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This study addresses a central research question: Does employees' personal initiative, with a benevolent political will, lead to career growth prospects in a work environment replete with perceived organizational politics? Drawing upon self-determination, signalling, and social cognitive theories, the authors examine how perceptions of organizational politics operate to limit the influence of benevolent political will – induced personal initiative on career growth prospects.

This research adopts a quantitative research design. This multi-wave, multi-sample and multi-source investigation includes 730 subordinate-supervisor dyads from India's information technology, education and manufacturing companies. The sample comprises 236 full-time faculty members from higher educational institutions and 496 mid-level managers from technical and service departments of information technology and manufacturing companies.

The results indicate that benevolent political will is significantly related to career growth prospects. In addition, perceptions of organizational politics shows a crossover interaction effect. The findings reveal that the indirect relationship between benevolent political will and career growth prospects changed significantly from those with a low perception of organizational politics to significantly negative among those perceiving organizational politics as high.

This study provides several implications for practice regarding personal initiative, benevolent political will and perceptions of organizational politics.

The significant contributions of this study are to provide new insights into the relationship between benevolent political will and career growth prospects and to unravel the paradoxical nature of the personal initiative phenomenon.

Based on the self-determination and affective events theories, the current research examined the mediating role of occupational self-efficacy (OSE) between individualized consideration transformational leadership (ICTL) and affective commitment relationship. Furthermore, this study tests the moderating role of personal growth initiative on the relationship between ICTL and OSE.

To examine the relationship, the authors carried out a time-lagged study spanning over four months for analyzing the indirect effect of ICTL on affective commitment via OSE among 382 Generation Y employees working in Indian IT (information technology) organizations. Results were analyzed using Process macro.

The study results revealed that OSE significantly mediated the relationship between ICTL and affective commitment. It was also established that the positive relationship between ICTL and OSE was stronger among employees who perceived higher levels of personal growth initiative.

The findings carry substantial implications for researchers and organizational practitioners. Indeed, the results indicate that human resource management practitioners are required to nurture an ICTL approach for boosting employees' affective commitment levels.

The study proposed a model focusing on the role of ICTL in enhancing employees' OSE and affective commitment. Also, the study contributes to existent research by demonstrating the role of personal growth initiative in understanding the relationship between ICTL and OSE. Moreover, this study provides theoretical and practical implications.

The present study intends to explore the underlying mechanism of the effect of personal growth initiative on employee engagement and intention to leave, in the presence of openness to experience and neuroticism as mediating variables. Support from conservation of resource theory and action regulation theory were taken to study the variables.

A time span of four months was taken to collect data from 382 employees belonging to hotel industry of Delhi NCR region of India. Structure equation model and mediation analysis were used in the present study.

A positive association was found between personal growth initiative, engagement and openness to experience and a negative association was found between personal growth initiative, engagement, neuroticism and intention to leave. Openness to experience and neuroticism acted as partial mediators.

The researchers have collected the data only from service sector organizations. Hence, there is scope for a cross sectional, longitudinal and experimental intervention–based study to generalize the findings of the study. We also suggest to check the mediating effect of other constructs on the different aspects of well-being of employees at the workplace. Apart from it, if personal growth initiative among employees has a causal role to play for different outcomes, a meta-analysis based on the antecedents and consequences of personal growth initiative would be beneficial. It would further reveal many more insights and possible research themes.

Our results present significant practical implication for professionals engaged in day-to-day corporate affairs. As the managers at the workplace around the globe get heavily involved in decision making, and they are prone to observe negative information than the positive set of information, in the presence of both.

With the help of the study, society can be better conscious of literature related to personality, PGI and its outcome. This way, prospective professionals can understand the significance of personality along with PGI and harness their character accordingly. This would further contribute to prepare young professionals and also fill the supply demand skill gap in the industry and society at large. Any type of imbalance would harm the sustainability of the employment cycle in society.

Due to limited literature available in management research on the topic, the researchers of the presented study selected personal initiative as the foundation of personal growth initiative. It has been seen that despite extensive work and interest of researchers, there is a difference in the concept and practice of employee turnover intentions. It is believed that research on human physiology and psychology affect the understanding about organizational research.

The active and intentional involvement of a person in changing and developing as a person is a crucial and worth considering phenomenon that comes under the umbrella of positive psychology. There has been a previous study done on personal growth initiative (PGI) but that study did not explain whether this phenomenon exceeds in men or in women. Plus, previous studies were confined to college students only. This study aims to assess how gender influences PGI, to validate the psychometric properties of the PGI scale and to evaluate the relationship of PGI with mental well-being, career orientation and to examine whether this factor dominates in men or women and to critically validate at what age an individual starts initiating personal growth. The other main objective of the study is to work on the limitations and gaps left in previous studies on PGI by establishing a psychometrically reliable and valid scale/instrument.

