Submission Page. Title : The Structural Relations among Protean Career, Boundaryless Career, and Other Related Variables

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1 Submission Page Title : The Structural Relations among Protean Career, Boundaryless Career, and Other Related Variables Author : Park, Yongho (Assistant Professor, Incheon National University) Copyright details : Copyright 2014 Yongho Park Submission Type : Referred paper Keywords : organizational learning climate, protean career, boundaryless career, self-directed learning ability

2 Abstract This study aims to empirically investigate the effects of organizational learning climate and self-directed learning ability on the new careers including protean career and boundaryless career. Based on the previous studies, the effects of learning climate and selfdirected learning ability on the new career were proposed. Especially, the direct and indirect influence of the independent variables (organizational learning climate and self-directed learning ability) was included in the research model. The study results showed that all the paths of the research model were statistically significant. Also, the study results showed that the direct effects of the independent variables variables (organizational learning climate and self-directed learning ability) were larger than indirect effects on the protean career and boundaryless career. The implication and the suggestion for the future studies were provided.

3 The Structural Relations among Protean Career, Boundaryless Career, and Other Related Variables The world has undergone dramatic and rapid changes that have had profound effects on the world of work, which is the context of careers (Cascio, 2000; Ulrich, 1998). The changes in the nature of work have critical meaning for an individual s career in the contemporary business world (Greenhaus et al., 2000). Traditional career arrangements emphasize vertical progression in one or two firms and the amount of success is defined by the organization in terms of increased responsibility and salary. The nature of work has become flatter and more flexible. In addition, the boundary of the career landscape is also becoming wider (Arthur et al., 1999). This trend has been named the boundaryless career and this concept is evident in various ways (Hall, 2002). It has become far more common for an employee to be in career transition and in exploration of new career options based on the boundaryless career context (Peiperl and Lidewey, 1999). In the same vein of boundary changing, there has been a tremendous increase in various work arrangements including self-employment, independent contracting, temporary workers, and on-call workers (Granrose and Baccili, 2006; Hall, 2002; Polivka, 1996). Hall (2002) proposed that speed and complexity are the two key qualities of organizational transformation in the modern business world. In that career context, the career research focus has been moved through the broad occupational field, specific jobs, and matching person and organization (Hall, 2002). With regard to the focus of the career research in the 21 st century, Hall argued that the central focus is the self. According to him, instead of the organization, the individual has to have the responsibility of career development in the rapid changing society. This trend has been named the protean career (Hall and Associates, 1986, 1996; Hall and Moss, 1998). Protean career reflects a new psychological contract between employer and employee which is based on the transactional relationship.

4 The protean career and the boundaryless career are two popular career perspectives. The former refers to a career that is driven by the person, not the organization, where as the latter denotes a career that is independent from, rather than dependent on, traditional career arrangements. Protean career and boundaryless career have been increasingly researched in relationship to several variables during last several years. In addition, the studies have called these emerging career concept is new career. The New careers have received widespread attention in the career literature and practice; however, empirical research on the relationships with other variables is still in its early stages (especially, both career perspectives). Especially, the studies investigating the two new career concepts are very limited. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the effects of organizational learning climate and self-directed learning ability on the new careers (protean & boundaryless career). Protean career According to Hall (1996), the modern career should be protean, driven by the individual, not the organization. Also, Hall (2002) believed that the modern career is made up of a lifelong series of short learning stages, with career growth involving a process of continuous learning occasions fueled by a combination of the person, work challenges, relationships, and lifelong learning. The concept of the protean career has been discussed in various research populations, including academic scholars, mid-career or aged workforces, and women employees. According to Hall (2002, 2004), the protean careerist should be a continual learner who is always open to new possibilities and views their own career as a series of learning cycles. Also, individual having the protean career attitude shows the strong

5 calling orientation in the work place (Hall and Chandler, 2005; Hall and Mirvis, 1995, 1996; Harrington and Hall, 2007). The calling orientation is kind of the strong sense of the subjective career success (Dobrow, 2006; Gattiker and Larwood, 1986; Novak, 1996; Shepard, 1984; Wrzesniewski, 1999, 2002, 2003; Wrzesniewski et al, 1997). The fact that the protean career is based on continuous learning has implications for research on the concept from the HRD perspective. Boundaryless career The boundaryless career is defined as a sequence of job opportunities that goes beyond the boundaries of any single employment settings (Colakoglu, 2005; De Filippi and Arthur, 1994). Even though Arthur (1994) has noted that there are multiple meanings beyond this general meaning, the reviewed literature demonstrates that the boundaryless career is typically examined with regard to crossing organizational boundaries and is characterized by physical mobility (Inkson, 2006). Sullivan and Arthur (2006) generalize the boundaryless career to include psychological as well as physical mobility. Reflecting the psychological dimension of boundaryless career, Briscoe et al. (2006) operationalized the boundaryless career along two dimensions: Organizational mobility preference and boundaryless mindset. Organizational mobility preference is defined as the strength of interest in remaining with a single (or multiple) employer(s) and boundaryless mindset is conceptualized as one's general attitude to working across organizational boundaries (Briscoe et al., 2006, p. 33). Relations new careers and other variables Previous studies have argued that there is similarity between organizational learning climate(dimensions of learning organization) and the environment enhancing individual s

