Leveraging the Psychological Well-Being among Malaysian Engineers: The Role of Protean Career Orientation and Career Strategy Implementation

Abstract

ABSTRACT The engineers, deemed to be a protean careerist are notable for their ambitiousness and aggressiveness in pursuing their career advancement and in striving for psychological success. However, the organization’s unaccommodating environment and viewpoint contradicts with this nature of working, which directly and adversely affecting this group’s psychological well-being. Thus, a study on protean career orientation and career strategy implementation and their effects on the psychological well-being of the Malaysian engineers are pertinent and timely. To test the proposed hypotheses, data was collected through self-administered questionnaires. The study sample consisted of 387 engineers from various disciplines regardless of the industries. The hypotheses were analysed using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach. This study had found interesting results related to psychological well-being. The findings showed that protean career orientation has a positive influence on career strategy implementation. Finally, this study had found that the relationship between protean career orientation and psychological well-being are not linked through the mediating variable of career strategy implementation. Based on the findings, theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed. The suggestion for the future research is also offered. Keywords: Protean career orientation; psychological well-being; career strategy implementation; engineer ABSTRAK Jurutera, dianggap sebagai orang yang mementingkan kemajuan kerjayanya yang berubah-ubah untuk kehebatan dan sifat agresif mereka dalam mengejar kemajuan kerjaya serta berjuang untuk kejayaan psikologi. Walau bagaimanapun, persekitaran organisasi dan pandangan yang bercanggah dengan sifat bekerja, telah secara terus dan menjejaskan psikologi kesejahteraan kumpulan ini. Maka, satu kajian mengenai orientasi kerjaya yang berubah-ubah dan pelaksanaan strategi kerjaya dan kesan terhadap psikologi kesejahteraan dalam kalangan jurutera-jurutera Malaysia adalah releven dan bertepatan pada masa. Untuk menguji hipotesis yang disarankan, data dikumpulkan melalui soal selidik urus kendiri. Sampel kajian ini terdiri daripada 387 jurutera profesional daripada pelbagai bidang tanpa mengira industri. Hipotesis telah dianalisis menggunakan pendekatan kuasa dua terkecil separa (PLS). Kajian ini telah berjaya memperoleh keputusan menarik yang berkaitan dengan psikologi kesejahteraan. Penemuan kajian menunjukkan orientasi kerjaya protean mempengaruhi strategi pelaksanaan kerjaya. Akhir sekali, kajian ini telah mendapati bahawa hubungan antara orientasi kerjaya protean dengan psikologi kesejahteraan tidak berhubung kait melalui pemboleh ubah perantara strategi pelaksanaan kerjaya. Berdasarkan dapatan kajian, implikasi teori dan praktikal kajian telah dibincangkan. Cadangan untuk penyelidikan masa depan juga dikemukakan. Kata kunci: Orientasi kerjaya protean; kesejahteraan psikologi; strategi pelaksanaan kerjaya; jurutera