Investigating a Within-Organization Sustainable Career: An Empirical Study in Malaysia

Contemporary career trends have dwindled individuals’ ability to manage their careers in a sustainable way, especially sustainable careers within an organization. This research tackles the need to examine what constitutes a within-organization sustainable career (WOSC) and investigate how employees react to their perceived WOSC through different career crafting behaviors, which will lead to different organizational outcomes. Following in-depth interviews and a large-scale questionnaire survey, this study verified that WOSC comprises three essential elements: perceived work demands and stress, perceived personal growth within the organization, and perceived organizational support in career growth. Additionally, this study also found that individuals who experience WOSC tend to demonstrate lower turnover intention, higher in-role performance, and greater organizational citizenship behaviors. From these findings, organizations and career counselors can help build and enhance employees’ WOSC, which is beneficial for both the employees and the employers.