CAREER ENGAGEMENT: A FUNCTION OF EMPLOYEE OPTIMISM AND INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP

Abstract

The dynamic and turbulent business environment has brought many changes in the socioeconomic environment, and it poses a greater challenge to modern organizations in terms of managing their human resources. In the era of knowledge economy, HR is tasked with managing an organization’s most treasured asset – its people. HR professionals often need to be recruiters, mentors, and counsellors; as more and more organizations seek to embrace a culture which supports career development. For many of us, a career is primarily a source of financial stability, but it is no secret that an engaged workforce contributes to higher financial returns. In recent years, there has been a lot of research on the perception of having called one’s career, or “work that a person perceives as his/ her purpose in life”. Over the past decades, people feel accountable for career management due to altercations in career. This change has amplified the need to be more engaged with the proactive career behaviours. According to Gallup Management, individuals work with similar aims, objectives and insights who willingly joined hands together to attain what individuals cannot accomplish in isolation. However, in any organization that is goal-oriented, workers collaborative efforts in association with their level of interpersonal relationship tend to affect the performance of entire work-group. The need for interpersonal relationship at workplace, therefore, cannot be ignored as they can establish a supportive and innovative climate, influence organizational output by increasing participation and organizational productivity. Past researches have asserted that positive emotions have proven that positivity in employees result in a successful career. Also, a sense of career identity and engagement are important predictors of intentions to stay or leave the profession and career optimism is related to personality and career satisfaction. Additionally, the “India Employee Survey” by HR tech startup Hush highlighted that 22 percent of the employees feel that their productivity is low due to overwork and stress in the manufacturing sector. A survey by Blue Steps, a career management service for executives, reported that the senior executives working in India are more optimistic about their careers as compared to their subordinates. Thus, the current study tries to assess the relationship between interpersonal relationship, employee optimism and career engagement along with the demographic variables, namely gender, age and education level in Indian organizations. The present study also examined the role of demographics in influencing the independent (IV) and dependent variables (DV) of the study. This study also analyzed the moderating role of gender, age and education in career engagement and optimism relationship. The data were collected from 381 employees (junior, iv middle and senior-level) of Indian organizations (public and private both) of size more than 500 Crores (Indian currency annual turnover) via simple random sampling method. The hypotheses were tested with the help of t-test, ANOVA, Exploratory factor analysis, Confirmatory factor analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis using SPSS version 24. The results revealed significant demographic differences in the variables under study. Also, the study highlighted that the dimensions of interpersonal relationship as well as optimism were found to be significant predictors of career engagement. Additionally, the results indicated that optimism acted as a mediator between interpersonal relationship and career engagement wherein the demographics moderated the relationship of optimism and career engagement. The strength of the relationship between optimism and career engagement was stronger for male employees at the high level of optimism in comparison to the female employees. The results depicted that middle-aged are more engaged at a higher optimism level as compared to the old- aged and young-age employees. The strength of optimism and career engagement is stronger for employees having high education level than employees having low education level, i.e. diploma and graduate. This research significantly contributes to the Social Cognitive Career Theory and Life Span Development Theory. Further, the study has certain implications for academicians and managers. The study sheds light on having or developing a positive expectation related to the outcome and provides insights in framing the future, i.e. plan for the professional as well as personal lives. This study recommends that organizations should aid and include the role of optimism as well as social networks to enable employee’s getting more engaged with their careers. Practitioners should incorporate strategies to inculcate optimism considering its supreme importance for increasing the engagement level of Indian managers as it comprises of from the capacity component, whether an individual has the resources necessary to meet the challenges that job presents. Lastly, the study has some limitations as well as future research directions.