Careerist Orientation and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Expatriates and Non-Expatriates

Abstract

This study had three objectives. First, we examined the relationship between careerist orientation and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Second, we investigated the mediating role of life satisfaction in the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB. Third, we examined whether expatriate employees (those sent abroad on full-time company assignment) differed from non-expatriate employees in the strength of the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB. The expatriate sample consisted of 232 U.S. expatriates working in United Kingdom and the non-expatriate sample consisted of 210 full-time employees working in various organizations in the United States. We used hierarchical regression analyses to test the hypotheses. Careerist orientation adversely affected OCB because of lower life satisfaction that the employees experienced. Expatriate employees with a high careerist orientation exhibited lower level of OCB than non-expatriates with a high careerist orientation.

Keywords

career organizational citizenship behavior expatriate

Strategic refocusing, business reengineering, and downsizing in times of financial crunch have become common events in the face of ever increasing global competition (Sullivan & Baruch, 2009). Over time, as employment relationships have weakened, individuals have begun to take the role of managing their own careers and this has neutralized the organization’s role as a partner in career management (Baruch, 2004). Thus, the protestant and career ethic of the past (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2012) have given way to a genre of “New Career” attitudes (Briscoe & Finkelstein, 2009). One such career attitude that has emerged is “careerist orientation” wherein the employee believes that getting ahead in one’s career can be best accomplished by nonperformance means (Aryee & Chen, 2004; Feldman, 1985). An employee displaying careerist orientation believes that he or she has to look out for his or her personal interests and not rely on the possible fruition of a long-term career planning, if any, proposed by the employer.

Feldman and Weitz (1991) argued that careerist orientation has an adverse effect on work attitudes because the individual is focused on what is missing in the workplace. Since no workplace is perfect, any negative incident or the absence of any desirable attribute only reaffirm the negative work attitudes and behaviors of the employee with a high careerist orientation. While some counterproductive behaviors may have an unintended positive effect for the organization (e.g., Fox, Spector, Goh, Bruursema, & Kessler, 2012), we take the position that careerist orientation is unlikely to benefit the organization because of employee’s lack of focus on job performance and short-term orientation of the employee. Accordingly, we examine whether careerist orientation has a negative relationship with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), an important extra-role behavior in the workplace. OCB is discretionary and not recognized by the organization’s reward system (Organ, 1988). In a meta-analysis, Podsakoff, Whiting, Podsakoff, and Blume (2009) found OCB to be related to important individual outcomes such as employee performance, absenteeism, and turnover, and to organizational outcomes such as cost reduction and customer satisfaction. Therefore, it is important to understand the determinants of OCB.

Another important research question is whether individuals displaying careerist orientation are less satisfied with their lives. Given today’s turbulent economy, individuals with a careerist orientation might be less satisfied in their lives as they may not be able to strike a balance with other domains of life (e.g., family, leisure time activities) as they are often working on the next scheme to advance their careers. Therefore, we also examine the linkages between careerist orientation and life satisfaction. Life satisfaction refers to satisfaction with one’s overall experiences. It is a pleasant affective response to one’s life and is a component of subjective well-being (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). In addition to the relationship between careerist orientation and life satisfaction, our research aims to verify if life satisfaction plays a mediating role in the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB.

It is also important to test these relationships in the context of global business. Multinational companies often send employees from home office to work in their overseas operations to enhance their bottom-line prospects (Chen, Kirkman, Kim, Farh, & Tangirala, 2010). Expatriates are sent on a full-time assignment with the parent company to live overseas on a time-bound basis (Lii & Wong, 2008). An important dimension on which expatriates differ from non-expatriates relates to the level of familiarity with the work and social context. Non-expatriates typically work with resources as well as colleagues and external stakeholders they are familiar with and they live in a known social context. On the other hand, expatriates encounter a new environment with demands for adjustments on several fronts. As a result, many of these expatriate assignments end prematurely (Takeuchi, Yun, & Tesluk, 2002). In this study, we examine whether the strength of relationship between careerist orientation and OCB is different between the expatriates and non-expatriates.

