Linking Job Design to Subjective Career Success

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason J. Dahling ◽  
Taylor K. Lauricella
Keyword(s):  
Career Success ◽  
Autonomy Support ◽  
Design Theory ◽  
Work Motivation ◽  
Job Design ◽  
Need Satisfaction ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Career Experiences ◽  
Practical Standpoint ◽  
Subjective Career Success

We tested a predictive model based on self-determination theory (SDT) to demonstrate how job design choices contribute to subjective career success. Data collected at Time 1 demonstrated that the job characteristics of autonomy support and competence support had direct and interactive effects on employees’ need satisfaction. Need satisfaction at Time 1 mediated the relationship between autonomy support and self-determined work motivation at Time 2. Work motivation, in turn, mediated the relationships between need fulfillment and career attitudes that characterize subjective career success. These findings are theoretically important because they demonstrate that SDT can bridge job design theory and career theory, pointing to new ways that job and career experiences are interrelated. From a practical standpoint, the results are valuable because they show that job enrichment efforts guided by SDT have important implications for promoting career success perceptions and vocational retention among experienced workers.

Gender differences in career planning and success

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 603-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhee Jung ◽  
Norihiko Takeuchi
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Career Success ◽  
Social Exchange Theory ◽  
Career Planning ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Subjective Career Success ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it attempts to examine how employees’ career planning (CP) interacts with the quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) to explain subjective career success. Second, the authors investigate how the pattern of such interactions differs between male and female employees. Design/methodology/approach – To increase the generalizability, the study tested hypotheses in two studies whose data were collected in different national settings. Study 1 was designed to analyze 144 Korean employees and Study 2 investigated 140 Japanese employees. Both groups of employees worked for privately owned firms. Findings – The authors found a three-way interaction effect between gender, CP, and LMX quality in predicting subjective career success. As hypothesized, the positive relationship between quality of LMX and subjective career success was stronger for males with high CP, whereas for females such a stronger relationship was found for women with low CP. Research limitations/implications – This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it extends career research by considering the interactive effects of individual and interpersonal factors on employees’ subjective career success. Second, it combines the research streams of social exchange theory (LMX), career theory (the boundaryless career), and gender theory (agentic and communal personality traits). This suggests that the ideas of the three theories could serve together as a useful framework for explaining gender differences in subjective career success through setting career goals and building relationships with supervisors. Practical implications – The findings have important practical implications for managers and leaders, who generally seek to motivate their employees toward career achievement. Originality/value – This study is one of the first to provide a new perspective for understanding the process by which men and women perceive their subjective career success differently with regard to social exchange relations with their supervisors and CP.

scholarly journals Work Motivation and Career Autonomy as Predictors of Women’s Subjective Career Success in STEM

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 73-89
Author(s):  
Miriam Schmitt ◽  
Sabine Lauer ◽  
Uwe Wilkesmann
Keyword(s):  
Career Success ◽  
Work Motivation ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Women In Science ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Stem Careers ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Subjective Career Success ◽  
And Mathematics

The minority status of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professions makes their successful career development difficult. Due to gender-specific challenges, career dissatisfaction contributes to women dropping out of STEM careers. Therefore, women’s subjective career success (SCS) is important to persist and progress in their STEM careers. This study analyzed the influence of different types of work motivation and the perceived career autonomy on SCS of women. Specifically, 318 women working in STEM professions in Germany completed a quantitative online questionnaire. Using an ordinary least squares regression for variables predicting SCS measured as career satisfaction, we found that an intrinsic work motivation positively affects women’s SCS. The perception of high career autonomy was related positively, and the perception of low career autonomy was related negatively to SCS. Unexpectedly, the findings also revealed the positive influence of income on women’s SCS. The findings show that intrinsic work motivation and high perceived autonomy are promoting factors for SCSs, which could also contribute to their retention in STEM professions.

