The Effect of Boundaryless Career Attitude on Organizational Commitment with Moderating Role of Organizational Career Management of White-collar Workers in Vietnam

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(1)The Effect of Boundaryless Career Attitude on Organizational Commitment with Moderating Role of Organizational Career Management of White-collar Workers in Vietnam. By Nguyen Thi Tuyet Anh. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Major: International Human Resource Development. Advisor: Yi-Chun Lin, Ph.D.. National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan June 2017.

(2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This dissertation is a milestone in my study. Through this journey, I have been fortunate to receive a great support from a number of people who have guided and assisted me. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Yi-Chun Lin for her continuous support through my study. Her patience and encouragement together with the immense knowledge have led me to reach the last stage of the process. In addition, I would like to extend my gratitude to my committee members, Dr. Chang and Dr. Chen for providing me with fruitful advices for completing my thesis at the best. Secondly, thank you for all the professors in IHRD, Dr. Rosa Yeh, Dr. Shih, Dr. Lai, Dr. Chang and IHRD officer, Jessica for helping me in my study and my life in the past two years in Taiwan. I would also like to show my great appreciation to ICDF program managers, Ms. Kate, Ms. Tracy, Ms. Jessie and Victor for all what you have done for me. Without you guys, my life and study in Taipei would have been more difficult. Thirdly, a heart thanks to all of my dearest friends back home for helping me to distribute my questionnaire in my data collection process, for believing in me and continuing to support me in any circumstances. I addition, thanks all of my friends in ICDF/IHRD programs, my classmates in IHRD and other friends I have met in Taipei for being here, being my friends, sharing with me every moment in Taiwan. You guys have really made my life more colorful in the past two years. Last but not least, I would like to show my profound thanks to my parents and my brothers for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my study and my life. To you guys, I am eternally grateful..

(3) ABSTRACT Globalization, technological advancement, and market competitiveness have driven the changes in the nature of employment and employment relationships. In such circumstances, the employees tend to take ownership for their own career development by seeking the opportunities in different organizations instead of one single employer, which may result in less commitment to the organization. The present study examined the relationship of boundaryless career attitude (boundaryless career mindset (BCM) and organizational mobility preference (OMP)) to organizational commitment (affective commitment, normative commitment and continuance commitment) and investigated the moderating effect of the perceived organizational career management (OCM). The statistical tool of SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 23.0 were used to analyze correlations, the hierarchical regression and confirmatory factor analysis. The result based on 245 white-collar employees in Vietnam demonstrated that BCM did not showed a significant relationship with normative commitment as well as affective commitment while it showed a significantly positive correlation with continuance commitment. On the other hand, OMP displayed significantly negative relationship with all three dimensions of organizational commitment. In addition, the study also revealed that OCM turns the positive relationship between boundaryless career mindset and continuance commitment into negative one and weakens the relationship between organizational mobility preference and normative commitment. However, OCM made no significant impact on the relationship between OMP and affective commitment as well as relationship between OMP and continuance commitment.. Keywords: Boundaryless career attitude, organizational commitment, organizational career management, organizational mobility preference, boundaryless career mindset. I.

(4) TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... I TABLE OF CONTENT ....................................................................................... II LIST OF TABLES ..............................................................................................IV LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................. V CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 1 Background of the Study ................................................................................................... 1 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................. 2 Research Purposes ............................................................................................................. 3 Research Questions ............................................................................................................ 3 Significance of the Study ................................................................................................... 3 Definitions of Key Terms ................................................................................................... 4. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................. 5 Base Theories ..................................................................................................................... 5 Boundaryless Career Attitude ............................................................................................ 5 Organizational Commitment .............................................................................................. 7 Boundaryless Career Attitude and Organizational Commitment....................................... 8 Organizational Career Management ................................................................................ 11 Moderating Effect of Perceived Organizational Career Management ............................. 13. CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY .................................................................... 15 Research Framework ....................................................................................................... 15 Hypotheses ....................................................................................................................... 15 Research Procedure .......................................................................................................... 16 Sample.............................................................................................................................. 17 Data Collection Process ................................................................................................... 18 Research Design............................................................................................................... 19 Research Instrumentation................................................................................................. 19 Control Variables ............................................................................................................. 20 Questionnaire Design ....................................................................................................... 21 Back Translation .............................................................................................................. 22 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................... 23 II.

(5) CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .............................................. 27 Descriptive Statistics ........................................................................................................ 27 Correlation Analysis......................................................................................................... 29 Hierarchical Regression Analysis .................................................................................... 29 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 39. CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS................................... 41 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 42 Implications...................................................................................................................... 43 Research Limitations ....................................................................................................... 43 Further Research Suggestions .......................................................................................... 44. REFERENCES.................................................................................................... 46. III.

(6) LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1.. Cronbach’s Alpha of Measurement in the Pilot Test........................................... 23. Table 3.2.. Summary of Fit Indexes ...................................................................................... 23. Table 3.3.. Result of Confirm Factory Analysis ................................................................... 24. Table 4.1.. Descriptive Statistics ........................................................................................... 28. Table 4.2.. Correlations of Study Variables .......................................................................... 29. Table 4.3.. Result of Hierarchical Regression Analyses on the Moderating Effects for the Relationship between Affective Commitment and Boundaryless Career Attitude ............................................................................................................................. 31. Table 4.4.. Result of Hierarchical Regression Analyses on the Moderating Effects for the Relationship between Normative Commitment and Boundaryless Career Mindset ............................................................................................................... 32. Table 4.5.. Result of Hierarchical Regression Analyses on the Moderating Effects for the Relationship between Continuance Commitment and Boundaryless Career Mindset ............................................................................................................... 33. Table 4.6.. Result of Hierarchical Regression Analyses on the Moderating Effects for the Relationship between Affective Commitment and Organizational Mobility Preference ........................................................................................................... 35. Table 4.7.. Result of Hierarchical Regression Analyses on the Moderating Effects for the Relationship between Continuance Commitment and Organizational Mobility Preference ........................................................................................................... 36. Table 4.8.. Result of Hierarchical Regression Analyses on the Moderating Effects for the Relationship between Normative Commitment and Organizational Mobility Preference ........................................................................................................... 37. Table 4.9.. Hypotheses Testing Result Summary ................................................................. 38. IV.

