This study aimed to expand our understanding of the role of organizational career growth in relation to career commitment, as mediated by work engagement. In total, 330 respondents recruited from a large hotel and resort company in South Korea were included in the analysis. Structural equation modeling and the PROCESS macro for SPSS were used to analyze the proposed hypotheses. The results revealed that the intrinsic function of organizational career growth was positively associated with work engagement. Furthermore, work engagement mediated the relationship between the intrinsic function of organizational career growth and career commitment. Moreover, employees’ perception of leaders as role models moderated the relationship between work engagement and career commitment. In particular, the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between the intrinsic function of organizational career growth and career commitment was stronger when employees perceived their leaders as role models. This paper also discusses the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
Finally, Hayes\u2019 PROCESS macro (model 14) was also used to test the significant moderated mediation, which predicted that employees\u2019 perception of leaders as role models would moderate the indirect effects of intrinsic career growth on career commitment through work engagement. The moderated mediation was analyzed to prove that employees\u2019 perception of leaders as role models had certain conditional indirect effects (). As presented in , across all levels (from high to low levels), individuals who perceived leaders as role models showed the significant indirect effect of intrinsic career growth on career commitment through work engagement (i.e., none of the levels of CIs included zeros). This interpretation was supported by the index of moderated mediation, which was .06 (95% CI [.03, .09]), thus supporting Hypothesis 5. shows that the magnitude of the indirect effect of intrinsic career growth on career commitment through work engagement is conditional upon role modeling, such that higher levels of employees' perception of leaders as role models increased the magnitude of the indirect effect of intrinsic career growth on career commitment.
