Managers have fundamental responsibilities such as decision-making, representation, bridging the gap between the external and internal environments, and crisis management. They must perform these duties based on the organization's objectives and strategic goals. Although they are expected to demonstrate a visionary approach in their work, their past experiences and the organization's culture influence them while performing their daily routine tasks. When discussing management approaches, the literature includes studies on the goal orientation of managers who exhibit proactive work behavior, the necessity of being proactive, and the success of proactivity in crisis management. However, there are also studies showing that reactive behavior can lead to success in some situations.

Within the framework of the relevant literature, this study discusses whether proactivity, reactivity, and the use of these two approaches as concepts to be preferred “instead” of each other in management are intertwined and complementary approaches. By questioning whether managers' reactive behaviors could be seen as strategic work behaviors that serve proactivity, recommendations are offered to managers in the digital, rapidly changing business world, where they must be prepared for crises at any moment.