(7) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1. Research framework ........................................................................................... 15 Figure 3.2. Research procedure ............................................................................................. 17 Figure 3.3. Three-factor CFA measurement model ............................................................... 25 Figure 4.1. Interaction plot for moderating effect of perceived organizational career management on the relationship between BCM and CC .................................... 34 Figure 4.2. Interaction plot for moderating effect of perceived organizational career management on the relationship between OMP and NC .................................... 38. V.

(8) CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 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 1.

(9) 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 2.

(10) 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 3.

(11) 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).. 4.

(12) CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW Base Theories Human Capital Human capital is considered as “an investment that people make in themselves to increase their productivity” (Rosen, 1999, p.381). It can be developed through some factors such as education, experience, training, work habits and initiatives (Frank & Bernanke, 2007; Law, 2010). Rodriguez and Loomis (2007) further explained that human capital includes the knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes in people and help them to form personal, social and economic comfort. Law (2010) argued that the individual with high level of human capital has higher motivation to move from one organization to another in order to increase the human capital for achieving higher employability status. According to Arthur and Rousseau (1996), the individual managing their own career paths will seize new and often different job opportunities to gain the training and enhance their human capital.. Competency-based Perspective DeFillippi and Arthur (1994) suggested that competency-based view can be the useful base to study more about boundaryless career. It suggested that the career competencies will include the belief and identities, knowledge and skills, and the networks that individual could have (know-why, know-how and know-whom, respectively). Knowing-why relates to the individuals’ career motivation, personal meaning and identification, which will guide them about the career development. “Knowing how” competencies reflect the individual’s understanding of relevant skills and career-related knowledge and bring them the confidence to master the current and future jobs. “Knowing whom” refers to employees’ relevant networks, which supports them in learning knowledge and developing reputation. The understanding of career competencies will support individuals in valuing their skills, knowledge, networks or the mobility (Tams & Arthur, 2006).. Boundaryless Career Attitude Conceptualization and Definition of Boundaryless Career Attitude Boundaryless career attitude is one of the two new career attitudes which have gained special attention in the past years and have become increasingly relevant in today’s uncertain and rapid changing economy and working environment. DeFillippi and Arthur (1994) viewed the boundaryless career concept as “a sequence of job opportunities that goes beyond the boundaries of any single employment settings” (p.307). Arthur (1994) described boundaryless 5.

(13) career as the independence from, rather than dependence on traditional organizational career paths. The employees with boundaryless career attitude do not limit their career to a single employer but can move across the boundaries of several organizations. They tend to be maintained by external networks and information, or reject career opportunities due to family and personal reasons. In other words, these employees tend not to rely on the organizational promotions, career arrangement and paths but prefer dynamic employment and focus more on inter-organizational more than intra-organizational phenomena (Arthur & Rousseau, 2001). Boundaryless career attitude is composed of two dimensions: boundaryless career mindset and organizational mobility preference. Boundaryless career mindset is regarding the people’s psychological mobility. The employees with boudaryless career mindset are illustrated to “navigate the changing work landscape by enacting a career characterized by different levels of physical and psychological movement” (Sullivan & Arthur, 2006, p.19). The career actors hold this attitude to work across organizational boundaries with different experiences, jobs, and people because they will feel more comfortable and enthusiastic with working relationships beyond the organization boundaries. On the other hand, organizational mobility preference is about the people’s physical mobility. Organizational mobility preference refers to an attitude to conduct actual moves between different occupations, jobs and organizations. The employees with high organizational mobility preference will seek to work for various organizations and expand across the organizational boundaries by employing in other companies (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1994; Sullivan & Arthur, 2006).. Protean and Boundaryless Career Attitude Protean and boundaryless career attitude may cause some confusion because of some similarities and association they share. However, protean career attitude and boundaryless career are distinct constructs (Briscoe & Finkelstein, 2009). Protean and boundaryless career attitude are both the new career perspectives, which have been dominant in the career literature reviews. These concepts appeared as a response to the changing nature of organizations and work since 1980’s. Protean career is a term derived from Greek god Proteus and was initially developed by Hall in 1976. Hall (1976) described protean career attitude as a self-directed orientation to the career that implies independence from external career influences. Briscoe and Hall (2002) extended the conceptualization with two dimensions, including the values driven which mean that the employees’ career success are guided and measured by the internal values and self-directed in personal career management which explains that the employee is able to adjust their performance and learning demands. 6.

(14) Briscoe and Hall (2006) stated that the protean career focuses on a self-directed approach to the career, which is motivated by their own values. Meanwhile, some authors explained that boundaryless career emphasizes the possibilities that the careers may have and how the employee can recognize and utilize of such opportunities leading to the career success (Arthur, 1994; DeFillippi & Arthur, 1994). Therefore, it can be seen that although there are some overlaps between these two, protean and boundaryless career attitude can still be viewed as independent yet related construct. It means that a person with protean attitude or self-directed attitude could still work well in a bounded career environment and one can hold boundaryless career attitude but not necessarily values-driven (Briscoe & Hall, 2006).. Organizational Commitment The term organizational commitment has been developed since the 1960s in various ways focusing on the attachment between the employers and the employees and has attracted a great deal of attention from academic scholars. However, there is still the lack of consensus on the definition of the commitment in both theoretical and empirical researches (Buchanan, 1974; Schneider & Hall, 1972). Multiple definition and conceptualization of organizational commitment are found in the literature with different approaches. The first concept of organizational commitment was developed by Becker (1960) with the side-bet theory, which stated that the employees are committed to the employers because the employees have been investing in the organization with their time, effort, money or anything else important to them. These valued investments would be lost if they leave the organization or occupation. When the side-bets are accumulated and the employees continue the employment in the organization, the commitment will increase (Becker, 1960; Meyer & Allen, 1984). Porter, Steers, Mowday, & Boulian (1974) advanced organizational commitment as the linkage between employee and organization, in which the employees find their intention to remain and serve the organization, their identification with the organization’s goals and values; and their willingness to put substantial efforts for its prosperity and development. Hunt, Wood, and Chonko (1989) also defined organizational commitment as a psychological contract between employers and individuals to behave in the ways which are consistent with the organization’s goals. Meyer and Allen (1984, 1991, 1997) illustrated the organizational commitment as a psychological state with 3-dimensional model, which reflects the desire, the need, and/or obligation to maintain membership in the organization. The first dimension, namely, affective commitment was developed as an assessment to the extent to which the individual presents 7.