To develop a scale, first, focus group discussions were conducted with six groups. Through random sampling, a sample of 50 men and 50 women were taken for the pilot study and N = 449 (156 men and 293 women) for the main study with ages ranging from 18 to 35 years were taken (M = 42.30, SD = 12.61). The study consisted of focus group discussions followed by thematic analysis and item pool generation which further followed the main study analysis. For the development of the scale, a theoretical basis along with focus group discussion was conducted to establish an item pool of 123 items. Afterward, 7 experts in the surroundings examined those 123 items to perform subject expert matter to establish content validity. Mixed method was used as a research method in which exploratory sequential design was used. Focus groups were used as a data collection technique. Random sampling is used to collect participants for study/methodology/approach – the study consisted of focus group discussions followed by thematic analysis and item pool generation which further followed the main study analysis. A 19 item five-point Likert-type scale is constructed for public administration on a sample of N = 449 (men = 156 and women = 293). Alpha reliability of the scale (0.83), Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) (0.88) and Bartlett’s, psychometric properties of study variables skewness (0.47), kurtosis (−0.17). Inter item correlation matrix, item-total correlation, Scree plotting, t-test (t = −1.90) and (p = 0.05) and linear regression analysis are analyzed on the data and items. This scale is kept parsimonious so that it could be understood by the general population as well.

A 19 item five-point Likert-type scale is constructed for public administration on a sample of N = 449 (men = 156 and women = 293). High Alpha reliability of the scale (a = 0.83), KMO (0.88) and Bartlett’s, psychometric properties of study variables skewness (0.47), kurtosis (−0.17). Inter item correlation matrix, Scree plotting, t-test (t = −1.90) and (p = 0.05) and linear regression analysis are analyzed on the data and items. Three factors i.e. effectiveness, shaping and aptitude were formed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). KMO value of 0.88 suggests that the sample is sufficient to perform EFA. Regression analysis suggests that gender is positively predicting PGI as results are statistically.

Some of the limitations of this scale on which the future researchers can work are that the sample included participants above age 18 only, so for future researchers they could include participants below this age and find out the PGI factor in them. The sample also included mostly unmarried individuals so for future applications they can find out the extent to which being married can affect the PGI factor, as compared to being unmarried. Another thing that should be mentioned is that the main objective was to find out whether PGI differs among men and women and as the results show that it does differ on the basis of gender but for future studies, the researchers could work on if there is also a difference in men and women in the three subscales (formed during EFA).

This scale is developed using a significant element of human personality called personal growth which is applicable to various categories and settings of the society to measure the aptitude and inclination toward PGI. This scale can be eligibly administered for research purposes for measuring the growth attitude as a reliable predictor in suitable combination with other expected variables like career development.

The findings suggest the instrument to be psychometrically valid and reliable and can be helpful in many domains such as industrial organizations, career counseling areas and clinical and research settings. Also, the instrument can be beneficial for future studies in identifying other possible relationships with multiple variables. The current study is an original work to assess the level of PGI in men and women as the previous studies did not include participants below 25 and also they did not assess the inclination of PGI comparably in men and women.

Presents an initial evaluation of a pilot scheme in non‐vocational employee development (ED) introduced into one section of a water company. Locates the initative within the context of growing interest in ED schemes and their relationship to ideas about learning culture and organization learning. Draws on data obtained throughout the first year of the pilot to assess participation, management of the scheme and perceived benefits. Findings demonstrate a range of reactions to the scheme including a degree of confusion and sceptism, highlighting the difficulties faced by this organization introducing a scheme in a somewhat unfavourable learning climate. Concludes, however, that the outcomes offer illustrative evidence of how such schemes can provide benefits to both employer and employee, contributing to efforts to make continuous learning a reality of organizational life. Stresses the need for more empirical data on other ED schemes.

Because of the changing psychological contract between employers and employees over time, the primary responsibility for career development has shifted from organizations to employees. As the role of individuals in career development has become important, personal growth initiative (PGI), individuals' positive and proactive stance toward change and continuous self-improvement, can be a pivotal construct in the fields of human resources (HR), organizational behavior (OB) and career management. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of person–organization fit (POF), authentic leadership and work empowerment on PGI.

Data were collected from 235 employees of a leading telecommunication company in South Korea. Most respondents were highly educated male managers in their 30s and 40s. With an overall confirmatory factor analysis, the four-factor measurement model indicated a good fit to the data. The relationships between variables and the relative importance of each independent variables were tested using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, along with a bootstrapping to examine the mediation effect of work empowerment.

