The Structure and Measurement of Person-Organization Career Management Fit
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The Structure and Measurement of Person- Organization Career Management Fit Wenchen Guo, Nannan Wang Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China Email: [email protected]
Abstract Individuals who hold protean and boundaryless career attitudes tend to manage their own career independently, which bring up new challenges to the traditional organizational career management. Based on the theory of person-organization fit and career management, we have put forward both concept and structure in content of person-organization career management fit. Applying interview method, questionnaire investigation along with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, this research established a scale with 4 dimensions and 15 items to measure person-organization career management fit, and both reliability and validity of the scale have been proved accordingly.
Keywords Person-organization career management fit; Structure; Scale
1. Introduction Briscoe et al. (2006) [1] claimed that individual who hold protean career attitudes are intent upon using their own values to guide their career and take an independent role in managing their vocational behavior. Under this scenario, the decline of organizational career management has been inevitable. As a matter of fact, quite a number of organizations could no longer bear the responsibilities of career management for their employees, and more individuals advocate self-directed career management (Hall, 2004) [2]. This change results in an increase in the frequency of career move and organizational turnover rate, thus negative impacts have been made on employees’ career development, career success and as far as organizational performance. Some researchers claimed that organizational career management is experiencing a recession; some even proclaimed an end of the era of organizational career management. On the contrary, Clarke (2013) [3] argued with an opposite perspective and confirmed his statement through a great deal of empirical studies saying that organizational career management still exists in nowadays society. Nevertheless, according to Clarke, the redefinition of organizational career management needs to be performed to keep up its pace with the development of the contemporary era as well.
With times past by requirement and development, how to redefine organizational career management has become a new topic of career management research. Under the circumstance of the protean and boundaryless career (collectively referred to as new career), whether the organization, or the employee, or both of them should take responsibility for career management remains debatable. Accordingly, more and more scholars conducted studies of the relationship between individual and organizational Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N.
management from the perspective of person-organization fit. Granrose and Portwood (1987) [4] proposed an individual career management model applied to person-organization career management fit, which suggested that the fit between individual and organizational career plans is the primary determinant of job satisfaction and organization commitment. Higher fit can positively lead to higher satisfaction and commitment. Conversely, employees will feel unsatisfactory, and then seek for alternative solutions within or without the organization. Herriot and Pemberton (1996) [5] constructed an organizational career management model, which indicated that between individual and organization, psychological contracts should be readjusted based on demands-supplies fit and exchanged each other’s promises. Baruch (2006) [6] proposed a career active system triad (CAST) model that is related to three levels -values, strategies and behaviors. CAST model has simultaneously taken needs of both organizations and individuals into account, which reflects a transition from individuals’ aspiration to action and a transformation from organizational philosophies to practices. De Vos et al. (2009) [7] pointed out that when individuals manage their career initiatively, they expect more eagerly to gain some professional help from the organization. Studies have shown that when organizations and individuals jointly manage employees’ career and undertake common responsibilities, employees generally can provide better performances which has become a prerequisite for a successful career in the organization (Orpen, 1994) [8]. There’s a dynamic, ongoing fit process between the development of individual career and organization. During the process, goals to facilitate employees to maximize their potential abilities through scientific career path design and objectives to match the demands of individual career development with the supplies of organizational career management would be achieved. In this way, a win-win with both individual career success and efficient organizational performance would be attained ultimately. Based upon this, this paper proposed the concept of person-organization career management fit, constructed the static structure of person-organization career management fit, established a scale of person-organization career management fit, and proved both reliability and validity of the scale. It’s aiming at contributing a reliable measurement tool for further research on the influencing mechanism of person-organization career management fit towards career success, organizational performance, etc.