Our study extends previous research in three important ways. First, we identify OCB as an important outcome related to careerist orientation. Second, we examine the mediating role of life satisfaction in the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB. Finally, we examine the moderating role of expatriate status, that is, whether the magnitude of relationship between careerist orientation and OCB is different in the case of expatriates versus non-expatriates. Thus, we propose to combine different fields of research—career attitudes, life satisfaction, OCB, and international assignments.

Careerist Orientation

According to Tolbert (1996), the notion of a career is one that involves long-term employment with a single employer and movement through a series of interconnected and increasingly prestigious jobs arranged within a hierarchy. This traditional definition, which is supported by the earlier work of Weber (1947), involves learning effective strategies of organizing work and accepting bureaucracy as a model for organizations. Later reviews of research on careers argued that guaranteed employment has been replaced by short-term arrangements (e.g., Sullivan & Baruch, 2009). In view of the organizational downsizing, restructuring, and the consequent separation of employees, it is not surprising that employees may develop a different attitude, labeled as careerist orientation, toward their career development. Attitude may be defined as an evaluative judgment of an object that influences the cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions toward that object (Banaji & Heiphetz, 2010; Crano & Prislin, 2006). Careerist orientation is a negative attitude toward the organization for its role in career development of the individual.

One of the central beliefs in careerist orientation is that in the long run the individual career goals and the organization’s goals for the individual are inconsistent and so, the individual has to look out for his or her own interests (Feldman & Weitz, 1991). Employee loyalty toward the organization would not be eventually rewarded. While careerist orientation is similar to the protean career attitude (Hall, 1976) in the sense of being self-directed (as opposed to organizationally driven), it differs importantly in terms of the values that drive the two attitudes (Briscoe & Finkelstein, 2009). Unlike protean career attitudes, people with high careerist orientation are also likely to endorse the use of impression management tactics, political, and Machiavellian behaviors (Feldman & Weitz, 1991). Therefore, in contrast to boundaryless career (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; Hall & Moss, 1998; Sullivan & Arthur, 2006) that focuses on job performance or skill-related factors (e.g., knowledge acquisition, ability to adapt, working hard) for career advancement, Feldman and Weitz (1991) conceptualized careerist orientation as emphasizing nonperformance based means in the pursuit of career growth.

The extant research has identified several workplace outcomes of careerist orientation. In the first study on this topic, Feldman and Weitz found careerist orientation to be negatively related to job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, and work motivation. It was strongly related to the desire for career advancement. Subsequent research by Chay and Aryee (1999) used a sample of working professionals in Singapore and found careerist orientation to be negatively related to job involvement and organizational commitment, thereby indicating the generalizability of the concept to other cultures. In addition, they found careerist orientation to be positively related to turnover intentions.

We contribute to the research on OCB and life satisfaction by examining the role of careerist orientation and in the process, provide additional linkages between the important research fields of career attitudes, life satisfaction, and OCB. In addition, we examine the moderating role of expatriate status in the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB.

Hypotheses

In order to understand the antecedents of OCB, we apply three theories that integrate attitudes (i.e., careerist orientation and life satisfaction) with each other and with behavior in the workplace (i.e., OCB). The social exchange theory (Blau, 1964; Thibaut & Kelley, 1959) emphasizes the role of long-term approach in enabling an extra-role behavior such as OCB that is not easily explained by economic exchange (e.g., monetary rewards). In contrast to economic exchange, the social exchange theorists argue that contributions and receipts of the two parties in a social exchange are difficult to materialize over a short span of time. The norms of reciprocity operate, but the person making a contribution does not expect to receive a benefit in the short run. Therefore, an attitude such as careerist orientation might affect the employee’s time orientation (short term vs. long term) underlying his or her actions, which, in turn, might affect OCB. Self-consistency theory (Korman, 1970) emphasizes a balance between cognitive self-evaluation and behavior and is, therefore, useful in understanding the relationship between an attitude such as life satisfaction and a behavior such as OCB. According to this theory, individuals will find those behaviors more satisfying that preserve their sense of consistency with their own self-evaluation. If an individual holds a positive self-evaluation, he or she is more likely to exhibit behaviors that maintain this cognition. The affective spillover theories (Alexander & Baxter, 2005; Grzywacz, Almeida, & McDonald, 2002; Scheitler & Berreth, 2009) argue that emotions from workplace could spill over to other domains of life and vice versa. Therefore, this theory is useful in linking the affective component of attitudes toward different entities (organization and one’s life). The emotions could be positive as well as negative. The negative spillover (e.g., work-related stress reducing one’s patience level with children at home) is mainly because of a person’s limitations of time, energy, and other resources in meeting the responsibilities associated with multiple roles in work, family, and other spheres of life.

