This chapter will provide an overall understanding of this research including the background, the problem statement, the study purpose, the research questions, the significance and research limitations of this study and the definition of the key terms.
Background of the Study
Due to the rapid globalization, technological advancement and increasing market competitiveness, the nature of work and employment in the organizations has been changed dramatically (Sullivan & Baruch, 2009). Many organizations including profit and non-profit have to find many ways for its existence and development such as downsizing and restructuring, merging, acquisitions, outsourcing; which makes the career environment become more complex, dynamic and flexible (Sullivan, 1999). Thus, to fulfill the needs of personal learning and development, individual tend to take more ownership in their career in response to these changes rather than wait for the development chances from their organizations like before (Hall, 2004; Sullivan & Baruch, 2009). It means that the employees are more responsible for their own career and employability. One of the trends is that the employees are likely to seek career opportunities in multiple organizations more than one single organization, which is called boundaryless career attitude (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996;
Briscoe & Finkelstein, 2009). Boundaryless career attitude appears as one of the new perspectives capturing the realities of a changing career orientations and is characterized by boundaryless career mindset as individual capacity for “initiating and pursuing work-related relationships across organizational boundaries” (Briscoe, Hall, & DeMuth, 2006, p.31) and organizational mobility as actual movement across organizations, occupations, geography (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; Sullivan & Arthur, 2006). However, this attitude raises a big concern on the organizational commitment because the employees holding boundaryless career attitude are less committed to the organization (Briscoe & Finkelstein, 2009).
Meanwhile, organizational commitment has been always considered as the important aspect, which has a direct influence on both individuals and organizations (Cohen, 2007).
Particularly, the low level of commitment can result in employees’ turnover intention, actual turnover, poor attendance, poor performance, poor organizational citizenship behavior (Allen
& Meyer, 1990; Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982). The employees with strong commitment tend to be more productive and more inclined to take more responsibilities at work (Meyer &
Herscovitch, 2001). Take Vietnam as an example, there is evidence showing that the weak organizational commitment causes the low productivity and poor performance in developing
2 countries (Yousef, 2000).
Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in South East Asia, attracting foreign direct investment and multinational companies (World Bank, 2016). Therefore, the labor market is likely to offer the employees with more alternative job opportunities. Such circumstances create high possibility for employees to pursue a career in different organizations more than in a single organization like before. However, in hard time, the talented and experienced staffs are very important in the organizations’ development and survival. To limit the workforce transition, one of the strategies provided to the employees is organizational career management.
Organizational career management has been considered as an important element which could impact on organization dramatically. Feldman (1988) has emphasized that career management is crucial for organizations to retain the most talented employees. It helps to strengthen employees’ emotional attachment and increases positive behaviors that can help an organization, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, in-role performance, and extra-role performance (Rhoades, Eisenberger, & Armeli, 2001). However, it is still not clear whether organizational career management can be a good method to improve the commitment of the employees who hold boundaryless career attitude in such complicated employment environment. In addition, LinkedIn (2015) researching on the reason people change job showed that 45 % was concerned about the lack of opportunities for advancement while boundaryless-career-attitude employees tend to seek job opportunities across different organizations due to their desire for personal development and that is the reason why the organizational career management was selected to be the moderator in this research.
Currently, there are few researches on the relationships between boundaryless career attitude and organizational commitment and there is no research done in Vietnam’s context.
With all the circumstances described above, it is important to extend our understanding of these factors that could affect employees’ organizational commitment and to understand whether organizational career management could be used as one of the key tools to influence on the employee’s organizational commitment regardless of their boundaryless career attitude in Vietnam.
Problem Statement
Firstly, despite its popularity, most previous studies have focused on the evolution of the conceptualization, the nature of the constructs, its operationalization and measurements (Briscoe & Hall, 2006). So far, the existing literature suggested that there are still few
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empirical researches done on how boundary less career attitudes may influence the organizational commitment (Briscoe & Finkelstein, 2009). In addition, the boundaryless career attitude has been mainly analyzed from an individual career perspective, testing their impact on the aspect such as adaptability, career success or work performance (Briscoe &
Hall, 2006). However, there is a limited understanding of how new career orientation affect organizational commitment. Moreover, the effect of perceived organizational career management on adjusting the relationship between boundaryless career attitude and organizational commitment has also not yet been empirical tested.
Secondly, most of the studies on boundaryless career attitude were done in the western context. However, very few studies have been done in the Asian context and there is no research done in Vietnam’s context while this issue is important for Vietnam’s context because of the fastest change in working environment in the past few years. In addition, there is an argument in the literature that career orientation and priorities vary across cultures and environment (Sullivan & Arthur, 2006). Therefore, a study in the unique cultural context like Vietnam will make an important contribution.
Research Purposes
Currently, there are few researches on the relationships between boundaryless career attitude and organizational commitment and there is no research done in Vietnam’s context.
Therefore, it is important to extend our understanding of these factors that could affect employees’ organizational commitment and to understand whether perceived organizational career management can be used as one of the key tools to influence on the employee’s organizational commitment regardless of their boundaryless career attitude in Vietnam.
Research Questions
Based on the purposes, some questions were generated in the present study as followings:
1. Is there a negative relationship between boundaryless career attitude and organizational commitment?
2. Whether the employees’ perception of organizational career management makes the impact on the relationship between boundaryless career attitude and organizational commitment
Significance of the Study
The study contributes to both theoretical and practical parts. In the previous literature review, there are still few researches on the linkage between boundaryless career attitude and perceived organizational career management. This study examined the moderating effect of perceived organizational career management on the relationship between boundaryless career
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attitude and organizational commitment and thus, it has fulfilled the literature in this field.
For the practical area, the result of this study can help the organizations in Vietnam to improve their process of recruiting, developing and retaining their talented staff in such a complicated economy as organizations move forward into a boundaryless environment, it is more and more important to attract, engage, develop and retain the talents (Somaya, Williamson, & Lorinkova, 2008). The human resource department can take it as a reference not to eliminate the potential talented staffs because they hold boundaryless career attitude.
Moreover, it provides an evidence on whether providing employees with perceived organizational career management can change the employees’ attitude and increase their commitment with the organizations or not.
Definitions of Key Terms Boundaryless Career Attitude
Boundaryless Career is described as an occupational path, which is not bounded to a single organization but goes across many organizations to develop competencies (Arthur &
Rousseau, 1996). Therefore, boundaryless career attitude refers to the employees’ attitude that does not limit themselves to develop the career within a single organization but can move across the boundaries of different organizations.
Organizational Commitment
Organizational commitment is a psychological linkage between individuals or employees with their organizations and is characterized by a strong identification with and involvement in as well as the desire to contribute to the organizational development and success (Meyer & Allen, 1997).
Organizational Career Management
Organizational Career Management, also called as “organizational support for career development”, refers to the programs, processes, an assistance provided by the organizations to help its employees to enhance their career success (Orpen, 1994).
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