The interactive effects of organizational and leadership career management support on job satisfaction and turnover intention

In the organizational career management literature, scholars have focused on career management policies, with little attention given to practices that can vary within organizations. And despite its recognized importance, research on the role of leaders in the career management process is also scant. In this study, we investigate the effects of career management practices (OCPs) and leadership career support (LCS) on employee attitudes. Grounded on coping theory, we propose that career support received from line managers can be particularly consequential when OCPs are lacking. We analyze the moderating effects of LCS on the relationship between OCPs and both job satisfaction and turnover intention in a sample of employees from a large Brazilian organization, applying multiple regression analyses. Results showed that OCPs and LCS are positively related to job satisfaction and that OCPs are negatively related to turnover intention. In addition, we confirmed that LCS moderates the relationship between OCPs and both job satisfaction and turnover intention. Finally, we observed that the relationship between OCPs and turnover intention is mediated by job satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Organizational socialization and career success of Asian managers

This study proposed a new framework to conceptualize organizational socialization. It examined two broad socialization strategies: perceived organizational support and developmental experience and their relationships with career success. Data were obtained from interviews with 374 line managers and human resource managers in four industrial sectors in five Asia countries/societies, namely, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand. There is partial support for the predicted relationships. The results from the present study add to our understanding of how organizational socialization affects career success. Implications for research and managerial practices, as well as future research directions, are provided.     

Exploring supportive and developmental career management through business strategies and coaching

The shift toward individualistic career management requires a supportive and developmental career approach. Using coaching practices as a manifestation of such an approach, this study reports on coaching and other career practices that are part of supportive and developmental career management in a Belgium sample (n = 154). Three other types of career management were identified as well. Supportive and developmental career management was most present in organizations that had a past or current prospector strategy, and was the least present in past or current defenders. The type of business strategy organizations indicated to pursue in the future did not have an influence on the type of career management they currently had. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The relationship of mentoring and network resources with career success in the Chinese organizational environment

The relationship of mentoring and network resources, the two components of social capital, with career success was investigated in a sample of 113 Chinese white-collar workers. The findings suggested that the prevalence of mentoring in the Chinese workplace is substantially higher than in the Anglo-Saxon workplace, and that Chinese employees do not distinguish their network ties or Guanxi into expressive and instrumental. These results were in line with the presumption that mentoring is an integral part of the Chinese culture and with the view that network ties or Guanxi in the Chinese society cannot exist in a purely instrumental form. In contrast to hypotheses, however, the findings suggest a limited relationship between social capital and career success. In particular, the amount of mentoring, participants reported they had received, was related to their intrinsic career success but not to their extrinsic career success; and the amount of network resources or Guanxi was related neither to extrinsic nor to intrinsic career success. These results were largely at odds with the accumulated knowledge on the benefits of social capital for career success. The findings are discussed with respect to the changing nature of the Chinese business and organizational environment, and their implications for human resource practices.     

The role of line managers in employee career management: an attachment theory perspective

Line managers increasingly play a key role in organizational career development systems, yet few studies have examined the nature of this role or its implications for employee career attitudes and behaviors. In two studies, we used attachment theory to explore this issue. In Study 1, in-depth interviews (N = 20) showed that employees viewed career management as a relational process in which line managers are expected to act as ‘caregiver’ to support individualized career development. Study 2 was a large-scale international survey (N = 891). Participants scoring higher on attachment avoidance in their line manager relationships reported more negative perceptions of career growth opportunities, lower participation in organizational career development activities and higher turnover intentions. Trust in the organization partially mediated the relationship. Theoretical and practical implications for HRM are discussed.     

Career mentoring in context: A multilevel study on differentiated career mentoring and career mentoring climate

This study explores how supervisor career mentoring contributes to contemporary organizational career development, which strives to foster employees' promotability while strengthening their intention to stay. Specifically, we focus on the implications of career mentoring in team contexts. Applying a multilevel framework, we distinguish between individual‐level differentiated mentoring (i.e., an employee's mentoring perceptions as compared to those of other team members) and group‐level career mentoring climate (i.e., the average perception across all group members). In a workplace setting, we collected data from vocational job starters (N ranged from 230 to 290) and their company supervisors (N ranged from 56 to 68). We find that career mentoring climate positively relates to promotability, more so than differentiated career mentoring. Both career mentoring climate and differentiated career mentoring are positively related to the intention to stay. At the individual level, this relationship is mediated by job satisfaction. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of differentiated and group‐level mentoring.     

Exploring the moderating effect of gender in the relationship between individuals' aspirations and career success among engineers in Peru

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between career success and individual career aspirations for engineers, and to test whether this differs according to gender. The primary hypothesis in this research is that gender does make a significant difference.

Design/methodological/approach: The sample consists of 1011 engineers who graduated from a prestigious Peruvian college between 1998 and 2005. Female graduates constituted only 4% of the sample, which is similar to the national statistics for engineers in Peru during this period. The relationships were primarily tested using multiple regression and structural equation modelling analyses.

Findings: Findings show a positive relationship between individual career aspirations and career success for men, but not necessarily for women; this supports the hypothesis that gender moderates this relationship. Females seek more secure career orientation than their male counterparts. In addition, females have shown that their career success is more related to feminine themes such as achieving ‘work–family balance’. The findings are in line with previously published results in other countries in which female engineers have career orientations with a preference for a balance between work and family as well as work stability.

Research limitations/implications: The sample is limited to graduates from a single Peruvian college of engineering. Although the sample has similar demographic characteristic to a national population, a more heterogeneous sample is called for in a future research. Moreover, additional moderators should be incorporated, such as family background, residency (large urban cities vs. small villages) and perhaps other variables.

Practical implications: Results can help Human Resource Managers to design better career plans, which consider gender in defining policies for the attraction and retention of competent female engineers.     

Effects of perceived overqualification on career distress and career planning: Mediating role of career identity and moderating role of leader humility

In this study, we examined how perceived overqualification influences employees' career distress and career planning. Specifically, we drew on role identity theory to hypothesize that perceived overqualification is positively related to individuals' career identity. Based on internal self-processing dynamics of role identity, we further hypothesized that career identity predicts reduced career distress and increased career planning. We expected career identity to mediate the effects of overqualification on career distress and career planning. Based on the symbolic interactionism perspective of identity, we hypothesized that this mediation is moderated by leader humility so that overqualified employees exhibit stronger career identities in the presence of a humble leader. We found support for our hypotheses in a multi-wave time-lagged study of 220 supervisor–subordinate dyads from 50 groups. Overall, our studies highlight that perceived overqualification can have positive effects on employees and organizations under appropriate management conditions. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these results.     

The interplay between learning strategy and organizational structure in predicting career success

The institutionalization of management development and the money spent on it is in sharp contrast to the importance attached to what we know about how managers learn and whether it helps them to get promotion, given the specific organizational context in which they work. We therefore examined career success as a complex positive or negative function of the individual's learning strategy and the organization's structure. One hundred and twenty-seven managers from three government-related organizations completed a questionnaire. A deep learning strategy, characterized by a focus on meaning and relations, fosters career success, especially in a lowly specialized context. In contrast, a surface learning strategy, characterized by a focus on instructions and facts, hampers career success, especially in a highly integrated context. The findings strongly suggest that management development programmes need to be made to measure, taking into account both how the manager learns and how the organization is structured.     

Career fields: a small step towards a grand career theory?

Little theory development has been done that accounts for the changes in the forms, actors and contexts of careers that we currently can see. Looking at careers from a ‘grand’ and unified theoretical perspective has a number of advantages. In particular, grand social theories allow the link between a well-elaborated and differentiated framework for social phenomena and for careers. Moreover, looking at careers from a unified perspective allows discussion of the great variety of aspects to careers in a single theoretical language. Based on the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this paper focuses on social fields as one major element of an effort towards a more comprehensive theoretical framework for professional and managerial careers. In particular, it discusses the constituting characteristics of career fields as social fields and the application of this concept to work-related careers. Rather than adopting or adapting a specific theory in order to illuminate a specific national context, this paper, by using Bourdieu's concepts, proposes a framework to illuminate particular aspects sometimes not sufficiently stressed by recent – and more especially Anglo-Saxon – career research. Avoiding a choice between objective or subjective career and macro- or micro-perspective, it allows the strengthening or re-introduction of themes like multi-level analysis, simultaneous actionstructure view, combining ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ perspectives, power distribution, social hierarchy and thus social inequalities into career research.     

企业员工的职业生涯管理

本文阐述了职业生涯管理的内涵和重要性,并结合现阶段中国企业管理的实践,重点论述了职业培训、薪酬制度在员工职业生涯管理中的作用,分析了职业生涯管理的目标、运行规则、反馈制度等内容。     

The role of temporal focus,dispositional employability,and training on the perceived internal career prospects of talents

Abstract

In this paper, we study employability in the group of talented employees. We explore how employees’ temporal focus affects their dispositional employability and how dispositional employability influences their perceived internal career prospects. We also examine the moderating role of training perceived as developmental on the relationship between dispositional employability and perceived internal career prospects. Upon examination of these relationships within an organization that has a closed talent management approach, we find support for the hypothesized mediating and moderating relationships. Present and future focus were positively related to talents’ dispositional employability, which in turn increased their perception of career prospects in the current company. The latter relationship was stronger among talents who perceived that they had received training for more important positions than those who did not. The results advanced current knowledge of antecedents and outcomes of employability in the specific group of talents and shed light on the organizational practices that may help with talent retention.     

