Burnout and counterproductive academic behavior - The role of academic climate and proactive personality

Proactive personality has been researched mostly within the professional environment, and in connection with mostly positive outcomes. However, there is a need to explore it within the academic context, in relation to undesirable outcomes. The study explores the relationship between proactive personality and negative academic outcomes, specifically academic burnout and counterproductive academic behavior, and examines the moderating role of academic climate quality. Using an online questionnaire, data were collected from 406 students (75% female) at the University of Zagreb. The instruments included the Proactive Personality Scale, the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, the Counterproductive Academic Behavior Questionnaire, and the Quality of Academic Climate Scale. A proactive personality was negatively correlated to dimensions of burnout, as well as to counterproductive academic behavior. Quality of academic climate moderated the relationship between proactive personality and exhaustion: under the circumstances of low quality of academic climate the more proactive students were also more prone to exhaustion, whereas the relationship was reverse when the quality of the climate was rated medium or high. Academic climate did not moderate the relationship between proactive personality and detachment, nor counterproductive academic behavior. These findings contribute to the body of research of proactive personality within various circumstances, and their practical value lies in the importance of both proactive personality and academic climate for negative academic outcomes.