Wise Moves at Work: Initial Validation of the Dutch Wise Proactivity Scale Among Elderly Care Employees

ABSTRACT Wise proactivity refers to employees' change‐oriented initiative guided by practical judgment, balancing situational demands (context), stakeholder relationships (others), and self‐regulation (self). Although the recently developed Wise Proactivity Scale (WPS) has shown validity across countries, evidence for its applicability in Western European contexts remains limited. This study adapted and validated the short‐form WPS in the Netherlands and examined its factorial, discriminant, and incremental validity. To evaluate the psychometric properties and validity of the modified Dutch version of the short‐form WPS, a forward‐backward translation procedure and expert review were conducted, and data were collected from a sample of 184 Dutch employees working in elderly care. Wise proactivity was assessed alongside related self‐regulatory resources (self‐leadership, reflective ability, and resilience) and outcomes including job satisfaction and employability. Results supported the hypothesized higher‐order structure, with three first‐order dimensions (context, others, and self) loading onto a single overarching wise proactivity factor, supporting construct validity. The modified Dutch version of the short‐form WPS demonstrated discriminant validity from related constructs and incremental validity by explaining additional variance in job satisfaction and employability beyond demographics and the self‐regulatory resources. These findings provide initial evidence supporting the psychometric properties of the modified Dutch version of the short‐form WPS in a sample of Dutch elderly care employees.