* Corresponding author. E-mail address: a.alabood@psau.edu.sa (A. Alabood) © 2020 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada doi: 10.5267/j.msl.2020.3.034 Management Science Letters 10 (2020) 2597–2602 Contents lists available at GrowingScience Management Science Letters homepage: www.GrowingScience.com/msl The relationship between career maximization and employee engagement Abdulaziz Alabood a* and Sulphey Manakkattil b a Lecturer, College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia b Professor, College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia C H R O N I C L E A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: February 16, 2020 Received in revised format: March 22 2020 Accepted: March 22, 2020 Available online: March 28, 2020 Career maximizing is the extent to which a person desires to make career decisions in pursuit of maximizing goals. It is now receiving widespread academic and research interest from various quarters. Since a career is a process wherein individuals narrow down their life choices, to create and find their self, it is of paramount importance. Employee engagement is an affective cognitive state at workplace, which is persistent and pervasive in nature. It is capable of enhancing employee empowerment, and reducing workplace deviance and turnover intentions. The study identified the relationship between career maximization and employee engagement. It was found that the two variables were having significant positive relationship. No significant difference was found in the gender wise analysis of the two constructs. The study has brought out significant addition to man- agement literature as no earlier studies have been done to identify the relationships. © 2020 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada Keywords: Career Career maximization Maximization Employee engagement 1. Introduction Maximization is the quest for individuals to discover the best available option. It is the tendency. Maximisers have the general tendency to identify the optimal alternative, and select the best option that has the highest expected utility (Simon, 1978). They rely on external information tend to make upward social comparisons, creating regretful and “counterfactual thinking about what might have been” (Iyengar, et al., 2006). This could, in turn, lead to further questioning the choices made by them. Parker et al. (2007) found though maximizing could result in better outcomes and there could be less satisfaction with the outcomes. The present study focuses more on career maximization than general maximization. Studies about career and career decisions date back to many decades (Hughes, 1937; Goffman, 1968). It has received research and academic interest from various quarters. There are volumes of empirical works about career and related topics (Dahling & Thompson, 2012; Iyengar, et al., 2006, Voss et al., 2018). Career decisions requires a complex and lengthy process that normally involves detailed examination, evaluation, as well as comparing of the available options so that the best available decision can be taken (Voss et al., 2019). Since career decisions involve long-term implications, it requires to be taken with care, prudence and caution. The need for care and caution often induce individuals to maximize their career decisions. Maximizing means care- fully weighing all available options and choosing the best and the optimum alternative (Iyengar et al., 2006). Maximization is defined as the “decision-making style that involves seeking the single best option when making a choice” (Dahling & Thompson, 2012). Maximization is employed in career choices because individuals often have to choose from a wide array of vocations, occupations and jobs; after taking into consideration a variety of aspects, including matching of talents and