My spouse is my strength: Interactive effects of perceived organizational and spousal support in predicting career adaptability and career outcomes

Abstract

The mid-career stage is marked by a wider diversity of roles and responsibility in work and non-work life domains. To attain career success, mid-career workers cannot solely depend on theirorganization for information, skills, and training. Integrating career construction (Savickas,2002) and conservation of resources (Hobfoll, 1989) perspectives, we developed a model linkingperceived organizational support (POS), perceived spousal support, career adaptability, andsubjective and objective indicators of career success. We tested the model using a sample of 160independent employee-supervisor dyads across three measurement periods over two years.Results revealed that (a) POS was indirectly related to both subjective and objective careersuccess via career adaptability; (b) perceived spousal support was indirectly related to bothsubjective and objective career success via career adaptability; and (c) the conditional indirecteffects of POS in predicting subjective and objective career success via career adaptability werestronger for employees with high as opposed to low levels of perceived spousal support.Implications for theory and practice are discussed.