6 self-directed learning (e.g., Park, 2009). In addition, this self-directed learning ability is needed for new careers (Hall, 2002; De Filippi & Arthur, 1994). These previous studies arguing the importance of self-directed learning ability for new careers have suggested that employers are still responsible for providing continuous learning opportunities and the resources needed by employees to manage their own careers. Regarding the relationship between organizational climate and new careers, Lips-Wiersma and Hall (2007) examined organization is taking responsibility for various aspects of career management integrated in a range of five core management practices including developing capacity and employability, strategic and structural integration, cultural integration, diversity management, and communication. Based on their argument, the relationship between organizational learning climate and new career can be proposed. This study is based on the below research model which is constructed through the relations among variables. <Insert Figure 1> Research method Sample The participants of this study were employees of a Korean financial service company. To collect data, this study used a survey. Total 400 survey request were sent to the financial service company employees. After excluding outliers and cases having missing data, the final research data was composed of 319 cases. The final valid response rate was 79.8%. The final research data were collected from 216 males (67.7%) and 103 females (32.3%). The average age was 35.7 (SD = 6.5). The average organizational career experience was 65.2 months (SD = 57.7). In terms of highest education level, 11.9% (n = 38) of the participants had a high

7 school or two-year college degree, 80.3% (n = 256) had a four-year college degree, and 7.8% (n = 25) had a master s or doctor s degree. The average organizational career experience was 65.2 months (SD = 57.7). In terms of position level, 62.7% (n = 200) of the participants were under managerial position employees, 28.2% (n = 90) were manager, 8.5% (n = 27) were general manager, and 0.6%(n = 2) were executive manager. Instrumentation Protean career. To measure an individual s protean career attitude, the Self-directed Career Management Scale, developed by Jon Briscoe and Douglas Hall, was used in this study. Briscoe and Hall (2002) constructed a model for the protean career with both a valuedriven attitude and a self-directed attitude toward career management. Based on their model, the Self-directed Career Management Scale (eight items) and Value-driven Scale (six items) compose the Protean Career Attitude Scale, having a total of 14 question items. The question items of the current study showed the appropriate internal consistency (Self-directed Career Management Scale, α =.859; Value-driven Scale, α =.784). Boundaryless Career. To assess the boundaryless career, the Boundaryless Career Attitude Scale, developed by Briscoe, Hall, and DeMuth. This scale is composed by two sub scale including Boundaryless Mindset Scale(eight items) and Organizational Mobility Preference Scale (five items). The question items showed the appropriate internal consistency (Boundaryless Mindset Scale, α =.900; Organizational Mobility Preference Scale, α =.802). Organizational Learning Climate. To assess the organizational learning climate, this study employed the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ). This instrument is composed of seven learning organization dimensions conceptualized from seven action imperatives of the learning organization based on Marsick and Watkins model (2003): create continuous learning opportunities (continuous learning, e.g. In my

8 organization, people are rewarded for learning ), promote inquiry and dialogue (dialogue and inquiry, e.g. In my organization, people spend time building trust with each other ), encourage collaboration and team learning (team learning, e.g. In my organization, teams/groups have the freedom to adapt their goals as needed ), create systems to capture and share learning (embedded system, e.g. My organization creates systems to measure gaps between current and expected performance ), empower people toward a collective vision (empowerment, e.g. My organization recognizes people for taking initiative ), connect the organization to its environment (system connection, e.g. My organization work together with the outside community to meet mutual needs ), and provide strategic leadership for learning (provide leadership, e.g. In my organization, leaders continually look for opportunity to learn ). The term dimension was used for reflecting different aspects of constructing the learning organization. In this study, the short version of the DLOQ was used (Watkins & Marsick, 1996). The short version of the DLOQ was constructed three question items for each specific dimensions of learning climate(yang, 2003). The reliability ranged from α =.804 to α =.890 (continuous learning, α =.804; dialogue and inquiry, α =.846; team learning, α =.829; embedded system, α =.872; empowerment, α =.863; system connection, α =.870; and provide leadership, α =.890). Self-directed learning ability. The scale for assessing the self-directed learning ability was developed by Bae and Lee. Bae and Lee(2010) developed Self-directed Learning Ability Inventory composed of seven sub scale including management of learning process (3 items, α=.802), evaluation of learning outcome (3 items, α=.849), motivation for learning (3 items, α=.834), self concept (3 items, α=.872), continuity of learning activity (3 items, α=.865), using and management of learning resource (3 items, α=.868), making learning environment (3 items, α=.890).

