The Effect of Extracurricular Activities on Career Outcomes of HR Professionals

Abstract

Although much attention has already been devoted to document the benefits of extra-curricular activities in general; from the developmental and social perspective, very little focus has been given to a complete an academic study of the effect of Extra Curricular Activities (ECA) on HR professional’s career success. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of engagement of extra-curricular activities on career success of HR professionals. In order to achieve the stated objective, an exploratory study was conducted among 50 HR professionals in well recognized companies in Sri Lanka. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data. This study examine the effect of ECAs on career success building on four dimensions; fostering academic outcomes; improving skill set; psychological development and improving access to social capital with the engagement level of ECAs as suggested Keenan (2012). The results revealed that there is a significant positive moderate relationship between ECAs engagement level and HR professional’s career success. When results were analyzed individually on ECAs engagement with career success indicators; Fostering academic outcomes, skill acquisition and psychological development that results revealed significant positive relationships. Only one dimension (access to social capital) was found to be insignificant. The implications of these findings are useful to all stakeholders of HRM especially current and potential job seekers, organizations, institutions which offer HRM professional courses, and in the broader sense HRM workforce developers.