TY - JOUR

T1 - The concept of personal initiative

T2 - Operationalization, reliability and validity in two German samples

AU - Frese, Michael

AU - Fay, Doris

AU - Hilburger, Tanja

AU - Leng, Karena

AU - Tag, Almut

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to gratefully acknowledge the Duke Division of Laboratory Animal Resources staff and the expert assistance of Dr. Kyha Williams and Dr. Felicita Smith for animal care. We also would like to acknowledge the Substrate Services Core Research Support for a weekly viral monitoring and histology support by Dr. Mingqing Song.

PY - 1997/6/1

Y1 - 1997/6/1

N2 - Personal initiative is conceptualized as a behavioural syndrome made up of several factors. It is important for organizational effectiveness and is one aspect of 'contextual performance'. The construct validity of a set of interview-and questionnaire-based scales for measuring initiative was ascertained in interrelated studies (two waves from a longitudinal study in East Germany [N = 543] and a cross-sectional study in West Germany [N = 160]). As hypothesized, initiative correlated with partners' assessments, need for achievement, action orientation, problem-focused and passive emotion-focused coping, career planning and executing plans, but not with job satisfaction. Higher initiative existed in small-scale entrepreneurs in the East and in those unemployed who got a job more quickly.

AB - Personal initiative is conceptualized as a behavioural syndrome made up of several factors. It is important for organizational effectiveness and is one aspect of 'contextual performance'. The construct validity of a set of interview-and questionnaire-based scales for measuring initiative was ascertained in interrelated studies (two waves from a longitudinal study in East Germany [N = 543] and a cross-sectional study in West Germany [N = 160]). As hypothesized, initiative correlated with partners' assessments, need for achievement, action orientation, problem-focused and passive emotion-focused coping, career planning and executing plans, but not with job satisfaction. Higher initiative existed in small-scale entrepreneurs in the East and in those unemployed who got a job more quickly.

KW - Business psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0031507891&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/j.2044-8325.1997.tb00639.x

DO - 10.1111/j.2044-8325.1997.tb00639.x

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:0031507891

VL - 70

SP - 139

EP - 161

JO - Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology

JF - Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology

SN - 0963-1798

IS - 2

ER -