Cultivating Proactive Career Behavior: The Role of Career Adaptability and Job Embeddedness.

Peng Peng,Yu Song,Guangtao Yu

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.603890

Peng Peng, Yu Song + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.603890

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Abstract

Scholars have widely acknowledged that proactive career behavior is essential for individuals to proactively build their careers, as well as facilitate positive career outcomes. However, there are still many questions about how to activate proactive career behavior. In the current study, we consider whether, how and when regulatory focus of individuals would evoke their proactive career behavior. Based on career construction theory, we utilized the career adaptability framework to develop and test the mediating effect of individual regulatory focus on proactive career behavior through career adaptability. Moreover, we further proposed that job embeddedness plays a contingency role in moderating the extent to which regulatory focus contributes to proactive career behavior with the mediation of career adaptability differently and uniquely. Using a sample of 247 participants and collecting data in three waves, we found that the promotion focus of employees positively influences their proactive career behavior through the mediation of career adaptability. Furthermore, the indirect effect of promotion focus on proactive career behavior via career adaptability was moderated by the dichotomy of job embeddedness of individuals respectively and differently. Specifically, the positive relationship between promotion focus and proactive career behavior via the mediation of career adaptability was strengthened by the on-the-job embeddedness of employees, whereas the relationship was weakened by their off-the-job embeddedness. The overall findings broaden our understanding in terms of the underlying mechanism of proactive career behavior, suggesting that the promotion focus of individuals fosters proactive career behavior via career adaptability, and on-the-job and off-the-job embeddedness as contingency factors alter the effect of career adaptability.

Highlights

We argued that a promotion focus is positively related to proactive career behavior while a prevention focus is negatively related to proactive career behavior, moderated by career adaptability
Based on the construction theory (CCT), we further proposed that the indirect effects of regulatory focus on proactive career behavior arising from career adaptability would be strengthened by on-the-job embeddedness and weakened by off-the-job embeddedness
Our work explored how career adaptability is activated by regulatory focus, with the contingency effect of on-the-job and off-the-job embeddedness to systematically foster proactive career behavior; our results contribute to extend our current understanding of the underlying mechanisms of proactive career behavior and broaden the new vision to acknowledge the mechanism in predicting proactive career behavior with interaction and contextual way

Summary

Introduction

In the volatile world of today, a boundaryless career, which is nonlinear and discontinuous, is vital to employee career management (Arthur and Rousseau, 1996; Wang and Wanberg, 2017; Guan et al, 2019), and scholars are increasingly paying more attention to how employees shape their careers individually and actively (Seibert et al, 2001; Strauss et al, 2012; Smale et al, 2019). Considering that the consequences of proactive career behavior are often accompanied by risks (Ashford and Cummings, 1983; Ashford et al, 2003; Smale et al, 2019), prior research has neglected contextual factors, which can influence individual proactive career behavior significantly (Savickas, 2005, 2013; Ren and Chadee, 2017; Smale et al, 2019). Extant research has mainly focused on the dispositional antecedents of proactive career behavior, overlooking contextual factors that could be critical to determining adapting responses of individuals (Savickas, 2013; Rudolph et al, 2017)

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