Proactive personality enhances change in employees’ job satisfaction: The moderating role of psychological safety

Research has suggested that employees who possess a proactive personality have greater job satisfaction. However, contextual factors that may serve as boundary conditions have received insufficient attention in the research. Accordingly, this study proposed psychological safety as a moderator in the positive relationship between proactive personality and job satisfaction. We recruited 207 employees to complete a two-wave panel survey that was conducted over 3 months. When job satisfaction was controlled for at Time 1, this study found that having a proactive personality was positively associated with changes in job satisfaction over time. Furthermore, the relationship between proactive personality and changes in job satisfaction was strengthened when psychological safety was low. The implications and applications are discussed. JEL classification: I31, J28, L83, L84.