Developing an Original Multi-Level Theory of Employee Proactive Behaviour in the Nigerian Organisational Context

Proactive employee behaviour, encompassing voice, taking charge, and career initiative, is a critical driver of individual and organisational performance, yet its theoretical determinants in the Nigerian cultural and organisational context differ from those identified in Western research, creating a gap that this study addresses through original multi-level theory development. This study develops an original Multi-Level Proactivity Theory for Nigerian Organisations (MPTNO), integrating self-determination theory, conservation of resources theory, and cultural-institutional theory to explain how individual psychological resources, team-level social dynamics, and organisation-level cultural norms jointly determine proactive behaviour in Nigerian workplaces. Theory development combines systematic review of 160 proactivity studies with a multi-phase grounded theory study involving 60 semi-structured interviews with employees and managers across manufacturing, banking, and public sector organisations in Lagos, Kano, and Enugu. The grounded theory generates original theoretical constructs including Hierarchical Deference Inhibition (the dampening effect of strong power distance cultural norms on proactive voice behaviour), Communal Safety Buffer (the role of strong peer community support in enabling proactive risk-taking), and Patronage Capital Substitution (the way access to patronage networks substitutes for formal merit-based career initiative pathways in some organisational contexts). The MPTNO is empirically tested using a multi-level survey of 1,200 employees nested in 60 work units across 12 organisations, with hierarchical linear modelling employed. Results confirm the significance of all three original constructs in predicting proactive behaviour dimensions. The study constitutes a theoretically original contribution to the proactivity literature that is culturally contextualised for the Nigerian and broader sub-Saharan African organisational environment.

Keywords: proactive behaviour, multi-level theory, Nigerian organisations, cultural context, hierarchical linear modelling