While our main research question centers on the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB, an important objective of our research is to examine the role of life satisfaction as a mediator in the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB. In order to test the mediating effect of a variable B in the relationship between variables A and C, A must be related to C, A must be related to B, and B must be related to C (Baron & Kenny, 1986; Frazier, Tix, & Barron, 2004). Therefore, in order to examine the mediating role of life satisfaction in the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB, careerist orientation must be related to OCB and life satisfaction, and life satisfaction must be related to OCB. The hypotheses are presented in that order. In addition, we examine the moderating role of expatriate status in the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB.

Careerist Orientation and OCB

OCB refers to individual behavior that is discretionary and not recognized by the organization’s reward system (Organ, 1988). The predictors of OCB fall under two broad categories: individual differences and job attitudes (Lester, Meglino, & Korsgaard, 2008). The theoretical arguments linking job attitudes and OCB are based on social exchange theory (Konovsky & Pugh, 1994). Briefly, employees who are satisfied with their jobs are likely to reciprocate by offering a benefit to the organization through extra-role behaviors such as OCB that are not mandated by the job requirements. Based on moral norms, employees are expected to help the organization in return for being in a job that is satisfying (Lester et al., 2008). Employees who display high careerist orientation epitomize the self-directed career concept (Kondratuk, Hausdorf, Korbik, & Rosin, 2004). Commitment to the organization is unlikely to be rewarded in the eyes of the careerist (Feldman & Weitz, 1991). Employees demonstrating careerist orientation place less value on employment relationship (Turnley & Feldman, 1999). Employees with a high careerist orientation would typically not believe that either the organization or the employee owes anything to one another and so, there is less likelihood of performing behavior above the normal role expectations.

Another aspect of social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) that explains the occurrence of OCB is that employees perceive the relationship with the organization as a long-term exchange in which the rewards are not available on a quid pro quo basis. Since employees who score high on careerist orientation do not take a long-term perspective of their relationship with the organization, they are less likely to engage in OCB. Employees displaying high careerist orientation pursue goals that might be incompatible with that of the organization and use Machiavellian tactics to go ahead. Moreover, careerist orientation sensitizes employees to uninteresting employment which may result in withdrawal behaviors (Feldman & Weitz, 1991) instead of OCB.

Hypothesis 1: Careerist orientation will be negatively related to OCB.

Careerist Orientation and Life Satisfaction

According to Albarracin and Vargas (2010), research in neurobehavioral science shows that valence and arousal associated with an attitude are difficult to separate. For example, if the attitude is highly negative in valence, it would lead to high emotional arousal with feelings such as sadness and anger. Individuals tend to generalize their emotions from one domain of life to another. Studies have shown that there is a relationship between attitudes toward relatively less important objects (e.g., restaurant food) and satisfaction with one’s job or life (Judge & Hulin, 1993; Judge & Locke, 1993). An employee’s experience may carry over into his or her personal life and the vice versa as explained by the spillover theory (Crouter, 1984; Leiter & Durup, 1996). Past research suggests that stressors may originate for the employee from conflict between work requirements and family roles (Danna & Griffin, 1999). Thus, it is likely that a negative attitude such as careerist orientation in the work domain might affect the emotions in other domains as well, thereby leading to reduced satisfaction with life.

Hypothesis 2: Careerist orientation will be negatively related to life satisfaction.