Are freelancers a breed apart? The role of protean and boundaryless career attitudes in employability and career success

Recent economic and organisational changes have fostered an increasing diversification of the workforce, among whom freelancers are an under‐represented population in the literature. This study aimed at examining the role of protean and boundaryless career, professional commitment, and employability activities in fostering freelancers' subjective career success. Data were collected via an online survey among a sample of 425 Italian freelancers and analysed through structural equation modelling. Results partially confirmed several hypotheses: higher self‐directed career management and boundaryless mindset predicted higher employability activities and professional commitment; moreover, employability and professional commitment acted as mediators between career attitudes and subjective career success. The study provides support for the importance of such variables to freelancers' career success, as well as for the significance of protean and boundaryless careers among nontraditional occupational groups. Interventions aimed at fostering such attitudes could support freelancers in improving their attainment of professional progress and perception of career success.     

The impact of international experience on objective and subjective career success in early careers

There is an ongoing debate in the literature on the long-term impact of international work experience on future career success. In this longitudinal study based on university graduates, we compare expatriates (n = 159), repatriates (n = 395) and domestic employees (n = 2697) with regard to their objective and subjective career success during the first five years of their careers. Results from propensity score matching and ordinary least-squares regressions show that expatriates and repatriates have a higher objective career success in terms of monthly wages. We further find a higher subjective career success for expatriates and male repatriates.     

Career Management in High‐Performing Organizations: A Set‐Theoretic Approach

The aim of this study is to investigate the elements of organizational career management (OCM) that can lead to strong organizational performance. The growing unpredictability of careers requires a different organizational approach of careers. Yet, new career models all focus on the individual as the central actor, leaving the role of the organization rather underdeveloped. Based on a combined perspective integrating insights from the literature on careers, high performance work systems, and idiosyncratic deals (I‐deals), we address four dimensions of OCM: supportive and developmental practices, development I‐deals, individual responsibility, and consensus. We study their relationships with company performance, thereby including the firm's human capital composition. Surveys were administered to the HR directors of 293 organizations. We apply a relatively new method, fsQCA (fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis), and complement this with more conventional structural equation modeling (SEM). The SEM analyses suggest that only supportive and developmental practices are positively associated with high performance. However, based on the fsQCA, three configurations are identified in which OCM is associated with high performance. The most prevalent configuration combined supportive and developmental practices with I‐deals and individual responsibility for career management. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings, and address the utility of adopting a configurational approach in career research. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The impact of boundaryless careers on organizational decision making: an analysis from the perspective of Luhmann's theory of social systems

Research on careers has recently discovered the growing relevance of inter-organizational, boundaryless careers. The new paradigm of career studies that goes hand in hand with the concept of boundaryless careers, though, has not yet paid very much attention to the impact of new career patterns on how organizations function. To fill this gap, the paper analyses the effects of boundaryless careers on organizational decision making. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems, we elaborate how observing a (potential) employee's life in terms of career generally facilitates organizational decision making by what we call the evaluative capacity of career. Further, the paper shows in what respect employing this mode of observation is rendered more difficult by the emergence of boundaryless careers. Based on the theoretical framework developed, we finally deduce and apply a scheme of classification of possible reactions to the organizational problems caused by boundaryless careers. In sum, the paper provides a new theoretical approach to analysing different ways of how organizations can cope with the challenges of new career patterns.     

Internet odysseys: linking web roles to career and community investments

This paper examines a new kind of career odyssey, namely that into the relatively uncharted territory of the world wide web. It extends recent ideas about personal and communal career investments by exploring people's web-enabled career behaviour, based on Tapscott et al.'s (2000) typology of web roles. MBA students completed a preliminary career exploration instrument and then met in different focus groups according to the web role with which each student most identified. The reported career investments varied depending on the web role involved. An attempt was made to corroborate these findings through practitioner interviews, but there were problems in reconciling the two kinds of data. The implications of these findings are discussed, and a series of observations is offered concerning the further study of the increasingly virtual journeys anticipated for careers of the future.     

Thriving and career outcomes: The roles of achievement orientation and resilience

This research investigated how and under what conditions thriving at work affects career attitudes and behaviors. Using an experimental design (n = 174), Study 1 found that the effects of thriving on career satisfaction, career commitment, and career engagement were mediated by career resilience. The positive effect of thriving on career resilience and the resilience‐mediated effects of thriving on career satisfaction, commitment, and engagement were stronger when achievement orientation was higher. Study 2 verified these findings with a survey of another sample of 296 employees. These studies offer important insights for human resource managers and career consultants or practitioners regarding what may enhance employees' career outcomes. Our findings imply that thriving‐enabling practices might be beneficial among highly achievement‐oriented employees.     

Justice source and justice content: evaluating the fairness of organisational career management practices

This article presents part of the findings of a multi‐method study into employee perceptions of fairness in relation to the organisational career management (OCM) practices of a large financial retailer. It focuses on exploring how employees construct fairness judgements of their career experiences and the role played by the organisational context and, in particular, OCM practices in forming these judgements. It concludes that individuals can, and do, separate the source and content of (in)justice when it comes to evaluating these experiences. The relative roles of the employer, line manager and career development opportunities in influencing employee fairness evaluations are discussed. Conceptual links with organisational justice theory are proposed, and it is argued that the academic and practitioner populations are provided with empirical evidence for a new theoretical framework for evaluating employee perceptions of, and reactions to, OCM practices.