Alessandro Lo Presti, Amelia Manuti and Jon P. Briscoe
The increasing flexibility and discontinuity of labor relations have been associated with the development of new forms of psychological contracts as well as the development of…
Abstract
Purpose
The increasing flexibility and discontinuity of labor relations have been associated with the development of new forms of psychological contracts as well as the development of more self-directed and mobile career attitudes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the forms of psychological contract and protean/boundaryless career attitudes on the one hand and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) on the other.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 458 employees of three large Italian organizations were sampled through a self-report questionnaire. Zero-order correlations were carried out to examine the associations between study variables while dominance analysis, along with multiple linear regression, was used for evaluating their unique contribution with respect to OCB.
Findings
OCB were positively predicted by relational and balanced psychological contracts, protean career attitude and boundaryless mindset.
Practical implications
Organizations must pay particular attention to the content of the psychological contract and the career attitudes of their employees because they influence their willingness to carry out OCB.
Originality/value
The results add new evidence to the careers literature in terms of boundary conditions with regard to the effects of protean and boundaryless career attitudes as well as different forms of psychological contracts.
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Alessandro Lo Presti, Beatrice van der Heijden, Jon P. Briscoe and Assunta De Rosa
As the notions of protean career and job crafting share a common emphasis on self-management, proactivity and customization, this study aimed to examine if the associations…
Abstract
Purpose
As the notions of protean career and job crafting share a common emphasis on self-management, proactivity and customization, this study aimed to examine if the associations between protean career, subjective and objective career success were mediated by job crafting, assessed via its three main dimensions (i.e. increasing structural job resources, increasing social job resources and increasing challenging job demands).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors sampled 594 Italian employees using a time-lagged research design: protean career was assessed at T1 and job crafting and career success at T2. Responses were analyzed through structural equation modeling.
Findings
This study’s results showed that increasing structural job resources mediated the association of protean career with subjective career success, while increasing challenging job demands mediated its association with objective career success.
Originality/value
In contrast to previous studies, in this contribution, the mediating role of job crafting is disentangled by taking into account its three respective dimensions. Additionally, the authors included both forms of career success as outcomes of protean career. Implications for future research and practical recommendations are presented and discussed.
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Jon P. Briscoe and Lisa M. Finkelstein
The purpose of this paper is to establish whether positive or negative relationships exist between boundaryless and protean career attitudes (respectively) and organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish whether positive or negative relationships exist between boundaryless and protean career attitudes (respectively) and organizational commitment and whether such relationships can be moderated by development opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
Surveys from 212 part‐time MBAs were analyzed using correlation, regression, or moderated multiple regression to explore relationships between boundaryless career attitudes (boundaryless mindset, organizational mobility), protean career attitudes (self‐directed career management, values‐driven career management), organizational commitment (affective, continuance and normative), and development opportunities.
Findings
Only organizational mobility preference was correlated (negatively) with each type of commitment. Boundaryless mindset was moderated in its relationship to normative commitment in that lower development opportunities resulted in lower commitment for those with higher levels of boundaryless mindset.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited due to sample nature and the lack of longitudinal design. Also, it does not provide implications for other types of commitment that may be impacted by career attitudes and development opportunities (occupational commitment, for example).
Practical implications
A counterintuitive finding but important implication from this research is that employers should not assume that protean and boundaryless employees (respectively) will be less committed to the organization. Another practical finding is that developmental opportunities, while important to all employees, did not generally make employees with protean and boundaryless attitudes more committed to their organization.
Originality/value
The paper is the first, to one's knowledge, to assess organizational commitment with specific measures of boundaryless and protean career attitudes. While the results are simple, they refute many stereotypes of the new career and, in that sense, add an important perspective to the career literature.
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The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the effects of subjective career success, organizational learning climate, and the calling work orientation on the protean…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the effects of subjective career success, organizational learning climate, and the calling work orientation on the protean career.
Design/methodology/approach
For this study employees of a Korean financial service company are encouraged to answer a web survey. To examine the hypotheses, structural equation modeling is used.
Findings
The results provide evidence of potential predictors of the protean career based on the empirical approach. Also, this study shows an integrative model for predictors of the protean career with the structural equation modeling method. All independent variables – subjective career success, the calling work orientation, and organizational learning climate – have a significant relationship with the protean career. Among the independent variables, the calling orientation has the strongest effect on the protean career.
Research limitation/implication
The generalization of the results may be limited to the research population. Also, as results are based entirely on cross‐sectional self‐report data, the causality of the findings cannot be confirmed.
Originality/value
The importance of the protean career concept has increased in the modern career context, underscoring the individual's self‐direction of career management. This study uses empirical evidence to examine the psychological and environmental predictors of the protean career.
