{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T04:25:31Z","timestamp":1778214331061,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,23]],"date-time":"2025-06-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1750636800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Philosophy and Social Science Fund (Key Project)","award":["24AGL029"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["24AGL029"]}]},{"name":"National Philosophy and Social Science Fund (Key Project)","award":["CIA240290"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CIA240290"]}]},{"name":"National Philosophy and Social Science Fund (Key Project)","award":["DIA240372"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DIA240372"]}]},{"name":"National Philosophy and Social Science Fund (Young Project)","award":["24AGL029"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["24AGL029"]}]},{"name":"National Philosophy and Social Science Fund (Young Project)","award":["CIA240290"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CIA240290"]}]},{"name":"National Philosophy and Social Science Fund (Young Project)","award":["DIA240372"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DIA240372"]}]},{"name":"National Education Science Planning Project (Key project of the Ministry of Education)","award":["24AGL029"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["24AGL029"]}]},{"name":"National Education Science Planning Project (Key project of the Ministry of Education)","award":["CIA240290"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CIA240290"]}]},{"name":"National Education Science Planning Project (Key project of the Ministry of Education)","award":["DIA240372"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DIA240372"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Systems"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In practice, the new generation of knowledge-based employees often exhibits a \u201clying flat\u201d attitude. This reflects the failure of organizational incentive mechanisms. In order to improve the incentive system and encourage employees to be proactive, the study explores and compares the synergistic effects of different rewards tools on various forms of proactive behavior in the new generation of knowledge employees. After conducting fsQCA and NCA analyses on paired data from 93 leaders and 210 employees based on the ERG theory, the findings indicate that no single reward tool is a necessary condition for triggering high proactive behavior. Instead, different reward tools need to work in synergy to produce effective motivation. Three patterns drive employees to exhibit high individual task proactivity. They are the \u201cDual-Drive Salary Security and Moderate Labor Dominant\u201d pattern, the \u201cModerate Labor Dominant\u201d pattern, and the \u201cSalary Security Dominant\u201d pattern. Two patterns drive employees to demonstrate high team member proactivity, namely the \u201cEmployee Care Dominant High-Investment\u201d pattern and the \u201cPay Fairness Dominant High-Investment\u201d pattern. Additionally, good work experience (i.e., colleague relationships) in the workplace has a significant impact on both types of proactive behavior. The research conclusions will provide insights and references for enterprise managers to design more targeted compensation incentive policies and unleash the vitality of the new generation of knowledgeable employees.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/systems13070500","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,23]],"date-time":"2025-06-23T07:42:34Z","timestamp":1750664554000},"page":"500","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Synergistic Rewards for Proactive Behaviors: A Study on the Differentiated Incentive Mechanism for a New Generation of Knowledge Employees Using Mixed fsQCA and NCA Analysis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-5384-9355","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jie","family":"Zhou","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of International Trade, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan 030006, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Junqing","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business Administration, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan 030006, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4465-6792","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bonoua","family":"Faye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Administration and Law, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"102777","article-title":"The key role of innovation and organizational resilience in improving business performance: A mixed-methods approach","volume":"77","year":"2024","journal-title":"Int. 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