Based on the summary of hypothesis testing results, this chapter is to discuss the results and conclusion. In addition, limitations and suggestions for the future research are also noted in this chapter.
Conclusion and Discussion
Organizations have had to deal with employees’ turnover intention, which has led to a critical importance of understanding the insight of employees to attract, engage, develop and retain the talents (Somaya, Williamson, & Lorinkova, 2008). This study endeavored to contribute an insight of an organizational behavior, specifically intention to stay among employees who own the protean career orientation, and to investigate whether having a high level of perceived organizational learning culture will enables them to maintain the intention to stay longer. The hypothesis testing results derived from data analysis provided several resources for the conclusion of this research.
The hypothesis one supported answers the first question of this research in introduction section. Regardless of the assumption that protean career orientation leads to less intention to stay (Briscoe & Finkelstein, 2009), employees owning protean career orientation still want to commit their current membership with the organization. This result is also consistent with the research of Hervas-Oliver, Enache, Sallán, Simo, and Fernandez (2013). As such, it strongly confirms that employees with protean career orientation are interested in prolonging their current employment status with the organization. The result can be explained by several key reasons. Protean career employees going with self-direction believe in their own career, the believes lead them to act positively and contributes significantly to emotional attachment to their organizations. In addition to self-direction, full protean orientation employees deeply understand their career journey because of owning their self-value. The self-value engaged
53
with self-direction helps them open the view of the organization and matches with the organization’s values. As long as the values of an individual related to the organization’s values, they remain their intention to stay (Harrington & Hall, 2007). Furthermore, working with the intrinsic value-driven allows protean career orientation to be more enjoyable and intend to stay longer in the company.
Related with perceived organizational learning culture, this study provided the evidences that it accelerated the relationship between protean career orientation and intention to stay. The result emphasized the moderating role of organizational learning culture. First, protean career employees are open to experience and eager to learning, working in an organization which supports and promotes learning inspires employees to work happily.
Second, protean talents are more likely to pay attention to employability security (Chay &
Aryee, 1999), and the organization provides learning culture for continuous learning which develops employees’ ability of employment and also increases the feeling of their job security.
This way benefits to maintain the ongoing relationship between employer and employees (Hall
& Moss, 1998). Therefore, this organizational learning culture strengthens the relationship between protean career orientation and intention to stay.
In other point of view, the sample of this study is Vietnamese millennials who are described as motivated and ambitious towards their career path. The millennials proactively seek for employers who offer opportunities for learning and career development (Terjesen, Vinnicombe, & Freeman, 2007). Therefore, providing them an organizational learning culture fulfills their needs of learning and showing them the support from the organization, which meets their expectation of a working environment resulting in keep their status of stay.
54
Practical Implication
The purpose of this study is to get the employees insight, specifically protean career orientation, to eliminate the turnover in Vietnam. The results of study shed some light on the problems of employees’ turnover, the challenge which many companies in Vietnam are facing at the recent. From the findings, the researcher contributes some best practices to the organizations in the endeavor of overcoming the challenges of turnover intention.
On the one hand, the finding of this study reveals that employees with protean career orientation have intention to stay in spite of the presumption that protean career orientation leads to intention to leave. Thus, the study helps to reduce the bias of withdraw behavior from the protean careerists. Furthermore, this study determines that protean career orientation pushes employees to act proactively in the organization, assists employees to get the success in career path as well as contributes to the company development. Moreover, the protean talents have been proved to be able to deal with changes (Briscoe et al., 2012), have responsibility of their jobs (Hall, 2002). For those reasons, a protean careerist contributes the productivity to the organization, rather than counterproductivity, and human resource (HR) specialists can consider those positive side of a protean talent to recruit them. HR practitioners can design a recruitment program to detect an employee whether he or she has protean career orientation.
Particularly, practitioners can apply the measurement of protean career orientation to investigate the candidates’ attitudes. In the interview part, a set of questions to check employees’
values and their career management also can be applied to check if she or he is a protean talent.
On the other hand, the role of perceived organizational learning culture is critically important to strive for retaining talents. Understanding organizational learning culture can help the organizations upgrade their learning working environment, support their employees to learn and develop. Therefore, an organization which attempts to retain their talents should have suitable policies and good plans to develop the learning opportunities to the employees. For
55
direct managerial level such as a team leader, a department manager, they also can assist the organization in creating a learning workplace by continuous learning themselves, train or coach the subordinates. In turn, those activities will keep the employees staying in the same organization longer.
Finally, not only contribute to HR practitioners or the policy makers in an organization, the study also contribute the ideas for general employees. This research provides the information to general employees of protean career orientation. As long as they have protean career orientation, it can help them to develop successfully in their career journey. Therefore, employees who do not obtain the full protean orientation should find their values in the career journey and manage the career by themselves instead of depending on other people. Employees should behave actively in the organization, continuously learn knowledge and skills to adapt with the changes in organization.
