Abstract
The present study examined whether and how career adaptability predicts employee well-being (EWB) based on career construction theory. A three-wave questionnaire design was used to collect the data, and 338 employees participated in the study. The results suggest that career adaptability has a significant effect on work engagement, which, in turn, predicts EWB. In addition to developing a mediation model, we tested the effect of guanxi as a moderator on the former part of the model. Thus, a moderated-mediation model was constructed in this research. In addition to the finding of the mediating role of work engagement, the discussion of guanxi represents a more important novel aspect that draws attention to contextual factors that may shape how employees respond to career adaptability. The results revealed that the indirect effect of career adaptability on EWB through work engagement when guanxi is low is stronger than that when guanxi is high. Furthermore, we discuss the limitations of this study and the implications for future research on career adaptability and EWB.
Highlights
The career and job landscape is characterized by ongoing uncertainty and increasing instability and flexibility (Rudisill et al, 2010)
We propose the following hypotheses: Hypothesis 3: Guanxi negatively moderates the relationship between career adaptability and work engagement, and the positive effect is stronger when guanxi is at a low level
In the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) analysis, the goodness of fit of our model was evaluated with a variety of fit metrics as follows: χ2/df = 2.549, p < 0.001; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.901; incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.901; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.068; and root mean square residual (RMR) = 0.047
Summary
The career and job landscape is characterized by ongoing uncertainty and increasing instability and flexibility (Rudisill et al, 2010). Concern regarding EWB is lacking in practice, it is important for organizations due to its association with positive organizational outcomes, such as improved performance and lower labor turnover (Daniel and Harris, 2000; Lyubomirsky et al, 2005; Proudfoot et al, 2009). Against this backdrop, EWB has recently been considered a beneficial supplement to human resource management (Guest, 2017). Employees’ pursuit of well-being in the workplace is highly important (Ryan and Deci, 2001; Lent and Brown, 2008)
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