Life Satisfaction and OCB

According to evaluative priming theory (Fazio, Sanbonmatsu, Powell, & Kardes, 1986), if an individual responds favorably to an object, he or she is likely to show a positive response to other objects and phenomena that are proximal in time and space. This happens because individuals like to maintain a consistency in emotions. As a result, people who are satisfied with their jobs might carry a pleasant demeanor in the workplace. Similarly, Korman’s (1970) self-consistency theory argues that individuals are likely to engage in behaviors that are consistent with their cognitive evaluations about themselves. Therefore, if an individual evaluates his or her life to be happy and is satisfied with it, he or she will engage in behaviors that maintain the same evaluation. Giving back to organization in the form of OCB might help the individual in gaining back social approval and recognition from coworkers and supervisor. The positive feeling experienced by being considered a good organizational citizen might help in maintaining the sense of being satisfied with life.

Workers do not leave their jobs when they leave the work site. As an example, workplace aggression (Neuman & Baron, 1998) is negatively related to well-being. By the same token, affective well-being and satisfaction are likely to lead to positive attitude and constructive behavior at work place. There is support for a positive relationship between job satisfaction and OCB (Bateman & Organ, 1983; LePine, Erez, & Johnson, 2002; Organ & Konovsky, 1989). Since work domain is usually an important part of life, and job satisfaction and life satisfaction tend to be interrelated (Judge, Locke, Durham, & Kluger, 1998), it is possible that pleasant emotions from one’s life may translate to OCB in work place.

Hypothesis 3: Life satisfaction will be positively related to OCB.

Moderating Role of Expatriate Status

Employees who are posted on job assignments away from the home office and not closely supervised can develop work attitudes different from that expected by the organization (Harvey, 1989). As a result, a significant percentage of expatriates leave the company after completing the overseas assignment (Van Der Heijden, Van Engen, & Paauwe, 2009). Many expatriates face adjustment challenges due to cultural differences and relocation of the spouse and family (Lee, 2007). In a study of expatriates across 49 countries, Bolino (2010) found that expatriates with a high level of careerist orientation had greater difficulty in adjusting to their overseas assignment. Similarly, expatriates who perceive a lack of fit between individual and organizational career plan are more likely to quit the company (Van Der Heijden et al., 2009). Employees with a high careerist orientation also see a mismatch between individual and organizational goals (Feldman, 1985). Given these adjustment challenges faced by expatriates with a high careerist orientation (Bolino, 2010) and the likelihood of their not continuing with the company (Van Der Heijden et al., 2009), compared to non-expatriates, expatriates displaying careerist orientation are less likely to exhibit OCB.

Hypothesis 4: The relationship between careerist orientation and OCB is moderated by expatriate status of the employee such that this relationship is more strongly negative in the case of expatriates, compared to non-expatriates.

Method

Participants

The expatriate employees were from diverse industries such as construction, manufacturing, communications/media, information technology, management consulting, education, health care, and so on. About 20% of the respondents were in the financial services/insurance industry. The average tenure in the current organization was approximately 9 years and the average full-time work experience was close to 20 years for the expatriates. Nearly 25% of them were working in general management positions and about 39% were in senior management positions at the time of completing the survey. About 90% of the expatriates had obtained education level equivalent to or higher than a bachelor’s degree. The average age of the expatriate respondents was 42. About 38% of the expatriate respondents were females.

Similar to the expatriate group, the non-expatriate employees were also from diverse industries such as construction, manufacturing, communications/media, information technology, management consulting, education, health care, and so on. About 50% of the respondents were in the financial services/insurance industry. The average tenure in the current organization was approximately 14 years and the average full-time work experience was close to 29 years for the non-expatriates. Nearly 34% of them were working in general management positions and about 33% were in senior management positions at the time of completing the survey. About 90% of the non-expatriates had obtained education level equivalent to or higher than a bachelor’s degree. The average age for the non-expatriate group was 54. About 48% of the non-expatriates were females.

The expatriate sample consisted of 232 employees and the non-expatriate sample consisted of 210 employees. The overall response rate was 83%.

Procedures

For the expatriate group, the researcher (first author) asked a person who was a center of influence in an expatriate community in the United Kingdom to identify and distribute surveys to expatriate individuals. The survey coordinator knew many of the expatriate residents who were employed by various business organizations in the United Kingdom. The researcher requested the survey coordinator to randomly distribute the surveys to expatriate employees. Each survey was enclosed with a letter of instructions in a sealed envelope advising the employee that the survey was anonymous and the participation was voluntary. Upon completion, the surveys were given back to the survey coordinator who then returned them to the researcher.

