Calling and employees’ proactive behavior: the mediating role of goal commitment and moderating role of psychological resilience

Calling plays a significant role in fostering employees’ career and life success. However, the existing literature has predominantly centered on the psychological benefits of calling, paying scant attention to its relationship with proactive behaviors. Drawing on goal-setting theory, this study examines the link between employees’ calling and proactive behavior, with goal commitment as a mediator and psychological resilience as a moderator. Analysis of three-wave survey data from 243 employees revealed that employees’ calling had a positive relationship with proactive behavior through goal commitment. Psychological resilience was found to strengthen both the positive relationship between goal commitment and proactive behavior and the indirect relationship between calling and proactive behavior. This study advances the calling literature by unveiling the motivational mechanism of how calling can lead to proactive behaviors. This study provides organizations with insight into fostering employee proactivity by inspiring calling and developing psychological resilience.