Protean Career Orientation and Flow: A Conceptual Perspective on Employee Retention in the Hospitality Industry

The changing nature of the modern workplace requires that employees take greater responsibility for managing their own careers. With the hospitality sector being the industries with high turnover, understanding the factors that influence employee retention has become important. This paper aims to provide a conceptual framework for examining the relationship between protean career orientation and the intention to quit, with flow proposed as a psychological mediator. This study integrates Protean Career Theory and Flow Theory, proposing that flow mediates how self-driven and values-driven protean career orientations influence the intention to quit. Protean individuals are suggested to be less likely to leave their organizations because their intrinsic motivation, deep absorption, and meaningful work engagement lead them to experience flow. This study provides theoretical, empirical, conceptual and practical contributions through the proposed framework. The findings suggest that employee motivation and retention can be sustained through creating work environments that foster autonomy and personal growth.