Early Career Employees Research Articles

Self-efficacy and Career Adaptability in Early Career employees

<p><strong>Abstract. </strong>Every company strives to increase efficiency and effectiveness to adapt to competitive developments. One of the efforts made is to prepare employees to compete at work. Career adaptability is necessary for employees to support effective performance, especially for early career employees. Therefore, early career employees need good self-efficacy to support career adaptability. This research aims to determine the relationship between self-efficacy and career adaptability in early-career employees at PT. XYZ. The method used is quantitative with a simple correlational design. Data collection used non-probability sampling with a saturated sampling technique, carried out using a Google form distributed to all PT. XYZ. The research scale consists of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (α =0.932) and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (α= 0.969). The Spearman Rho correlation test obtained a coefficient value of 0.841 with p(Sig.) = 0.000 (p<0.01) shows that self-efficacy positively relates to career adaptability in early-career employees. Research on self-efficacy and career adaptability in early career employees is expected to provide important information that can be used to improve employee development practices, organizational policies, and future academic literature.</p><strong><em>Keywords: </em></strong><em>Self-efficacy; Career Adaptability; Early Career</em>

Early-career employees sensemaking strategies in organizationally constrained workplaces: a longitudinal multiple-case study

PurposeThis study aimed to investigate the sensemaking strategies employed by early-career employees working within organizationally constrained environments.Design/methodology/approachGrounded in the sensemaking-as-accomplishment framework, a longitudinal multi-case study was conducted, involving three early-career employees. These participants were interviewed multiple times concerning tasks they themselves identified as anomalous and ambiguous.FindingsThe study's findings illuminate how early-career employees utilize sensemaking strategies to accomplish anomalous-ambiguous tasks. These strategies are interwoven with deliberate efforts to mitigate organizational constraints that exist in the organization or arise during the execution of complex tasks.Research limitations/implicationsNotable limitation pertains to the time gap between task completion and the interviews. Conducting real-time interviews concurrently with task execution or immediately afterward was not feasible due to constraints in participant availability. This research has implications for organizational learning initiatives, particularly those encompassing employee-driven self-learning components. Insights derived from studies like this can inform the development of effective self-learning schemes within organizations.Originality/valuePrevious sensemaking research focused on what takes place in high-reliability organizations. This study explored sensemaking strategies in workplaces that are organizationally constrained.

Sense of Coherence dan Career Adaptability pada Karyawan di Awal Karir

Career adaptability is essential for employees at the beginning of their careers because they are required to develop and maintain their job status quickly. This enables them to plan their development, opportunities, and career transitions in the 21st century, characterized by numerous rapid changes. Career adaptability is the capacity of individuals to respond more quickly to stress. A sense of coherence, determined by how an individual copes with their environmental circumstances, is one of the stress-resilient positive psychological characteristics. This study explores the association between early-career employees' feelings of coherence and career adaptability. This study's sample comprised 163 employees in the early stages of their careers, aged 18 to 35. This study demonstrates a correlation between a sense of coherence and career adaptability among early-career employees.

Impact of workplace bullying on work engagement among early career employees.

This study aims to measure the impact of workplace bullying on work engagement in terms of employee silence and knowledge sharing. It also helps to explain how psychological contract breach moderates the bullying-silence relationship. For this study, data is collected from 384 early-career employees having experience up to three years from seven banks of Lahore, Pakistan. Findings of this study reveals that workplace bullying has a positive relationship with employee silence and negative relationship with work engagement. Results of all moderation and mediated variables are significantly related to each other. However, the results explain that a psychological contract breach slightly moderates the bullying-silence relationship. Survey-based questionnaire, cross-sectional research design, and convenience-based sampling technique are some of the limitations of this study. This is the first study that tried to investigate the bullying-engagement relationship among early-career employees in the banking sector of Lahore, Pakistan. This study may help practitioners and policymakers to develop anti-bullying laws that can support the management in overcoming the negative workplace environment. This study aims to promote an equal opportunity for all employees where they can raise their voices about misconduct. This is the first study that investigated the victimization of bullying behavior among early-career employees in a Pakistani cultural context.

