Investigating The Within-person Variations In Career Adaptability And Its Impact On Employee Daily Outcomes

Previous studies have investigated career adaptability at between-person levels and have neglected the possibility that it can vary in a short time period,such as daily.Drawing on the assumptions of Savickas career construction theory-CCT,this research intended to investigate within-person variations in career adaptability and its relation with employees’ daily job outcomes i.e.,orientation to happiness,job performance,and turnover intentions.Theorizing the impact of daily career adaptability on daily orientation to happiness of employees in organizations,this study investigates the relation of employee daily career adaptability with his’ daily job performance and turnover intentions.Moreover,this research presented perceived career opportunities-PCO as a boundary condition of the within-person relationships of career adaptability with employee daily job outcomes in organizations.It was theorized that PCO is a kind of psychological resource which has a potential to positively affect an individual’s outcomes in the organization.It was suggested that although higher orientation to happiness resulting from high career adaptability may improve employees’ job performance and alleviate their turnover intentions,these relationships may be weak when there is a low perception about the availability of desired career opportunities in the current organization.Using data collected from 179 respondents(53 supervisors and their 126 subordinates)across seven days,the authors found that daily orientation to happiness mediates the relationships between daily career adaptability-daily job performance and daily career adaptability-daily turnover intentions in positive and negative directions respectively.Moreover,perceived career opportunities(PCO)moderated these relationships such that the mediated relationships are weak at lower levels of PCO.Theoretical and practical implications have also been discussed.For the testing of these hypothesized direct,indirect,and moderated relationships in the daily settings the data was collected from 179 respondents which included 53 supervisors and 126 subordinates for 7 consecutive days(N=882).These 179 respondents belonged to the variety of jobs and industries which enhanced the generalization of this research study.The findings reveal the evidence for the significant existence of within-person variations in career adaptability.The daily orientation to happiness was found as a significant mediator in the relationships of daily career adaptability →daily job performance and daily career adaptability → daily turnover intentions.These results have shown that individuals’ daily career adaptability is related to daily orientation to happiness which helps them to improve their job outcomes in the organizations in the form of high performance and low turnover intentions.The research study has important practical implications for the managers and organizations to ponder over their attention to the important concept of within-person career adaptability to make them adjustable and adaptable according to the dynamic changes happening on daily bases in the organizations.