Organizational career management and nurse career growth: a serial multiple mediation model of basic psychological needs and individual career management

Abstract

Background

Career management responsibilities are shifting from employers to employees in the new career era. However, the complex relationship between organizational career management and individual career management and their joint effects on career growth remain unclear. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of basic psychological needs and individual career management in the relationship between organizational career management and career growth among nurses.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted. A total of 1866 nurses were recruited from 8 tertiary hospitals and 7 secondary hospitals in Sichuan Province, China, between January 6 and 20, 2021. The Organizational Career Management Questionnaire, Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale, Individual Career Management Questionnaire, and Career Growth Scale for Nurses were used to collect data. Structural equation modeling with the bootstrapping method was used to examine the hypothesized model.

Results

Serial multiple mediation analysis revealed that the relationship between organizational career management and career growth was mediated by basic psychological needs (standardized estimate = 0.245, 95% CI [0.228, 0.305]) and individual career management (standardized estimate = 0.238, 95% CI [0.196, 0.331]). The total mediation effect accounted for 68.5% of the pathway from organizational career management to career growth.

Conclusion

In addition to organizational career management, basic psychological needs and individual career management deserve more attention to foster nurses’ career growth.

Introduction

A high turnover rate among nurses is a serious issue worldwide [1], including in China [2]. The reasons that nurses decide to leave their organization where they work are diverse. Previous studies [3, 4] have demonstrated that career growth and development are one of the strongest predictors of nurses’ turnover intention. A large-scale national study involving 207,636 U.S. hospital nurses [3] revealed that limited career growth opportunities (e.g., advancing in my nursing specialty, pursuing education, and pursuing leadership positions) constituted one of the most frequently cited reasons for turnover intention. Career growth refers to the extent to which an individual perceives the process of growth regarding career goal progress and professional skills improving thorough their efforts, as well as the hierarchical advancement and salary increases that the organizations reward their efforts [5]. Career growth has attracted both scholars’ and practitioners’ attention in recent decades because a wide range of benefits from career growth, such as individuals’ work-related attitudes [5], behaviors [6], and organizational outcomes [7], have been reported.

Career growth is highly accommodated in the new career era (e.g., boundaryless careers, protean career) [8], which advocates proactive career management and development to efficiently cope with unstable and unpredictable work conditions [9]. In this new career era, nurses are placing greater emphasis on continuous skill development and competency enhancement to maintain long-term career competitiveness [10]. This evolving professional orientation manifests in various dimensions, for example, pursuing different nursing specialties, seeking advanced degrees and certifications, and securing leadership positions [4]. Studies have demonstrated that nurses from younger generations (e.g., millennials and generation Z) value career growth opportunities more than do those from generation X or boomers when making turnover or retention decisions [3]. A scoping review of nurses’ retention strategies and barriers suggested that limited opportunities for career growth may result in nurses becoming bored and can fuel desires to search for jobs [4]. As such, satisfactory career growth opportunities may serve as a useful strategy for reducing turnover and increasing nurses’ intention to stay in their current organization [11].

As suggested by boundaryless careers and protean careers [12], a dynamic career environment calls for more self-directedness in career growth; that is, individuals should increasingly take responsibility for managing their own careers [13]. Despite the growing emphasis on individual career management (otherwise called career self-management), organizations continue to take responsibility for fostering individuals’ career growth since the context in which career development takes place is provided by organizations [14]. Moreover, individuals still need development platforms and resources from their organizations to pursue career growth [15]. Organizational career management practices, such as mentorship, coaching, continuous training, and constructive feedback, provide nurses with an opportunity to improve their confidence and further improve their professional skills. An on-job mentorship program, which included structured working group meetings, fostering a compassionate culture, targeted training sessions, and individualized on-the-job coaching, demonstrated a significant improvement in the compassionate care skills of nursing staff postintervention [16]. Evidence from prior research [17, 18] indicates that peer feedback in the professional practice setting could lead to professional development, self-improvement (e.g., providing opportunities to set goals on the basis of this feedback), teamwork and patient safety. In this context, the responsibility for career management and career growth should not be placed solely on either organizations or individuals [19]. Instead, it is the mutual responsibility of individuals and organizations to promote career growth [19].

