Career Don't Stop Believing: Career Empowerment as a Mediator between Hope and Organizational Outcomes

The growing trend towards individual career management requires understanding the driving forces of career changes. In the current study we explore how personal resources, namely hope, optimism, self-efficacy, and social support are associated with the motivational construct of career empowerment, which in turn predicts employees' behavioral (OCB, performance appraisal) and attitudinal (job engagement, life satisfaction) outcomes. We conducted a quantitative study in which 251 full- and part-time employees completed paper-and-pencil surveys measuring internal and external resources, and career empowerment. Our results indicate that the research variables are significantly and positively correlated with one another. Mediation analyses with competing models indicate that career empowerment is a partial mediator between personal resources and various outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.