| This dissertation tests hypotheses in a new model of Employee Self Development (ESD) and examines factors that predict employees' engagement in such types of activities. Employee Self Development is employees' voluntary behavior resulting in improving their knowledge, skills, and abilities that might potentially benefit organizational effectiveness. Based on the extra-role behavior and employee development literatures, a theoretical framework that outlines key individual characteristics as well as important contextual factors that are proposed to predict individuals' voluntary involvement in job-related self development is developed. Questionnaire survey data were collected with employed MBA students and alumni in a business school and their non-MBA coworkers, for a total of 418 respondents. The findings supported that the new measures of Intention for ESD and Participation in ESD had convergent validity, and discriminant validity from Organizational Citizenship Behavior, personal initiative, and functional participation, and better predictive validity compared to the latter constructs. Second, the findings supported the proposed model of the effects of individual characteristics on participation ESD; the higher employees' Self Efficacy for Development, Openness to Experience, Future Time Perspective, Uncertainty Avoidance, Job Involvement and Career Motivation of employees, the higher their Participation in ESD. Third, the effects of the above individual characteristics on Participation in ESD were mediated by employee's Intention for ESD. Fourth, several contextual effects including Supervisory Support, Coworker Support, Organizational Support, and Non-work Support had been found to have positive effects on Participation in ESD. Further, Supervisory Support interacted with employees' Intention for ESD to affect their Participation in ESD such that this relationship was significantly stronger when employees perceive higher Supervisory Support. Finally, the potential effects of Employee Self Development on employees' intention to leave and work performance were also explored. The study's findings demonstrated that employees who engage in ESD are more likely to get salary increases and recognition while at the same time, have higher intention to leave the organization. The value of this new concept of Employee Self Development and its implication for theory and practice are discussed. |
