Employee Entitlement and Proactive Work Behaviors: The Moderating Effects of Narcissism and Organizational Identification

Organizations are concerned that the newest generation of workers believe they are entitled to positive organizational outcomes, regardless of their level of effort. To better understand employee entitlement and organizational outcomes, we tested whether entitlement was directly related to the proactive work behaviors of voice and taking charge. We also examined whether narcissism and organizational identification moderated these relationships. Results suggest that entitlement is not directly related to either of the proactive work behaviors examined. However, support was found for a model where narcissism moderated the relationship between entitlement and taking charge behaviors. Low narcissism employees are less likely to exhibit taking charge behaviors when they report low levels of entitlement. When employees are high in narcissism, low entitlement employees are actually more likely to take charge than employees high in entitlement. Organizational identification was also found to moderate the relationship between entitlement and voice as well as between entitlement and taking charge. Highly entitled individuals will engage in more voice and taking charge when they demonstrate high levels of organizational identification. Implications for research and practice are discussed.