Some studies have shown that career management (e.g., successful training, self-re-learning) can improve nurses’ self-efficacy, confidence, and clinical skills [20, 21]. These findings suggest that motivation change might be an important process in which career management influences career growth. However, until now, few empirical studies have been conducted to explore the mechanism behind the link between career management and career growth from the perspective of intrinsic motivational processes (e.g., psychological needs). In addition, few studies have systematically examined how organizational and individual career management practices interact to influence career growth in nursing contexts. This is a crucial omission, as it is important for organizations and nurse managers to know the optimal mix between making nurses responsible for managing their own careers and providing adequate support to motivate nurses that ultimately promotes career development [22].

Background

Organizational career management refers to the activities undertaken by organizations to support their employees’ career development [22], such as career planning, training courses/workshops, opportunities for professionalization, mentoring, coaching, and networking. In contrast, individual career management refers to the practices and strategies implemented by employees themselves, which emphasize their initiative in career development [23]. Examples of individual career management include collecting information about potential career opportunities, searching for feedback about one’s performance, learning proactively, and enhancing one’s self-assessment [24]. Existing evidence has demonstrated the positive association between career management (regardless of whether it is an organizational or individual) and career growth [22, 25]. Wickramasinghe et al. [25] reported that organizational career management practices could significantly positively predict career growth. A systematic review confirmed that organizational career management enhanced employees’ competencies (a symbol of career growth) [26]. Similarly, De Vos et al. [22] reported a positive link between individual career management and career growth. The literature indicated that organizational career management could effectively promote multiple domains of professional development or career growth, including enhanced clinical skills, increased professional confidence, sustained educational participation, and expedited pathways to leadership positions [4, 18].

Many published studies have focused on either organizational career management or individual career management, neglecting the relationship between them. Furthermore, previous studies on the relationship between career management and career growth have usually been performed in enterprises rather than in the nursing context. The available evidence in the nursing literature has demonstrated limited sampling diversity, with few studies encompassing different hospitals at various levels. In addition, although the bilateral connections of organizational and individual career management with career growth are well-documented [16, 21], the trilateral relationships among these variables have seldom been explored. Consequently, the mechanism by which organizational career management affects career growth remains unclear. Exploring the relationship between organizational career management and individual career management and their joint effects on career growth has great significance since the literature has suggested [10] that organizational career management may only have its intended positive effects on career growth when employees have the initiative to use it. In other words, the association between organizational career management and career growth could be influenced by individual career management. Moreover, identifying the underlying mechanism behind the link between organizational career management, individual career management, and career growth could guide nursing administrators to develop effective strategies to enhance the impact of organizational career management on career growth.

To uncover the underlying mechanism by which organizational career management and individual career management affect nurses’ career growth, we build our argument on self-determination theory (SDT) [27], which is a valuable theoretical framework for explaining motivation and human development. SDT proposes that people are inherently prone to growth and that such growth is supported by conditions. According to SDT [28], people have three basic psychological needs, namely, autonomy (i.e., a sense of ownership over one’s activities), competence (i.e., a sense of mastery) and relatedness (a sense of mutual connection and belonging). The fulfillment of these needs is an important precursor for one’s motivation and well-being [28]. When these psychological needs are fulfilled, individuals may demonstrate increased motivation to invest more time and effort in proactive career management behaviors [29]. The available evidence has confirmed that basic psychological needs are significantly positively related to one’s initiative at work [29, 30]. Thus, it is reasonable to speculate that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs is positively associated with individual career management, which is a representative of initiative.

