Careers: Mobility, Embeddedness, and Success

2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Feldman ◽  
Thomas W. H. Ng

This article proposes refinements of the constructs of career mobility and career embeddedness and reviews the array of factors that have been found to energize (discourage) employees to change jobs, organizations, and/or occupations. The article also reviews the literature on career success and identifies which types of mobility (and embeddedness) are most likely to lead to objective career success (e.g., promotions) and subjective career success (e.g., career satisfaction). In the final section, the article revisits the utility of viewing careers as “boundaryless” and suggests alternative frameworks for future research on these topics.

2016 ◽  
pp. 108-120
Author(s):  
Phuc Nguyen Van ◽  
Binh Quan Minh Quoc ◽  
Quyen Nguyen Le Hoang Thuy To

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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minseo Kim ◽  
Terry A. Beehr

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Usama Najam ◽  
Umar Burki ◽  
Wajiha Khalid

This study examines the relationship between career commitment and employee career success (objective and subjective success) in middle-level employees working in the service sector. Further, the study investigates the moderating effect of work-life balance on the relationship between career commitment and career success. By analyzing data from 360 middle level working employees, our empirical results show that career commitment has a positive and significant effect on the objective and subjective career success of employees. Work-life balance positively moderates the relationship between career commitment and subjective career success, whereas it fails to moderate the relationship between career commitment and objective career success. The study contributes by providing a better understanding of the employee’s perception of career commitment and career success and their management in emerging markets. Avenues for future research are identified.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 717-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Wang ◽  
Kun Yu ◽  
Ruobing Xi ◽  
Xiaodan Zhang

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.


Author(s):  
Soyeon Sin ◽  
Jinkook Tak

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among inner meaning of work, Protean career and subjective career success. More specially, This study investigated not only the influence of inner meaning of work on subjective career success that is mediated by protean career but also the moderating effect of career-supported mentoring on the relationship between protean career and subjective career success. To perform this study, online survey was conducted by korean employees who were working in various organization and received formal or informal mentoring. Data gathered from 191 employees were used for analyses. The results showed that inner meaning of work had positive effects on protean career as well as subjective career success. Also, protean career partially mediated the relationship between inner meaning of work and subjective career success. Career-supported mentoring moderated the relationship between protean career and subjective career success. The implications and limitations of this study and the directions for future research were discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Widana Pathiranage Richard Wickramaratne

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the career oriented perceived organizational support (POS-Career) is positively related to the employee subjective career success. An online survey was distributed among a random sample of 150 supervisory level managers in 15 large scale manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka. With a response rate of 59%, 88 managers responded to the survey. The results of Multiple Hierarchical Regression analysis reported that the POS-Career is positively associated with the subjective career success of supervisory level managers. This finding implies that employees believe their career progress is consistent with their own goals, values and preferences when they have developed a perception about the organization’s caring of their career needs. The study made a methodological contribution by validating a questionnaire for POS-Career. Since, there is scant amount of literature that has examined this relationship, the current study made an empirical contribution by undertaking a study in a developing country context. Also, this study made implications to the existing theories such as, perceived organizational support, psychological contract, and social exchange as well as to the extended model of social cognitive career theory. In terms of policy implications, an organization should develop a career development culture by providing employees with a range of career development opportunities, senior management’s leadership for career development programs and developing a climate for employees to involve in career self-management by engaging with networking and visibility behaviors. In response, they develop a belief that their career progress is consistent with their own goals, values and preferences. The limitations of the study and directions for future research are also discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qishan Chen ◽  
Shuting Yang ◽  
Jiayu Deng ◽  
Liuying Lu ◽  
Jingyi He

Using a sample of 52 work teams (52 work team leaders and their 348 followers) in China, we investigated the influence mechanism of leaders' work engagement on their followers' work engagement and subjective career success. A multilevel structural equation model (MSEM) was applied to analyze the survey data. The results of this study indicated that leaders' work engagement positively influenced their followers' subjective career success, and this relationship was mediated by the followers' work engagement. Implications of these findings, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed in the final section of the paper.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Spurk ◽  
Andreas Hirschi ◽  
Nicky Dries

This review examines competing perspectives relating to (a) the range and prevalence of different theoretical approaches to the study of career success and (b) the need for a theoretically differentiated understanding of the antecedents of objective career success (OCS) versus subjective career success (SCS). Furthermore, the review complements the assumption that OCS and SCS are only ultimate outcomes of careers, proposing instead that career success also acts as an antecedent to other career and life outcomes. Against the backdrop of an organizing resource management framework, we present and critically evaluate the results of a systematic analysis of the theoretical approaches used to empirically study the antecedents of OCS and SCS. Furthermore, we develop a taxonomy of outcomes of career success. Our review findings show a theoretical heterogeneity with some dominant theoretical approaches within research of antecedents of career success. Moreover, past research started to adopt different theoretical approaches when predicting OCS (e.g., approaches focusing on personal resources, such as human capital or [competitive] performance) versus SCS (e.g., approaches focusing on personal key resources, such as stable traits). Several types of career success outcomes were identified: withdrawal, career attitudes, health and well-being, reactions from the (work) environment, and self-concept. On the basis of these findings, we provide recommendations for how future research can make sense of the theoretical heterogeneity in career success research, how research on antecedents and outcomes can better account for the OCS/SCS distinction, and how future research can more rigorously integrate research on antecedents and outcomes of career success.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 627-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hang-yue Ngo ◽  
Hui Li

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.


2020 ◽  
pp. 106907272095978
Author(s):  
Yasir Mansoor Kundi ◽  
Sandrine Hollet-Haudebert ◽  
Jonathan Peterson

This study examines the link between protean career and boundaryless career attitudes and subjective career success. We propose that employees with protean and boundaryless career attitudes are more likely to engage in job crafting behavior, ultimately leading to career commitment and career satisfaction. Data from 321 business professionals working in France revealed that protean and boundaryless career attitudes predict subjective career success in the form of career commitment and career satisfaction through job crafting. The data also revealed a serial mediation pathway whereby protean and boundaryless career attitudes positively predicted job crafting behavior, which lead to stronger career commitment and increased career satisfaction. These results highlight the importance of job crafting behavior as an important, yet unexplored work-related phenomenon with significant organizational implications.


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