What motivates leaders to engage in strategic renewal behavior? Examining effects of career development motive and strategy implementation motive

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine whether leaders' proactive personality leads them to pursue self-oriented career development and organization-oriented strategy implementation motives, which in turn influences their strategic renewal behavior, with perceived career success acting as a boundary condition in this process. Design/methodology/approach This quantitative study examines the empirical data gathered from 13 business units of a Dutch private organization, involving 263 leaders and 1,296 direct reports. Findings Leaders’ proactive personality is associated with their strategic renewal behavior, and this relationship is mediated by their organization-oriented strategy implementation motive. Perceived career success moderates this relationship such that the negative relationship between self-oriented career development motive and strategic renewal behavior is stronger for leaders with high levels of perceived career success, while the positive relationship between organization-oriented strategy implementation motive and strategic renewal behavior is stronger for leaders with low levels of perceived career success. Research limitations/implications These findings highlight that leaders' proactive personality does not uniformly translate into strategic renewal behaviors but is shaped by their motives and career perceptions. Originality/value This study contributes to leadership and organizational change research by revealing why and when leaders’ strategic renewal behavior is driven by self-oriented and organization-oriented motives, which is an area with limited prior exploration.