(15) the desire to remain in the organization due to the emotional attachment to and the involvement with that organization. It means that the employees will evolve their emotional or affective attachment to the organization when they share the same goals and values with their organizations and are more likely to support the organizations to reach the goals (Ketchand & Strawser, 2001). The definition for the second dimension, continuance commitment as was described as the employee’s desire to retain the membership with the organization based on the perceived costs, both economic and social that employees have to suffer if they leave the organization. In 1990, they proposed the third dimension, normative commitment as the desire to remain in the organization due to the feeling of obligation. The employees feel loyal to the organization because they believe the right thing to do after receiving the benefits from the organization. This model has been widely regarded as the most dominant model in this field of research (Cohen, 2003).. These three forms of. commitment interact and explain employees’ psychological states that influence their decision to maintain the membership with the organization. Employees can experience all the three forms in various circumstances. Regarding these three dimensionalities of organizational commitment, some authors used the either one or two same terminologies to describe the same concepts and some refer to the same definitions with different terminology with Meyer and Allen (1984, 1991, 1997). For instance, the model of Jaros, Jermier, Koehler, and Sincich (1993) also has some similarities to that of Meyer and Allen (1991) with the affective and continuance and moral commitment. However, in Jaros et al.’s model (1993), the conceptualization of moral commitment respectively corresponds to Meyer and Allen’s definition of the affective commitment than to their definition of normative commitment. Another difference is that although both used the term “affective commitment” to refer to a feeling of emotional attach to the organization. Jaros et al. (1993) wanted to emphasize more on the actual affect experienced by employees than did Meyer and Allen (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001).. Boundaryless Career Attitude and Organizational Commitment Boundaryless career attitude is a very important element toward the career because it not only has a positive impact on employee outcomes but also on the employing organization. It is considered as a very good element to predict commitment (Fernandez & Enache, 2008). However, the literature review suggested that few studies have been conducted on the relationship between boundaryless career attitude and organizational commitment. However, most of the researches on this relationship draw a negative relationship between boundaryless 8.

(16) career attitude and organizational commitment. It suggests that those with boundaryless career attitude will be likely to less commit to their organization (Briscoe & Finkelstein, 2009).. Boundaryless Career Mindset and Affective Commitment Cakmak-Otluoglu (2012) stated that the boundaryless career mindset does not have directly statistical with affective commitment because the employees with high affective commitment decide to remain in the organization because they want to. Briscoe and Finkelstein (2009) also had the same conclusion and claimed that the organizations could expect the same level of affective commitment from those with boundaryless career mindset as the other employees. However, Fernandez and Enache (2008) found out that the employees with boundaryless career mindset exhibited a low affective commitment with the organization if the organization cannot provide them with the opportunities for personal growth and development. This statement seems to be more reasonable because the individual with boundaryless career mindset feels more comfortable and enthusiastic to cooperate with people outside. Therefore, they do not really develop emotional attachment with the organization. Therefore, the hypothesis is proposed as follows: H1: There is a negative relationship between boundaryless career mindset and affective commitment. Organizational Mobility Preference and Affective Commitment With respect to the organizational mobility preference, Briscoe and Finkelstein (2009) claimed that those with strong preference for organizational mobility were less emotionally attached to the organization in the sample of 434 graduate and postgraduate distance learning students. Enache, Sallan, Simo, and Fernandez (2013) and Cakmak-Otluoglu (2012) also indicated the significantly negative relationship between organizational mobility preference and affective commitment. It argued that the employees who like to cross organizational boundaries tend to have a weakly affective bond with their employing organization due to their high preference for physical mobility. These conclusions seem reasonable because the affective commitment is created when the employees feel happy to stay in the organizations with same goals and values while a person with organizational mobility preference would prefer moving across organizations. Therefore, we propose that organizational mobility preference will show a negative relationship with affective commitment. H2: There is a negative relationship between organizational mobility preference and affective commitment 9.

(17) Boundaryless Career Mindset and Normative Commitment Briscoe and Finkelstein (2009) yielded a result as a non-significant relationship between normative commitment and boundaryless career mindset. Likewise, Cakmak-Otluoglu (2012) argued that normative commitment describes the personal values or beliefs that they should remain with the organization and therefore, there is no direct relationship between boundaryless career mindset and normative commitment. They believed that these boundaryless career mindset can co-exist with organizational commitment and does not necessary equate with mobility. However, these empirical researches were conducted in the western context, which has a different culture with Vietnam. Meanwhile, Sullivan and Arthur (2006) stated that cultural values influence career attitudes. Western countries are more likely towards individualism while Vietnam as an Asian country is more likely towards collectivism. In addition, the normative commitment refers to the moral obligation of employees to their organization. In that sense, it is antithetical to the conception of the boundaryless career mindset. Therefore, the researcher proposed a negative relationship between these two components H3: there is a negative relationship between boundaryless career mindset and normative commitment. Organizational Mobility Preference and Normative Commitment On the contrary, the organizational mobility preference was found to have the negative relationship with normative commitment. Briscoe and Finkestein (2009) claimed the same result on the relationship between organizational mobility preference and normative commitment. Cakmak-Otluoglu (2012) conducted the survey on 380 employees and yielded the same result. He explained that the normative commitment refers to employees’ feeling of moral obligation to the employers while the employees with organizational mobility are seeking opportunities to work beyond the organization and will not hesitate to leave the organization. Enache et al. (2013) did not test the relationship between these two components but they also believed in the negative relationship between normative commitment and organizational preference mobility. Therefore, I expect that: H4: There is a negative relationship between organizational mobility preference and normative commitment. Boundaryless Career Mindset and Continuance Commitment The study result conducted by Enache et al. (2013) illustrated that there is a marginally positive relationship between boundaryless career mindset and continuance commitment. 10.