The environment is a major source of motivation and can further promote the fulfillment of basic psychological needs according to the SDT [30, 31]. Numerous studies have shown that training, educational opportunities, and mentoring provided by organizations develop individuals’ skills and competencies [4, 16], which may result in competence need satisfaction. Moreover, workshops, as a significant organizational career management practice, create good chances for employees to network with colleagues and other successful employees [32], leading to the fulfillment of needs for relatedness. Although in the workplace, organizations do not always offer options and choices, nurses work in an ever-changing healthcare environment [33] (e.g., a sudden change in patient conditions and emergencies) that requires different skills and talents, which may contribute to autonomy needs satisfaction [34]. Accordingly, we speculate that organizational career management plays an important role in meeting nurses’ basic psychological needs, which in turn promotes individual career management and career growth.

According to the SDT theory and empirical research, a hypothesized model (see Fig. 1) was proposed to identify the relationships among organizational career management, individual career management, basic psychological needs, and career growth among nurses from different hospitals of different levels. The following hypotheses were tested:

Fig. 1.

The hypothesized model

Hypothesis 1

Organizational career management is positively related to career growth.

Hypothesis 2

Individual career management mediates the relationship between organizational career management and career growth.

Hypothesis 3

Basic psychological needs mediate the relationship between organizational career management and career growth.

Hypothesis 4

The association between organizational career management and career growth is first mediated by basic psychological needs and subsequently mediated by individual career management.

Methods

Study design and sample

The STROBE guidelines were utilized to perform and report this study. A descriptive, online cross-sectional design was adopted for the study. Nurses were recruited from 8 tertiary hospitals and 7 secondary hospitals in Sichuan Province, China. The inclusion criteria for this study were (1) full-time registered nurses and (2) having worked in the current hospital for more than 6 months [35]. Nurses who were on vacation or sick leave were excluded. Power analysis was conducted to determine the appropriate sample size. Based on Fritz’s suggestions, the sample for the small–small–zero condition (α = 0.14, β = 0.14, τ′=0) to detect the mediated effect should be more than 462 [36], and assuming a nonresponse rate of 20%, the final sample size should be more than 578. The study employed a multistage sampling strategy to ensure representativeness. First, cities in Sichuan Province were selected based on geographical distribution and economic development levels. Sichuan Province is divided into five distinct regions: central, southern, northeastern, western, and northwestern. Each region comprised 2–8 cities, from which 2–4 cities were randomly selected via a lottery method, yielding a total of 15 cities for inclusion. Second, hospitals, including tertiary hospitals (> 500 beds) and secondary hospitals (100–500 beds), were purposively sampled to reflect varying healthcare service tiers. Third, within each hospital, nurses were recruited through a cluster sampling approach, ensuring representation across different departments. Nurses in each selected hospital were recruited by covering different departments. All nurses in the selected departments were invited to participate. A total of 2057 questionnaires were distributed, of which 1866 valid questionnaires were returned, indicating a valid response rate of 90.7%.

Procedure

This online survey was hosted by the Questionnaire Star™ platform, and a survey link was distributed via social media platforms (i.e., WeChat, Tencent QQ) or e-mail. Prior to embarking on the study, permission was obtained from the nursing directors of each sampled hospital by explaining the study aims and procedures. The survey link was sent to the nursing directors via WeChat, who subsequently sent this link to potential nurses via social media (i.e., WeChat and Tencent QQ) or email. The first page of the online survey described the background, purpose, and principles regarding confidentiality, anonymity, and voluntary participation. Nurses who volunteered to participate in this study opted “yes” for the first question (Are you willing to participate in this online survey) to enter into the survey. The survey can be accessed by participants via either computer or mobile devices. To avoid repeated responses, one device can only be used for one response, and the IP addresses were monitored through the background. The survey link was active from January 6 to 20, 2021, for a total of two weeks. The participants completed questionnaires by themselves and submitted questionnaires anonymously to the Questionnaire Star™ platform; therefore, the nursing administrators could not see the completed questionnaire. To ensure data quality, the researchers screened all completed questionnaires and excluded those exhibiting identical responses throughout.