9 Analyses Firstly, the descriptive and correlation analyses were conducted. Then, to find the answer for the study purpose, the SEM was conducted. For the SEM, first, the author fit a measurement model to the data and, second, tested the underlying structural model. Several indicators of the model-data fit should be consulted for evaluating the adequacy of the models (Byrne, 2006; Diamantopoulos and Siguaw, 2000; Gonzalez and Griffin, 2001; Munro, 2005). Specifically, this study used chi-square, CFI, NFI, TLI, RMSEA. Traditionally, a good-fitting model is one that has a CFI, NFI, or TLI greater than.90 (Bentler and Bonnett, 1980; Bentler and Chou, 1987; Hair et al., 1998; Kline, 1998). Also, previous studies suggests that a satisfactory model fit is indicated by RMSEA values no higher than.08 (Bentler, 1990; Browne and Cudeck, 1993; Vandenberg and Lance, 2000). To analyze the results, SPSS 19.0 and AMOS 12 statistic software packages were used in the current study. Results Table 1 shows the results of the correlation and descriptive analyses. Pearson s correlation coefficients were used to examine the relationship among the variables. Specifically, The strongest correlation is between organizational learning climate and selfdirected learning ability (r =.302, p <.001). Protean career and boundaryless career has statistically significant relationship (r =.175, p <.01). Other correlation were all has statistically significant. <Insert Table1>

10 Figure 2 shows the paths for the final model. The path between the organizational learning climate and self-directed learning ability was found to be significant (β =.294, p <.001). Also, organization learning climate has significant influence on the protean career (β =.112, p <.05) and boundaryless career (β =.192, p <.01). Self-directed learning ability has the significant relationship with protean career (β =.170, p <.05), and boundaryless career (β =.106, p <.05). Regarding the direct and indirect influence of the independent variables on the dependent variable, table 3 showed the study results in detail. In the total effect of the learning climate on the protean career, about one third is indirect effects through the selfdirected learning ability (β =.049). Also, in the effect of the learning climate on the protean career, about one sixth is indirect effects through the self-directed learning ability (β =.031). There were no indirect effects of the self-directed learning ability on the protean and boundaryless career. < Insert Figure 2> < Insert Table 2 > < Insert Table 3 > Discussion This study aims to investigate the relationships among the new careers including protean career and boundaryless career, organizational learning climate, and self-directed learning ability. Based on the previous studies, the effects of learning climate and selfdirected learning ability on the new career were proposed. Especially, the direct and indirect influence of the independent variables (organizational learning climate and self-directed

11 learning ability) was included in the research model. The study results showed that all the paths of the research model were statistically significant. Also, the study results showed that the direct effects of the independent variables variables (organizational learning climate and self-directed learning ability) were larger than indirect effects on the protean career and boundaryless career. Theoretically, this study showed the effects of the organizational learning climate and individuals self-directed learning ability on new careers were identified through the empirical analysis. The study results confirmed previous studies theoretical suggestions about the relationships among research variables. Especially, this study provided the evidence of the organizational and individual learning competency is able to the individual s career management behavior. These findings will be the useful theoretical background for the future studies. Also, this study showed the relative importance of organizational learning climate and self-directed learning ability in influencing on the new career was identified. The study results showed the direct and indirect effects of the two independent variables. Respectively, on the protean career, self-directed learning ability has larger effects, and learning climate has larger effects on the boundaryless career. On the basis of this result, the future studies may consider the different approach to the new careers- protean and boundaryless careers. Practically, the HR practitioners may understand the integrative model of influential factor for the new careers which are the popular attitude in the modern career environment based on this study results. Even though there are several theoretical and practical implications, there are limitations in this study also. The participants of this study consisted of only employees working for one Korean financial company. Therefore, the study results may be applied to some limited context. Also, some demographic variables may also be considered as predictors of the protean career in future studies; however, this study did not include these

12 variables in the research model. Future studies may includes several research variables which will be used for output variables of the new career attitude; for example, commitment, career competency, or career satisfaction.

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18 Protean Career Organizational learning climate Self-directed Learning Ability Boundaryless career Figure 1. Research Model Table 1. Mean, standard deviation, and correlation coefficients of all variables Variables m sd Protean career Boundaryless career ** 3. Organizational learning climate *.169** 4. Self-directed learning ability *.116**.302*** * p <.05; ** p <.01; *** p <.001

19 Protean Career.112 *.170 * Organizational learning climate.294 *** Self-directed Learning Ability.106 *.192 ** Boundaryless career Figure 2. Results for structural Equation Modeling p <.05; ** p <.01; *** p <.001 Table 2. Results for the structural equation modeling Estimate S.E. C.R. P SDL Learning climate Protean Learning climate Boundaryless Learning climate Protean SDL Boundaryless SDL Table 3. Direct and indirect influence of the independent variable Dependent Independent direct indirect total Protean Boundaryless Learning climate SDL Learning climate SDL

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