Protean Career Orientation and Perceived Employability: The Mediating Role of Career Self-Management

Abstract

The study examines the relationship between protean career orientation and perceived employability along with the engagement in proactive career behavior. The main objective of this paper is to understand how protean career orientation would form perceptions of student's employability with career self-management as a mediator. Data was collected with the help of a questionnaire from 182 business school students at Panjab University, Chandigarh. The result of correlation analysis indicates that a positive relationship exists between protean career orientation and perceived employability. PROCESS macro given by Hayes has been used to test the mediation. Analysis by bootstrapping method reveals that career self-management fully mediates the relationship between the two variables. Theoretically, this study extends the presence of protean career orientation beyond the work domain into the student life. It also adds on to the cross-cultural research by examining protean career orientation that is a US rooted concept in the Indian scenario. The practical implication of this study is that it improves perception of students towards their employability by indulging in career self-management initiatives. Further, business school management should aim at interventions to increase the self-directed and values-driven nature of students to make them more proactive with regards to their career management.