The Affective Component of Future Work Self. How Positive Emotions Enhance Proactive Behaviors

Future work selves (FWSs; Strauss et al., 2012), cognitive representations of work-related hopes and aspirations, have been widely acknowledged as a key antecedent of career proactivity. Research to date has primarily focused on the extent to which FWSs are salient, i.e., clear and easy to imagine, and proposed that salient FWSs motivate behavior by creating discrepancies between current and desired states. In this paper, we focus on the previously overlooked role of affect in imagining the FWS and its motivational potential. Drawing on neuroscience research on episodic prospection, we argue that FWSs allow individuals to attain a psychological state characterized by positive emotions, to the extent to which they are able to vividly “pre-experience” this self-projection in the present. Using broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001), we propose that, beyond the effects of salience, the positive affect associated with envisioning the FWS fosters career planning which in turn enhances proactive career behavior. Positive affect enhances proactive behavior by energizing individuals, fostering creativity, and supporting sustained motivation toward challenging, future-oriented goals. We tested our hypotheses in a three-wave study in a master students sample (N = 117) in a personal development programme. At T1, we collected personality data (i.e., neuroticism). Two weeks later, participants described a daily life scenario of their ideal future. A few days later, at T2, we measured positive affect during the experience of envisioning the FWS. Career planning and proactive career behavior were assessed twelve weeks later, at T3. Controlling for FWS salience and neuroticism, higher levels of positive affect in envisioning the FWS were significantly associated with proactive behaviors. Specifically, we found an indirect effect of positive affect on proactive career behaviors via career planning. Overall, this study advances the literature on FWS by highlighting positive affect as an additional mechanism for its effects on proactive career behavior.