Research On The Impact Of Work Stressors On Career Growth Of Military Scientific And Technical Personnel

As a typical group under high occupational stress,the military research and technical personnel are always in a stress situation.With more and more new technologies applied in the military field,military technology changes rapidly.So the traditional methods of knowledge transfer and diffusion for the army research staff,such as apprenticeship and training provided by organizations,can not catch up with the speed of knowledge updating.It is necessary to develop military scientific and technical personnel’s ability of self-learning to help them grow.Moreover,recently the Central Military Commission proposed to establish the system of the military officer professionalism and gradually form a scientific and standardized system of military cadres.Finally,in the Chinese context most of the military personnel may come across career bottleneck after certain years and they have to transfer to civilian work.Therefore,research on the career growth of Chinese military scientific and technical personnel can respond to the advocacy of establishing the system of the military officer professionalism and help military scientific and technical personnel to cope with the potential stress of transferring to civilian work.Based on cognitive activation theory of stress(CATS)and coginitive information processing theory(CIPT),we construct a model of how work stressors exerting influence on career growth.Based on literature analysis,we firstly elaborate CATS and CIPT,and then definite the concepts of work stressors,career growth,intrinsic motivation,career self-efficacy,sponsorship career support and career goal focus.Then,drawing from existing literatures about career growth and interviewed materials,a two-dimension structural career growth scale is put forward.Based on CATS,we build the direct effect of work stressors on career growth.Based on CIPT,we build multiple mediating model to explain the inner mechanism of work stressors on career growth.Based on career management theory,we build moderating effect to explain to which extent work stressors exert influence on career growth.Multi-method research desigh was used in this study,semi-structured interiews used as supplementary analysis and questionnaire survey used to testhypotheses.Using questionnaire and interviews,we collected data from 1106 workers in military research organizations.And we used item analysis,exploratory factor analysis,confirmed factor analysis and regression analysis to test the two-dimension structure of career growth.This study proposed that career growth is a two-dimention construct including quantitative career growth and qualitative career growth.Quantatitve career growth denoted the growth rate of job feature such as remuneration and promotion,and qualitative career growth denoted the value of the job changes in current organization.We found the structure stable and reliable,which could be used in the empirical researches.Then,we collected data from 233 research workers,and used hierarchical regression model and repeated sampling method to test the intrinsic mechanism and to which extent work stressors affect career growth.Based on CATS,the relationship of work streesors with career growth was showed.Challenge stressors positively and significantly predict qualitive and quantitative career growth.Hindrance stressors positively and negatively predict qualitive and quantitative career growth.Drawing from CIPT,this study proposed the multiple mediating model of career self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation between work stressors and career growth,to explain the inner mechanism of the effects of work stressors on career growth.Challenge stressors can improve career growth through increase career self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation.Hindrance stressors can hinder career growth through decrease self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation.Furthermore,we find work stressors affect qualitive career growth through “self-efficacy-intrinsic motivation” path.Drawing from career management theory,we build moderating effects of supervisor career sponsorship and career goal focus between work stressors and career growth.This study shows that supervisor sponsorship and career goal focus can strengthen the positive effects of challenge stressors on quantitative career growth,while weaken the negative effects of hindrance stressors on qualitative career growth.Based on empirical research results,this study put up with stress management and career growth improvement strategy.It includes managing stress based on CATS,improving career management based on the CIPT,improving quality of supervisor sponsorship,and improving career goal focus through regulating organizational management.This study uses military scientific and technical personnel as samples.This research explores both the mechanism and boundary condtions of how work stressors exert influences on career growth.Results can provide theoretical foundational base and practical instructions to military scientific organizations to put forward plans to promote employees’ career growth.