For the non-expatriate group, questionnaires were given to a survey coordinator who was well known in the business community. The survey coordinator personally gave the surveys to business owners and industry managers in the Western Pennsylvania area. The researcher asked the survey coordinator to randomly distribute the questionnaires among this group of business employees. The surveys were placed in individually sealed envelopes along with a letter of instructions indicating that the survey was anonymous and the participation was voluntary. Once completed, the surveys were given back to the survey coordinator. The researcher then collected the questionnaires from the survey coordinator.

Measures

Careerist Orientation Scale

The scale we used for measuring careerist orientation was originally developed by Feldman and Weitz (1991). The scale asks employees to describe attitudes and beliefs regarding the relationship between an employee and his or her employing organization. In addition to obtaining a single factor for 23 items, Feldman and Weitz reported a reliability coefficient of .90. This scale has subsequently been used in various studies and adequate level of reliability coefficients have been reported in these studies. For example, Chay and Aryee (1999) used a 6-item abbreviated version of the Careerist Orientation scale (Feldman & Weitz, 1991) and found the scale reliability coefficient to be .81. Aryee and Chen (2004) used a 5-item abbreviated version of the same scale and obtained a scale reliability equal to.72. Bolino and Feldman (2000) used a 7-item version of the scale and reported a reliability coefficient of .84.

The participants in our study responded to the 23 questions on a 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) Likert-type scale. A sample item is, “It’s hard to get ahead in an organization on sheer merit alone.” The reliability coefficient was .86 in the case of expatriates and .91 in the case of non-expatriates. We computed the average score of all items in the scale.

Satisfaction With Life Scale

We used the 5-item Satisfaction With Life Scale originally developed by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985). They reported a scale reliability coefficient of .87 and a 2-month test–retest reliability coefficient of .82. They demonstrated internal consistency of items separately for a student sample as well as a geriatric/elderly group. In a subsequent study, Pavot, Diener, Colvin, and Sandvik (1991) demonstrated the predictive validity of this scale. The scale has been further validated in different populations and cultures (e.g., Bai, Wu, Zheng, & Ren, 2011).

The participants in our study answered items such as, “In most ways my life is close to my ideal” on a 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) Likert-type scale. The reliability coefficient was .83 in the case of expatriates and .89 in the case of non-expatriates. We computed the average score of all items in the scale.

OCB Scale

We used the 12-item scale developed by MacKenzie, Podsakoff, and Fetter (1993). The scale consisted of four components (civic virtue, sportsmanship, altruism, and conscientiousness). The authors reported the reliability coefficients for the four subscales in three different studies. In a sample of insurance agents, the reliability coefficient varied from .70 to .85 for the four subscales. In a sample of industrial salespeople, the researchers obtained scale reliability coefficients ranging from .78 to .88. In a third sample of district sales managers, the reliability coefficients ranged from .60 to .79. The lower value (.60) of reliability coefficient was for the conscientiousness component of the scale. However, in the other two samples, all the reliability coefficients were .70 or higher, as per the recommendations of Nunnally (1978). Three of these subscales were used in a later study (MacKenzie, Podsakoff, & Rich, 2001) and the reliability coefficients varied from .69 to .77.

The participants in our study answered questions using a 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) Likert-type scale. A sample item was, “I keep up with developments in the company.” The reliability coefficient was .77 in the case of expatriates and .71 in the case of non-expatriates. We computed the average score of all items in the scale.

Expatriate status

The expatriate employees were coded as 2 and the non-expatriate employees were coded as 1.

Control variables

Gender, marital status, education, and organizational tenure were included as control variables in the analyses.

Results

The descriptive statistics and intercorrelations among the variables are shown in Table 1. Since all the data were from the same source using the same survey instrument, there is a possibility of a common method bias (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Jeong-Yeon, & Podsakoff, 2003). One of the recommendations to verify the presence and extent of common method bias is the Harmon one-factor test. In a factor analysis of all the items used in the three scales, we did not find any common factor on which all the items loaded. Thus, it is less likely that the observed correlations are entirely due to common method bias.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics and Correlations.