(18) However, they also explained that “the relationship could be moderated by the extent to which individuals succeed in enhancing their social capital, which would, in turn, provide them access to the resources and the information other people possess and therefore help them discover different opportunities beyond organizational boundaries” (p. 892). So, with this explanation, they agreed that the relationship could become negative if the employees can enhance their internal and external networks across organizational boundaries. In addition, as explained above, continuance commitment was conceptualized based on Becker (1960)’s side-bet theory. The continuance commitment illustrated the situation in which the employees will take the perceived cost into consideration and therefore, they remain with the organization in order to minimize the cost but not be motivated by their desire (Meyer & Allen, 1997). Meanwhile, the individuals with boundaryless career attitude tend to seek the opportunities outside and make themselves more valuable in the labor market (Briscoe et al., 2006). Based on this explanation, some researches hypothesized and proved the negative relationship between boundaryless career attitude and continuance commitment (Briscoe & Finkelstein, 2009). H5: There is a negative relationship between boundaryless career mindset and continuance commitment. Organizational Mobility Preference and Continuance Commitment Briscoe and Finkelstein (2009) suggested that the organizational mobility preference and boundaryless mindset appear to have a strong negative relationship with continuance commitment. They believed that the individuals with high boundaryless career attitude will tend to leave an organization due to their independent nature regardless of some practical concerns. Enache et al. (2013) and Cakmak-Otluoglu (2012) also claimed the same result with the one mentioned above. It means the employees with high organizational mobility preference are less likely to stay committed to the employing organization. Therefore, the hypothesis is proposed as follows: H6: There is a negative relationship between organizational mobility preference and continuance commitment. Organizational Career Management “Career can be seen as the pattern of work-related experience that spans the course of a person’s life, an evolving sequence of a person’s work experience over time, the sequence of employment-related positions, roles, activities and experiences encountered by a person or as a process of development along a path of experience and roles in one or more organizations” 11.

(19) (Baruch, 2006, p.575). Nowadays, a new concept of career was developed to emphasize on individual development and extension within the job itself (Torrington, Hall, & Taylor, 1998). Career management has been widely studied by many researchers because it is considered as one of the key factors for accomplishing the personal and organizational goals (Atkinson, 2002). Mayo (1991) viewed career management as the design and implementation of organizational processes that helps to plan and manage the career in a way that enhances both the desires of the organization, the preferences, and abilities of individuals. Another conception developed by Torrington et al. (1998) described that career management is something that is experienced by individuals. Therefore, it can be seen that career management is divided into two levels, including organizational career management and individual career management. Career management is viewed as the process developed, implemented and monitored by individuals. However, the organizations play a very important role in planning and managing for the employees’ development and should not be neglected (Baruch, 2006; Hall & Moss, 1998). Organizational career management, also called as “organizational support for career development” or “organizational sponsorship”, refers to the activities, programs and assistance provided by organizations in order to help the employees with career development and career success while the individual career management is under the control of the individual (Orpen, 1994). Arnold and Mackenzie Davey (1994) illustrated organizational career management as a series of formal and less formal activities facilitated by the organization to support for their employees’ career development in order to improve the organizational performance. These activities aim to retain the employees and to help employees plan for their future career regardless whether they stay in same organization or transfer to another one. Kong, Cheung, and Zhang (2010) also defined organizational career management as activities initiated by organizations to support the success of their employees. Organizational career management activities are comprised of formal activities such as training programs, personal development plans, formal career planning and informal activities such as mentoring and networking opportunities (Kraimer, Seibert, Wayne, & Liden, 2003; Sturges, Guest, Conway, & Davey, 2002). A variety of organizational career management practices had also been reviewed in the literature such as job rotation, job enrichment, employee workshops, and career progression ladders. Many authors believed that organizational career management enhanced the development of organizational commitment (Sturges et al., 2002). When the employees’ expectations are met, by organizational career management, the employees would perform 12.

(20) better commitment and performance to the organization. Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) claimed organizational career management as one form of perceived support, which has been positively related to job performance and negatively with turnover intention or absenteeism.. Moderating Effect of Perceived Organizational Career Management Changing the working environment and nature of career can lead to changes in psychological contract between organizational and employees (Hall & Moss, 1998). Developmental opportunities would create more attractiveness for remaining in the organization for boundaryless folks considering cost-benefit analysis and cause one to feel that they owe the organization something and need to stick around (Mowday & Colwell, 2003). Therefore, if the company can provide the employees with their developmental expectations, they will stay in the company even they hold boundaryless career attitude (Enache et al., 2013). This explanation is reasonable because the employees with boundaryless career tend to move across the organizations because they want to seize different developmental opportunities in order to enhance their social capital and obtain training or remain marketable (Sullivan & Arthur, 2006). Therefore, if they could find these opportunities inside the current company, they will stay remain. In addition, organizational career management literature is found to facilitate career selfmanagement and lead to be more commitment from their employees (Sturges, Conway, Guest, & Liefooghe, 2005) because the employees perceive the values and support from organization (Enache et al., 2013). Career management can be seen as one form of perceived organizational support, which is positively related to job performance and other behaviors such as commitment (Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002). Therefore, I expect that the organizational career management will negatively moderate the relationship between boundaryless career attitude and organizational commitment. H7: Perceived organizational career management will negatively moderate the relationship between boundaryless career mindset and affective commitment H8: Perceived Organizational career management will negatively moderate the relationship between organizational mobility preference and affective commitment H9: Perceived Organizational career management will negatively moderate between boundaryless career mindset and normative commitment H10: Perceived Organizational career management will negatively moderate the relationship between organizational mobility preference and normative commitment H11: Perceived organizational career management will negatively moderate the 13.

(21) relationship between boundaryless career mindset and continuance commitment H12: Perceived Organizational career management negatively moderate the relationship between organizational mobility preference and continuance commitment. 14.