Proactive Personality as a Predictor of Career Adaptability of Creative Industry Employees in Malang City

Employees working in the creative industry are expected to have strong soft skills and be able to cope with high work pressure to be successful in their jobs. The industry operates at a rapid pace, requiring employees to adopt unconventional strategies and show initiative to keep up with developments. Failure to effectively manage these challenges may hinder career advancement in the future. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of proactive personality in relation to career adaptability among employees in the visual communication design sub-sector of the creative industries. A quantitative approach was adopted, and measurements were made using two scales: the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS), developed by Savickas and Porfeli, and the Proactive Personality Scale (PPS), developed by Bateman and Crant. The data analysis technique used in this study was simple linear regression analysis. Based on the results of the t-test table, it was found that the proactive personality variable had a significance level of 0.329 (p>0.05). In addition, the coefficient of determination (R Square) was found to be 0.009. These results indicated that the independent variable, proactive personality, has a limited ability to explain the variations in the dependent variable, career adaptability, accounting for only 0.9 percent. Thus, it can be concluded that Proactive Personality is not able to predict Career Adaptability.
 Keywords: Career adaptability, Proactive personality, Early career employees

Does emotional exhaustion influence turnover intention among early-career employees? A moderated-mediation study on Malaysian SMEs

Does emotional exhaustion influence turnover intention among early-career employees? A moderated-mediation study on Malaysian SMEs

Team psychological contracts: Effects of gender and social comparison orientation

Understanding the psychological contract (PC) perceptions of college students is crucial for attracting and retaining them as early-career employees. We explore how gender and social comparison orientation (SCO) serve as antecedents and moderators of PC breach. Potential PC obligations were examined across 34 teams of full-time business students. Moderated relationships between SCO and gender were examined relative to PC development, breach, and commitment via a survey following a semester-long team project. Results showed that gender significantly influenced obligation perceptions, with females possessing stronger obligations of their team. Positive relationships existed between SCO and the strength of reported obligations and with breach perceptions. Breach was negatively related to affective commitment to the team. Gender moderated several relationships, with females generally showing stronger, significant associations, consistent with relational PC expectations ( Adams et al., 2014 ). Given the rise of the boundaryless career (Kost et al., 2020), results enhance our understanding of implicit obligations college students hold in applied learning projects that further career-readiness. Results suggest that professors and career services staff can reduce the gap between students’ perceptions of their soft skills and employer expectations (Stewart et al., 2016). This study also facilitates our understanding of factors influencing team commitment, composition and perceived obligations.

Authentic Leadership, Future Prospects and Affective Commitment in Early Career Employees—A Mediation Model

Even as the great resignation unfolds, turnover among early-career employees is well documented in research. Compared to their mid- and late-career counterparts, early-career professionals are more likely to need support from supervisors and opportunities for intra-organisational growth. Similarly, early career professionals are more likely to prefer mobility and exploration of career opportunities. Therefore, mechanisms to enhance affective commitment of early-career professionals become salient. Accordingly, using a sample of 206 early-career construction professionals from India, this research examined the relationship between authentic leadership and affective commitment. Further, future prospects were tested as a mediating mechanism between these two variables. PLS-SEM was employed for analysis. Our hypotheses were supported. Specifically, it was found that authentic leadership has a positive influence on future prospects and affective commitment. Further, future prospects are positively associated with affective commitment. Finally, future prospects fully mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and affective commitment. Implications for research and practice are discussed, and limitations are acknowledged.

Influence of Support for Career Development Intelligence Building for College Graduates on their Job Performance: The Case of South Korea.