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This paper is based on a review of the literature on construction productivity and findings from a survey investigating, first, whether there are significant differences in…
Abstract
This paper is based on a review of the literature on construction productivity and findings from a survey investigating, first, whether there are significant differences in opinions between head office personnel and site managers on factors that influence construction productivity and, second, to determine groups of factors that mostly influence site productivity. A critical discussion is structured under three general headings: (1) management factors; (2) employee motivation; and (3) experience and training. Twenty‐nine factors were extracted from the above headings and were assessed by 19 head office personnel and 17 site managers. The survey indicated that both samples regard ‘ineffective project planning’ and ‘constraints on a worker's performance’ as the most crucial factors influencing productivity. Other highly ranked factors by both samples are ‘difficulties with material procurement’, ‘lack of integration of project information’, ‘disruption of site programme’, ‘lack of experience and training’ and ‘exclusion of site management from contract meetings’. Ultimately, when the factor analysis technique was applied on the 29 factors, the result shows that Resource Management Effectiveness appeared to be the most dominant group of factors influencing construction productivity.
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Ineffective expatriate performance and premature returns have been found to relate primarily to an inability to adjust to the foreign environment rather than a lack of technical…
Abstract
Ineffective expatriate performance and premature returns have been found to relate primarily to an inability to adjust to the foreign environment rather than a lack of technical competence. Research has identified three dimensions of expatriate adjustment: adjustment to work, adjustment to interactions with people in the foreign country and general adjustment to the culture and living conditions. Five major factors that have been found to influence these dimensions of adjustment and research using these factors provides a framework to help international firms understand and take a more active role in facilitating expatriate adjustment.
Guorong Zhu, Steve B. Wolff, Douglas T. (Tim) Hall, Mireia Las Heras, Betzaluz Gutierrez and Kathy Kram
In today's turbulent business environment leaders must be able to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. For this research the authors aim to focus on the issue of adaptability…
Abstract
Purpose
In today's turbulent business environment leaders must be able to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. For this research the authors aim to focus on the issue of adaptability defined as the ability to work effectively within a variety of changing situations, and with various individuals or groups. They also aimed to examine how variables of career complexity affect development of adaptability.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw on a unique database containing the career histories of 52 senior executives in a major global corporation. They use the term career complexity to represent the degree of variety in these individuals' career experiences, and they test the degree to which career complexity contributes to the development of adaptability later in their careers.
Findings
Findings from this study shed light on the relationship between specific career experiences and executive adaptability. Executives who had the experience to serve in an executive assistant role developed higher levels of adaptability. For executives without the executive assistant opportunity, job rotations through different types of roles provided a boost to their adaptability. Three role type changes (e.g. line, staff, or matrix) is optimal; 100 months is an optimal time to spend in each role type.
Originality/value
While the field of leadership development has generated substantial insight into the competencies required by executives, there are few models and empirical studies that describe the process of how specific competencies are developed. The authors' study highlighted the utility of the career complexity construct for both prospective understanding of career actions and processes and retrospective understanding of paths, patterns, and outcomes. The authors demonstrated the predictive value of the career complexity construct by presenting results of the statistical analyses of the hypothesized relationships between career complexity and career outcomes.
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County Durham‐based paint manufacturer DeSoto Titanine has appointed Peter Fisk as chairman, in addition to his role as managing director.
The Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP) supports newspaper preservation and access for any title in Texas, from any date, any location and representing any community. As an…
Abstract
Purpose
The Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP) supports newspaper preservation and access for any title in Texas, from any date, any location and representing any community. As an active member of the Texas Press Association, TDNP also supports large-scale preservation of born-digital newspaper PDF issues for member publishers. This paper aims to explore how the early days of TDNP built a strong foundation of collaboration and support for large-scale preservation projects, including support for preserving a state press association PDF newspaper collection.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a case study of a collaborative endeavor to create a large-scale, statewide digital newspaper preservation hub in Texas. This paper details how individual partnerships led to new and larger partnerships. Figures and tables represent numbers of partner institutions served, numbers of newspapers preserved and screenshots of how these items appear within collections on the digital repository environment of The Portal to Texas History. This paper concludes with recommendations for groups interested in developing their own collaborative projects.
Findings
As a case study, the data explored include numbers of partnering institutions, materials contributed by partnering institutions and how these numbers help to forward the TDNP agenda.
Practical Implications
The final recommendations are lessons learned through collaboration, and the implications are real-world advice from the partners developed through the TDNP.
Originality/value
Hosting over 3.25 million pages of newspapers, the TDNP has become an enormous hub of newspaper preservation in Texas, and it is unique in the numbers of partners it supports and the numbers of pages it is able to host for free access via The Portal to Texas History. This paper is intended to help other groups across the world build their own collaborative preservation efforts, and it offers pragmatic advice derived from hands-on experience.