The Effects Of Proactive Personality On Job Performance: The Mediation Of Supervisor-subordinate Guanxi

With the continuous development of the modern enterprises,organizations have higher and higher expectations on staff’s proactivepersonality. A lot of research in western countries shows that employees whohave proactive personality would obtain higher evaluation on workperformance from their supervisors. In order to further understand howproactive personality affects staff work performance in Chinese enterprises,we did a research of its mediation in supervisor-subordinate guanxi. Weassume that employee who has proactive personality will develop guanxiwith his/her supervisor at a higher level and therefore receives a betterappraisal score.According to the statistical analysis to the survey data received from281pairs of supervisor-subordinate in Chinese enterprises, we found:(1) peoplewith proactive personality positively affect work performance given bysupervisor and the guanxi with supervisor (2) supervisor-subordinate guanxiis the mediation of work performance that employee with proactivepersonality received from supervisor. This result verified our hypothesis.The result of this research has important signification for humanresource management of Chinese enterprises. Firstly, companies shouldselect those people with proactive personality in the recruitment process. Secondly, companies should build up a positive working atmosphere toencourage communication between supervisors and subordinates with theview to resulting in better personal development and self-realization.