How does the career commitment of hospitality employees change across career stages? A multilevel investigation into occupational self-efficacy and family support

Abstract

This study examined how and why hospitality employees’ occupational self-efficacy and family support influence their career commitment over time. Longitudinal data was collected from 310 hospitality employees at three different points of time, with a three-month lag between them, exploring the differences in the employees’ career commitment growth trajectories between early and mid-to-late career. Results from growth modeling revealed that career commitment declines over time for early-career employees but increases for their mid-to-late career counterparts. The findings also indicated that organizational commitment mediates the relationships of career commitment with occupational self-efficacy and family support at both between- and within-person levels. Furthermore, time-varying effect analysis captured significant changes in the magnitude of antecedents over time across the different career stages. Implications drawn from the findings are discussed for both hospitality re­ searchers and practitioners.