2. The Concept of Person-Organization Career Management Fit 2.1. Person-Organization Fit The concept of person-organization fit was put forward, by means of person-job fit. Kristof (1996) [9] constructed an integration model of person-organization fit that defined person- organization fit as supplementary and complementary fit correspondingly on the basis of former studies. Supplementary fit refers to that individuals possess characteristics which are similar to organizational characteristics; while complementary fit refers to that individuals and organizations can provide one another with each other’s needs, and is divided into two types, needs-supplies fit and demands-abilities fit. Piasentin et al. (2006) [10] catalogued person-organization fit as supplementary fit, needs-supplies fit, demands-abilities fit, complementary fit and general fit. In recent years, studies of person-organization fit mainly focus on the following aspects: values fit, abilities fit, needs fit, goals fit, personality fit, et al. Findings of the study on influential factors of person -organization fit show that on one hand, person-organization fit influences the whole organization entry process for employees; on the other hand, person- organization fit influences employees’ organizational behaviors. Furthermore, candidates’ choice behaviors, organizations’ recruitment practices and socialized behaviors of both individuals and organizations are main factors that influence the organization entry process. In Schein's (1984) [11] perspective, the way for individuals to solve problems is determined Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N. by their values. Therefore, the essence of person-organization fit is rooted in the similarity or the consistency of career values between individuals and organizations. Demands-abilities fit refers to the degree of suitability of organizations’ requirement to employees’ effort, commitment, experience, knowledge and skills etc. (Duarte, 1995) [12]. Lauver and Kristof (2001) [13] verified that demands-abilities fit has a positive impact on employee attitudes and behaviors. In the early stage of career development, employees will adjust their career behaviors through constantly assessing how much their abilities fit with the organization (Bradley et al., 2002) [14]. In order to meet the needs of organizational development, employees need to improve their employability, such as social capital, human capital etc. Therefore, the emphasis of demands-abilities fit is upon enhancing employability for employees. Needs-supplies fit refers to the degree of satisfaction of organizations meeting individual needs and desires. Although individual needs vary from one to another, they have common needs after all. They expect that organizations can provide satisfactory jobs and positions, appropriate compensations and benefits to fulfill their survival and development demands, and development opportunities to facilitate promotions. In the scenario of new career, because of the reason that individuals advocate self-directed career management, how to adjust traditional organizational career management strategy and play its due role has become a new subject for organizations. Therefore, person-organization career management has become a significant part of needs-supplies fit.
2.2. Person-Organization Career Management Fit Previous studies of career are majorly conducted from two aspects: one is studies of career planning, career choice, and career consulting from a personal perspective; the other is studies of problems of organizational career management and development from an organizational perspective. Studies showed that researchers on individual career study attached little importance to organizational characteristic’s influence on the career, meanwhile scholars interested in organizational career study paid little attention to individual career issues, let alone the consistency issues between individuals and their environments (Xie, 2003) [15]. “Strange Cracks” was used to describe this phenomenon by early career research scholars. The fundamental cause of this phenomenon is that research angles and targets of both research scholars are completely diverse from each other. To be more specific, organizational career management focuses on establishing organizational career management strategy standing from the organizational perspective and aims at expediting organizational development process, which is primarily generated from organizational aspects like culture, philosophy and strategy. As a consequence, its management behaviors are reflected through the implementation process of human resource management practices. By contrast, individual career management focuses on enacting a credible career plan to carry on for achieving the goal of individual career development standing from a personal perspective, which is apparently based on personal values and beliefs. And its management behaviors are reflected through the individual career practice process. Overall speaking, except for both of their management objects are individual careers, organizational and individual career management totally differ from each other in regards of subjects, targets and strategies. The subject of organizational career management is the organization, and its goal is to promote organizational development with major strategies as organizational socialization and career management tactics (like establishing career development policy, providing professional information, career counseling and assessment, career path designing, occupation training and development). While the subject of individual career management is individuals, and its goal is to facilitate their own career development with major strategies as the establishment of career conceptions or attitudes, as well as career development strategies (such as career planning, career exploration, career learning and training, and career adjustment). Though contents of subjects, targets and strategies are vary from individual career management to organizational career management, the management objects are always the Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N.