This study conducted to identify the influence of support for career development intelligence building for college graduates, who are early career employees, and to prove the mediating effect of learning transfer and self-esteem. An analysis was conducted using the Graduate Occupational Mobility Survey panel data from the Korea Employment Information Service. The data analysis was conducted using the SPSS21.0, AMOS22.0, and PROCESS macro programs. The findings are as follows. The influence of support for career development intelligence building on learning transfer is significantly positive, as is the influence of learning transfer on self-esteem. In addition, self-esteem had a significantly positive influence on job performance. However, the relationship between learning transfer and job performance was negative, and the relationship between support for career development intelligence building and self-esteem was insignificant. Lastly, the PROCESS macro analysis showed a mediating effect of learning transfer and self-esteem between support for career development intelligence building and job performance. Thus, it is suggested that support for career development intelligence building for early career employees should precede the development of specific programs to increase their self-esteem and enhance their job performance.

Redesigning Gen Y and Z Career Growth through Developmental Cycles

Meaningful growth opportunities are key drivers of engagement, especially in the early career. Research shows that it is essential to support career transitions for early career employees. While formal leadership development programs focus on providing opportunities to nominated employees, there is a need to systematically apply the elements of these programs to the broader employee population. We identify common principles of successful early career leadership development programs and use them to create a career growth framework as a series of experiences rather than a series of roles. We have developed specific recommendations to fuel growth cycles, exploration, establishment and maintenance within and across functions at the early career (0–6 years).

Career stages at the bottom line: Revisiting the relationship between organizational justice and turnover intentions

PURPOSE: The literature of the field suggests a strong relationship between organizational justice and turnover intentions of employees; however, the applicability of this claim has never been tested across different career stages, therefore, this study attempted to examine if there were any differences in this relationship across different career stages. METHODS: The data was collected from 71 different service sector organizations from both the public and private sectors. Initially, the lists of all the employees were obtained from their respective HR departments. From the main list, three subsidiary lists were generated relating to (1) early-career level employees, (2) mid-career level employees, and (3) the top-career level employees. RESULTS: It is found that the justice-turnover intentions relationship varied across different career stages. Only distributive justice affected the turnover intentions of early-career employees. At the middle career stage, all three components of justice affected turnover intentions. None of the components of organizational justice influenced turnover intentions at the later career stage. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: The current study was only focused on looking for differences in the proposed relationship across different career stages. Future researchers can consider looking for the underlying causes that make up such differences. ORIGINALITY: This study offers a better understanding of employee turnover behavior as a result of their perception of organizational justice at different career levels across diverse organizations, it attempts to contribute to exploring the interaction of different organizational stages concerning Career stage theory (CST). This study further adds new insights into the theories of organizational justice, and turnover intentions.

The effect of work‐schedule control on volunteering among early career employees

AbstractRecent trends in the labor market see increasing numbers of workers having to deal with ‘schedule precarity’ including volatile hours, rotating shift work, unpredictable work hours and lack of choice on the part of the employee. These trends are of concern to those interested in fostering levels of civic engagement because they potentially limit volunteering. This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) containing information on work schedules in 2011 and 2013 among employees to determine the effect of changes in work schedules on becoming a volunteer using transition regressions. We investigate interactions between work‐schedule measures and pay structure because workers paid by the hour have lower volunteer rates than salaried workers. The study finds that, while three of the schedule dimensions are unrelated to volunteering, transitioning toward more schedule control has a positive effect on volunteering. However, interaction analysis shows this positive effect is confined to salaried workers whereas for hourly paid workers the effect is negative. The results support the idea that having more freedom to set one's work schedule reduces work‐life conflict but suggest that this positive effect is limited to those who can take advantage of it.