Based on a moderated mediation model, this study examined the integrative effects of POF, authentic leadership and work empowerment on PGI. The authors found that employees demonstrated a high level of PGI when they perceived themselves fit with the organization and when they were empowered in their work. While the direct effect of authentic leadership was non-significant, supportive, transparent and ethical leadership behavior significantly moderated the relationship between POF and PGI. Lastly, based on a bootstrap analysis, this study found that work empowerment partially mediated the relationship between POF and PGI.

This empirical study contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of HR, OB and career management. This study introduced a relatively less explored construct, PGI, using data from knowledge workers in South Korea. The authors integrated diverse research streams such as person–environment fit, leadership and engagement research. Lastly, this was the first study that investigated the effects of contextual factors on PGI in the workplace.

This study aims to explore how individual personal growth initiative (PGI) mediates the relationship between a positive error orientation and job crafting. Furthermore, it explores the moderating role of the feedback from the leader in this relationship.

Data was collected through a survey conducted on 209 international employees from multiple occupations.

A positive error orientation is indirectly related to job crafting through its relationship with PGI. Also, feedback from leadership has a negative effect on the relationship between a positive error orientation and PGI. Indeed, the mediation effect of PGI on the relationship between a positive error orientation and job crafting loses significance when the leadership feedback is high.

As far as job crafting is concerned, it is essential to develop an error management culture to promote proactive behaviors among individuals.

Although the literature tends to highlight the positive effects of receiving feedback from the leader on employee’s professional development, this paper highlights the potential detrimental effects of leader feedback on PGI, therefore opening a new interesting area that demands attention.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Researchers based in Portugal showed in a study how individual personal growth initiative (PGI) mediates the relationship between human errors and job crafting. The results also revealed how feedback from leadership had the opposite moderating effect to what was expected – the higher the feedback, the weaker the positive relationship between error orientation and PGI.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The purpose of this study is to examine the stages involved in occupational dream pursuit (ODP). In this study, dreams are studied in the context of life-changing, occupational endeavors. The judgment and decision-making that fuels the process and the consumption motives that appear throughout the various stages of the journey are examined through the narratives of individuals living out their career-related dreams.

Open-ended interviews were conducted with individuals who were embarking on a life-changing career attainment experience. The narratives of these informants uncovered psychological, social and behavioral aspects of the dream pursuit process.

Through the informants’ narratives, common themes emerged with respect to the ODP journey, and these themes offered a fluid interpretation of the stages involved in the dream pursuit process: revelation, inciting action, development, maintenance and evolution. At each stage, specific consumption motives and behaviors predominate. These themes, including the consumption, psychological and developmental processes that take place at each stage, are discussed through the narratives of the informants.

This study highlights the role of positive emotions, personal growth, consumption motives and behaviors in ODP.

Dreams give individuals a sense of purpose and being. Although conventional wisdom acknowledges the importance of dream actualization, limited behavioral research has explored the nuances of ODP with regard to decision-making and consumption.

This paper aims to suggest a multi-theoretical explanation using a success story to explain psychological well-being (PWB) among employees of K.C, a small enterprise found in Uganda, a developing country in Africa.

The study used qualitative methodology. Based on in-depth interviews with K.C employees, a story was developed describing the practical experience, focusing on the context, actions, results and lessons learnt. Regarding the sample size, the saturation point was attained on the seventh participant.

Findings reveal that employees that possess psychological capital set targets and generate avenues that allow them to achieve set goals, with personal initiative that makes them proactive to accomplish work tasks and individual adaptability that enables them to adjust their emotions and behavior to fit in a complex working environment, which makes them to think, feel and act positively. Furthermore, several theories, including broaden and build, personal initiative and complex adaptive systems theory, explain the manifestations of PWB of employees in small enterprises.

The study was limited by focusing on the context of a small enterprise. Future research may investigate other study contexts whose findings might be different. In addition, the study being hypothetical lacked statistical testing. It would be a meaningful effort if future studies statistically tested the suggested model. Irrespective of the limitations, the findings of this study remain significant.

In practice, employees may replicate these findings to nurture PWB which eventually contributes to enterprises’ success. This could provide answers to the psychological challenges experienced by employees of small enterprises, especially in the African developing countries like Uganda where this is a major challenge. Specifically, the workers of K.C enterprise may depend on their PWB to deal with workplace challenges and sustain the enterprise’s performance.

Socially, there is need to embrace positive social relationships among employees at the work place which will translate into well-being of society.

This paper is exceptional because it uses a success story showing practical experiences of how PWB of employees in small enterprises is nurtured in Uganda. In addition, a multi-theoretical perspective is used to explain the manifestations in the story, which is the greatest contribution of this paper. Further, a conceptual model is still proposed, depicting psychological capital, personal initiative and individual adaptability as antecedents of PWB.