Protean Career Attitude and Organizational Commitment: A Study among Mid-Career MBAs

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.