How does the career commitment of hospitality employees change across career stages? A multilevel investigation into occupational self-efficacy and family support

This study examined how and why hospitality employees' occupational self-efficacy and family support influence their career commitment over time. Longitudinal data was collected from 310 hospitality employees at three different points of time, with a three-month lag between them, exploring the differences in the employees' career commitment growth trajectories between early and mid-to-late career. Results from growth modeling revealed that career commitment declines over time for early-career employees but increases for their mid-to-late career counterparts. The findings also indicated that organizational commitment mediates the relationships of career commitment with occupational self-efficacy and family support at both between- and within-person levels. Furthermore, time-varying effect analysis captured significant changes in the magnitude of antecedents over time across the different career stages. Implications drawn from the findings are discussed for both hospitality researchers and practitioners.