A Qualitative Study on Vocational High School Graduate Early Career Employees’ Participation Experience in Work First-then to College

이 연구는 특성화고 및 마이스터고졸 초기경력자의 후진학 참여 경험을 현상학적 연구방법에 따라 들여다봄으로써 후진학 참여 과정과 결과를 보다 심도 있게 분석하였다. 연구 참여자는 특성화고 및 마이스터고 졸업자 중 재직경력 7년 미만의 초기경력자로 후진학 유형, 기업규모 및 직무분야를 고려하여 총 9명을 선정하였다. 이들을 대상으로 심층면담을 실시하였으며, 24개의 주제, 11개의 주제 묶음 및 4개의 범주를 도출하였다. 연구의 주요 결론 및 시사점은 첫째, 초기경력자의 후진학 참여 동기는 대체로 고등학교 재학 중에 소속학교의 홍보와 담임교사의 추천으로 생기게 되며, 기업에 재직 중 대학 학력에 대한 필요성에 대해 인지하면서 생기게 되는데, 후진학 참여 및 접근성에 지역별 편차가 존재하여 이를 개선할 필요가 있다. 둘째, 초기경력자의 소속 기관에서 등록금 지원, 수업 참여를 보장하는 등의 우호적인 경우가 있을 시 보다 효과적으로 후진학 제도에 참여할 수 있으며, 후진학에 대해 조직구성원이 부정적인 태도를 보이거나 근무시간 조정이 이루어지지 않는 등 후진학에 대한 조직의 지원이 미흡한 경우엔 참여에 어려움을 느낀다. 셋째, 초기경력자는 후진학 제도에 참여한 이후 대체로 만족도가 높은 편이나, 후진학 유형이나 프로그램에 따라 교육 내용 및 방법을 포함한 교육과정이 담당 직무와 관련성이 적은 경우가 많아 후진학의 효과를 높이기 위한 개선 및 노력이 필요하다. 넷째, 초기경력자는 후진학 제도에 참여함으로써 학습한 내용을 실제 업무에 적용하는 등의 수행능력 향상을 경험하기도 하지만, 대체로 관련 자격과 대학 학위취득을 통해서 개인의 경력을 개발하여 더 나은 직장으로의 이직을 목적으로 하고 있어, 후진학 성과를 제도화하기 위한 개선이 필요하다.

“Maybe baby?” The employment risk of potential parenthood

AbstractResearch grounded in gender role theories has shown that women face numerous employment disadvantages relative to men, with mothers often facing the greatest obstacles. We extend this literature by proposing that motherhood is not a necessary condition for women to face motherhood penalties. Instead, managers' expectations that an applicant will have a child in the near future (i.e., “maybe baby” expectations) increases their perceptions of risk associated with employing childfree, childbearing‐aged women—but not men. Investigating the intersection of gender and age, and integrating economic theories of discrimination, we conceptualize hiring as a risk assessment process, proposing that managers' risk perceptions drive more precarious employment conditions for this group of women. Results from a field study with early career employees (Study 1) and a randomized experiment with hiring managers (Study 2) support our predictions across attitudinal (e.g., desire to offer a temporary job contract; Study 2) and objective indicators (e.g., having a temporary job contract; Study 1); female applicants can also mitigate this “maybe baby” risk by signaling a lack of interest in having children or by emphasizing their commitment and work ethic (Study 2). Our findings suggest that the perceived risks of parenthood can be hazardous for child‐bearing‐aged, childfree working women who simply may become parents (vs. men and mothers; vs. childfree women who are significantly younger or older than the average age of the first childbearing in the local context).

The Effect of Respect: Respectful Communication at Work Drives Resiliency, Engagement, and Job Satisfaction among Early Career Employees

Today’s business leaders face an unprecedented challenge of engaging and retaining young workers. We examined two facets of workplace respect to determine how leaders might combat this issue. A model was tested to examine the relationship of respectful engagement, autonomous respect, and occupational resilience on job outcomes. A survey of 1,036 U.S. young workers aged 21 to 34, employed full-time, revealed that autonomous respect was a stronger predictor of occupational resilience than respectful engagement. Additionally, there was a significant positive relationship between occupational resilience and job satisfaction, employee loyalty, and job engagement. Finally, the relationship of both respectful engagement and autonomous respect on job outcomes was positively mediated by occupational resilience, further substantiating the positive benefits of respectful communication on employees’ wellbeing and, ultimately, positive long-term business benefits.