Probing the interactive effects of career commitment and emotional intelligence on perceived objective/subjective career success

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 724-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Razia Sultana ◽  
Amna Yousaf ◽  
Iram Khan ◽  
Abubakr Saeed
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Career Success ◽  
Career Commitment ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Bank Employees ◽  
Subjective Career Success ◽  
Career Literature

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to find out the moderating role of emotional intelligence (EI) in the relationship between career commitment and career success of the bank employees working in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach – The study used ex post facto method where 200 middle-level managerial bank employees were surveyed by means of a close-ended questionnaire. Moderated multiple regression was run to test the hypotheses. Findings – As expected, the research findings confirmed the expectation of significant relationship between career commitment and objective/subjective career success. Further, the research findings bolstered one of the research postulates that EI will moderate career commitment-objective career success relationship. However the argument of EI’s moderation between career commitment-subjective career success relationship was not supported by the findings. Originality/value – This paper adds value to the existing body of knowledge by augmenting the need of understanding the distinctiveness of objective and subjective career success. The study unveils the importance of devising separate mechanisms to cater both the objective and subjective career success needs of the employees and enhances the scope of career literature in South Asian settings.

scholarly journals Job crafting: Towards a new model of individual job redesign

2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Tims ◽  
Arnold B. Bakker
Keyword(s):  
Design Theory ◽  
Work Motivation ◽  
Job Design ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Job Crafting ◽  
Work Outcomes ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Proactive Behaviour ◽  
Job Redesign ◽  
The Individual

Orientation: For a long time, employees have been viewed as passive performers of their assigned job tasks. Recently, several scholars have argued that job design theory needs to address the influence of employees on their job designs.Research purpose: The purpose of the study was to fit job crafting in job design theory.Motivation for the study: The study was an attempt to shed more light on the types of proactive behaviours of individual employees at work. Moreover, we explored the concept of job crafting and its antecedents and consequences.Research design, approach and method: A literature study was conducted in which the focus was first on proactive behaviour of the employee and then on job crafting.Main findings: Job crafting can be seen as a specific form of proactive behaviour in which the employee initiates changes in the level of job demands and job resources. Job crafting may be facilitated by job and individual characteristics and may enable employees to fit their jobs to their personal knowledge, skills and abilities on the one hand and to their preferences and needs on the other hand.Practical/managerial implications: Job crafting may be a good way for employees to improve their work motivation and other positive work outcomes. Employees could be encouraged to exert more influence on their job characteristics.Contribution/value-add: This article describes a relatively new perspective on active job redesign by the individual, called job crafting, which has important implications for job design theories.

scholarly journals The Dynamics of Subjective Career Success: A Qualitative Inquiry

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7638
Author(s):  
Leon Hupkens ◽  
Jos Akkermans ◽  
Omar Solinger ◽  
Svetlana Khapova
Keyword(s):  
Personal Development ◽  
Career Success ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Career Experiences ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Subjective Career Success ◽  
Service To Others ◽  
Over Time

Current perspectives on career success have yet to show whether and how subjective career success evaluations may change over time and across career phases. By adopting a retrospective life-span approach to careers, our qualitative inquiry into the career experiences of 63 professionals contributes to the temporal understanding of subjective career success by exploring patterns in how subjective career success perceptions and priorities may change over time. The temporal development of subjective career success was explored among early-career, mid-career, and late-career workers by piecing together retrospective evaluations of career success perceptions. Our findings point to common patterns in career success perceptions across the lifespan. Specifically, we found five shift components of career success perceptions during people’s careers: (1) quitting striving for financial success and recognition; (2) an increased focus on personal development across the career; (3) a stronger emphasis on work–life balance across the career; (4) a shift toward being of service to others; and (5) no change in subjective career success components across the career. These patterns reflect ways in which workers engage in motivational self-regulation and the corresponding career goal-setting across the lifespan. The theoretical implications are discussed.

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.

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