same. Therefore, it suggests that it is impossible for individual and organizational career management to be contradictory, instead, they are complementary by any means. The emergence of protean and boundaryless career poses new challenges to both individual and organizational career management. For individuals, guiding career with self-value and mobility preference will make career development remain volatile. Moreover, such organizational commitment and organizational loyalty will decline and it will be particularly hard to establish a stable, sustainable relationship with the organization. For organizations, high occupational mobility will lead to a raise in demission rate and recruitment expenses. In addition, excessive investment in human resources training and development will result in problems such as increasing costs, adding complexity in career management and so on. In light of the facts above, some scholars have turned their eyes on the relationship between individual and organizational career management. Orpen (1994) [16] pointed out that when individual and organization manage the career together, it appears to be more active and positive in terms of subjective career effectiveness. Sturges (2005) [17] noted that individual career management behaviors have displayed a correlation with assistances from organizational career management, and the assistances will contribute to the realization of the psychological contract. Ling and Ou (2010) [18] discussed the content structure of individual career management and organizational career management, and they indicated that there is a salient relationship between both. Xu (2011) [19] reckoned that successful career management should be created upon individual and organizational demands along with their mutual interaction, and it represents an integration between individual and organizational career management. Reviewing the previous research, the relationship between individual and organizational career management is mostly illustrated from the point of theory which highlights the dynamic balance, and thus studies merely probed into the field of person-organization career management fit. New career has altered traditional conception of both individual and organizational career management, therefore, how to reach the person-organization career management fit effectively to achieve individual and organizational goals has become the realistic need, as well as a crucial study subject under the brand new circumstance. In summary, by reviewing studies on individual career management, organizational career management and their relationship and taking theory of person-organization fit for reference, we conclude that person-organization career management fit is an integral part of person- organization fit, which suggests the similarity or consistency of person-organization career management concepts and strategies. The similarity or consistency of individual and organizational career management concepts not only affects individual and organizational career development strategies, but also has impacts on employees’ individual career development(such as career planning, career development, etc.), organizational human resources management practices(such as personnel recruitment, selection, training and development, etc.), as well as decreasing employee turnover rate and improving organizational performance, etc.
3. The Structure Dimensions of Person-Organization Career Management Fit
3.1. Factors Influencing the Person-Organization Career Management fit Pazy（1988）[20] reckoned that individual career management includes three dimensions listed as career planning, career strategy and individual initiative. Orpen (1994) [16] divided individual career management into two dimensions: career planning and career strategy. Long et al. (2002) [21] claimed five dimensions that constitute individual career management: career exploration, career goal and strategy, continuous learning, self-display and relationship-oriented behavior. Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N.
In the transition to protean and boundaryless career, aspects as goal, content and responsibility of career management have been gradually converting. From the perspective of individuals, two main factors that affect person-organization career management fit have been revealed: first factor is individual career concept or career value and second factor is individual career development strategy (such as career planning, career exploration, learning and training and career adjustment). Organizational socialization is the foundation of person-organization fit, and aims at introducing organizational values to employees and ensuring the consistency of their core values. To a certain extent, the process of organizational socialization leads to person- organization fit, which suggests that employees are far more likely to commit to organizations and much less likely to quit. Thereby, enterprises can make sure they will be able to attain a greater return on recruitment, selection and training costs, etc . (Lu and Chen, 2008) [22]. Wang and Zhu (2006)[23]stated that organizational socialization is a procedure during which allows individuals to adjust their work attitudes, work behaviors and personal values to adapt to current organization’s value system, and to approve of organization’s objectives and behavior norms in the same time. Organizational socialization will accompany with the entire individual careers, and individuals will face various organizational socialization tasks at different career stages. Domestic and foreign scholars generally state that career management is one of the organizational responsibilities to support individual career development. The main contents of organizational career management involve organizational training, career planning guidance, occupational information distribution, career development counseling, career path design and formulation of career management policy, etc. Krishnan and Maheshwari (2011) [24] had verified that organizational career system includes labor market orientation, employee advancement orientation and employee lateral movement. Therefore, from the point of organization, there are two principle elements that will affect person-organization career management fit: one is organizational socialization, and the other is organizational career management strategy (such as formulating organizational career development policies and regulations, providing career information, conducting career counseling and assessment, designing career paths, career training and development, etc.) It can be discovered from the analysis above that person-organization career management fit is a process of mutual adaptation to eventually achieve a win-win situation and vice versa.