Measurement

Organizational career management was assessed using the Organizational Career Management Questionnaire (OCMQ), which was developed by Long et al. [37]. The OCMQ contains 16 items that are divided into four dimensions: fair promotion (four items), focus on training (four items), career cognition (four items), and providing information (four items). Each item was scored on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). A higher score indicated that individuals perceived better career management practices that were provided by their organizations. The OCMQ has shown good internal consistency reliability and construct validity [37]. In the nursing context, the OCMQ also has acceptable internal consistency reliability [38]. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.95 in the present study.

Basic psychological needs were assessed using the Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale (BNSG-S), which was developed by Gagné [39]. Liu [40] adapted this scale into Chinese and adapted it to the working context. The BNSG-S contains 21 items that are divided into three dimensions: autonomy (seven items), competence (six items), and relatedness (eight items). All items were rated using a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction of basic psychological needs. The BNSG-S was found to have acceptable reliability and validity [40]. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.90 in the present study.

Individual career management was assessed using the Individual Career Management Questionnaire (ICMQ), which was developed by Long et al. [41]. The ICMQ contains 18 items that are divided into five dimensions: career exploration (four items), career goal setting and strategy identification (four items), continuous learning (four items), self-presentation (three items), and emphasis on relationships (three items). All items were scored on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree), with a higher score indicating a higher level of individual career management. In nursing research, the ICMQ has shown acceptable internal consistency reliability [42]. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.90 in the current study.

Career growth was measured by the Career Growth Scale for Nurses developed by Ni et al. [43] This scale contains 17 items that are divided into three dimensions: professional ability and attribute improvement (seven items), career promotion and prestige increase (six items), and career goal progress (four items). Each item was rated using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), with a higher score indicating faster career growth. The scale was found to have acceptable internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.96), test‒retest reliability (two-week test‒retest reliability = 0.92), content validity (scale‒level content validity index = 0.97) and construct validity (goodness of fit of the three-factor model: χ²/df = 3.43, RMSEA = 0.07, CFI = 0.96, IFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95). The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.95 in the current study.

Data analysis

Prior to the data analysis, Harman’s single factor test was conducted to examine common method variance bias because our data were collected from self-reported scales [44]. The results revealed that 10 factors had eigenvalues greater than one and that the first factor explained 26.9% of the total variance, suggesting that common method bias was not a major concern in the present study.

A descriptive analysis was conducted to describe the sample characteristics and the four main study variables. The Pearson correlation test was used to examine the associations between variables. The hypothesized model was tested via structural equation modeling with the bootstrapping method. We used 2000 resamples to estimate the bias-corrected confidence intervals of the indirect effects following Hayes’ recommendations [45]. The indirect effect was statistically significant if the 95% confidence intervals excluded zero. Adequate model fit was evaluated by the following indices: χ²/df < 5, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) < 0.08, goodness-of‐fit index (GFI) > 0.90, normed fit index (NFI) > 0.90, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) > 0.90, and incremental fit index (IFI) > 0.90 [46]. Because the data were ordinal in the present study, it was impossible to meet the SEM assumption of multivariate normality [47]. Moreover, Mardia’s coefficients for multivariate kurtosis were > 5; thus, significant multivariate nonnormality did exist in this study. As such, we performed the Bollen–Stine bootstrap procedure to adjust the model fit and parameter estimates to adapt multivariate nonnormality [48]. IBM SPSS (version 26.0) and Amos (version 23.0) were used for the data analysis.

Results

Sample characteristics

The sample characteristics are presented in Table 1. A total of 1866 nurses from 15 hospitals participated in this study. The majority of participants were females (95.5%). The average age was 31.14 ± 6.87 years (range, 19–58 years), and the average work experience was 9.46 ± 7.31 years (range, 6 months to 39 years).

Table 1.