Theorical Implication
As mentioned in chapter one, protean career orientation has not been focused in the new career field compared to boundaryless career, this study provides some valuable theorical implications in the field of protean career orientation in general. The study figures out some findings that have not found in the empirical studies by offering another view about protean career orientation to organizational behaviors, specifically employee’s intention to stay in a workplace. Also, the research confirms the argument of Hall and colleagues (2018) that protean career orientation displays differently depending on the national culture. Therefore, it contributes some insights to the literature related to protean career orientation and employees’
intention.
Furthermore, most of empirical researches of organizational behaviors have studied either individual factor or organizational factor. In this study, the researcher combined both
56
factors to examine the employees’ attitude and behavior. As such, it adds more contribution to close the gap of previous research.
In regard to the targeted participants of a research, this study also contributes to a research field to understand protean career orientation and generation Y in Vietnam, a collectivism country which is different from individualism countries in the West. As a result, the research provides a broader view of protean career orientation among the different countries.
Limitation
First of all, this study is limited by the sample size of the respondents. Only 253 participants were recruited to answer the questionnaire, and the respondents mostly were under 30 years old. Thus, the whole Vietnam’s workforce may not be represented by the research findings, so the results cannot generalize to the entire population. Moreover, as the study only targeted to the millennial workers and did not target to a specific industry, the findings might be not accurate if applied to a specific industry.
Although the research applied some research method to design a questionnaire such as using different scales in the measurement instruments including both 5-point Likert scale and 7-point Likert scale, adopting reversed questions, the study still could be happened the common source bias because the participants reported themselves by self-report questionnaire design.
In the period of answering the questions, the participants might be subjected to their opinions or perceptions, which affect the answers. Plus, intention to stay is a sensitive point in a workplace, so while filling the questions about this variable, the participants might have desirable bias, and it might impact the result.
Finally, the data was only selected at a certain point of time while Vietnam economy has been changing continuously as it is a developing country. Thus, the findings might be changed along with the economy development and social changes.
57
Suggestion of Future Research
According to the limitation listed in the above section, there are many rooms for the future research. First, a further research can cover a wider target of the population or specify the industry to have more accurate results of protean career orientation influencing on intention to stay. In addition, a previous research from Harrington and Hall (2007) revealed that the elder workers, for example generation X or Baby Boomer workers, were difficult to be protean, yet other researchers have argued age is relevant to intention to stay. Therefore, a research which compares the level of intention to stay between protean millennial workers and other generation’s protean workers can be conducted.
Regarding to research method, a limitation of collecting data method can be resolved by applying multiple methods to collect the data and distribute data such as combine both interview method and online-survey, or divide the questionnaire into two parts to ease the bias off.
For a research conducted in an emerging labour maket like Vietnam, the researcher is better to conduct a longitudinal research with different point of time to examine whether protean career-oriented talents change their organizational behaviors.
Last but not least, the result of this research also pointed out that perceived organizational learning culture directly influencing on intention to stay of the employees. A future research may extend to examine whether if protean career orientation plays a moderating role in this relationship, or whether perceived organizational learning culture can help the employees obtain a protean career orientation. Besides, the research only focused on full protean career employees who have both self-directness and value-driven, a researcher stretches a future study out by separating the dimensions to examine the level of intention to stay among different kinds of reactive, rigid and full-protean employees.
58
REFERENCES
Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. (1990). rganizational socialization tactics: A longitudinal analysis of links to newcomers' commitment and role orientation. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 847-858.
Anphabe Corporation (2018). Vietnam Best Workplace Report 2018. Retrieved from https://www.anphabe.com/survey-report/noi-lam-viec-tot-nhat-viet-nam-2018
Argyris, C., & Schön, D. A. (1978). Organizational Learning. MA: Addison-Wesley.
Arthur, M. B., Khapova, S. N., & Wilderom, C. P. (2005). Career success in a boundaryless career world. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(2), 177-202.
Baruch, Y. (2014). The development and validation of a measure for protean career orientation.
Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(19), 2702-2723.
Baruch, Y., Humbert, A., & Wilson, D. (2016). The moderating effects of single vs multiple-grounds of perceived-discrimination on work-attitudes: Protean careers and self-efficacy roles in explaining intention-to-stay. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 35(3), 232-249.
Bates, R., & Khasawneh, S. (2005). Organizational learning culture, learning transfer climate and perceived innovation in Jordanian organizations. International Journal of Training and Development, 9(2), 96-109.
Bono, J. E., & Judge, T. A. (2003). Self-concordance at work: Toward understanding the motivational effects of transformational leaders. Academy of Management Journal, 46(5), 554-571.
