Purpose: Based on self-determination theory, this study sought to clarify the internal mechanism of the impact of proactive personality and career calling on job performance from both personality traits and intrinsic motivation perspectives, highlight the important role of job crafting as an individual’s proactive behaviour, and demonstrate the supporting role of organisational embeddedness as an external environmental factor.Design/methodology/approach: Hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrap-based path analysis were used to test the above hypotheses on 292 employees in China.Findings/results: The results show that proactive personality and career calling had significant positive effects on employees’ job performance, and job crafting was a full mediator in both paths, with significantly different mediation effects. Organisational embeddedness moderated this mediating effect.Practical implications: This study provides references for employees and organisations to continuously improve their job performance. Organisations need to address job crafting behaviours and create related supporting atmospheres.Originality/value: This study explored the mechanisms that affect career outcomes from both personality traits and intrinsic motivation aspects. The theoretical model verifies the value of individual intrinsic motivation and autonomous behaviour, and confirms the theory of self-determination. The study also extends the existing career theory by breaking through the one-sidedness of the previous theory that emphasises only the role of the organisation, but highlights the crucial importance of employees’ subjective initiatives.

Drawing on the career construction theory model of adaptation, this meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) examines the effects of proactive personality on the subjective career success of adolescents and emerging adults. We identified 46 studies that covered 52 independent samples and 24,092 participants through literature retrieval. Based on these studies, we created an integrative model linking proactive personality with career adaptability, student career construction, and subjective career success. The results of the meta-analysis showed that all bivariate relationships among proactive personality, career adaptability, student career construction, and subjective career success were significantly positive. The results of the MASEM indicated that career adaptability intervened in the relationship between proactive personality and subjective career success, but student career construction, as a suppressor, carried out the negative association between proactive personality, career adaptability and subjective career success in the sequence of adaptation. We also discuss the research implications and provide directions for future research.

This paper’s purpose is to test the employability paradox by adopting a combined linear and non-linear approach based on the conservation of resource (COR) theory and the prospect theory and further to discuss it in two groups of employees with different seniority following the career timetable perspective. A total of 623 pairs of matched employee and manager surveys was collected from 27 Chinese enterprises in two waves. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The results show no paradox that perceived employability promotes both an employee’s turnover intention and performance. Specifically, perceived employability has a significant inverted U-shaped effect on turnover intention but no direct influence on job performance. Seniority is a moderator, showing the curvilinear relationship only exhibits for employees with shorter work seniority (≤3 years), and a positive linear relationship between perceived employability and job performance only exists for employees with longer seniority (>3 years). This study emphasizes the value of employability for employers and proposes who is more suitable and what timetable should be followed for employability enhancement in practice. In addition, the study provides an enlightening finding of the inverted U-shaped relationship between perceived employability and turnover intention, applies the COR theory and the prospect theory to explain the non-linear relationship, validates the effect of too much of a good thing (TMGT), and negates the paradox from the perspective of the perceived general employability and career timetable.