Moderating effect of career stages on factors influencing career decisions to stay or leave among private sector professional women in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Malaysian married professional women faced challenges in their career development, specifically the degrees to which they feel pushed or choose to opt-out from the workplace. An extended period of not working also leaves many married women with a loss of skills, productive years, and lower earning potential in the long term. This study aims to enlighten the complexity associated with the factors influencing career decisions to stay or leave and the moderating effect of career stages among married professional women. In this connection, the three-phase career development model was integrated into this study to further examine the organisational factors and individual-related factors in influencing career decisions among married professional women which may unfold differently because of their broader life context. This study theorised women’s career development and patterns using the Kaleidoscope Career Model as underpinning theory and has integrated it with the family-relatedness of work decisions framework as a valuable model in examining how the extent of women’s choice of a course of action in the work domain is influenced by family situation and how does it affect the married professional women’s career decisions. A quantitative approach with a correlational research design was employed in this study. Data were gathered among 236 married professional women in Malaysia from three different career stages namely early career (24-35 years old), mid-career (ages 36-45 years old) and late career (ages 46-60 years old) in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Structured survey questionnaires were developed to validate and measure the career decisions and their predictors. Descriptive statistics was employed using SPSS Version 28.0 to analyse the characteristics and demographic profile of the respondents. As for the proposed hypotheses, the data were analysed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) version 3.3.9. The descriptive analysis revealed that married professional women at the early career stage tend to opt out more than stay put from their current jobs compared to those in the mid and late career stages. In addition, organisational-related factors (work demand and family supportiveness organisational perception) have a bigger impact on career decisions among married professional women than individual-related factors (value, lifestyle preference and relational identity). By viewing from the practical lens, the results of this study will provide baseline information for managerial interventions that need to be initiated in the future in terms of developing appropriate career development and talent management strategies among married professional women in early, mid and late career stages. In particular, to support and retain married professional women and minimise the issues of talent drain of this women group in Malaysia.

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