Search results

The purpose of the paper is to focus on personal and social background factors as potential channels for the transmission of work related attitudes in young adults. The paper aims to examine the extent to which gender, parental job type, job status, and education, as well as school experience, influence the development of attitudes towards work and family life.

The study comprised a quantitative (questionnaire based) survey with a sample of 782 final year undergraduate students attending various third level institutions in Ireland and the USA.

The results indicated that individuals who had grown up in traditional mixed families had more positive attitudes towards balancing work and home roles than did those who had grown up in traditional single earner families. Father's educational level also emerged as a significant factor in the career‐family attitudes of the participants.

The results of this research indicate that young people have developed attitudes towards managing the work/family interface on entering the workforce, which they acquire through a social learning process. Limitations included the cross‐sectional nature of the design and future longitudinal research is needed.

Organizations and managers need to be aware of the well‐developed attitudes of new entrants in order to address early issues of psychological contract and person‐organizational fit, which have an impact on career success and career management.

The findings of the paper break new ground on the role of social learning on the formation of attitudes towards managing the work‐family interface. Such attitudes proceed to inform behavioral patterns and decisions in the harmonious management of the two domains.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of career attitudes (traditional career vs boundaryless career) on perceived employability (internal vs external employability). In addition, the authors examine whether career self-management strategies act as mediators of these relationships. Due to high unemployment rates in the last two decades, it is important to assess the extent to which young graduates’ career attitudes affect perceived internal and external employability, along with the role of career self-management strategies as an employability enhancement tool.

As part of a cross-sectional research design, the authors administered a survey questionnaire to a sample of 131 graduates (i.e. master’s students) with at least one year of work experience. The empirical data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling, which combines confirmatory factor analysis, multiple linear regression and path analysis.

The results reveal that there is a positive and significant impact (direct effect) of a traditional career attitude (TCA) on internal employability, while there is no significant negative impact of a TCA on external employability. Additionally, the results show that there is a negative impact (direct effect) of a boundaryless career attitude (BCA) on internal employability, while no significant positive impact is found of a BCA on external employability. This study also confirms the mediation effect (full mediation) of career positioning strategies on the BCA-external employability relationship, and a partial mediation of career influence strategies on the TCA-internal employability relationship.

Limitations of this study relate to the sample size and the use of a convenience sampling technique. Hence, some caution is needed regarding results’ generalization. In addition, this research uses a cross-sectional design, thus the authors cannot assess longitudinal causal relationships between variables. Future research should be replicated with different types of respondents and in different cultural contexts.

The results suggest that organizations would benefit more from employees that hold a TCA than those that hold a BCA, especially if they are interested in fostering the internal employability of their workforce. At the individual level, the results identify optimal career self-management strategies (internal vs external employability) for young graduates.

This study offers new empirical evidence of the predictive value of perceived internal vs external employability and the mediating role of career self-management strategies in explaining employability. Young graduates perceive a TCA as more advantageous than a BCA for both internal and external employability. This is an unexpected but interesting finding, since the bulk of the literature on contemporary career attitudes overemphasizes the advantages of a BCA, while disregarding potential disadvantages for both individuals and organizations.

The researchers wanted to compare a “traditional career attitude” (TCA), which stresses upward mobility at one company, with a “boundary-less career attitude” (BCA), which focuses on career mobility

To test their hypotheses, the authors looked for recent master’s graduates from a large Portuguese university who had been working more than one year. They were students of business studies, human resources management, healthcare management, accounting, marketing and strategy. The graduates received questionnaires to fill in. A total of 131 completed them successfully, with 63% being female respondents.

The results showed a TCA had a positive effect on internal employability (IE), but no negative impact on external employability (EE). Meanwhile, the results also confirmed the negative impact on IE of a BCA, whereas there was no significant positive effect on EE.

The authors felt their study made a number of important contributions both to the academic community, and to increasing the employability of graduates.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that may be related to a career choice in the public vs the private sector in a developing African country.

Using a sample of graduate management students, the authors tested reward preferences and altruism, elements of public service motivation, on their generalizability to a developing country in Africa. The authors also examine the role of career attitudes, individual personality factors, and cultural values on a career choice in public service.

The authors find that not all the factors associated with the choice of sector (public or private) found in previous studies apply in the Botswana context.

Perry and Wise (1990) developed the concept of public service motivation to explain why individuals may be motivated to serve the public. However, two of the factors associated with public service, intrinsic motivation, and altruism, were not predictive of a career choice in the public sector in Botswana, and thus may limit its generalizability outside of western developed countries.

