Do Career Demands and Career Choices Always Coincide? A Matching Perspective Based on Career Anchors and Job Characteristics

Career choice is an important behavior for people wanting to develop their social life and is a key link to doing so. The matching of career choice with an individual’s real work demands will have a significant impact on the development of individuals, organizations, and society. However, at this stage, there are few studies on this matching situation. From the perspective of the matching of career anchors and job characteristics, this study explored the distribution and different characteristics of employees’ career demands and their career choices through a survey of 407 employees, and further discussed the matching status of these. The results of the study are as follows: (1) Individual career demands (career anchors) presented three attributes: single, multiple, and unclear. Among the single career anchor types, life anchors had the largest proportion, while among multiple career anchor individuals, individuals with both challenge anchors and service anchors accounted for the majority. (2) Individual career demands (career anchors) were significantly different across most demographic variables and organizational/work variables. (3) Deviations between employees’ career demands and their career choices seemed to be a common phenomenon, with the highest degree of fit (62.79%) with the entrepreneurial creativity anchor and the lowest degree of fit (21.28%) with the lifestyle anchor. In addition, in an analysis of three job fit characteristics, the entrepreneurial creativity anchor had a significant preference for managerial characteristics, whereas the challenge anchor had a significant preference for technological characteristics. The degrees of fit of the other anchors were characterized by the frequency of ‘right suboptimal fit’ being larger than that of ‘left suboptimal fit’. In other words, a specific career anchor had a significant preference for job characteristics matched by the right career anchor, with the midpoint of the career anchor octagon model defining the angle of observation. This study provides a reference for human resource management departments and for employees’ recognition and planning of career anchors.

Career Anchors of IT/IS Personnel

While career anchors have mainly studied in the US society; this study demonstrates the difference in the career anchors of the information technology/information system (IT/IS) personnel rooted in different cultures. The survey was conducted in the PRC (202), Taiwan (145), India (223), the UAE (167), and the US (122) totaling 859 respondents. This study examines the relationship between the guanxi culture, career anchor, job satisfaction, and turnover intention among these five cultural societies' IT/IS personnel. The result shows that the guanxi culture has a different effect on each career anchor, and each one also has a different effect on job satisfaction in the five different cultural societies as well; thus, they have different results in the research model. Also discussed are the implications of the study and its contribution to the research and management practice.

Peranan Career Anchor dalam Menciptakan Kepuasan Kerja Pegawai Dinas Kesehatan Kabupaten Sampang

Career Anchor dideskripsikan sebagai sebuah elemen dalam konsep diri seseorang(berhubungan dengan karir) yang tidak akan mereka lepaskan atau korbankan, bahkan pada saat menghadapi kondisi sulit. Oleh karena itulah setiap karyawan akan berusaha untuk dapat menduduki posisi jabatan tertentu yang lebih layak dan semakin meningkat dari waktu ke waktu sehingga kepuasan dalam bekerja akan muncul. Uraian di atas menjadi alasan untuk dilakukan penelitian ini, dengan berupaya untuk menjawab masalah yang dirumuskan sebagai berikut: (1) Apakah faktor Career Anchor yang terdiri dari Managerial Competence (kompetensi manajerial), Technical/ functional Competence (kompetensi teknis/ fungsional), Security/ stability (keamanan/ keseimbangan), Creativity (kreativitas) dan Autonomy (kebebasan) secara simultan berpengaruh terhadap kepuasan kerja karyawan Dinas Kesehatan Pemda Kabupaten Sampang? (2) Apakah variabel kompetensi teknis/ fungsional dalam Career Anchor di atas mempunyai pengaruh dominan terhadap kepuasan kerja karyawan Dinas Kesehatan Pemda Kabupaten Sampang. Berdasarkan pada tujuan penelitian, hipotesis dan kerangka konseptual. dapat ditarik beberapa kesimpulan sebagai berikut: (1) Hasil perhitungan SPSS menunjukkan nilai Fhitung= 8.349. Hal ini berarti bahwa secara simultan variabel Career Anchor (X) mempunyai pengaruh terhadap kepuasan kerja karyawan (Y). Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa secara bersama-sama variable yang terdapat dalam Career Anchor berpengaruh signifikan terhadap kepuasan kerja karyawan Dinas Kesehatan Kabupaten Sampang. (2) Variabel kompetensi teknis berpengaruh dominan terhadap Kepuasan Kerja Karyawan Dinas Kesehatan Kabupaten Sampang karena nilai t hitung variabel ini paling besar daripada variable bebas lainnya dengan nilai 2.889 yang lebih besar dari ttabel (2.889 1.985).

Career Anchors of Secondary School Teachers

Career anchors represent the internal constellations of motives, needs and career goals of individuals. It is of great importance to identify person’s career anchor and according to it, to design career management practices. Furthermore, if there is congruence between career anchor and job related characteristics, many positive outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, low turnover intentions, etc. may emerge. The aim of this paper is to identify which one of nine defined career anchors is dominant career anchor of secondary school teachers as public sector employees and how they differ in terms of demographic factors such as gender, age and work experience. In order to achieve this goal, empirical research was conducted using a sample of 44 secondary school teachers from one town. The descriptive statistic’s results indicated that the dominant career anchor of secondary school teachers is security – job tenure, followed by service and lifestyle career anchors. Non-parametric tests were applied for the assessment of statistically significant differences between demographic groups. Female teachers and teachers between 41 and 50 years expressed higher levels of importance of security – job tenure career anchor, but teachers with work experience lesser than 15 years showed higher levels of importance of security – geographic. The findings of this study add new contribution to the literature and career management practices in Serbia.

The effects of employer branding and career anchor on intention to leave

This research aims to investigate the effects of employer branding and career anchor on the intention to leave. The object of this research is the companies operating in the technology, finance and pharmaceutical sectors while the subject is 229 employees. Three variables from the research data were gathered through instruments in the form of valid and reliable questionnaires. Statistical Analysis of the research data used hierarchical regression analysis with the significance in accordance with the output of SPSS 20.0. The review of the findings obtained from the data demonstrated a statistically significant correlation between the employer brand and career anchor; employer brand and the intention to leave. Findings indicated that employer branding has a significant effect on career anchor and intention to leave; career anchor also has a significant effect on the intention to leave. However, the mediator effect of career anchor did not appear in the relationship between employer branding and intention to leave.