational virtue positively influences employees’ perceptions of responsibility through the mediation of constructive responsibility. Organizational virtues can enhance employees’ constructive responsibility perceptions and thus improve employees’ constructive behaviors. Organizational virtues, as a good organizational context, can make employees better engaged in their work, and better interpersonal relationships can enhance employees’ identification with organizational values, which can implicitly influence employees’ attitudes and behaviors and make employees enhance their sense of responsibility for their work. Employees with a strong constructive responsibility perception are more alert and sensitive to the internal and external environment of the organization, and can easily obtain elements that are beneficial to themselves and the organization; 3) The higher the degree of employees’ proactive personality, the more obvious the effect of organizational virtue on employees’ constructive responsibility perception. Employees with high proactive personality are more likely to be influenced by the organization’s positive situation, which is conducive to the organization to better cultivating and promoting the occurrence of constructive responsibility perception ability of employees, and then enabling them to obtain more personal and organizational information in their work and produce behaviors that are beneficial to the development of the organization.
5.1. Theoretical Significance
1) Most current research on employee constructive behavior focuses on leadership style and other aspects, and fewer studies have focused on the effect of organizational virtue on it. This study verifies the positive effect of organizational virtue on employees’ constructive behavior, fills the gap in the research on organizational virtue and employees’ constructive behavior, enriches the antecedent variables on constructive behavior in organizational context, and again verifies the influence of organizational virtue on employees’ constructive behavior.
2) This study investigated the influence of organizational virtue on employees’ constructive behavior through the mediating role of constructive responsibility perception. The study shows that organizational virtue can facilitate employees’ constructive talk behavior by enhancing constructive responsibility perceptions. This study opens the “black box” of organizational virtue and constructive responsibility perceptions, broadens the theoretical study of constructive responsibility perceptions, and enriches the study of social exchange and individual-situational interaction theory.
3) This study further explores the boundary conditions of employees’ constructive behavior by considering proactive personality as a moderating effect. Proactive personality significantly moderated the positive relationship between organizational virtue and constructive responsibility perceptions, i.e., the higher the employee’s proactive personality, the stronger the positive effect of organizational virtue on constructive responsibility perceptions. In addition, proactive personality moderates the path of organizational virtues → constructive responsibility perceptions → employees’ constructive behaviors.
5.2. Management Insights
Enterprises should incorporate organizational virtue into their daily management, increase the construction and cultivation of organizational virtue, guide employees to produce virtuous behavior by formulating and improving relevant systems that support virtuous behavior, cultivate organizational virtue from shallow to deep, and form a good organizational culture atmosphere that values social benefits and fulfills social responsibilities. In addition, managers should also widely publicize organizational virtuous culture and philosophy, advocate that managers should maintain a good working style of frank trust and mutual collaboration between superiors and subordinates, and regularly carry out special actions to care for the organization’s employees, so as to better provide a good organizational context for promoting employees’ constructive behavior and further create potential conditions for the enhancement of the organization’s competitive advantage.
Enterprises should strengthen the cultivation of constructive responsibility perception of employees, managers should establish the awareness of responsibility to take the initiative to undertake organizational development changes, and express the expectation for employees to actively take responsibility for organizational development in employee interactions to encourage and promote employees to enhance constructive responsibility perception. In addition, in human resource management activities, organizations can also stimulate constructive responsibility perception by communicating the organization’s strategies and goals to employees, clarifying the responsibilities and assessment contents of employee positions, strengthening training on job skills, enhancing employees’ expectations of their job roles, and making employees aware of the importance of their jobs to the organization, so as to promote employees’ constructive responsibility behavior.
Enterprises in practice of high initiative personality employees are usually able to take the initiative to put forward new views, break the silent scene in the organization, will influence other colleagues through their own behavior, can make more beneficial to the organization’s words and actions, and this personality trait once formed in the short term is difficult to change. Therefore, companies should increase the measurement of personality traits of candidates in the human resources recruitment process, and screen employees with matching job characteristics to ensure that they can play a corresponding personality advantage in the relevant positions, especially in innovative positions, and give priority to employees with high initiative personality in positions that involve important organizational change decisions.
5.3. Research Limitations and Perspectives
This study did not focus on a specific industry, and future research could further expand the sample selection. In addition, constructive responsibility perception mediates the relationship between organizational virtues and employees’ constructive behaviors in this study, but there are still other mechanisms. In addition, this study introduces proactive personality as a moderating variable to explore the role of boundaries, and future research can clarify the influence of organizational virtues on employees’ constructive behaviors from different leadership styles.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Zhu Fuyun, for her help in my research studies. I also thank Ms. Chen Xiaotun for giving me many feasible suggestions during my research, which played an important role in the improvement of my thesis. I would also like to thank my friends who participated in the research study for their strong support of my research project and my family for supporting me every step of the way.