3.2. The Model of Person-Organization Career Management Fit The factor analysis of person-organization career management fit shows that effect factors can be summarized into two dimensions: career concept and career management strategy. As a result, we construct the model of person-organization career management fit with concept and strategy as two dimensions and perspectives from both individuals and organizations. Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N.
Figure 1. The model of Person-Organization Career Management Fit As shown in Figure 1, person-organization career management fit contains four dimensions-individual career concept, individual career development strategy, organizational socialization and organizational career management strategy. Individual career concept refers to individual career value and the degree of its consistency with organizational value; Individual career development strategy refers to individual career development objective, career planning, career design, career exploration, career adjustment and the degree of its consistency with organizational career management; Organizational socialization refers to the process which organization facilitates employee to adapt to organizational environment culture with the goal of ensuring the consistency of the organizational core value; Organizational career management strategy refers to organizational behaviors that meet individual career development demands, like formulating organizational career development policy and regulation, providing career information, designing career paths, conducting career counseling and assessment and career training and development.
4. Scale development of Person-Organization Career Management Fit According to Churchill and Gilbert (1979) [25] and Hinkin (1995) [26], the establishment of the scale has been conducted in four steps. First step was to collect original materials. As a start, we analyzed researches related to these four dimensions of person-organization career management fit to further understand their concepts and theories. Next, we reviewed relevant literatures and relevant researches regarding of the specific items of these four dimensions. After thoroughly analyzing, we selected several optimal items that mostly fit into our subject. Taking that person- organization career management fit is an integral part of person-organization fit into account, we considered more of the items that concerned value in person-organization fit for reference to select initial items for individual career concept, and 8 initial items have been picked referring to the research of Cable and Judge (1996) [27], Cable and DeRue (2002) [28], and Briscoe (2006) [1] respectively. In the same manner,7 initial items of individual career Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N. development strategy have been chosen, referring to the related research results of Noe (1996) [29]、Pazy (1988) [20]、Sullivan (1999) [30]、Long et al.(2002) [21]、Ling and Ou (2010) [18] and considering facts that employees tend to manage their career by themselves in the protean and boundaryless career attitudes. The initial items of organizational socialization consist of 6 items, referring to studies of Van Maanen and Schein (1979) [31], Jones (1986) [32], Chen (2009) [33] which are majorly with respect to the strategic concept of organizational socialization and relevant questionnaires. Organizational career management strategy includes 10 initial items, referring to the latest research results of Long et al. (2002) [34], Briscoe (2006) [1], Baruch (2006) [6], Ling and Ou (2010) [18], Clarke (2013) [3]. Then, we conducted interviews with employees and managers through in-depth investigations into the enterprises, in order to let them evaluate the initial items objectively. For each item, interviewees were required to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 points in terms of the extent to which the item is in according with employees’ actual situation and which the item is readable. Additionally, interviewees were also asked to point out if there were other items that should be added to the questionnaire. 90 questionnaires were distributed in total and 62 of those being retrieved were validated. Second step was to design the initial questionnaire. After summarizing and classifying the results from the interviews, we decided to delete 7 items with an average score lower than 3. Analyzing the results of all interviews, we added 2 items accordingly that a person- organization career management fit questionnaire including 24 items was carried out. Afterwards, we invited professors from human resource management and graduate students majored in human resource management to deliberate on every item and rate the adequacy and scientific principles of the questionnaire. With the scrutiny of the questionnaire, 2 items were removed. Eventually, we accomplished a pre-test version of person-organization career management fit questionnaire with 22 items. Third step was to implement a pre-test with the questionnaire. The pre-test questionnaires were distributed through web links to MBA alumni and their employees or colleagues. 280 questionnaires were distributed in total and 232 valid copies were returned, with an effective response rate of 82.86%. All the items were measured on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (totally agree), and analyzed with SPSS19.0 and LISREL8.7. T-test results revealed that the T values of all 22 items had reached the significance level (.sig = 0.000), indicating that 22 items were valid to further identify respondents’ reactions. Through performing exploratory factor analysis, 7 items were dropped and results indicated four factors with eigenvalues greater than 1, which explained 63.334% of the variance. According to the content of each item, four factors were named as following: individual career concept, individual career development strategy, organizational socialization and organizational career management strategy. Cronbach’s ɑ of the whole scale was 0.870 and four latent variables’ Cronbach’s ɑ values were 0.749, 0.836, 0.746, 0.808, indicating that the scale had great reliability preliminary. The last step was to demonstrate a formal test. We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis with collected data, tested reliability and validity of the scale, and determined the final scale.