Sample characteristics

Variable		Frequency	Percentage (%)
Sex	Male	84	4.5
	Female	1782	95.5
Age (years)	< 30	885	47.4
	30–40	792	42.4
	41–50	156	8.4
	> 50	33	1.8
Work years (years)	≤ 5	649	34.8
	6–10	630	33.8
	11–15	282	15.1
	16–20	127	6.8
	> 20	178	9.5
Education level	College degree or below	638	34.2
	Bachelor or above	1228	65.8
Marital status	Married	1253	67.1
	Single/Divorced/Widowed	613	32.9
Professional title	Junior	1384	74.2
	Intermediate	367	19.7
	Senior	115	6.1
Hospital level	Tertiary	1356	72.7
	Secondary	510	27.3

Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis

The mean scores, standard deviations, and correlations among the four main study variables are presented in Table 2. All the variables were significantly correlated with each other (P < 0.01).

Table 2.

Descriptive statistics and correlations of the main study variables

Variable		M	SD	1	2	3	4
1	OCM	3.13	0.54	1
2	BPN	5.09	0.83	0.528**	1
3	ICM	2.87	0.46	0.591**	0.288**	1
4	CG	4.15	0.52	0.651**	0.658**	0.497**	1

Abbreviations: OCM, organizational career management; BPN, basic psychological needs; ICM, individual career management; CG, career growth; M, mean; SD, standard deviation

^**P < 0.01

Mediation analyses

As shown in Table 3; Fig. 2, the total effect of organizational career management on career growth was significant (standardized estimate = 0.734, 95% CI [0.699, 0.768]). Additionally, organizational career management had a significant positive direct effect on career growth (standardized estimate = 0.231, 95% CI [0.156, 0.310]). The indirect effects of organizational career management on career growth through a single mediation of basic psychological needs (standardized estimate = 0.245, 95% CI [0.228, 0.305]) and a single mediation of individual career management (standardized estimate = 0.238, 95% CI [0.196, 0.331]) were significant. In addition, the indirect effect via basic psychological needs then individual career management was also significant (standardized estimate = 0.023, 95% CI [0.011, 0.042]). Overall, these results indicated that serial-multiple mediation had occurred. The mediating effects of basic psychological needs and individual career management accounted for 68.5% (0.503/0.734) of the total effect of organizational career management on career growth. Moreover, the model showed an acceptable model fit (χ²/df = 1.40, RMSEA = 0.01, GFI = 0.96, NFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.99, and IFI = 0.99).

Table 3.

Standardized total, direct, and indirect effects of organizational career management on career growth mediated by basic psychological needs and individual career management

	Product of Coefficients		Bootstrapping 95% BC Confidence Interval (CI)
	Point estimate	Boot SE	Boot LL CI	Boot UL CI
Total effect
OCM→CG	0.734	0.017	0.699	0.768
Direct effect
OCM→CG	0.231	0.040	0.156	0.310
Indirect effect
Total indirect effect	0.503	0.032	0.442	0.570
Specific indirect effect
OCM→BPN→CG	0.245	0.020	0.228	0.305
OCM→ICM→CG	0.238	0.035	0.196	0.331
OCM→BPN→ICM→CG	0.023	0.008	0.011	0.042

Abbreviations: OCM, organizational career management; BPN, basic psychological needs; ICM, individual career management; CG, career growth; CI, confidence interval; SE, standard error

Fig. 2.

Serial-multiple mediation model with standardized path coefficients. (OCM, organizational career management; BPN, basic psychological needs; ICM, individual career management; CG, career growth, ^* = statistical significance, P < 0.05)

Discussion

This study examined the mediating effects of basic psychological needs and individual career management on the relationship between organizational career management and career growth among nurses. The study findings confirmed that organizational career management had a positive effect on nurses’ career growth, and this effect was mediated by basic psychological needs and individual career management. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that examines the relationships among these four variables using a serial multiple mediation model and sheds light on how organizational career management and individual career management jointly affect career growth.