Briscoe, J., & Finkelstein, L. (2009). The “new career” and organizational commitment: Do boundaryless and protean attitudes make a difference? Career Development International, 14(3), 242-260.
Briscoe, J. P., & Hall, D. T. (2006). The interplay of boundaryless and protean careers:
Combinations and implications. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69(1), 4-18.
Briscoe, J. P., Hall, D. T., & DeMuth, R. L. (2006). Protean and boundaryless careers: An empirical exploration. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69(1), 30-47.
Briscoe, J. P., Henagan, S. C., Burton, J. P., & Murphy, W. M. (2012). Coping with an insecure employment environment: The differing roles of protean and boundaryless career orientations. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80(2), 308-316.
Brislin, R. W. (1970). Back-translation for cross-cultural research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1(3), 185-216.
Brown, T. A. (2015). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (Vol. 2). New York:
Guilford Publications.
59
Burke, R. J., & Ng, E. (2006). The changing nature of work and organizations: Implications for human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 16(2), 86-94.
Campbell, D. T., & Fiske, D. W. (1959). Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 56(2), 81–105.
Chay, Y. W., & Aryee, S. (1999). Potential moderating influence of career growth opportunities on careerist orientation and work attitudes: Evidence of the protean career era in Singapore. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20(5), 613-623.
Chew, J., & Chan, C. C. (2008). Human resource practices, organizational commitment and intention to stay. International Journal of Manpower, 29(6), 503-522.
Cropanzano, R., & Mitchell, M. S. (2005). Social exchange theory: An interdisciplinary review.
Journal of Management, 31(6), 874-900.
D'Amato, A., & Herzfeldt, R. (2008). Learning orientation, organizational commitment and talent retention across generations: A study of European managers. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23(8), 929-953.
Deci, E., & Ryan, R. (1985). Self-Determination Theory. In E. Deci, & R. Ryan, Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior (pp. 41-175). Boston, MA:
Springer.
Deloitte (2018). 2018 Deloitte Millennial Survey: Millennials disappointed in business, unprepared for Industry 4.0. Retrieved from:
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/pe/Documents/human-capital/2018-Millennial-Survey-Report.pdf
De Vos, A., & Soens, N. (2008). Protean attitude and career success: The mediating role of self-management. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73(3), 449-456.
De Vos, A., Dewettinck, K., & Buyens, D. (2008). To move or not to move? The relationship between career management and preferred career moves. Employee Relations, 30(2), 156-175.
Direnzo, M. S., & Greenhaus, J. H. (2011). Job search and voluntary turnover in a boundaryless world: A control theory perspective. Academy of Management Review, 36(3), 567-589.
Direnzo, M. S., Greenhaus, J. H., & Weer, C. H. (2015). Relationship between protean career orientation and work–life balance: A resource perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(4), 538-560.
Egan, T. M., Yang, B., & Bartlett, K. R. (2004). The effects of organizational learning culture and job satisfaction on motivation to transfer learning and turnover intention. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 15(3), 279-301.
Eisenberger, R., Huntington, R., Hutchison, S., & Sowa, D. (1986). Perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71(3), 500-507.
Emami, R., Moradi, E., Idrus, D., & Almutairi, D. O. (2012). Investigating the relationship between organizational learning culture, job satisfaction and turnover intention in it SMEs. International Journal of Innovative Ideas, 12(1), 8-23.
60
Fernandez, V., & Enache, M. (2008). Exploring the relationship between protean and boundaryless career attitudes and affective commitment through the lens of a fuzzy set QCA methodology. Intangible Capital, 4(1), 31-36.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39-50.
Garwin, D. A. (1993). Building a learning organization. Hardvard Business Review, 71(4), pp.
73-91.
Gray, C. D., & Kinnear, P. R. (2012). Regression. In Gray, C.D., & Kinnear, P. R. (Eds), IBM SPSS Statistics 19 made simple (pp. 448-506). New York, US: Psychology Press.
Gubler, M., Arnold, J., & Coombs, C. (2014). Reassessing the protean career concept:
Empirical findings, conceptual components, and measurement. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(S1), S23-S40.
Gulyani, G., & Bhatnagar, J. (2017). Mediator analysis of passion for work in Indian millennials: Relationship between protean career attitude and proactive work behavior.
Career Development International, 22(1), 50-69.
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., & Tatham, R. L. (2006). Multivariate data analysis. (Vol. 6). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Hair, J. F., Anderson, R. E., Babin, B. J., & Black, W. C. (2010). Multivariate data analysis:
A global perspective (Vol. 7). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Hall, D. T. (1976). Careers in organizations. Santa Monica, CA: Goodyear.
Hall, D. T. (1996). Protean Careers of the 21st Century. Academy of Management Perspectives, 10(4), 8-16.