(22) CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY In this chapter, the methodology, including the framework, hypotheses, target population, instrumentation, data analysis were introduced. This research adopted the quantitative research process to explore the relationship between boundaryless career attitude and organizational commitment with the organizational career management as moderator.. Research Framework According to the research purposes and literature review, the researcher constructed the framework of the study, which is presented in the figure below. The research framework has boundaryless career attitude as the independent variable with two dimensions: boundaryless career mindset and organizational mobility preference; organizational commitment as the dependent variable with three dimensions: affective, normative and continuance commitment; and the organizational career management as moderator.. Boundaryless career attitude. Organizational Commitment. - Boundaryless career mindset. - Affective commitment. - Organizational preference. - Normative commitment. mobility. - Continuance commitment. Control variables Organizational Career Management. - Gender - Tenure - English Ability. Figure 3.1. Research framework. Hypotheses Based on the previous literature review, the research purpose, research questions, and the framework, the following hypotheses are proposed: H1: There is a negative relationship between boundaryless career mindset and affective commitment 15.

(23) H2: There is a negative relationship between organizational mobility preference and affective commitment H3: there is a negative relationship between boundaryless career mindset and normative commitment H4: There is a negative relationship between organizational mobility preference and normative commitment H5: There is a negative relationship between boundaryless career mindset and continuance commitment H6: There is a negative relationship between organizational mobility preference and continuance commitment H7: Perceived organizational career management will negatively moderate the relationship between boundaryless career mindset and affective commitment H8: Perceived Organizational career management will negatively moderate the relationship between organizational mobility preference and affective commitment H9: Perceived organizational career management will negatively moderate between boundaryless career mindset and normative commitment H10: Perceived Organizational career management will negatively moderate the relationship between organizational mobility preference and normative commitment H11: Perceived organizational career management will negatively moderate the relationship between boundaryless career mindset and continuance commitment H12: Perceived Organizational career management will negatively moderate the relationship between organizational mobility preference and continuance commitment. Research Procedure Firstly, the literature review was conducted to see the overview of general topics and explore the researcher’s interest. After finding out the topics of interest, the researcher conducted more thorough literature review in order to determine specific topic and supported for the research questions proposed in this study. Secondly, after the identification of research topic, more literature review was carried out to determine the study framework and to generate the hypotheses. The third step was to design the research method and identify research subjects. The research design based on a quantitative, non-probability sampling method and hence, this quantitative approach was chosen to answer the research questions in this study. The justifications for adopting this method were provided in the research method section of this 16.

(24) study. In line with this, during the course of the development of the topic and purposes of this study, a suitable research sample was identified. The next step is to select the measurement instruments. The items in the questionnaire were adopted from previous studies. A copy of this questionnaire can be found in the appendix section of this study The sixth step was to collect data. The questionnaire was distributed online to the whitecollar workers in Vietnam. The sample was collected based on convenient sampling. The reason for choosing this sample method was discussed in the data collection section Next, the data was analyzed. The data was collected and coded using Microsoft Excel. It was later analyzed using SPSS version 22.0 and AMOS version 23.was used to do descriptive statistics of the demographic variables as well as the other statistical methods used in this study. Detailed explanations of these statistical methods were provided in the data analysis section of this research. The last step of this research was to present the findings, conclusions and recommendations. Review relevant literature Identify the research topic; propose framework and hypotheses. Design the research method. Select the measurement instrument. Conduct data collection. Analyze the data. Propose findings and final report Figure 3.2. Research procedure. Sample The research population for this study was the white-collar employees who were working full-time in Vietnam. White-collar workers are as professional and semi-professional employees. This type of workers is differentiated with the blue-collar workers as terms for 17.

(25) occupational classification (Hammer & Ferrari, 2002). These workers usually execute job duties in an office setting, focus on knowledge work, opportunities for hierarchical advancement, and management of employees. They are highly skilled and formally trained professionals. Many white-collar workers, such as accountants, bankers, attorneys and real estate agents, work and provide services to clients. Other white-collar workers, such as engineers and architects, work with businesses, corporations and government agencies (Gibson & Papa, 2000; Lucas & Buzzanell, 2004). Meanwhile, blue-collar workers are as those who performs primarily physical work, manual labor and whose career paths are restricted (Gibson & Papa, 2000). The skills necessary for blue-collar work vary by occupation. These workers include aircraft mechanics, plumbers, electricians and structural workers, cleaning, maintenance and assembly line work. One of the major differences between blue-collar and white-collar workers is the education level. White-collar workers usually have background with formal education. And typically have at least a high school diploma, an associate's, bachelor's, master's or professional degree. According to Bodewig, Badiani-Magnusson, Macdonald, Newhouse, and Rutkowski (2014), in Vietnam educational system, higher education (including universities, junior colleges) prepares graduates for white-collar jobs, while vocational training provides students with applied skills required for vocational tasks. The sample participants were selected using convenience sample of any types of industry in Vietnam. The total of 310 questionnaires was distributed to white-collar workers in Vietnam through online survey.. Data Collection Process The period of data collection went through around one month and a half from the beginning of March to the middle of April 2017. Convenient sample was used in this study. Due to the fact that the researcher was based in Taiwan, the online questionnaire was used. The author distributed through network on Facebook and then asked her networks to distribute to their friends and colleagues. In the questionnaire, one screening question was used to eliminate the non-full-time white-collars workers. During the data collection period, the researcher contacted the suitable participants through her online networks to ask for their assistance to fill out the online questionnaires, which was translated into Vietnamese for the participants. Finally, 245 samples (79%) were collected and valid. once all the questionnaires were filled out and collected, the researcher 18.