Variable	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1. Organizational citizenship behavior	3.98	.52	1.00
2. Life satisfaction	4.91	1.19	.41**	1.00
3. Careerist orientation	2.73	.59	−.46**	−.34**	1.00
4. Expatriate (2) versus non-expatriate (1)	—	—	−.39**	−.14*	.25**	1.00
5. Gender (male = 2, female = 1)	—	—	.08	.07	.01	−.06	1.00
6. Education	2.52	.85	−.15**	.05	.05	.04	.13*	1.00
7. Marital status (married/partnered = 2, others = 1)	—	—	.09	.12*	−.07	−.02	.14**	.11*	1.00
8. Organizational tenure	11.25	10.56	.15**	.15**	−.24**	−.21**	.07	.02	.12*	1.00

Note. N = 442.

**p < .01. *p < .05.

For testing the moderating and mediating effects, we followed the recommendations of Frazier, Tix, and Barron (2004). While Frazier et al. illustrated the procedure for testing mediating effects with three variables (independent variable, mediator variable, and outcome variable), we also controlled for the effect of employee’s gender, marital status, education, and organizational tenure. As a result, we tested the hypotheses through hierarchical multiple regression. The results are shown in Table 2 and Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Moderating role of expatriate status in the relationship between careerist orientation and organizational citizenship behavior.

Table 2.

Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for all Hypotheses.

	Organizational citizenship behavior			Life satisfaction
Variable	B	SE	β	B	SE	β
Step 1: Control variables
Gender	.09	.06	.08	.12	.12	.05
Education	−.11	.03	−.17**	.06	.07	.04
Marital status	.12	.07	.09	.29	.15	.10
Organizational tenure	.01	.00	.12*	.01	.01	.13*
Step 2^a
Careerist orientation	−.34	.04	−.38**	−.72	.10	−.36**
Expatriate status	−.32	.05	−.30**
Step 3^a
Careerist orientation	−.25	.04	−.28**
Expatriate status	−.31	.04	−.29**
Life satisfaction	.13	.02	.29**
Step 4^a
Careerist orientation	.05	.11	.06
Expatriate status	−.30	.04	−.29**
Life satisfaction	.13	.02	.29**
Careerist orientation × Expatriate	−.21	.07	−.35**

Note. Dependent variable: organizational citizenship behavior. R ² for Step 1 = .06, p < .01; ΔR ² for Step 2 = .27, p < .01; ΔR ²for Step 3 = .07, p < .01; ΔR ² for Step 4 = .01, p < .01.

Dependent variable: life satisfaction. R ² for Step 1 = .04, p < .05; ΔR ² for Step 2 = .12, p < .01.

^aThe coefficients of variables entered in Step 1 are not shown in subsequent steps in this table because these are control variables and not the main focus of the study.

**p < .01 (two-tailed). *p < .05 (two-tailed).

As shown in Table 2, with OCB as the dependent variable, in Step 2, careerist orientation was negatively related to OCB and so, Hypothesis 1 was supported (β = −.38, p < .01). With life satisfaction as the dependent variable, in Step 1, careerist orientation was negatively related to life satisfaction, and therefore, Hypothesis 2 was supported (β = −.36, p < .01). With OCB as the dependent variable, in Step 3, life satisfaction was positively related to OCB (β = .29, p < .01) thereby providing support for Hypothesis 3.

In order to verify the conditions of mediation (Baron & Kenny, 1986; Frazier et al., 2004), we showed that careerist orientation was significantly related to life satisfaction and OCB, and life satisfaction was significantly related to OCB. With OCB as the dependent variable in Table 2, the magnitude of the regression coefficient between careerist orientation and OCB reduced from Step 2 to Step 3 when life satisfaction was added to the model. However, the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB continued to be significant in Step 3 when life satisfaction was included. Therefore, following the procedure recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986) and Frazier et al. (2004), we found that the effect of careerist orientation on OCB was partially (and not completely) mediated. In order to test the significance of the mediated links, we also conducted the Sobel test (Sobel, 1982). For the careerist orientation–life satisfaction–OCB link, the Sobel test statistic was −5.10 (p < .01) and therefore, life satisfaction was a mediator of the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB.