Talent management, identity construction and the burden of elitism: The case of management trainees in Hong Kong

How do ‘talented’ people become corporate elites, and what does the process of becoming elites mean to them? The story of talent management (TM) as a new form of human resource innovation has largely been told from the point of view of managers and the organization. Rarely do we hear the voices of the early-career employees who are the subject of these initiatives. Building on the critique of ‘potentiality’, and with reference to Foucault’s disciplinary power, we examine the discursive practices via which firms shape the subjectivities of high-potential talented people by constructing an identity of a privileged elite and setting them up as future leaders. With reference to a sample of Hong Kong management trainees, we examine how this discourse is sustained, fractured, legitimized and resisted, and thus contribute to the critique of TM and how it constructs a ‘burden of elitism’ amongst the chosen ones.

The Effect of Work Schedule Control on Volunteering Among Early Career Employees

Recent trends in the labor market see increasing numbers of workers having to deal with precarity including volatile hours, rotating shift work, unpredictable work hours and lack of choice on the part of the employee. These trends are of concern to those interested in fostering levels of civic engagement because they potentially limit volunteering. This study uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) containing information on work schedules in 2011 and 2013 among employees to determine the effect of changes in work schedules on becoming a volunteer using transition regressions. We investigate interactions between work schedule measures and pay structure because workers paid by the hour have lower volunteer rates than salaried workers. The study finds that, while three of the schedule dimensions are unrelated to volunteering, transitioning towards more schedule control has a positive effect on volunteering. However, interaction analysis shows this positive effect is confined to salaried workers whereas for hourly paid workers the effect is negative. The results support the idea that having more freedom to set one's work schedule reduces work-life conflict but suggest that this positive effect is limited to those who can take advantage of it.

The role of career competencies and proactive personality in early-career employee career adaptability

Purpose Employees with high career competencies are more successful in career development. However, it is unclear whether proactivity matters for early-career employees. Thus, this study aims to investigate the influence of career competencies and proactive personality on career adaptability and the moderating role of proactive personality in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a quantitative methodology, collecting data through online questionnaires from respondents (n = 400) who had less than five years of work experience in the UAE. A measurement model and hypotheses testing were conducted using AMOS software. Multigroup structural equation modelling was used to test the moderation model. Findings The results show a direct relationship between career competencies and career adaptability. However, a proactive personality is insignificantly related to career adaptability. Further, early-career employees with low proactive personality benefit from high career competencies. Originality/value This study offers contributions to the emerging understanding of career construction by emphasising the important role of career competencies for early-career employees who manifest a low proactive personality.

The Moderated Moderation Effects of Leader-Member Exchange and Learning Organization on the Relationship between Protean Career Attitude and Subjective Career Success for Early Career Employees in Small-Medium Sized Enterprises

The Moderated Moderation Effects of Leader-Member Exchange and Learning Organization on the Relationship between Protean Career Attitude and Subjective Career Success for Early Career Employees in Small-Medium Sized Enterprises

“Maybe Baby?” The Risky Business of Potential Parenthood

Research grounded in lack of fit and gender role theories has shown that women face numerous employment disadvantages relative to men, with mothers often facing even greater obstacles. Integrating intersectionality theory, we challenge this dichotomy, proposing that motherhood is not a necessary condition for women to face motherhood penalties. Instead, we argue that managers’ expectations a childbearing-aged applicant will have a child in the near future (i.e., “maybe baby” bias) increase their perceptions of risk associated with employing women–but not men–especially for more costly positions (i.e., with more maternal leave benefits). Conceptualizing hiring as a risk assessment process, we further propose that managers’ perceived risk and cost drive more risk-averse employment conditions (e.g., shorter job tenure, less likely to be hired) for these women. Results largely supported our predictions across attitudinal and objective indicators, triangulating evidence via a field study with early-career employees (Study 1) and an experiment with hiring managers (Study 2). Extensive research has shown that mothers face greater employment obstacles than their childfree or male counterparts. However, the current findings suggest that the perceived risks and costs of parenthood can be more hazardous for the employment of women who simply have the potential to become parents.