Abstract: Recently, as instability in employment expands and the traditional career development phase in the workplace collapse, the number of “personal development employees” investing in educational activities such as acquiring certificates and learning foreign languages is increasing. In particular, the newly coined term “Saladent” is a combination of “Salaryman,” which means salaried employees, and “Student,” which means learners, representing the growing phenomenon of lifelong learners investing in personal development activities in Korean society. According to actual employment portals and newspaper press releases, 72.1% of employees (Job Korea, 2019) feel the need for personal development, and 40% of the respondents mentioned that they have already participated in personal development activities. According to The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2009), the personal development process (PDP) is “a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their learning and performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development” (p.2). PDP is regarded as a strategic development tool in HRD areas to stimulate employees’ learning, which is assumed to improve performance (Beausaert et al., 2011). According to Kim et al. (2010), the employees who participate in personal development activities in Korea have the goals of job search and reemployment through supplementing academic background or vocational competency development and enjoying leisure and culture. Considering the feature of highly educated Korean society, personal development through diverse learning activities becomes one of the most common forms for career and professional development Korean employees choose. However, most discussions on employee personal development activities merely have presented fragmentary phenomena; empirical and interpretive studies confirming the actual effects of learning are insufficient. In addition, current studies related to the personal development activities of employees, especially based on Korean situations, have mainly discussed psychological factors such as motivation to participate in personal development activities (e.g., Kim & Lee, 2009) or analysis of learning types from a lifelong learning perspective (e.g., Gil & Kim, 2019; Jang& Park, 2015). In this regard, this study aims to examine Korean employees’ personal development results, focusing on its’ effect on the change in work attitude and job satisfaction as subjective results and promotions and career transitions as objective growth and development at work. The research questions of this study are as follows. First, how does personal development influence employees’ work attitudes and job satisfaction? Second, how does personal development influence employees’ promotions and career transitions? Third, how do work attitude and job satisfaction influence employees’ promotions and career transitions? Work attitudes mean the employees’ behavioral intention for their work (Ma, et al., 2020; Xu, et al., 2019). In other words, employees with positive attitudes toward work show more active behaviors in applying what they learn to their work. Personal development is one of the fundamental ways to develop work capability, which improves confidence and positive attitudes toward work. Also, it will affect the employees’ job satisfaction in the long term. In this regard, it could be hypothesized that personal development activities positively affect work attitudes and job satisfaction. In addition, promotion and career transitions are critical results in individual employees’ career development. Personal development activities, which are implemented to support the employees’ professional development, could positively influence the employees’ development of work and careers. Therefore, another hypothesis that personal development activities influence promotions and career transitions can be followed. This study uses the data of the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS), and the integrated research model of personal development, work attitude, job satisfaction, and promotion and career transitions will be developed. The model’s validity will be tested using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to data from KLIPS, a longitudinal survey of Korean employees’ labor market and income activities. KLIPS provides labor force supply and mobility such as job mobility and labor market transition processes, job training and education, working conditions, and so on. This study will use KLPIS data from 2015 to 2020. This study will set the conceptual framework based on the HRD and lifelong learning literature. The research model of this study shows that personal development, directly and indirectly, affects the development of work and career via work attitudes and job satisfaction. The results of this study will examine the practical effect of personal development activities of the employees and thus contribute to the development and supply of personal development activities for HRD and lifelong education.