The moderating role of expatriate status in the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB was tested by including a multiplication term (after mean centering careerist orientation) of careerist orientation and expatriate status (dichotomous variable) in Step 4 in Table 2 with OCB as the dependent variable. After accounting for the main effects of careerist orientation and expatriate status, the multiplication term had a significant (β = −.35, p < .01) relationship with OCB, thereby indicating a significant moderating effect of expatriate status. The nature of relationship was examined in Figure 1 by plotting the means of OCB for low and high levels of careerist orientation and comparing these values for expatriates and non-expatriates. As can be seen from Figure 1, the drop in mean OCB values with increase in careerist orientation is stronger in the case of expatriates compared to non-expatriates. Thus, we found support for Hypothesis 4.

Discussion

The purpose of our research was to investigate the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB. In addition, we aimed to examine the role of an important mediator (life satisfaction) and an important moderator (expatriate status) in the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB. We tested the hypotheses with a sample of 232 U.S. expatriates working in United Kingdom and a sample of 210 full-time employees (non-expatriate) working in various organizations in the United States. Our results support the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, careerist orientation was negatively related to life satisfaction and OCB. Life satisfaction was positively related to OCB. Following the procedure recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986) and the test of indirect effect recommended by Sobel (1982), we found life satisfaction to be a mediator of the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB. The negative relationship between careerist orientation and OCB was stronger in the case of expatriate sample.

Theoretical Implications and Future Research Directions

The results of our study connect the literatures on career attitudes (careerist orientation), subjective well-being (life satisfaction), extra-role behaviors (OCB), and international assignments (expatriates). Two important outcomes of careerist orientation not studied by previous research are OCB and life satisfaction. Life satisfaction played a mediating role in the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB. In addition we found a moderating effect of expatriate status on the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB.

The contextual determinants of careerist orientation might include lack of career growth opportunities, injustice by the organization, and lack of trust of the employee in the organization (Crawshaw & Brodbeck, 2011; Crawshaw, van Dick, & Brodbeck, 2012). Our research showed a negative linkage between careerist orientation and OCB. A meta-analysis on OCB has already shown a linkage between organizational justice and OCB (LePine et al., 2002). Thus, in terms of theory development and future empirical research, careerist orientation is a likely mediator between environmental factors such as organizational justice and extra-role behaviors such as OCB. While job attitudes have been recognized as important antecedents of OCB (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Organ & Konovsky, 1989), our findings show that attitudes toward career development are also likely to influence OCB.

Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Payne, and Bachrach (2000) separated citizenship-like behaviors into seven categories for their review of research in this field: helping behavior, sportsmanship, organizational loyalty, organizational compliance, individual initiative, civic virtue, and self-development. Our results showed a negative relationship between careerist orientation and OCB. Therefore, it is likely that a person who displays careerist orientation would not help other employees and so, in team activities that require cooperation and coordination, the performance of the team members would be adversely affected. Future research on teamwork and team performance might gain new insights by including careerist orientation.

While there is past research that shows a relationship between life satisfaction and the extent to which the actual role participation and ideal roles match (Perrone, Webb, & Blalock, 2005), there is little research on career attitudes and life satisfaction. In our study, careerist orientation was negatively related to life satisfaction. There is need for more research on the linkages between work domain and other life domains of people. As Danna and Griffin (1999) noted in their review of past research on personal well-being in work place, “Indeed, for a variety of reasons these [health and well-being] issues should occupy a much more prominent niche in mainstream organizational research” (p. 357; words in brackets added). Similarly, our research adds to the understanding of the linkages between life satisfaction and OCB. While the relationship between job satisfaction and OCB is well-established, the role of life satisfaction has not been examined so far, to the best of our knowledge. In our study, life satisfaction was a mediator of the relationship between careerist orientation and OCB thereby enhancing our understanding of the nomological network of OCB.

