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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between a challenging dimension of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and self-regulatory focus in an academic work setting. Job performance indicators were included to assess the nomological validity of regulatory focus measures.

Data were collected using a questionnaire conducted with 251 Spanish academic workers. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results reveal the existence of positive relationships between promotion focus and two of the outcomes: change-oriented OCB and research-oriented performance-enhancement intention. On the other hand, prevention focus had only a significant relationship with teacher-oriented performance-enhancement intention.

The limitations of this research are twofold: on the one hand, further research should overcome the methodological limitations related with data gathering, looking for third-party measures of performance and favoring longitudinal data collection designs. On the other hand, more research is needed on the malleability of regulatory focus, defining models when prevention and promotion focus act as mediating variables.

Individuals with high levels of promotion focus will put their efforts on the tasks which are more valued in the processes of tenure, promotion and compensation. On the other hand, individuals with high levels of prevention focus will tend to meet the minimum of requirements and accomplish salient job duties. That can be taken into account when defining human resource policies, giving a high weight in the assessment of tenure and promotion programs to the tasks where the organization wants their promotion focus individuals to center their attention.

This paper is one of the first efforts of validating the Regulatory Focus at Work Scale in organizational and academic contexts different from the initial validation study. The study also contributes to research on the antecedents of change-oriented OCBs, and defines new measures of intentions to perform in specific working activities.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relation between the underlying dimensions of protean (self-direction and values driven) and boundaryless (boundaryless mindset and organizational mobility preference (OMP)) career attitudes (Briscoe et al., 2006) and organizational commitment, within today's unstable and uncertain business scenario.

Data were collected from 167 professionals attending graduate and postgraduate distance learning courses. The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis.

Research results suggest that protean career attitudes contribute significantly to individuals’ emotional attachment to their employing organization. Furthermore, OMP was found to be significant in predicting both affective and continuance commitment.

First, cross-sectional correlational designs impede conclusive inferences regarding causal relationships among the variables. Second, the use of a sample of professionals attending distance learning business courses could limit the generalizability of the study findings, because the majority of the respondents were homogenous in terms of age and educational background.

Fostering individuals’ self-direction results in enhanced affective commitment to their employing organizations. Workshops oriented at clarifying and communicating organizational values, philosophy and principles can be all beneficial for strengthening employees’ commitment to the organization.

This is the first paper to test the relationship between boundaryless and protean career attitudes and organizational commitment on a European sample.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of gender upon the relation between protean and boundaryless career attitudes and subjective career success, in today's dynamic and changing organizational context.

Data were collected using a questionnaire conducted on 150 graduate and post‐graduate distance learning students. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The analysis indicates that women's career success is positively related with self‐direction and negatively related with their reliance on their own values. Furthermore, the authors found a negative relation between organizational mobility preference and men's subjective career success.

A potential limitation of this study is that all participants were distance‐learning students, thus limiting the generalizability of the findings to other populations. Furthermore, cross‐sectional designs do not permit drawing conclusions regarding the causal direction.

Organizations should transform work structures and human resources policies and provide career models that allow women flexibility and more control over their work. Research results show that values‐driven predisposition may lead to low levels of perceived career success. This indirectly suggests that individuals experience intrinsic career success when their values are consistent with organizational values, and therefore they should seek work opportunities in organizations whose aim, scope, and philosophy is consistent with their ideals.

This is the first paper to shed light on gender's impact upon the relationship between protean and boundaryless career attitudes and subjective career success, in a context in which there have been calls in literature for more career research taking into account gender differences.