(26) conducted necessary analyses.. Research Design This empirical research applied quantitative methods in the data collection of the whitecollar workers in Vietnam. The research used the self-report questionnaire, which was considered as the most appropriate since it aims at the personal level in response to their boundaryless career attitude on organizational commitment with the moderating effect of perceived organizational career management. The questionnaire scale measurements were developed by different well-developed studies with high Cronbach’s alpha. To avoid common method bias (CMV) problem, the Likert scales of the variables were designed with 5-point and 7-point scale (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). The questionnaire was aiming at collecting the demographic data to obtain the characteristics of such employees in Vietnam and also to find out how boundaryless career attitude and perceived organizational commitment were correlated and how this relationship would be changed if the organizations provide their employees with organizational career management.. Research Instrumentation The research instrument was composed of a self-report questionnaire, which included four sections. The first section was to measure boundaryless career attitude, the second one was to measure organizational commitment and the third one was to measure perceived organizational career management. The last section measured the demographic information such as age, gender, level of education, experience, tenure, type of employment, type of the companies, and type of industry. The questionnaire was expected to take 15 minutes to answer. Please find the appendix for a full and completed copy of this questionnaire. The detailed measures are illustrated as follows:. Boundaryless Career Attitude Boundaryless career attitude in this study is independent variable. The researcher adopted the instrument developed by Briscoe et al. (2006). The scale was measured using a 7point Likert scale ranging from (1) “a little or no extent” to (7) “to a great extent” constituted by 13 items, in which boundaryless career mindset scale consisted of eight items and organizational mobility preference comprised of five items. Example item for boundaryless career mindset is “I have sought the opportunities in the past that allow me to work outside of the organization”. This Cronbrach’s alpha for boundaryless career mindset is 0.78. The 19.

(27) sample item for organizational mobility preference is “if my organization provided me with employment, I would never desire to seek the work in other organizations (reserved scored)”. This scale’s coefficient alpha reliability was 0.76.. Organizational Commitment Organizational commitment is a dependent variable in this research. The instrument for this variable was adopted from Meyer, Allen and Smith’s model (1993) with three dimensions of organizational commitment including affective, continuance, and normative commitment respectively. Each dimension is constructed with 6 item scale, thus 18 items constitute the total organizational commitment scale that was measured. Sample item for affective commitment was “this organization has a great deal of personal meaning to me”. Continuance commitment included the item such as “I feel that I have few little options to consider leaving this organization”. Meanwhile, the sample items for normative commitment was “I owe a great of deal to my organization”. This instrument was tested in terms of internal consistency, reliability and validity for the three dimensions. In line with this, the reliability estimate for the three scale scores was found to be significant and hence the Cronbach’s alphas for: affective commitment=0.85, continuance commitment = 0.74 while normative commitment is 0.76. Cronbach’s alpha (.73) for all 18 items deemed acceptable. All items are measured on the 5-point Likert-scale from (1) “strongly disagree” to (5) “strongly agree”. Organizational Career Management Perceived Organizational Career Management is a moderator variable in this research. The measurement was adopted from the 10-item scale developed by Sturges et al. (2002) including two dimensions: formal and informal career management. The measure was using 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Six of nine items were used to measure formal organizational career management. The sample item for this was “I have been giving training to help develop my career”. The other four items were used to measure informal organizational career management. The sample item was “I have been given a mentor to help my career development”. The Cronbach’s alpha for formal and informal organizational career management were 0.77 and 0.80 respectively.. Control Variables The previous literature review suggested that some demographic variables could make 20.

(28) an impact on the organizational commitment. Therefore, the researcher added the demographic variables to the personal information part of the questionnaire and will clarify the relationship between dependent variable and independent variables through controlling the impact of demographic variables.. Gender Some previous studies showed that there is a significant difference on organizational commitment between men and women (Mowday et al., 1982; Rowden, 2000). It seems that women have to overcome many barriers and therefore they recognize the membership as an important aspect to them (Grusky, 1966) also found out that women are more committed to their organizations than men. Therefore, in this study, gender was the control variable and was coded as 1 for male and 2 for female.. Organizational Tenure Some researchers indicated that organizational tenure has a significant difference on organizational commitment (Mathieu & Hamel, 1989; Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Meyer & Allen, 1997). The explanation is that for the employees with long tenure in an organization, he/she may develop affective attachment with the organizations (Meyer & Allen, 1997). Therefore, in this study, we also treated organizational tenure as control variable.. English Ability The increased internationalization, reduced job security, and a shift in career ownership to the individual have led language skills as a key career competence today (Itani, Jarlstrom, & Piekkari, 2015). It can influence on the commitment of employees to the organizations because language somehow represents an individual’s confidence in achieving their goals (Bandura, 1982). A diverse-culture working environment requires individuals with a higher level of English and those who have better English level may have greater confidence in deal with the situations that take place within their firm. Therefore, even English may not be a directly-used skill in the workplace, it is somehow is associated with their commitment to their firms. In addition, the employees with better language skills also demonstrated the higher levels of both psychological and physical career mobility. Because this skill also contributes to the accumulation of the social capital and personal networks (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998) that enhance mobility in boundaryless careers. Therefore, in this study, the English ability was included as a control variable. Questionnaire Design The scales adopted in this questionnaire were all developed maturely in order to ensure 21.

(29) the content validity. The original scales were in English and was translated into Vietnamese for their accurate understanding. All variables’ scales were put in one questionnaire, so the dependent and independent variables as well as the moderator variable were answered by the same person and at the same period of time. However, this may cause the problem of common method variance (CMV) during the data collection process. To avoid this problem, the research purpose and variables were not revealed in the questionnaire. Additionally, to avoid the random answers from the participants, the reverse questions were also applied.. Back Translation Due to the fact that the participants were Vietnamese, the original scales, which were in English was translated into Vietnamese. To confirm the Vietnamese translation whether it fitted with the original meaning of English, the researcher conducted the back translation. The researcher asked a native Vietnamese speaker who had high-level English proficiency and background in social science to translate the Vietnamese version back to English. He is currently doing English-taught Master Program at Human Resource Department in Sun-YatSen University, Kaoshiung, Taiwan. After that, an English native speaker from the U.S was asked to help to check the translation. The purpose of this process was to make sure that Vietnamese and English version had the same meanings.. Pilot Test In order to confirm the reliability of the measurement, the pilot test was conducted with the participation of 40 white-collar workers. The researcher distributed the questionnaires to these workers within one week in February and then once the data collection was completed, the reliability was conducted using SPSS version 22.0 to confirm the reliability of the instruments mentioned above. According to George and Mallery (2003), the internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.6 to 0.7 is considered to be acceptable, 0.7 to 0.8 is good and above 0.9 is excellent. As shown in the table 3.1, Cronbach’s alpha of all the dimensions and variables are more than 0.6, indicating a consistency of the items’ sets in measuring the variables and its dimensions. Cronbach’s alpha of Boundaryless carreer attitude was .79 with .93 and .77 for boundaryless career mindset and organizational career mobility respectively. The reliability or organizational commitment was .76 with .70 for affective commitment, .62 for continuance commitment and .79 for normative commitment. The Cronbach’s alpha for moderator is .91. Because the analysis showed that all variables had good cronbach’s alpha, the same questionnaire was used for the data collection for the study.. 22.

