Analysis of the Relationship between Career Aspiration and Proactive Career Behaviour in the Indian Employment Scenario

Abstract

Engaging in career self-management has become indispensable in the contemporary work environment which the employees can practice by utilising their career aspiration and proactive career behaviour. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 132 employees working in public and private organisations in India with an objective to examine the validity of SCCT in the Indian employment scenario by exploring the relationship between career aspiration and proactive career behaviour. Further attempts were made to investigate if gender and organisational ownership alters the aspirations and proactiveness of the employees. The results suggest that higher career aspiration induces the employees to exhibit better proactivity towards achieving their career objectives. Networking emerges out to be the preferred choice for attaining desired career, which is among the three fundamental proactive career behaviours. The insignificant role of gender and organisational ownership heightens the possibility of other factors playing significant role in promoting career aspiration and proactive career behaviour in employees, prompting future researches in these areas.