In this study, females accounted for 95.5% of the sample, which to some extent reflected the gender structure of Chinese nurses. The latest China Health Statistics Yearbook 2023 [49] shows that 98.8% of nurses are female. The level of career growth in the current study was greater than that in previous studies, which were conducted in other regions of China [50] and Egypt [51]. These differences may be explained by the different sample characteristics and nursing shortages. The sample in this study contained a larger proportion of nurses with more than 5 years of work experience (60.2%) than Shi et al.‘s study did (58%). Career growth requires longitudinal accumulation because nurses who are in their early career stages are less likely to perceive satisfactory career growth than are those who are in their middle or late career stages [4]. In addition, nurse shortages are more severe in Egypt than in China [52]. Nursing staff under heavy workload conditions have limited time and energy to pursue career growth and may present worse career growth.

The results of the correlation analysis in this study demonstrated that career growth was positively and significantly associated with organizational career management, individual career management, and basic psychological needs. These findings are in line with those of previous studies [4, 21]. Specifically, compared with individual career management, organizational career management was more strongly correlated with career growth, emphasizing the important role of organizational career management. The possible explanation: firstly, the career management provided by organizations (e.g., training programs and job rotations) may demonstrate more immediate impacts on nurses’ competency enhancement [4]. In contrast, individually driven career management strategies (e.g., long-term career planning) typically manifest their effects over extended periods [53], thereby exhibiting lower magnitude correlations with career growth in statistical analyses. Secondly, the nursing profession features a well-defined hierarchical structure (e.g., from staff nurses to nurse head nurses), where career advancement typically depends on organizational recognition. If there is a lack of opportunities provided by the organization, it may be difficult to directly translate into career growth. Finally, in high power distance cultures (e.g., Asian countries) [54], employees tend to rely more on organizational decisions than on individual career management.

As expected, organizational career management positively affected nurses’ career growth (confirming Hypothesis 1), indicating that organizational career management still plays an important role in nurses’ career development in the new career era. This finding was consistent with those of previous studies [4, 16], which demonstrated that organizational career management practices, such as training and development programs, benefit employees’ career growth. A longitudinal intervention study conducted by Hookmani et al. [16] revealed that a mentorship program provided by organizations could improve the compassionate care skills of nurses. Chung et al. [20] reported that blended learning programs, including face-to-face training and an online module on handover practice, effectively improved the communication skill competence of nursing students.

An important finding of this study is that individual career management mediated the relationship between organizational career management and career growth, confirming Hypothesis 2. Specifically, nurses who receive more career management from organizations are more likely to undertake career self-management behaviors, which in turn foster career growth. Similar results were reported by Runhaar et al. [55] and Yogalakshmi et al. [56], where organizational career management or organizational support affected employees’ initiative to manage their own careers. Moreover, we further found that organizational career management and individual career management jointly influence nurses’ career growth, indicating that career growth is achieved through the collaborative effort of organizations and individuals, which is in line with previous studies conducted in the nonnursing field [19].

Another important finding of this study is that basic psychological needs mediate the relationship between organizational career management and career growth, confirming Hypothesis 3. Furthermore, serial-multiple mediation was confirmed, which demonstrated that organizational career management first affected basic psychological needs and subsequently individual career management, which in turn influenced career growth, confirming Hypothesis 4. More importantly, the mediating effects of basic psychological needs and individual career management were greater than the direct effects on the relationship between organizational career management and career growth, highlighting the important role of basic psychological needs and individual career management in fostering nurse career growth. Similarly, previous studies have shown that support for basic psychological needs can facilitate individuals’ positive attitudes (e.g., work engagement [30] and career satisfaction [57]) and behaviors (e.g., innovative behavior [58]), resulting in desired work outcomes. These findings could be explained by SDT, which suggests that the fulfillment of needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness can enhance one’s intrinsic motivation and then translate it into proactive work behavior (e.g., individual career management), leading to satisfactory career growth. Moreover, SDT suggests that basic need satisfaction is largely embedded in environmental support. When organizations provide sufficient career development resources, nurses perceive strong basic need satisfaction, and they are more likely to be motivated to display concentration and effort in their work tasks, ultimately demonstrating better career growth. Thus, strategies that promote basic psychological needs and individual career management can be used to maximize the benefits of organizational career management for career growth.

