An appraisal of the impact of organisational career management practices across generations from a Malaysian oil and gas industry perspective

Abstract

Managing a multigenerational workforce requires just as much science as there is to art. Generations are moulded by a set of experiences that are unique to each, thereby the differences in preferences and expectations. Consequently, each generation presents different strategic impacts to the organisation. Organisational career management has long been recognised as an important and prominent component of strategic human resource management. This study therefore seeks to assess the present state of organisational career management practices (CMP) within the oil and gas industry in Malaysia to identify patterns that may exist across generations and determine the influence of CMP on behavioural outcomes such as organisational commitment. It looks into two hypothesis; the first proposing that a distinct trend is present across the three generations' perceptions of CMP where Baby Boomers and Gen Y will be at opposite ends of agreement and Gen X in between, signifying the effect of the generational gap; and the second proposing a correlation between career management and organisational commitment. An online survey was conducted involving 37 respondents to gather data to test out the two hypotheses.