In Botswana and other developing economies, government jobs are considered to provide lucrative and stable employment, and attract educated citizens regardless of motivations. However, as the private-for-profit sector is emerging, these countries could soon be facing serious competition for top university students, and will need to develop a strategy for attracting the best talents to choose employment in the public sector over career options in the private sector.

The present study seeks to further the understanding on how individuals make a career choice between public vs private sector management in a developing country.

This study aims to identify the relationship between protean career attitude (PCA) and organisational commitment (OC) in a learning organisation (LO) climate. The study also identified whether negative relationships exist between the structure dimension of LO (SDLO) and PCA, and between PCA and OC, and whether such relationships can be moderated by the people dimension of LO (PDLO).

Data collected from 305 employees of 26 firms were analysed using the PROCESS macro for SPSS.

This study found that SDLO had a negative relationship with PCA, whereas PCA was negatively associated with OC. Furthermore, this study found that PDLO moderated these relationships, in that the negative relationships were absent when PDLO activities were stronger, in contrast to when they were weaker.

The study is among the first to identify the negative relationships that exist between SDLO and PCA and between PCA and OC in Korean firms. An important implication for managers or OD professionals is that PDLO plays an important role in not only reducing the negative mediation effects of PCA in the relationships but also making the relationships positive.

Human capital is a key component of the success of organisations, and career development of staff is a vital component to both increasing and retaining human capital. Universities are no different, their people are key to their mission. There has been limited rigorous study of the careers of professional staff in the academy. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A systematic literature review methodology resulted in a review of 23 articles dedicated to research on careers of professional staff in higher education (HE). Thematic analysis identified a series of enablers and barriers that influence career development and progression.

Career enablers and barriers have been found to exist at both the institutional and individual levels. Within the HE context, professional staff have a hybrid career mindset, desiring traditional and more contemporary career factors, leading to a reciprocal relationship between the organisation and the individual.

There is a need for future research to investigate the hybrid career mindset, and the reciprocal relationship, both to add depth to understanding of careers for professional staff in universities, and to examine this in other settings.

Universities may need to consider ways to integrate institutional support for high performance work systems (HPWS) with opportunities for professional staff, while individuals may need to consider adopting career self-management behaviours (CSMB) to fit their hybrid mindset.

This review has highlighted organisations and individuals will benefit if the relationship between HPWS and CSMB is better understood for the hybrid career mindset.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a self-managed career model, in which protean and boundaryless careers were used.

A hybrid methodology is proposed where Buckley’s fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) method was used for prioritization of these criteria, sub-criteria, and indicators, and fuzzy TOPSIS method was used to select the most appropriate career path for a given individual.

The hybrid model for self-managed career was tested with a real numerical example. Findings were congruent with the example’s current career and future career aspirations.

The model was tested with one numerical example. The model could be applied to individuals from various cultures, age groups and backgrounds to further discuss its validity.

Career decisions are affected from individuals’ values and perceptions. New career orientations like Protean and Boundaryless Career are built upon this fact to include subjectivity. Because of the shortcomings of traditional methods to deal with uncertainty related to subjective evaluations, a FAHP and fuzzy TOPSIS based hybrid multi-attribute decision-support model was utilized to help individuals with their career decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of cross‐cultural training and career attitudes for expatriation career move in the context of China, whether cross‐cultural training is perceived necessary, and the consequence of providing such cross‐cultural training.

Data were collected from 82 expatriates from a Chinese firm, some of whom were expatriated to a foreign country and others who were expatriated from foreign countries to China.

Expatriates adjusted well, and having a protean career attitude was a decisive factor. While the impact of cross‐cultural training prior to departure was not statistically significant, it was well received and considered important.

A limitation is the limited sample size. Implications are presented for conducting cross‐cultural training.

Developing cross‐cultural training programs could add value to the firm and its people.

Using a particular Chinese firm the paper highlights the value and necessity of cross‐cultural training for successful expatriation.

The purpose of this paper is to find the effects of boundaryless career, organizational commitment, and external support seeking on career satisfaction.

The data were collected from 271 South Korean financial company employees through the survey method. Descriptive analysis was conducted, followed by the correlation and multiple regression analyses.

The study results showed that organizational mobility preference has a negative effect on career satisfaction. The results also showed that boundaryless mindset and external support seeking have positive effects on career satisfaction.

This study showed theoretically that an individual’s specific career related behaviors and attitudes have a positive influence on career satisfaction.

Practically, this study results showed some suggestion for enhancing the employee’s career satisfaction by constructing a career support system.

This paper provides a better understanding of the influences of boundaryless career, organizational commitment, and external support seeking on career satisfaction with an HRD perspective.