184 Chapter 7 A second limitation is that I relied on self-reports in many of the studies included in this dissertation. Even though I used the Remote Associates Test to measure creative performance in Chapter 2, a brainstorm task and supervisor ratings to measure creative performance in Chapter 5, and days missed at work due to illness (i.e., absenteeism) in Chapter 6, this was not feasible in all studies. However, self-reports have important advantages too. For example, they allow for the measurement of psychological or internal experiences that are not feasible to measure more objectively, as individuals are sometimes the only ones able to observe their own thoughts and behaviors. Moreover, other-ratings are often based on general impressions of the focal employee, and may sometimes lack accuracy, especially on a daily basis. Furthermore, one of the main disadvantages of self-reports is the risk of socially desirable responses, which is diminished when examining within-person variation in longitudinal designs. With regards to proactive vitality management, it may almost be inevitable to use a selfreported measurement, as many of the behaviors that fall under proactive vitality management may be too small or out of sight from others to be noticed and reported on by others. However, adding to the self-report limitation, the question remains whether people are actually accurate in assessing their own (effective) proactive vitality management behaviors. Future research may aim to find ways to more objectively measure proactive vitality management. For example, by asking people for specific, textual diary entries in which they elaborate on their proactive vitality management strategizing and behaviors, and subsequently analyzing and coding these textual entries. Moreover, future studies may aim to incorporate objective measures of other surrounding factors or potential outcome variables, such as absenteeism, turnover, profit, client satisfaction, promotions, patents, or products sold. Third, even though this dissertation includes eight empirical studies that together show a robust pattern of results, more research is needed to more thoroughly support external validity. For example, most studies included in this dissertation involved heterogeneous working samples. With the exception of the creative industry (Chapter 5), the studies did not focus on other specific sectors or occupations. For example, it may be interesting to explore the role of proactive vitality management in physically demanding occupations. Physical activity at work has been shown to impair physical health and relate to burnout, while ‘off-job’ physical activity, in contrast, promotes physical and mental health (i.e., ‘the physical activity paradox’; Coenen et al., 2020;
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