This study has several limitations. The participants were recruited from tertiary and secondary hospitals in Sichuan Province, which may affect the generalizability of the findings. In addition, females account for 95.5% of the sample, and the gender distribution is unbalanced, which may lead to gender bias. Therefore, future research could expand the sample scope (such as including other provinces and grassroots hospitals) and balance the gender ratio. Second, due to the nature of the cross-sectional design, it is impossible to draw causal conclusions. Additional longitudinal investigations are needed to complement and confirm the findings of the current study. Moreover, the study data were collected by relying on self-reported measures, which may result in response biases and social desirability bias (such as overestimating career management). Future studies could combine evaluative data (e.g., supervisor evaluations, peer reviews) for triangulation. Moreover, nurses’ perceptions were assessed by predefined questions; therefore, researchers cannot capture a thorough and detailed understanding of the career growth process. A qualitative design could be used in future studies to acquire richer information and yield a concrete picture of how organizational career management can improve career growth. Finally, our findings imply that organizational career management can influence career growth through basic psychological needs and individual career management. Thus, future research could explore the impact of different types of organizational career management on different dimensions of career growth.

Implications

Our study has several valuable theoretical and practical implications. The present study contributes to the literature on career growth, especially in the nursing context. Although researchers have identified a few antecedents of career growth [16, 18], scant scholarly attention has been given to basic psychological needs. This study contributes to our understanding of the motivation process of how organizational career management influences career growth through basic psychological needs. In addition, this study clarifies the underlying mechanism behind the link between organizational career management and individual career management. Our findings add to the literature, suggesting that the fulfillment of basic psychological needs is an important strategy for promoting proactive career behavior and career growth.

Since the size of the mediation effect was greater than the direct effect in our findings, nursing managers and policy makers should prioritize the importance of basic psychological need satisfaction and individual career management to promote career growth. Administrators should make efforts to fulfill nurses’ needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Facilitating flexible scheduling, empowering nurses to determine tasks and time, and giving nurses an opportunity to participate in decision-making affairs are considered effective strategies for fulfilling the needs of autonomy [4, 29]. Moreover, providing opportunities for continuous training, educational advancement, coaching, and constructive feedback may meet the needs of competence [4]. We also suggest that nurse managers create a harmonious work environment and establish positive relationships with nurses to satisfy the need for relatedness [57]. To promote individual career management, administrators can, for example, stress the value of proactivity and the importance of career self-management by setting success examples and providing time and funding for career management behaviors [55]. In addition, layered interventions could be conducted to promote career growth, such as providing personalized support for nurses with low levels of psychological need satisfaction and increasing the resource supply for nurses with high initiative.

Conclusions

In conclusion, our study revealed that basic psychological needs and individual career management mediated the relationship between organizational career management and career growth among nurses. This study contributes to our understanding of how organizational career management affects nurses’ career management and further helps nurse managers develop strategies to increase career management effectiveness.

Abbreviations

SDT

Self-determination theory

OCMQ

Organizational career management questionnaire

BNSG-S

Basic needs satisfaction in general scale

ICMQ

Individual career management questionnaire

RMSEA

Root mean square error of approximation

GFI

Goodness-of‐fit index

NFI

Normed fit index

TLI

Tucker–Lewis index

IFI

Incremental fit index

Author contributions

Study design: Yun-xia Ni, Ji-ping Li, Ming-jun Huang. Data collection: Yun-xia Ni, Ming-jun Huang. Data analysis: Yun-xia Ni, Ji-ping Li Study supervision: Ji-ping Li, Ming-jun Huang. Manuscript writing: Yun-xia Ni Critical revisions for important intellectual content: Ji-ping Li, Ming-jun Huang.

Funding

This study was supported by the West China Nursing Discipline Development Special Fund Project, Sichuan University (No. HXHL19009).

Data availability

The data are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board of West China Hospital of Sichuan University (No. 2019[949]). This study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. An information sheet was given to each participant, and informed consent was obtained before data collection. The participants’ responses were kept confidential and anonymous.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.