How Smart is This Working? Traces of Proactivity in the Italian Experience During Covid-19

The purpose of this study is to analyse the adoption of proactive behaviours by smart workers and the role played by the remote support provided to employees in encouraging such behaviours during the COVID-19 lockdown. In detail, it aims at examining how two dimensions of proactivity, responsibility and self-regulation, can be fostered by the support from superiors, co-workers, and organisation. These topics are present in the debate on smart working (SW) among scholars and practitioners in the fields of human resource management and organisational behaviour and have assumed greater significance due to the sudden and unplanned switch to SW during the lockdown. A survey was carried out on a sample of 254 employees in Italy in May 2020. The findings demonstrate the importance of support from organisation and co-workers in encouraging proactive behaviours, as well as the positive role that such support, in turn, plays in reinforcing support from superiors.