Abstract:
Commitment is an attitude reflecting an employee's loyalty to the organization, and an ongoing
process through which organization members express their concern for the organization and its
continued success and wellbeing. With the increasing mobility of employees especially in mid-career,
the HR Departments are highly concerned about maintaining the level of commitment and loyalty of
employees towards their organizations.
Given this continuing importance of organizational commitment, this study examines the impact of
mid-career manager’s protean career attitude on organizational commitment with the moderation
effect of developmental opportunities. Despite the growing concern on protean career attitudes in the
international research domain little empirical evidence is available with regard to it in the Sri Lankan
context and this study attempts to fill that knowledge gap.
Affective, continuance and normative commitment are identified as the dimensions of organizational
commitment whereas self-directed career management and value-driven career management are
identified as the dimensions of protean career attitude. Data was collected from a convenience sample
of 92 part-time MBAs using a self-administered questionnaire. Meyer and Allen’s 24 item
Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) was used to measure organizational commitment
whereas the protean career attitude was measured using the 14 item Protean career attitude scale of
Briscoe and Hall. Data collected were analyzed using correlation, regression, or moderated multiple
regression. Perceived organizational and supervisor support, organizational culture and leadership
style of the supervisor are controlled in the data analysis.
There exists a negative relationship between protean career attitude of mid-career managers and
organizational commitment, where the development opportunities moderated this relationship. This
means higher developmental opportunities resulted in higher commitment even for those with higher
levels of protean career attitude. Finally the practical and theoretical implications are discussed.