5. The Reliability and Validity Test of the Scale
5.1. Formal Questionnaire and Sample Structure Analysis For formal testing, the methods, targets and statistical analysis tool are the same as the pre- test. 300 questionnaires were distributed in total, and 275 valid copies were returned. Descriptive statistics analysis of demographic variables showed: for gender, female Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N.
respondents accounted for 48.4% of total and male respondents accounted for 51.6%; for age, 93% of respondents aged from 21 to 40 years old, among which 54.5% were in the 21-30 age range, 38.5% were in the 31-40 age range; for educational background, 49.5% were college graduates and 41.1% were postgraduates; for position, general employees accounted for 42.5%, junior managers accounted for 31.3%, middle managers accounted for 18.9% and senior managers accounted for 7.3%; for enterprise type, employees who worked in state- owned enterprises accounted for 32.7%, employees who worked in foreign-funded enterprises accounted for 36.0%, employees who worked in private enterprises accounted for 22.5% and those who worked in government organizations accounted for 8.7%; for years of experience, 32.4% of respondents had 1-3 years of experience, 40.0% had 4-6 years of experience and other 21.5% had more than 7 years of experience.
5.2. Exploratory Factor Analysis The results of reliability analysis of person-organization career management fit scale showed: item-to-total correlations (CITC) of each item was greater than 0.5; Cronbach’s ɑ value of the scale was 0.922; four latent variables’ Cronbach’s ɑ values were 0.867, 0.870, 0.881, 0.905, indicating that the scale had favorable internal consistency with high reliability as well. KMO and Bartlett's results showed: KMO value was .872, the chi-square value of Bartlett’s was 2844.768 (df was 105), and Sig was .000. Its significance level was close to zero, indicating that the data was suitable for factor analysis. The results of EFA were shown in Table 1. It can be seen from Table 1 that there were four factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 which explained 76.179% of the variance, being consistent with the results of the pre-test.
5.3. Confirmatory Factor Analysis The first step was to conduct the first order confirmatory factor analysis. In order to verify the relationships between measurement items and latent variables, we implemented the first order confirmatory factor analysis with model 1 (M1) and model 2 (M2). Model 1 was a first order single factor model, assuming that all 15 reserved items had the same latent variable noted as person-organization career management fit (POF). Model 2 was a first order four factors model with four assumptions making at the same time: three items of individual career concept had the same latent variable noted as individual career concept (IC); five items of individual career development strategy had the same latent variable noted as individual career development strategy (ICS); three items of organizational socialization had the same latent variable noted as organizational socialization (OS); four items of organizational career management strategy had the same latent variable noted as organizational career management strategy (OCS). Taking each item corresponding to its factor as observed variable and the factor as latent variable, the internal fitting index of the first order confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the structure of M1 was not ideal, while the structure of M2was relatively reasonable. The standard factor loading values on its corresponding latent variable of M2’s each observed variables were greater than 0.6, indicating that the scale’s convergent validity was favorable. From the point of view of M2’s internal fitting index, Chi-square/df was 3.29, less than the specified standard value of 5; RMSEA and SRMR were 0.092 and 0.053 respectively, less than the specified standard value; NFI, NNFI, CFI, IFI were far above the standard value of 0.9. Therefore, M2, the first order four factors model of person -organization career management fit had been verified. The second step was to conduct the second order confirmatory factor analysis. To further verify the relationship between the first order four factors model of the person-organization career management fit scale and the second order factors, we operated the second order confirmatory factor analysis on person-organization career management fit. We assumed the Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N. four first order factors contained a higher order latent variable-POF in common. Regarded POF as the second order factor, and IC, ICS, OS, OCS as the first order factors. The results of second-order confirmatory factor analysis were listed in Figure 2. The standardized path coefficients of the second-order and first-order factor were 0.73, 0.76, 0.76and 0.78, and the standardized loading coefficient of the first-order factors was in the range of 0.66 and 0.92, which were all much higher than the minimum standard value of 0.5. Chi-square / df was 3.23, less than the specified standard value of 5; RMSEA and SRMR also reached the criteria of value. NFI was 0.95, NNFI was 0.96, CFI was 0.97, and IFI was 0.97, which were far higher than the specified standard value of 0.9, indicating that fitting degree of second-order factor model was better, and in the meantime, the scale had a good convergent validity. In other words, the second-order single factor model was relatively more ideal. Based on the above validation analysis, we proved that the four dimensions of person-organization career management fit could explicitly demonstrate the concept of person -organization career management fit.
Table 1. Exploratory factor analysis for person-organization career management fit
Factor loading Items 1 2 3 4 communit y OCS1 .838 .767 OCS4 .829 .814 OCS2 .818 .805 OCS3 .766 .767 ICS4 .844 .753 ICS3 .796 .680 ICS1 .741 .765 ICS5 .686 .620 ICS2 .672 .645 OS1 .843 .855 OS3 .829 .786 OS2 .795 .775 IC3 .872 .878 IC1 .850 .848 IC2 .691 .670 Named OS ES OA EA Eigenvalue 3.230 3.195 2.591 2.410 % of Variance 21.537% 21.302% 17.275% 16.064% Cumulative 21.537% 42.839% 60.114% 76.179%
Notes: Individual Career Concept, ICS: Individual Career Development Strategy, OS: Organizational Socialization, OCS: Organizational Career Management Strategy.
5.4. The Composite Reliability and Validity Test of the Scale
According to Hair (1998) [35], the minimum acceptable standard value of composite reliability was 0.7. Upon calculation, the composite reliability of individual career concept, individual career development strategy, organizational socialization, and organizational career management strategy were 0.8815, 0.8714, 0.8814, 0.9059 respectively, higher than Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N.
the minimum acceptable standard of 0.7. Thus, the scale verified the composite reliability test.
Figure 2. The second-order confirmatory factor analysis
We primarily tested the scale in terms of content validity, construct validity, and criterion- related validity. The scale was compiled in accordance with literature reviews and field interviews. We invited a total amount of 12 professors and graduate students majored in human resource management to deliberate on several key topics about the questionnaire to be as thorough as possible, like division of the dimensions, design and content of the items. Inappropriate items had been dropped while missing items had been supplemented. Moreover, each item was expressed with the most simplified descriptive words to be explicit and understandable. As a consequence, we deemed that content validity of the scale was reliable. Construct validity of the scale basically includes convergent validity and discriminant validity. Among which two aspects are taken into consider primarily for convergent validity. One is that the standard loading coefficient value of latent variable and observed variable should be greater than 0.5, which had been affirmed in confirmatory factor analysis. The other is that the average variance extraction (AVE) value of latent variable should be greater than 0.5. Upon examination, the AVE value of individual career concept, individual career development strategy, organizational socialization and organizational career management strategy were0.7155, 0.5783, 0.7130, 0.7070 respectively, indicating that the scale had Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N. excellent convergent validity since all AVE values were apparently greater than 0.5. Fornell and Larcker (1981)[36] suggested that if the square root of the latent various AVE is greater than the correlation coefficient between the latent variable and others, then the scale would have good discriminant validity. In looking at Table 2, we could tell that four square roots of AVE value were all greater than the correlation coefficients between the latent variables and others, indicating the scale had good discriminant validity.
