Do Career Self-Management Behaviors Predict the Employee Commitment? A Study of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Firms in Sri Lanka

Abstract

In the contemporary organizational environment where there is no guarantee for long term employment, the employees are responsible for managing their own careers by the involvement of a range of career self-management behaviors. In such an environment, whether the employees are committed to their organizations is questionable. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is an effect of employee career self-management behaviors on their commitment. An online survey was distributed among a random sample of 200 managerial level employees of 20 BPO firms. With a response rate of 47%, 94 managerial level employees reported the effects of career self-management behaviors such as networking behavior, visibility behavior, and mobility behavior on employee commitment. Based on multiple hierarchical regression analysis, it was found that the networking and visibility behaviors promote employee affective commitment and normative commitment whereas the externally oriented mobility behavior results in lowering the employee affective attachment and normative commitment. These findings provide implications to the theory of proactive behavior and the social cognitive career theory. In terms of managerial implications, the firms should create an organizational culture that is conducive for employees to involve with career self-management behaviors aimed at furthering careers within the organization. The limitations and the implications of the study for future research are also discussed.