When is Taking Charge Depleting? Job Control and Self-Control Demands as Moderators in Daily Depletion Processes

During the past decades, organizational research has adopted a rather positive perspective on proactive behavior. However, scholars repeatedly suggested examining negative consequences of proactive behavior, such as taking charge. Following this suggestion, we examine perceptions of depletion at midday and at the end of work as negative consequences of morning and afternoon taking charge and test the role of job control and self-control demands as moderators in these within-day relationships. Multilevel path modeling of diary data from 136 employees (963 days) showed that afternoon taking charge was negatively related to depletion perceptions at the end of work. When daily job control was high, morning taking charge was negatively related to depletion perceptions at the end of work. However, when daily job control was low, morning taking charge was positively related to depletion perceptions at the end of work. A significant three-way interaction effect revealed that the relationship of morning taking charge with depletion at the end of work under conditions of low daily job control was more pronounced when daily self-control demands were high. Findings highlight the vitalizing potential of proactivity, but also put the general positive view on proactive behavior in perspective and point to its possible downsides.