Table 2. Validity of the scale
IC ICS OS OCS IC 0.8459 ICS 0.53 0.7605 OS 0.59 0.56 0.8444 OCS 0.55 0.62 0.57 0.8408 AVE 0.7155 0.5783 0.7130 0.7070
Note: The figures of diagonal line were the square root of each corresponding latent variable’s AVE value, and the remaining figures were the correlation coefficient between the latent variables.
Table 3. Regression analysis of person-organization career management fit and career growth in Chinese context CG CGP PAD ORG POF 0.737** 0.635** 0.621** 0.563** Adjusted R2 0.579 0.422 0.381 0.377 △R2 0.478 0.359 0.359 0.261 Sig.F Change 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Note: **. P<0.01 (two-tailed); CG: career growth, CGP: career goal progress, PAD: professional ability development, ORG: organizational rewards growth. This study adopted correlation analysis and hierarchical regression to test criterion-related validity, discussing the relationship with person-organization career management fit and career growth as well as its dimensions. Weng and Xi (2011)[37] indicated that organizational factor is one of the main factors affecting employees' career growth, and of all the organizational factor, career management is very critical, which can provide a more fitting jobs for employees to promote employees' career growth. Therefore, person-organization career management fit would be beneficial to employee's career growth. We adopted a three dimensions scale developed by Wang et al. (2014) [38] to establish the scale of career growth, which includes career goal progress (4 items), professional ability development (4 items), and organizational rewards growth (7 items). With a scrutiny of all items, we dropped 2 items belonging to organizational rewards growth- “Compared with previous organizations, my position in my present one is ideal” and “In this organization, the possibility of my current salary being increased is very large”, since they can potentially cause ambiguity. The remaining 13 items were utilized for measuring career growth eventually. Before conducting correlation analysis, we tested the reliability of the scale first. Cronbach’s ɑ of the scale was 0.920 and three dimensions’ Cronbach’s ɑ values were 0.904, 0.897, 0.926, indicating that the scale had high reliability. The results of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis have shown that the scale had good convergent and discriminant validity as well. Correlation analysis has implied that person-organization career management fit has a remarkable positive impact on career growth, and its three dimensions career goal progress, professional ability development and organizational rewards growth. And the largest correlation coefficient was 0.737 which indicates that person-organization career management fit has the relevant relationship with career growth. Furthermore, correlation analysis of demographic variable and career growth showed that age, job, education background were significantly correlated with career growth. Therefore, our Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N.
regression analysis adopted the method of hierarchical regression. Firstly, the demographic variables (age, job, education background) as the first set of predictor variables were introduced in the regression equation. Then person-organization career management fit as the second set of prediction variables were introduced in the regression equation, and career growth and its dimensions were used as the dependent variables. Results of regression analysis were shown in Table 3, and the regression equation passed F test. Person- organization career management fit explained 57.9% of career growth, 42.2% of career goal progress, 38.1% of professional ability development, and 37.7% of organizational rewards growth. Data analysis showed that person-organization career management fit had good criterion-related validity in Chinese context.
6. Discussions
6.1. Theoretical Significance and Practical Significance Person-organization fit is the highest state and the ultimate goal for human resource management to pursue all long. Since Chatman (1989) [39] put forward the concept of person-organization fit, all versions of personal interpretation regarding person-organization fit had been a matter of opinion. From the initial value fit (Chatman, (1989) [39]; O'Reilly, et al. (1991) [40]), needs-supplies and demands-abilities fit (Edwards ,1991)[41] to supplementary fit and complementary fit (Kristof ,1996) [9], then personality fit, goal fit (Cable and Judge, 1997)[42], employees moral development and ethical work climate fit (Ambrose, et al., 2008) [43], person-organization fit theory has been constantly enriched in the clash of various ideas and has become a focus of attention in the field of organizational behavior and human resources management. The new career changes the traditional concept of both individual and organizational career management, thereby affecting career management strategies. How to reach a consensus on career management issues between individuals and organizations is a challenge that theorists have to tackle. This study is based on concept definition and dimension division of person- organization career management fit, and establishes the person-organization career management fit scale with good reliability and validity. Additionally, this study also enriches the connotation of person-organization fit, expands person-organization fit theory and enables person-organization career management fit to become an integral part of person-organization fit. The development of person-organization career management fit scale not only provides a credible measurement tool for person-organization career management fit, but also provides guidance to individual career development. Additionally, it offers strategies and references for organizational career management. More importantly, for individuals, person-organization career management fit facilitates them to develop individual careers and achieve career goals, meanwhile, for organizations, person-organization career management fit assists them to improve stability, decrease demission rate, enhance employee satisfaction, increase loyalty and elevate the overall performance among others.
