Linking career management practices with individual outcomes: The mediating role of perceived employability

Abstract

This study addresses organizational and individual career management practices in an attempt to identify their effects on three individual outcomes: organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and burnout. The role of perceptions of internal employability as a mediator in this relationship is also tested. The study tests hypotheses derived from the literature with a sample of 410 participants from Portugal. For organizational career management practices, results indicate that organizational support is associated with the three dimensions of organizational commitment and colleagues’/superiors’ support is associated with affective commitment, turnover intentions and the three dimensions of burnout. For individual career management practices, networking is associated with affective commitment, turnover intentions, and depersonalization; critical expertise is associated with continuance commitment and exhaustion; and career guidance is only associated with affective commitment. Perceptions of internal employability mediate between three practices – organizational support, superiors’/colleagues’ support, and networking – and all outcomes except continuance commitment.