The effect of disruptive private life events on employees’ sustainable careers with moderating effects of work-home support and disclosure of private life events

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2022-06-22

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en

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Nowadays, organisations are dealing with an aging workforce. To be able to work longer, sustainable careers are required. However, disruptive private life events can happen and can influence one’s sustainable career. Therefore, this research examined to what extent disruptive private life events influence employees’ sustainable careers and to what extent work-home support and disclosure of private life events moderate this association. It is expected that disruptive private life events are negatively associated with the three outcomes of sustainable careers: work ability, work engagement and employability. Furthermore, it is expected that work-home support provided by a supervisor would weaken this association. Moreover, when employees disclose their private life events with their supervisor, this will make the beneficial effect of work-home support on the association between disruptive private life events and sustainable careers stronger. To test these hypotheses, a quantitative study with 153 respondents was conducted. The results indicated that disruptive private life events are negatively associated with one’s work ability and employability. However, it did not significantly affect employees’ work engagement. Besides, work-home support did not significantly moderate the association between disruptive private life events and employees’ sustainable careers. Moreover, disclosure did not significantly influence the effect of work-home support on the association between disruptive private life events and sustainable careers. Contributions of this study are that co-worker support is perceived as more important than work-home support and in order for employees to share personal issues, it is important to create a safe place within the organisation.

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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen