Do Cynicism, Self-Efficacy and Career Satisfaction have any impact on Boundaryless Career Orientation of IT employees?

Abstract

India’s impression on the world is that it is the fastest growing economy in terms of IT sector. IT sector has contributed to India’s growth to a greater extent by inventing, reinventing and transforming itself in a short span of time. IT sector has seen a growth of around 35% every year in the past two decades and is still growing. It has not only stabilized the regional development but has also empowered the country’s diverse human resources, but most importantly it has put the country on the global map. Also, the flourishing Indian economy has facilitated the IT sector to sustain its competitiveness in the global market.

The dominance of the IT job market is because of many factors, which include prolific growth of the Internet and e-commerce, lesser hardware and software prices allowing more businesses to upgrade their technology, rising demand for information security specialists spurred by the escalating frequency and sophistication of cyber-crimes, the emergence of smarter applications enabling companies to analyze data and develop unprecedented business. Technology changes with the speed of blink of an eye, and so do changes individual’s career aspirations. Thus, loyalty for a single employer has bought into two major trends, namely, the ‘push’ factor of technology which is characterized by adaptable, flexible and autonomous traits, whereas, the second ‘pull’ factor is explained by apt work-life balance. Indeed, both the factors have changed the entire career orientation of employees.

Research on career has a rich history, however there is a transit in career patterns and research focus.^89,78 The difference of opinion by individual characteristics and perception of work and career success with different kaleidoscope has affected the career research.¹⁰¹   The research on career always remains an alarming framework, and career development has always been considered as dominant ramification of human resource development. The conventional definition quoted by Wilensky (1961) defined Career as “succession of related jobs arranged in a hierarchy of prestige, through which people move in ordered (more or less predictable), sequence”. A more simpler definition given by Arthur et al. (1989) defined career as the evolving sequence of a person’s work experiences over time – the latter definition being most frequently used today.

The emergence of traditional upward career path and demise of organizational career leads to different career patterns i.e., protean career and boundary less career. The new career patterns are characterized by disruptions and non-linearity, and individuals are now responsible for their own career advancements.In the modern career approach, a change from psychological contract is explained as change in the relationship between employer and employee from organizational career to protean career. This exposition that has changed the psychological contract, took place in the last decade.