The relation between employee organizational and professional development activities q Gary Blau a, * , Lynne Andersson a , Kathleen Davis a , Tom Daymont a , Arthur Hochner a , Karen Koziara a , Jim Portwood a , Blair Holladay b a Temple University, Human Resource Management Department, 1810 N. 13th Street, 384 Speakman Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA b American Society for Clinical Pathology, 33 W. Monroe Street, 16th Floor, Chicago, IL 60603, USA Received 7 September 2007 Available online 2 January 2008 Abstract A model is presented showing hypothesized common and parallel antecedents of employee organizational development activity (ODA) versus professional development activity (PDA). A common antecedent is expected to affect both ODA and PDA, while a parallel antecedent is expected to affect its corresponding work referent. This model was tested using a sam- ple of 197 medical technologists over a four year time period. Prior ODA and PDA were controlled for before testing hypotheses. Results showed that the common antecedent of learning motivation was a robust indicator of both ODA and PDA. Looking at parallel antecedents, job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment had a positive impact on ODA, while occupational satisfaction and affective occupational commitment had a positive impact on PDA. ODA had a negative impact on subsequent intent to leave organization, but PDA did not have a similar impact on intent to leave profession. Study limitations, issues around operationalizing ODA and PDA, and future research directions are discussed. Ó 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Organizational development activity; Professional development activity 1. Introduction Recent career research emphasizes concepts such as the ‘‘protean’’ and ‘‘boundaryless’’ career, in which the burden falls on the employee to develop and learn potentially new job or occupationally transferable skills, and if necessary physically relocate (Arthur, Khapova, & Wilderom, 2005; Sullivan, Carden, & Martin, 1998). A self-serving motivation for employee development is partially driven by the continued downsizing, merger and re-organization activities, which are expected to continue (Blau, 2006; Cascio, 2002; Chadwick, Hunter, & Walston, 2004). As Maurer and his colleagues have explained (Maurer & Palmer, 1999; Maurer, 0001-8791/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2007.10.004 q The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the American Society for Clinical Pathology for allowing this data to be analyzed. Portions of this paper were supported by a 2007 Temple University Summer Research Fellowship granted to the first author. * Corresponding author. Fax: +1 215 204 8362. E-mail address: gblau@temple.edu (G. Blau). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of Vocational Behavior 72 (2008) 123–142 www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb