Introduction
This study challenges the dominant assumption that proactive behavior within teams emerges through a convergent process characterized by increasing behavioral similarity. Conversely, we argue that convergence fails to capture the complexity of how team proactivity unfolds over time and across contexts. Grounded in multilevel theory, we propose that team proactivity follows a divergent, compilational pattern, emerging from contextually embedded and interaction-driven dynamics among team members.
Purpose
This research advances a configural and process-oriented understanding of team proactivity. Drawing on critiques of compositional emergence models, we conceptualize team proactivity as a dynamic configuration of individual behaviors that vary over time, rather than as a uniform and isomorphic team trait. Divergence thus reflects the differentiation of roles, motivations, and interaction patterns that evolve through interpersonal collaboration.
Method
We conducted two complementary studies. Study 1 examined field data from 267 employees nested within 45 work teams across 13 manufacturing firms, analyzing rWG and ICC values of Proactive Idea Implementation to assess whether team tenure predicts within-team dispersion in proactivity. Study 2 employed an agent-based model to simulate the emergence of team proactivity under varying team configurations, within-team heterogeneity in personality traits (dominant/submissive) and skills, and to identify micro-level mechanisms generating within-team individual proactivity divergence.
Results
Results from Study 1 indicate that greater team tenure is associated with increased within-team dispersion in proactivity, suggesting that repeated interaction may foster divergence rather than convergence in proactive behavior. Study 2's simulations confirm this empirical pattern, revealing that heterogeneity in individual attributes can produce multiple, equifinal pathways to team proactivity.
Conclusions
Integrating field and computational evidence, we show that team proactivity emerges as an evolving, relational, and context-sensitive phenomenon. A configural, process-oriented perspective offers a more nuanced understanding of how heterogeneous forms of proactive behavior emerge and evolve over time, deepening theoretical insight and informing more adaptive practices in managing team-level emergence.