The Relationship Between Dispositional Resistance to Change and Individual Career Management: A Matter of Occupational Self-Efficacy and Organizational Identification?

The perspective on career management has shifted from an organization's responsibility to the individual ownership regarding one's own career. Based on person-environment fit theory, the authors investigate how change resistant employees engage in individual career management activities. Occupational self-efficacy is tested as an underlying mechanism of this relationship. Organizational identification is examined as boundary condition affecting the relationship of dispositional resistance to change and individual career management. Using an employee survey of 157 participants, bootstrapping analyses reveal that dispositional resistance to change is negatively related to individual career management (i.e. career planning and career networking). Occupational self-efficacy is found to mediate these relationships. Moreover, low organizational identification strengthens the relationship between dispositional resistance to change and career planning; no significant interaction effect could be found for career networking. The authors conclude that organizations should offer personnel and organizational development measures to support their employees and create a development-focused organizational culture.