Hall, D. T. (2002). Careers in and out of organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hall, D., & Moss, J. (1998). The new protean career contract: Helping organizations and employees adapt. Organizational Dynamics, 26(3), 22-37.
Hall, D. T., Yip, J., & Doiron, K. (2018). Protean careers at work: Self-direction and values orientation in psychological success. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5, 129-156.
Harrington, B., & Hall, D. T. (2007). Career management & work-life integration: Using self-assessment to navigate contemporary careers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Herrmann, A., Hirschi, A., & Baruch, Y. (2015). The protean career orientation as predictor of career outcomes: Evaluation of incremental validity and mediation effects. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 88, 205-214.
Hervas-Oliver, J. L., Enache, M., Sallán, J. M., Simo, P., & Fernandez, V. (2013).
Organizational commitment within a contemporary career context. International Journal of Manpower, 34(8), 880-898.
Hofstede, G. H., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2005). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (Vol. 2). New York: Mcgraw-Hill.
61
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis:
Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1-55.
Huang, I., Lin, H., & Chuang, C. (2006). Constructing factors related to worker retention.
International Journal of Manpower, 25(5), 491-508.
International Labour Organization (2018, April 18). Labour and Social Trends in Vietnam 2012-2017. Retrieved from:
https://www.ilo.org/hanoi/Whatwedo/Publications/WCMS_626102
Islam, T., Khan, M. M., & Bukhari, F. H. (2016). The role of organizational learning culture and psychological empowerment in reducing turnover intention and enhancing citizenship behavior. The Learning Organization, 23(2), 156-169.
Joo, B. (2010). Organizational commitment for knowledge workers: The roles of perceived organizational learning culture, leader–member exchange quality, and turnover intention. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 21(1), 69-85.
Joo, B. K., & Shim, J. H. (2010). Psychological empowerment and organizational commitment:
the moderating effect of organizational learning culture. Human Resource Development International, 13(4), 425-441.
Kanter, R. M. (1989). When Giants Learn to Dance: Mastering the Challenge of Strategy, Management, and Careers in the 1990s. New York, US: Simon & Schuster.
Kanter, R. M. (2008). Men and Women of the Corporation. New York, US: Basic Books.
Kim, S. W., Price, J. L., Mueller, C. W., & Watson, T. W. (1996). The determinants of career intent among physicians at a US Air Force hospital. Human Relations, 49(7), 947-976.
Lin, Y. C. (2015). Are you a protean talent? The influence of protean career attitude, learning-goal orientation and perceived internal and external employability. Career Development International, 20, 753-772.
Lyons, S. T., Ng, E. S., & Schweitzer, L. (2012). Generational career shift: Millennials and the changing nature of careers in Canada. In Managing the new workforce: International perspectives on the millennial generation (pp. 64-90). UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, P. M. (2012). Common method bias in marketing: Causes, mechanisms, and procedural remedies. Journal of Retailing, 88(4), 542-555.
Marsick, V. J., & Watkins, K. E. (1997). Lessons from informal and incidental learning. In J.
Burgoyne, & M. Reynolds (Eds), Management learning: Integrating perspectives in theory and practice (pp. 295-311). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Marsick, V. J., & Watkins, K. E. (2003). Demonstrating the Value of an Organization's Learning Culture: The Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire.
Advances in Developing Human Resources, 5(2), 132-151.
Meyer, J. P., Becker, T. E., & Vandenberghe, C. (2004). Employee Commitment and Motivation: A Conceptual Analysis and Integrative Model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(6), 901-1007.
62
Mirvis, P. H., & Hall, D. T. (1996). The New Protean Career: Psychological Success and the Path with a Heart. In D. T. Hall (Eds), The Career Is Dead--Long Live the Career. A Relational Approach to Careers. (pp. 15-45). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Mobley, W. (1982). Intermediate Linkages in the Relationships between Job Satisfaction and Employee Turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 62(2), 237-240.
Mueller, C. W., Boyer, E. M., Price, J. L., & Iverson, R. D. (1994). Employee attachment and noncoercive conditions of work: The case of dental hygienists. Work and Occupations, 21(2), 179-212.
Mueller, C. W., & Price, J. L. (1990). Economic, psychological, and sociological determinants of voluntary turnover. Journal of Behavioral Economics, 19(3), 321-335.
Naim, M., & Lenkla, U. (2016). Knowledge sharing as an intervention for Gen Y employees’
intention to stay. Industrial and Commercial Training, 48(3), 142-148.
Nanncarrow, S., Bradbury, J., Pit, S. W., & Ariss, S. (2014). Intention to stay and intention to leave: Are they two sides of the same coin? A cross-sectional structural equation modelling study among health and social care workers. Journal of Occupational Health, 56(4), 292-300.
Navigos Group (2017). Vietnamese Generation Y: Career Ambition and Startup Desire.
Retrieved from:
Retrieved from: