Servant leadership and career success: the effects of career skills and proactive personality

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 717-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Wang ◽  
Kun Yu ◽  
Ruobing Xi ◽  
Xiaodan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Servant Leadership ◽  
Career Success ◽  
Career Satisfaction ◽  
Proactive Personality ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Perceived Employability ◽  
Subjective Career Success ◽  
Matched Data ◽  
Career Skills

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of servant leadership on followers’ subjective career success and the mediating role of career skills. The moderating effect of followers’ proactive personality is also investigated. Design/methodology/approach This paper collected two-wave matched data from 283 employees of an IT company. The authors use hierarchical regression and bootstrapping to test the hypotheses. Findings Servant leadership has a positive effect on career satisfaction and perceived employability through career skills. In addition, proactive personality moderates the association between servant leadership and career skills, such that the relationship is stronger when proactive personality is high. Proactive personality also moderates the indirect effect of servant leadership on career satisfaction and perceived employability. Practical implications The findings suggest that organizations should select and train leaders to practice servant leadership to enhance employee subjective career success. Originality/value This is the first study to investigate the mechanism and boundary conditions of the association between servant leadership and employee subjective career success.

Unlocking the magic of servant leadership on followers’ career success

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 11-13
Keyword(s):  
Servant Leadership ◽  
Career Success ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Proactive Personality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Perceived Employability ◽  
Pertinent Information ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Career Skills ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This research paper explores the link between servant leadership and the subjective career success of employee followers. The paper’s results reveal that servant leadership enhances the career skills of followers, and that these career skills boost their level of career success. This effect becomes even more pronounced when the individual follower has a highly proactive personality in comparison to a follower with a lower level of proactive personality. When a follower’s level of proactive personality is high, career skills had a stronger influence on the positive relationships between career satisfaction and servant leadership, and between perceived employability and servant leadership. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

scholarly journals Directing our own careers, but getting help from empowering leaders

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minseo Kim ◽  
Terry A. Beehr
Keyword(s):  
Career Success ◽  
Career Satisfaction ◽  
Psychological Empowerment ◽  
Career Commitment ◽  
Career Orientation ◽  
Empowering Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Protean Career ◽  
Subjective Career Success ◽  
Career Literature

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential effects of empowering leadership on followers’ subjective career success through psychological empowerment, protean career orientation, and career commitment. Design/methodology/approach Full-time employees working in the USA were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants answered surveys at three separate points over a six-week period (n=261). Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping were used to verify the indirect effect of empowering leadership on career satisfaction controlling for common method variance and growth need strength. Findings Empowering leadership was positively related to followers’ subsequent psychological empowerment, which in turn predicted protean career attitudes and career commitment, but only career commitment had a significant relationship with career satisfaction. Research limitations/implications Empowering leadership behaviors focus on potentially career-enhancing factors, including providing followers with the confidence, inspiration, and authority to assume control of their work lives. Empowering leaders benefit their followers’ careers, and psychological empowerment and career commitment may be important mechanisms in the empowering leadership-career success relationship when their effects are considered simultaneously. Employees’ development of a protean career orientation has less direct effect on subjective career success than simple commitment to a career. Originality/value Empowering leadership has been overlooked in career literature. The findings advance the understanding of how empowering leader behaviors could help employees’ subjective career success in a serial mediation model. Additionally, the study empirically demonstrates that psychologically empowered employees are more likely to engage in protean career actions and navigate their own career goals.

Career success is not always an outcome: its mediating role between competence employability model and perceived employability

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Bargsted ◽  
Jesús Yeves ◽  
Cristóbal Merino ◽  
Juan I. Venegas-Muggli
Keyword(s):  
Career Success ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Perceived Employability ◽  
Subjective Career Success ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeCareer success has been understood as an outcome of career goals, achievement and employability resources. Recent research has enlightened its potential effect on career decisions and perceived employability. This paper aims to test the role of career success in the relationship between competence employability and perceived employability.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was answered by 1,087 graduates from a large nonselective higher education institution that enrolls a significant number of first generation and lower socioeconomic background students. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the mediating role of career success, as was proposed.FindingsSubjective career success partially mediates the relationship between competence employability model and perceived employability. However, objective career success was not related to perceived employability.Research limitations/implicationsThe study made use of a cross-sectional design, which hinders the identification of causal direction.Practical implicationsFor training and education, both employability competences and subjective career success are resources to enhance in order to promote employee's personal beliefs about obtaining and maintaining employment.Originality/valueThis study combines different employability approaches, and their relationship with career success, considering subjective and objective career success as relevant personal resources that could impact self-perceptions and foster career behaviors. Testing the utility of these theoretical models on a group that has been underrepresented in career development studies is also relevant, particularly, the use of gain spiral concept from Conservation of Resources theory.

Chinese traditionality and career success

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 627-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hang-yue Ngo ◽  
Hui Li
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Career Success ◽  
Career Satisfaction ◽  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Subjective Career Success ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Perceived Job Insecurity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Chinese traditionality (an individual-level cultural variable) and subjective career success in the Chinese context. It explores whether Chinese traditionality influences employees’ perceptions of procedural justice and job insecurity, which in turn affect their job and career satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected via employee survey from 482 workers in three large companies in China. The HR department helped us to distribute a self-administered questionnaire to the respondents. The authors assured them of confidentiality and protected their anonymity. Path analysis was used to evaluate the relationships in the conceptual model. For testing the mediating hypotheses, the authors employed Sobel tests and bootstrapping. Findings – The results indicate that Chinese traditionality is related to procedural justice and perceived job insecurity. The authors further found that Chinese traditionality exerts a significant effect on both job and career satisfaction, and such effects are fully mediated by procedural justice and perceived job insecurity. Practical implications – Based on the findings, Chinese firms should pay attention to employees’ cultural values and their perceptions of work context, which significantly affect their job and career satisfaction. It is also important to ensure a high level of procedural justice and job security as perceived by the employees. Originality/value – This study is the first exploration of the relationship between Chinese traditonality and subjective career success. It also reveals the mediating role of procedural justice and perceived job insecurity in the above relationship. The new findings add to the cross-cultural research on careers.

Proactive personality and career success

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 467-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fu Yang ◽  
Rebecca Chau
Keyword(s):  
Career Success ◽  
Power Distance ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Proactive Personality ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Power Distance Orientation ◽  
Indirect Relationship ◽  
Person Organization Fit ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation of subordinate proactive personality with subjective evaluations of career success by direct supervisors, as well as conceptualize the quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) as a mediator and power distance orientation as a moderator for understanding this relation. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using a two-wave survey research design. Participants were drawn from 360 supervisor-subordinate dyads from mainland China. Hierarchical regression analyses, Edwards and Lambert’s (2007) moderated path analysis approach, and Preacher et al.’s (2010) Monte Carlo simulation procedure were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings – LMX mediated the positive relationship between proactive personality and career success. Both the relationship between LMX and career success and the indirect relationship between proactive personality and career success were stronger when power distance orientation was lower. Research limitations/implications – This study contributes to the authors’ understanding of how and when proactive personality facilitates employee career success in the era of the boundaryless career. However, all data were collected within a single organization, which limits the observed variability and decreases external validity. Practical implications – Training employees to facilitate initiative in the workplace may build and maintain better and stronger relationships with their supervisors. To enhance person-organization fit, organizations should recruit and hire employees with lower levels of power distance orientation. Originality/value – This study provides solid evidence that the extent to which LMX mediates the relationship between proactive personality and career success depends on power distance orientation. It represents a promising new direction for the proactive personality and career success literatures.

Self-directed career attitude as predictor of career and life satisfaction in Chinese employees

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 703-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunyu Zhang ◽  
Andreas Hirschi ◽  
Anne Herrmann ◽  
Jia Wei ◽  
Jinfu Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Career Development ◽  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
Career Success ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Career Satisfaction ◽  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Subjective Career Success

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test if the effects of a self-directed career attitude on career and life satisfaction are mediated by a person’s sense of calling and moderated by job insecurity in a sample of Chinese employees. Design/methodology/approach – Among a sample of Chinese employees (n=263), in this paper, a moderated mediation analysis with bootstrapping was applied to test the hypotheses. Findings – The results showed that calling mediates the effects of a self-directed career attitude on career satisfaction and life satisfaction. Job insecurity moderated the effect on life satisfaction but not on career satisfaction. The effect on life satisfaction were stronger under higher levels of job insecurity. Research limitations/implications – These results suggest that a self-directed career attitude may help people develop a calling, which in turn relates to increased subjective career success and well-being. In addition, the notion of a calling may be especially important for well-being in unstable job circumstances. Originality/value – This study is the first to explore a calling and a self-directed career attitude in a sample of Chinese employees. Corresponding to contemporary China’s rapidly changing context of economy and career development, a self-directed career orientation plays an important role in Chinese employees’ calling and subjective career success.

Measurement of Career Success: The Case of Rural to Urban Migrant Labourers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

2016 ◽  
pp. 108-120
Author(s):  
Phuc Nguyen Van ◽  
Binh Quan Minh Quoc ◽  
Quyen Nguyen Le Hoang Thuy To
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Career Success ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Career Satisfaction ◽  
Ho Chi Minh City ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Migrant Laborers ◽  
Urban Migrant ◽  
Subjective Career Success

Despite the rich literature on the antecedents of career success, the success criterion has generally been measured in a rather deficient manner. This study aims to operationalize and measure career success of rural to urban migrant laborers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam by developing an integrated index. The Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) with a combination of both reflective and formative constructs is applied. Employing the primary data of 419 migrant laborers in a survey conducted in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 2015, the hierarchical model confirms the statistically significant contribution of objective and subjective components to the career success index. Compared to objective career success, subjective career success has a stronger effect on the index. Five dimensions of career success are distinguished including: 1) job satisfaction, 2) career satisfaction, 3) life satisfaction, 4) other-referent criteria and 5) promotion. The first four and the final one are categorized as subjective career success and objective career success respectively. Among the four dimensions of subjective success, job satisfaction, career satisfaction and life satisfaction share lesser weights than success using otherreferent criteria in the model. This finding implies that other-referent criteria play an important role when people evaluate their career success. The index shall provide a general picture of the career success of rural to urban migrant laborers in Ho Chi Minh City and give an empirical result for further micro-research on career success determination.

Effects of emerging leadership styles on engagement – a mediation analysis in a military context

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Ruiz Moreno ◽  
María Isabel Roldán Bravo ◽  
Carlos García-Guiu ◽  
Luis M. Lozano ◽  
Natalio Extremera Pacheco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Servant Leadership ◽  
Leadership Styles ◽  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Authentic Leadership ◽  
Proactive Personality ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThis paper aims to report the findings of a study examining the relationship between different leadership styles and engagement through the mediating role of proactive personality.Design/methodology/approachServant leadership, paradoxical leadership, authentic leadership, employee engagement and proactive personality were assessed in an empirical study based on a sample of 348 military personnel in Spain. The questionnaire data were analyzed through SEM using EQS and bootstrapping analysis using the PROCESS macro for SPSS.FindingsThe results reveal that servant leadership style in officers partially impacts their cadets' engagement through proactive personality but that authentic and paradoxical leadership styles do not mediate the relationship. The authors also verify a direct relationship between proactive personality and engagement.Practical implicationsThe study implications advance the literature on leadership in emphasizing new leadership styles to increase proactive personality and engagement in the military context. This study verifies the importance of military leaders fostering servant leadership as an antecedent of proactive personality. Finally, the authors show that servant leadership partially impacts engagement through proactive personality.Originality/valueThis study explores the relationship among servant, paradoxical and authentic leadership styles, proactive personality, and engagement – relationships that have not been explored theoretically and tested empirically in the military context.

Career adaptability, job crafting and subjective career success: the moderating roles of lone wolf personality and positive perfectionism

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasir Mansoor Kundi ◽  
Sandrine Hollet-Haudebert ◽  
Jonathan Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Career Success ◽  
Career Commitment ◽  
Job Crafting ◽  
Career Adaptability ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Lone Wolf ◽  
Moderated Mediation Model ◽  
Subjective Career Success ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeUsing career construction theory, the authors empirically examine the mechanism by which career adaptability promotes employee subjective career success (career satisfaction and career commitment) through job crafting.Design/methodology/approachA moderated mediation model is tested using survey data from 324 full-time business professionals in France. Hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).Findingshe authors found that job crafting mediated the relationship between career adaptability and subjective career success (career satisfaction and career commitment). The positive effect of career adaptability on job crafting was greater under higher levels of lone wolf personality and positive perfectionism, as was the indirect effect of career adaptability on subjective career success via job crafting.Research limitations/implicationsdata are cross-sectional in nature. Robust theoretical contentions and affective means of identifying common method variance (CMV) are addressed and evaluated.Practical implicationsHigh levels of career adaptability may be a useful strategy for promoting employee job crafting and subjective career success. In addition, individuals with lone wolf personality and positive perfectionism should be given opportunities to craft their jobs in the workplace.Originality/valueThis research confirms a moderated mediation model positioning job crafting as a mediator of career adaptability's effects on employee subjective career success and lone wolf and positive perfectionism as moderators of such effects. This study suggests that job crafting and career-focused personality traits are important factors that influence the relationship between career adaptability and subjective career success.

Study of managers in Pakistani food and beverage company shows how “authentic leadership” enhances employees' career success

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-26
Keyword(s):  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Career Success ◽  
Authentic Leadership ◽  
Career Satisfaction ◽  
Significant Finding ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Food And Beverage ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Hierarchical Status

Purpose The authors wanted to find out if authentic leadership had an effect on career success. Design/methodology/approach The author tested hypotheses on full-time employees and received 162 valid questionnaires. Findings The results showed that authentic leadership was positively correlated with career self-efficacy and that career self-efficacy was positively associated with both career satisfaction and hierarchical status. The results also suggested that the “direct path from authentic leadership to hierarchical status was not significant”. Meanwhile, results showed that career self-efficacy was necessary to fully mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and hierarchical status. The results also showed that career self-efficacy only partially mediated the effects on career satisfaction. Originality/value The author felt his study made a valuable contribution because it offered a new perspective on career satisfaction that expanded the literature. The analysis of career self-efficacy as a mediating mechanism was another significant finding.

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