Does Taking Charge Help or Harm Employees' Promotability and Visibility? An Investigation From Supervisors' Status Perspective

Taking charge is an important form of proactive behavior that sustains organizational survival and success. Despite considerable research on how to encourage employees to take charge, little is known about whether and when supervisors will evaluate those who take charge as more or less promotable and visible. Building on and extending the theoretical notion of dyadic complementary fit, we propose that, compared with lower status-goal-striving supervisors, higher status-goal-striving supervisors regard those who take charge as helping enhance their status in the organization more (i.e., a dyadic fit condition) and subsequently evaluate these employees as more promotable and visible. In a vignette-based experiment using 175 U.S.-based supervisors (Study 1), a two-wave field survey among 143 supervisor-subordinate dyads in a hotel (Study 2), and a three-wave survey among 294 supervisor-subordinate dyads in various organizations and industries in China (Study 3), we find support for our predictions. The findings have important implications for proactivity theory and practice.