This chapter discusses about the background of the study, statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, research questions, definitions of key terms, and finally significance of the study.
Background of the Study
Nowadays, individuals have the opportunities to comprehend, handle and leverage this competitive global context for career progression and growth through accumulating personal career competencies (Arthur, Inkson, & Pringle, 1999;
DeFillippi & Arthur, 1994; Jones & Lichtenstein, 2000; Parker & Arthur, 2000).
Lichtenstein and Mendenhall (2002) suggested that individuals must develop career competencies in order to facilitate their career development in a boundaryless career environment (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1994; Jones & DeFillippi, 1996; Jones &
Lichtenstein, 2000). Therefore, by acquiring career competencies, individuals can have a prosperous career. In other words, individuals pursue career success outcome (e.g., career satisfaction and perceive employability) and competitive advantages through exploring and developing unique talents, strengths, and psychological capacities.
Psychological capital (PsyCap) may enable individuals to cope with the complexity of careers in the dynamic working environment (Avey, Luthans, Smith, &
Palmer, 2010). PsyCap has been demonstrated conceptually (Luthans, Youssef, &
Avolio, 2007) and empirically to represent an individual’s positive psychological state of development (Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007). PsyCap consists of the four positive psychological resources, including efficacy, hope, optimism, and
resiliency. Research showed that individual with the positive psychological capacities report higher self-efficacy, have optimistic expectation, and set higher goals for themselves. As Lyubomirsky, King, and Diener (2005) asserted that these four positive psychological resources could help individual thrive and succeed at work.
Career success has an impact both on individuals and on organizations because individuals’ career success (self-determined success) leads to organizational success (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen, & Barrick, 1999). Career success is the accomplishment of desirable work-related outcomes of a person’s career experiences.
Statement of the Problem
A wealth of literatures had demonstrated many antecedents of career success in recent year (Judge et al., 1999). Research showed that human capital (e.g., education, work experience, and training) and demographic factors (e.g., age, gender, and marital status) have influences on career success (Judge & Bretz, 1994; Judge, Cable, Boudreau, & Bretz, 1995). McGregor, Tweed and Pech (2004) suggested that given in the work context and employment relationship, there had been an increased demand on the new knowledge worker to display the necessary skills, the unique characteristic and the distinct competencies to compete in a globalized world. However, it was widely accepted that a weakness of career theory is the lack of an adequate conceptualization of career success from the individual’s perspective (Poole, Langan-Fox, & Omodei, 1993). Although several researches have taken broad-based different approaches to identify the predictors of career success (Kirchmeyer, 1998;
Seibert & Kraimer, 2001), this research attempted to explore potential factors, psychological capital and career capital, to influence and enhance career success.
Psychological capital serves as the antecedent in predicting career success. An
individuals’ positive psychological state is helpful to accumulate individual career capital in the workplace. Individual have confidence to take on challenging tasks and make a positive attribution toward things. Similarly, when faced the difficulties or failures, individuals have ability to bounce back and adjust well. Besides, there was little literature examining the mediating effect of career capital on the relationship between PsyCap and career success. Individual mental resources such as hope, resiliency, optimism, and self-efficacy can contribute to the development of personal career competencies, thus leading to career success.
Purpose of the Study
This research focused on exploring the relationship among PsyCap, career capital, and career success through analyzing the data collected form recruiters in career fairs on university campus in the northern Taiwan. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effect of career capital on the relationship between PsyCap and career success. To be more detailed, this study has two goals.
One was to investigate how PsyCap relates to career capital and career capital relates to career success. The other one was to identify the mediating effect of career capital on the relationship between PsyCap and career success.
Research Questions
Based on the above purpose of this study, the research questions were proposed as follows:
1. Does psychological capital have a positive effect on career success?
2. Does psychological capital have a positive effect on career capital?
3. Does career capital have a positive effect on career success?
4. Does career capital mediate the relationship between psychological capital and career satisfaction?
5. Does career capital mediate the relationship between psychological capital and hierarchical status?
Definitions of Key Terms
There are three key terms in this research, career capital, career success, and psychological capital (PsyCap).
Career Capital
From a resource-based perspective, career capital can be regarded as the capital that individual possess a unique portfolio of capitals and facilitate their career development in a boundaryless environment. Through the acquisition or accumulation of three key career competencies, which are Knowing-how, Knowing whom, Knowing why (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1994; Dickmann & Harris, 2005), individual cultivate these career competencies as their own career capital to prosper in his or her career (Inkson & Arthur, 2001).
Career Success
According to Judge et al. (1995), career success was defined as the positive psychological outcomes or achievements one has accumulated as a result of experiences over the span of working life.
Psychological Capital (PsyCap)
Psychological capital (PsyCap) was defined as “an individual’s positive
psychological state of development and is characterized by: self-efficacy, optimism, hope, resilience” (Luthans et al., 2007, p.542).
Significance of the Study
This study contributed to both theoretical and practical fields. For the academic area, this research attempts to examine the mediating effect of career capital on the relationship between PsyCap and career success. It is pivotal to understand whether psychological capital and career capital play important roles in the literatures of career development fields.
For the practice, the results of this research may help organizations put the emphasis on investing employees’ career capital and psychological capital. For instance, the companies in various industries provide opportunities or training programs for individuals to develop new skills and build both intimal and external networks. Then, employees perform well in their positions. As a result, the enterprises could create the win-win situation for organizations and employees.
To pursue a sustainable career development of enterprises, human resource development practitioners may consider more proactively the development of career competencies for employees.