This study examined two populations—expatriates and non-expatriates. This helped in identifying the boundary conditions of the theory linking careerist orientation with OCB. As discussed earlier, these two groups mainly differ in the extent of familiarity of the employee with the job and the social context, and consequently, the level of adjustment required by the employee and his or her family. This lack of familiarity and preparation and the greater need for adjustment are possibly related to the employee’s own desires to accept the new assignment—notwithstanding the difficulty in balancing work and family demands. While in this study, these underlying differences were captured by the dichotomous variable (expatriate vs. non-expatriate), it is important for future research to actually measure the underlying differences. Moreover, these underlying differences (e.g., extent of familiarity of the employee with the job/social context and the adjustment requirement) are expected to operate with other groups of workers too. For example, immigrant workers in the United States might face a similar lack of familiarity and preparation in their new jobs. Comparing attitudes of immigrant versus local workers would also be insightful.

In our study, we examined OCB as an outcome for expatriates (as well as non-expatriates). The inability to adjust to the new work context is an important reason for a premature end of the expatriate assignment (Bolino & Feldman, 2000; Chen et al., 2010). In a meta-analytic review of expatriate adjustment (Bhaskar-Shrinivas, Harrison, Shafer, & Luk, 2005), the authors identified individual-level and organizational-level factors that could influence expatriate adjustment. Future research could examine the role of careerist orientation, an individual-level factor, in impeding expatriate adjustment due to the negative relationship between careerist orientation and life satisfaction. Similarly, the lower incidence of OCB associated with careerist orientation might adversely affect the support from coworkers. The reduced support from coworkers may further reduce the likelihood of expatriate adjustment leading to premature end of the assignment. The linkages between careerist orientation and OCB can be extended in future research on expatriates by examining the effects on coworker support and expatriate adjustment.

Practical Implications

In a contest mobility model of career success (Ng, Eby, Sorensen, & Feldman, 2005), the skills and hard work of an individual decide whether that employee moves up in the hierarchy. In order for human capital (e.g., education, work experience, job skills) to develop, it is important for the contest mobility model to work, which, in turn, would require training the supervisors to identify employees who display careerist orientation. Since careerist orientation is a type of an attitude, career counselors have to approach it from the perspective of attitude change (Albarracin & Vargas, 2010).

Shore, Barksdale, and Shore (1995) argued that managers could use OCB as an indication of the employee’s commitment to the organization. The reasoning for this approach was that OCB involved constructive behavior that was not required or compensated. These behaviors were construed by management to mean that employees extending their efforts for the company had a high attachment to the organization and deserved to be rewarded. Subsequent research has shown that OCB plays a role in the employee’s advancement within the organization (Organ et al., 2006) . The negative relationship between careerist orientation and OCB found in our study indicates the contradiction faced by a person who displays a high level of careerist orientation. While a person with high careerist orientation aims to enhance career growth through nonperformance means, the lower incidence of OCB reduces the chances of advancement within the company. This self-defeating behavior of people displaying careerist orientation is more likely at higher levels in an organization. Similar to the linkages between career development and mental health (Herr, 1989), the negative relationship between careerist orientation and life satisfaction implies that career counselors may have to teach effective coping styles to employees who might be experiencing stress due to reduced satisfaction in life.

Lee (2007) identified the importance of selecting the right candidate for an expatriate assignment. As discussed earlier, the careerist orientation of expatriates might lead to premature end of their overseas assignments. Since expatriates are important organizational agents in implementing the international strategy, such failed assignments have costs that go beyond the money spent on the employee. Thus, the roles of human resource managers in selecting the right candidate and career counselors in reducing the incidence of careerist orientation are particularly important for expatriate assignments.

Limitations

An important limitation of our study is that all the data came from the same source. As reported earlier, even though we conducted the Harmon one-factor test and did not find an overarching factor, there is still possibility of some common method bias. In order to reduce the bias due to data coming from one source, OCB could be measured by supervisor’s response. In order to overcome the possible confounding effects of the industrial environment, one possibility is to collect all the data from one large organization and compare the expatriates in that company working overseas with non-expatriates working in the same company in the home country. Owing to practical constraints in obtaining a sufficient sample size in the expatriate and non-expatriate populations, we collected data from multiple industries. Moreover, using only one company for the entire study might limit the generalization of the results. Our study was a cross-sectional design and so, the method does not augment the theoretical arguments. This study was conducted with only employees working in the United States and the United Kingdom. Future studies should attempt to replicate the findings with employees from other countries.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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