Challenge-hindrance stressors and career initiative: a moderated mediation model

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and employees’ career initiative while incorporating the mediating role of positive affect and the moderating role of job autonomy. Design/methodology/approach Five proposed hypotheses were tested using path analysis with two waves of data collected from 136 part-time MBA students. Findings The findings show that challenge stressors indirectly facilitate career initiative, whereas hindrance stressors indirectly inhibit career initiative, both with positive affect as mediators. Job autonomy enhances the direct relationship between positive affect and career initiative, as well as the indirect relationships among challenge/hindrance stressors, positive affect and career initiative. Originality/value The study brings a new perspective to understanding why an employee conducts career initiative, thereby widening the scope of the antecedents of career initiative. The study discloses positive affect as the mediator that transmits the opposite effects from challenge-hindrance stressors to career initiative. It also identifies job autonomy as an important boundary condition for positive affect to exert its influence on career initiative, as well as challenge-hindrance stressors that influence career initiative via positive affect.