6.2. Research limitations Subjects of this study are mainly distributed in highly educated population and lack of samples from less educated general staff. The number of distributed questionnaires is insufficient which may affect the final statistical analysis potentially. In addition, this study is mainly focused on static person-organization career management fit. As a matter of fact, person-organization career management fit is a dynamic interaction procedure within a dynamic variation all the time which can be extremely unpredictable. It is apparent that static research cannot fully reflect the actual interaction between employees and organizations. Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N.
What's more, as personal intrinsic quality, personality, growing environment, development objectives, career development stage, etc. vary from human to human, requirements proposed to organizations are in change. Therefore, the factors that will affect person-organization career management fit are complex and fickle. Whereas this study is merely an exploratory study and it has not considered more intricate and varied factors from a dynamic perspective.
6.3 Research Prospects In the background of new career, organization's role has been transformed from a manager or a controller in the past into a supporter, facilitator and human capital developer nowadays. This transformation requires a reposition for organization itself. Meeting the challenges of new career, organizations must adjust their development goals, concepts and behaviors, understand employees’ career development demands and take their due responsibilities and obligations. Career management is actually a process in need of mutual adaption and mutual support from individual career planning and organizational career management. At different stages of career development, such as career exploration stage, career establishment stage and career development stage, individuals have different career concepts, career development objectives and requirements. To organizations, they must learn those diverse demands from individuals in different stages of their career development, to enact and implement targeted, flexible career management strategies. To individuals, they also need to adjust career goals, career management strategies according to their employment environment’s change, their own employability skills and organizational culture and climate, etc. In this way, individual career concepts and organizational values, associated with individual career goals and organizational strategic objectives will be coordinated and consistent. Therefore, future research may focus on person-organization career management fit at different career development stages in dynamic environment, and influencing mechanism of person-organization career management fit towards career success, organizational performance, organizational behavior, etc. Only through empirical research on antecedent variables and outcome variables of person-organization career management fit, can we truly find the function and influence of person-organization career management fit.
Acknowledgements
With the help of many professors, associate professors and undergraduate students, this research was completed successfully. The authors also acknowledge the National Social Science Found of China (nos12BGL067) who gave us the financial support.
References
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Appendix: Person-Organization Career Management Fit Guo, W.C., Wang, N.N.
Individual Career Concept 1. The values of my own career values are similar to this organization. 2. My personality reflects this organization’s characteristic. 3. The things that I value in career development are very similar to the things that my organization values. Individual Career Development Strategy 4. I am able to conduct career exploration within the working environment offered by the organization. 5. I am able to adjust my career development plan in accordance with the organizational development requirements.
6. I am able to pay attention to establish good relationships with members in the organization. 7. I am able to constantly participate in learning and training, in order to adapt to the professional requirements.
8. I am able to take initiative to communicate with supervisors and let supervisors be aware of my work performance and career goals. Organizational Socialization 9. Organization is willing to help me with career management. 10. Organization anticipates I can make contribute to the organization and achieve my own career goals at the same time. 11. Organization set examples as model employees for me to keep up with. Organizational Career Management Strategy 12. Organizations can provide me with job assignments or job opportunities beyond my own department or division.
13. Organization can provide me with opportunities for career development. 14. Organization can provide me with exact vocational training and development that I’m in need. 15. Organization can provide me with career counseling and assessment, so that I will be able to adjust my career plan in time.