Career engagement and job engagement of national service persons in Ghana: exploring organizational and personal resources

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the organizational and personal resources that influence career engagement and job engagement of national service persons (NSPs) in Ghana. The specific organizational factor focused on is job support, whereas career planning and career orientation are the personal resources emphasized. Design/methodology/approach The data used for analyses was collected from NSPs who had a few months of their national service period remaining. The partial least square structural equation modeling was adopted in testing the hypotheses that were set. An importance-performance map analysis was also conducted for further insights. Findings This study established that job support had a statistically significant influence on career planning, career engagement and career orientation. Also, both career planning and career orientation statistically influenced each of career engagement and job engagement. Again, career engagement statistically influenced job engagement. Career engagement mediated the influence of both career planning and career orientation on job engagement. The importance-performance map analysis revealed career engagement and job support as the two most important factors in the job engagement of NSPs; the best performing factor was career orientation. Originality/value This study highlights the factors that contribute to the engagement of NSPs which is a challenge, especially in mandatory national service programs.