Are Participants in the New Career Good Organizational Citizens?

Abstract

Commentators have argued that a ‘new career’ deal has emerged, captured by the notions of the protean and the boundaryless career, signaling the demise of the traditional organizational career and the rise of independent, self-driven and self-assessed career pathways. Research has explored some of the individual correlates of protean and boundaryless career orientations while largely neglecting their consequences for organizations. Our paper addresses this omission by exploring the link between new career orientations and extra-role behaviours based on the argument that these dimensions of performance are more at risk given their volitional nature. In addition, it explores the role of commitment and perceived organizational support in shaping this relationship. Our study, conducted with 655 employee-supervisor dyads, indicates that a protean career orientation results in gains for organizations, whereas a boundaryless career orientation is potentially associated with lower citizenship behaviours and higher deviant behaviours due to its negative impact on commitment. In addition, our findings suggest that organizations can positively influence the behavior of individuals with high boundaryless career orientations by offering high levels of support.