Harnessing the Wisdom of Experience: Age, Grit and Alchemy of Transforming Negative Emotions into Proactive Action

Abstract

Purpose: The significance of positive feelings is the main emphasis of current emotion research; however, as organizational contexts have changed, discrete behaviors have also changed, which means the emotional foundation of behaviors is changing as well. Different emotions elicit different sorts of behavioral responses. Researchers are becoming increasingly interested in emotional control and interpersonal emotional management. Based on Socio emotional Selectivity Theory (SST) and Conservation of Resource (COR) theory this research study proposed that employee negative emotions of anger and fear predict proactive behaviors depending upon one’s age and levels of grit.

Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional survey data of 668 employees shows that anger and fear relate positively with proactive employee behaviors.

Findings: Results show that aging employees have a greater tendency to behave proactively as compared to younger employees. Moreover, grit enhances the ability and motivation of an individual to behave proactively.

Originality/Value: This study is the first which discusses the importance of age and grit in controlling negative emotions. This study contributes theoretically which proves that anger and fear leads to proactive behaviors, by showing how age and grit play their role in converting negative emotions into positive behavioral reactions.