(30) Table 3.1. Cronbach’s Alpha of Measurement in the Pilot Test Cronbach’s alpha. Variables and Dimensions 1. Boundaryless Career Attitude. .79. Boundaryless Career Mindset. .93. Organizational Career Mobility. .77. 2. Organizational Commitment. .76. Affective Commitment. .70. Continuance Commitment. .62. Normative Commitment. .79. 3. Perceived Organizational Career Management. .91. Data Analysis To analyze the data, the statistic instruments of IBM SPSS version 22.0 and AMOS version 23.0 were used in this research. The analysis methods were as follows:. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) The validity of the questionnaire was tested by using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to confirm whether the data fit a hypothesized measurement model that based on previous researches. The indexes were presented as the table below. Table 3.2 Summary of Fit Indexes Fit indexes. Threshold. χ2/df. <3. RMSEA. <.08. References Joreskog and Sorborm, 1993 Brown and Cudeck, 1993; MacCallum, Browne and Sugawara, 1996. GFI. >.8. Carmines and McIver , 1981. NFI. >.9. Bentler and Bonett, 1980. CFI. >.9. Bentler and Bonett, 1980. NNFI. >.9. Tucke and Lewis, 1973. The confirmatory factory analysis was examined with the sample of 245 participants. 23.

(31) The number of observed variables of boundaryless career attitude was 13, this number for organizational commitment was 18 and the number for organizational career management was 10. The detailed results of CFA are presented as the table 4.2 below. The three-factor model showed that it did not perfectly reach the model fit. The χ2/df reached a good index of 2.99. RMSEA (Root mean square error of approximation) also almost reached the acceptable index (RMSEA = .09). Other indices include CFI of .74, IFI of .75, TLI of .73. However, the GFI and NFI are needed to be improved more (GFI = .67, NFI =.66). Table 3.3. Result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (n=245) χ2 BCA. df. χ2/df. RMSEA. CFI. NFI. IFI. TLI. GFI. 348.8. 64. 5.45. .13. .85. .83. .85. .82. .82. OC. 718.29. 133. 5.40. .13. .61. .57. .62. .52. .73. OCM. 213.74. 35. 6.11. .15. .91. .90. .91. .89. .83. 1-factor Model. 4312.32. 779. 5.54. .14. .41. .37. .42. .38. .43. 2-factor Model. 3843.96. 775. 4.96. .13. .49. .44. .49. .46. .47. 3-factor Model. 2309.02. 773. 2.99. .09. .74. .66. .75. .73. .67. Note. BCM: Boundaryless career mindset; OC: Organizational commitment; OCM: Organizational career management; 1-factor Model combines all items of boundaryless career mindset, organizational commitment and organizational career management 2-factor Model combines items of boundaryless career mindset and organizational career management 3-factor Model represents the measurement model of this study. 24.

(32) Figure 3.3. Three-factor CFA measurement model. Descriptive Statistics The descriptive statistics was run to determine the means, standard deviations, variance and the inter-correlation among the variables. 25. These statistics reported the frequency.

(33) distribution and the differences in demographic information of the participants. Also, the descriptive statistic was also to check the missing data existed.. Pearson Correlation Analysis In order to determine the linear correlation between variables, the Pearson’s correlation was performed and analyzed. The higher the correlation is, the stronger the relationship between variables is. The value of Pearson correlation will range from -1 to +1. The variables are perfectly positive correlated if p=1, meanwhile, there is a perfect negative linear relationship between variables if p=-1. A correlation of 0 indicate no linear correlation between variables. The modulus value of correlation below 0.4 is called low correlation, and between 0.4 and 0.7 is called medium correlation; the value is over 0.7 is called high correlation. Hierarchical Regression Analysis In order to test the moderating effects on the relationships between variables, the hierarchical regression analysis was used in this study followed the commendations from Baron and Kenny (1986). This study conducted three steps to test moderating effects of perceived organizational career management on the relationship between boundaryless career attitude and organizational commitment. The first step was to enter the control variable; then, the second step was to enter boundaryless career attitude and perceived organizational career management to test the two variables’ impact on the dependent variable. Finally, before calculating the interaction variables, boundaryless career attitude and perceived organizational career management were entered by subtracting the mean from the original ones in order to reduce the multicollinearity problem (Aiken, West, & Reno, 1991). The last step was to enter interaction item of boundaryless career attitude and organizational career management to test their interaction on the dependent variable. 26.

(34) CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The purpose of this chapter is to present the findings based on the proposed hypotheses. The first part presented the descriptive analysis, followed by the second part with the result of the correlation analysis among boundaryless career attitude, organizational commitment and perceived organizational career management. and then the fourth one focused on the findings of hypotheses tested by using hierarchical regression analysis.. Descriptive Statistics Some demographic information was included such as gender, age, tenure, English ability, company location and company type. Out of 310 questionnaires distributed, 65 were invalid and as a result, 245 were used to run the analysis. The Table 4.1 above showed that the data collected has 64.1% (157) participants as female and 35.9% (88) participants as male. Most of the participants were still very young with 25.7% at the age of 21 – 25 years old, 57.3% at the age of 26 – 30 years old. Most of them worked at the current organizations for around 1 – 3 years (63.3%), followed by 21.2% of under-one-year tenure. Only 9.8% have worked for 3 to 5 years and only 5.7% has above 5-year tenure. For the education level, 79.2% of the participants were at university level, 11.4% had master or even higher than master degree, only 9.4% was at college level. Regarding the English ability, around half of the participants (53.9%) rated their English as average level, 30.2% believed they had good English, only 1.2% was excellent and around 14.7% thought that they had bad English. A great number of participants (794.4%) were working in southern region (Ho Chi Minh City or Binh Duong: 5.7%, BRVT: 2.9%, Dong Nai: 2.4%). The rest were working in some small provinces all over the countries. Regarding the company type, most of them were working for either Joint Stock Company (35.9%); Limited Company (25.3%) or 100% Foreign Investment Company (24.5%).. 27.

