The Empirical Study On Protean Career Attitudes And Organizational Commitment

The Information Age and economic globalization have led to the transformation of organizational structures,in that the employment relation has been changing from the traditional long-term,stable one to a short-term,loose one.For individuals,the shift from relational psychological contracts to transactional psychological contracts not only dramatically changes their career attitudes and behaviors,but also suggests an independent approach to the career.Such self-directed and value-driven career attitudes are identified as protean career attitudes.That change in career attitudes would affect the relationship between employees and their organizations,which could in turn impact their organizational commitment as shown in the recent high turnover rate in China context.As a result,this study examined the relationship of protean career attitudes towards organizational commitment for Chinese employees,and whether perceived organizational support has a moderating effect on those relationships.Results from 514 Chinese employees demonstrate that self-directed career orientation is positively related to affective commitment,while values-driven career orientation is negatively related to continuance and normative commitments.Perceived organizational support does not moderate the previous relationships.The study shows that organizational support as an external effect does not significantly moderate the dynamics between protean career orientation and organizational commitment.Further study could focus on internal variables as moderator since protean career orientation is internally-driven.