Effect of proactive personality in the relationship between organizational sponsorship and career success of managerial staff in large manufacturing firms in Kenya

The main aim of the study was to examine the role of proactive personality in the relationship between organizational sponsorship and career success of the managerial staff in large scale manufacturing firms in Kenya. Consequently, two hypotheses were formulated with the aim of achieving the set objective. The study was guided by positivist research paradigm and descriptive cross-sectional research design was adopted, primary data was collected from managerial staff of large scale manufacturing firms in Kenya. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. All the measurement items met reliability and validity tests. Hypotheses were tested using linear regression model. The findings indicated that proactive personality moderates the relationship between organizational sponsorship and career success. The study supports leader member exchange (LMX) theory which advocates for organizational sponsorship for career success of employees and social cognitive career theory (SCCT) that advocates for interaction of organizational factors and personality factors in achievement of career success. The study recommends that large scale manufacturing firms should enhance their employees’ career success by providing them with organizational sponsorship programs particularly; training, mentorship, supervisor support and organizational resources. The findings also provide future researchers with a useful conceptual and methodological reference that can be used in the pursuit for further studies particularly in the area of career success and as far as the moderating role of proactive personality is concerned in different contexts other than manufacturing firms.