PROACTIVE VERSUS REACTIVE MANAGER: IS THE DICHOTOMY REALISTIC?

Abstract

The terms proactive and reactive are frequently used to describe managers. This paper examines the proactive‐reactive behaviour patterns of 16 top‐level managers and compares their behaviour patterns with conceptual views from the literature. The usefulness of the proactive‐reactive dichotomy is evaluated and issues are raised concerning the proactive‐reactive label. It is concluded that the dichotomy is overly simplistic for describing complex managerial behaviour and a more complex model is proposed for examining the proactive dimension.