This article is about the results a 2-wave longitudinally researches studying interactions among managerial and individual profession management actions and organizational dedication in the first years of graduate careers. Numerous theories are experienced and obtain varied support. High organizational dedication predicts the performance of career management actions by graduates to further their occupation within the organization while little commitment is directly connected with behavior oriented at having to build the career outside the company. Graduates who control their own careers moreover obtain more career management assistance from their company. This gives an opinion that there may be the prospective for employers to generate a "honorable circle" of career management in which personal along with organizational activities go together with each other.
This paper reports the findings of a two-wave longitudinal study investigating relationships between organizational and individual career management activities and organizational commitment in the early years of graduate careers. Several hypotheses are tested and receive mixed support. High organizational commitment predicts the practice of career management activities by graduates to further their career within the organization while low commitment is closely associated with behavior aimed at furthering the career outside the organization. Graduates who manage their own careers also receive more career management help from their employer. This suggests that there may be the potential for employers to create a 'virtuous circle' of career management in which individual and organizational activities complement each other. Over the years there has been extensive research on the nature, antecedents and consequences of organizational commitment. One reason for recent interest in the topic has been a concern that changes in organizations make it less feasible to sustain commitment by offering the traditional career advancement and other inducements that might encourage talented employees to remain with. It is also suggested that employees are changing their values and priorities, are more willing to take control of their own careers and welcome the idea of the boundary less career.
Many large organizations in the UK, the USA and other highly industrialized countries continue the practice of carefully recruiting and developing an elite cadre of university graduates in the hope that they will form the future leadership of the organization. However, concerns about the returns from a long-term investment in career development have led some organizations to question whether a traditional emphasis on the management of graduate recruits' careers should be maintained. This presents employers with a dilemma. Should they encourage career self management, even though it may result in employees 'managing themselves' out of the organization; or should they maintain their more traditional systems of career management and run the risk that a failure to deliver implicit promises may result in disaffection with the organization, reduced commitment and increased propensity to quit? Equally, there is an issue for graduates who have to decide whether to engage in career self-management or whether to trust the organization to look after them. In this context, the role of organizational commitment may be crucial both in shaping reactions to corporate career development practices and in serving as a key indicator of the impact of such practices. Yet little research to date has specifically investigated the effects of career management practices on organizational commitment, despite evidence that they seem likely to make an important contribution to it. Furthermore, most research on career management and organizational commitment is cross-sectional. This paper reports the findings of a study of young UK graduates which examines the relationships between specific kinds of career management activities and organizational commitment. The study adds to the career management and organizational commitment literature by utilizing a longitudinal panel design which allows analysis of career management influence on organizational commitment and vice versa.
Career management has been defined as 'attempts made to influence the career development of one of more people' and may take the form of a range of more or less formal activities ranging from training courses and assessment centers to mentoring and careers advice. A key characteristic of what can be termed 'organizational career management' is that it is largely planned and managed by the organization. In contrast, career self-management is under the control of the individual and consists of gathering 'information and plans for career problem solving and decision-making. It involves two main behaviors: one relating to continuous improvement in one's current job . . . and the other related to movement-job mobility preparedness'. Organizational career management and career self-management are not mutually exclusive; indeed the former may help to promote the latter.
Organizational commitment can be conceived of as having several dimensions. However, the focus of this paper is on the core dimension of affective commitment, defined as 'the relative strength of an individual's identification with and involvement in a particular organization'. It is this dimension of commitment which has been the most extensively researched in terms of its antecedents and consequences. |