(35) Table 4.1. Descriptive Statistic (n=245) Item. Frequency. Percentage. 1. Gender Female. 157. 64.1%. Male. 88. 35.9%. 21-25. 63. 25.5%. 26-30. 165. 67.3%. 31-35. 11. 4.5%. > 35. 6. 2.4%. Under 1 year. 52. 21.2%. 1 to 3 years. 155. 63.3%. 3 – 5 years. 24. 9.8%. Above 5. 14. 5.7%. Associate. 23. 9.4%. Bachelor. 194. 79.2%. Master/ Phd. 28. 11.4%. Others. 0. 0%. Not at all. 0. 0%. Bad. 36. 14.7%. Average. 132. 53.9%. Good. 74. 30.2%. Excellent. 3. 1.2%. 230. 94.3%. Central Region. 9. 9%. Northern Region. 6. 2.5%. Joint Stock Company. 88. 35.9%. Limited Liability Company.. 62. 25.3%. State-owned Company. 19. 7.8%. 60. 24.5%. Joint venture. 13. 5.3%. Others. 3. 1.2%. 2. Age (years). 3. Tenure. 4. Education. 5. English. 6. Location Southern Region. 7. Company type. 100% Foreign Invest Company. 28.

(36) Correlation Analysis In order to understand the relationship among variables, the Pearson correlation analysis was performed. The table 4.2 below presented the means, standard deviations, reliabilities and correlations of all variables. Table 4.2 Inter-correlations of Study Variables Mean. S.D. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1-Gender. .36. .48. 2-Tenure. 25.18. 22.66. -.04. 3-Eng. ability. 3.39. .60. .03. -.02. 4-BCM. 5.01. 1.28. -.07. .08. .22**. (.92). 5-OMP. 4.94. 1.23. .05. -.08. -.07. -.23***. (.79). 6-AC. 3.19. .68. .04. .09. .15*. .10. -.24***. (.68). 7-CC. 2.69. .77. -.01. .07. -.05. .14*. -.37***. .04. (.74). 8-NC. 2.75. .74. .00. -.06. .16*. .09. -.36***. .53***. .32***. (.74). 9-OCM. 2.96. .97. .12. -.09. .15*. .16*. -.32***. .51***. .20**. .49***. 9. (.95). Note. The reliability coefficients for each factor appear in parentheses; BCM: Boundaryless Career Mindset; OMP: Organzational Mobility Preference; AC: Affective Commitment; CC: Continuance Commitment; NC: Normative Commitment; OCM: Organizational Career Management n=245, *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001;. The correlations revealed that boundaryless career mindset only performs the significant positive relationship with continuance commitment (r=.14, p<.05), while it showed nonsignificant relationship with affective commitment (r=.10, p>.05) as well as normative commitment (r=.09, p>.05). However, the organizational mobility preference showed significantly negative relationships with all three dimensions of organizational commitment (affective commitment; r=-.24, p<.001; continuance commitment: r=-.37, p<.001; normative commitment: r=-.36, p<.001).. Hierarchical Regression Analysis The Pearson Correlation was used to confirm the direct association between variables. While in this part, the hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to provide further 29.

(37) analysis of the casual relationship between boundaryless career mindset and organizational commitment and to test the moderating effect of perceived organizational career management. The three steps recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986) were adopted in the study. Gender, tenure and English Ability was entered as the control variables in the first step. The main effects of boundaryless career attitude and organizational career management were entered as the second step and the interaction was entered as the third one. In line with Aiken et al. (1991), the independent and moderator variables were centered before creating the interaction. Table 4.3 and 4.4 below presented the multiple regression analyses on the moderating effect for the relationship between boundaryless career mindset with affective commitment and the relationship between boundaryless career mindset with normative commitment. Hypotheses 1, 3 predicted that boundaryless career mindset has a significant and negative relationship with affective commitment and normative commitment; however, as shown in table 4.3 and 4.4, the results indicated that boundaryless career mindset does not have significant relationships with affective commitment and normative commitment (β=.066, p>.05; β=.062, p>.05 respectively). Therefore, H1 and H3 were rejected. Due to the nonsignificant relationships between boundaryless career mindset and affective commitment as well as non-significant relationship between boundaryless career mindset and normative commitment, the moderator also makes no significant impact on the relationship as expected (β=.119, p>.05; β=-.110, p>.05). Therefore, H7 and H9 were also rejected.. 30.

(38) Table 4.3. Result of Hierarchical Regression Analyses on the Moderating Effect for the Relationship between Affective Commitment and Boundaryless Career Mindset (n=245) Affective Commitment Variables. Model 1. Model 2. Model 3. Model 4. Gender. .035. .040. -.022. -.029. Tenure. .089. .084. .135*. .151**. .149*. .134*. .074. .069. .066. -.011. .008. .518***. .511***. Controls. English ability Main Effects Boundaryless Career Mindset (BCM) Org. Career Management (OCM) Interaction (BCM X OCM). .119. R2. .031. .035. .286. .300. Adjusted R2. .019. .019. .272. .282. 2.574. 2.184. 19.188***. 16.984***. ΔR2. .031. .004. .251. .013. ΔF. 2.574. 1.013. 84.178***. 4.541. F. Note. Independent Variables: Boundaryless career mindset; *p<.05; **p<.01, ***p<.001.. 31.