Career ambition and employee performance behaviour: The presence of ideological development

This study develops and tests a theoretical model that investigates how career ambition can have an impact on different types of academics’ performance behaviour and how ideological development at work can affect this model in a special context of a communist country. In a study of 991 employees in a large university in Vietnam, the model is largely supported. The findings suggest that in-role behaviour has a significant mediating role in the effect of career ambition on extra-role behaviour and that this mediating effect is stronger among the group of employees who have participated in advanced ideological development in the context of Vietnamese higher education. This study advances the understanding of an underdeveloped relationship between career ambition and employee performance behaviour and expands the knowledge of the impact of ideological development at work.

Implicit gender-career bias in postgraduate medical training still exists, mainly in residents and in females

Background More and more female residents enter postgraduate medical training (PGMT). Meanwhile, women are still underrepresented in academic medicine, in leadership positions and in most surgical specialties. This suggests that female residents’ career development may still be negatively impacted by subtle, often unconscious stereotype associations regarding gender and career-ambition, called implicit gender-career bias. This study explored the existence and strength of implicit gender-career bias in doctors who currently work in PGMT, i.e. in attending physicians who act as clinical trainers and in their residents. Methods We tested implicit gender-career bias in doctors working in PGMT by means of an online questionnaire and an online Implicit Association Test (IAT). We used standard IAT analysis to calculate participants’ IAT D scores, which indicate the direction and strength of bias. Linear regression analyses were used to test whether the strength of bias was related to gender, position (resident or clinical trainer) or specialty (non-surgical or surgical specialty). Results The mean IAT D score among 403 participants significantly differed from zero (D-score = 0.36 (SD = 0.39), indicating bias associating male with career and female with family. Stronger gender-career bias was found in women (βfemale =0 .11; CI 0.02; 0.19; p = 0.01) and in residents (βresident 0.12; CI 0.01; 0.23; p = 0.03). Conclusions This study may provide a solid basis for explicitly addressing implicit gender-career bias in PGMT. The general understanding in the medical field is that gender bias is strongest among male doctors’ in male-dominated surgical specialties. Contrary to this view, this study demonstrated that the strongest bias is held by females themselves and by residents, independently of their specialty. Apparently, the influx of female doctors in the medical field has not yet reduced implicit gender-career bias in the next generation of doctors, i.e. in today’s residents, and in females.

Conclusion

This chapter returns to the high-level assumptions that motivated the writing of this book which include: (1) the field of strategy in the current day and age has become more relevant (not less); (2) strategic management should be practiced by more people (not fewer, and certainly not solely by those at the top of the organization; (3) strategy’s functional domain should be broadened (not narrowed); and (4) anyone with career ambition in the business world needs to become a strategist. It also discusses the option of combining multiple tools and offers advice on how this can be done. We note that there is no magic set of combinations that always works. Part of the learning experience in becoming a good strategist is learning when and how to apply certain tools in combination. As with many things in life, practice makes perfect. The chapter concludes with discussing the next frontier in strategic management.

Harmonious workplace climate and employee altruistic behavior: from social exchange perspective

PurposeDrawing on the social exchange perspective, the authors explore the roles of satisfaction over material rewards, perceived organizational politics and career ambition in the relationship between harmonious workplace climate and employee altruistic behavior in the context of British public sector.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employed SPSS software to estimate ordinary least squares models to test their hypotheses by analyzing data from 161 supervisor–employee dyads from a UK local government.FindingsSatisfaction over material rewards mediates the relationship between harmonious workplace climate and employee altruistic behavior. Both perceived organizational politics and career ambition moderate the mediated effect of harmonious workplace climate on employee altruistic behavior via satisfaction over material rewards.Originality/valueThis study advances the social exchange theory by showing that the norm of reciprocity (e.g. harmonious workplace climate in this study) may not be the only key driver of exchange for altruistic behavior among public sector workers. Still, it can be mediated by satisfaction with pay and promotion opportunities and may be conditional upon individuals' career ambition or their perceptions of organizational politics.

Professional Life of Information System Graduates—Impressions and Experiences

Aim/Purpose: We explore impressions and experiences of Information Systems graduates during their first years of employment in the IT field. The results help to understand work satisfaction, career ambition, and motivation of junior employees. This way, the attractiveness of working in the field of IS can be increased and the shortage of junior employees reduced. Background: Currently IT professions are characterized by terms such as “shortage of professionals” and “shortage of junior employees”. To attract more people to work in IT detailed knowledge about experiences of junior employees is necessary. Methodology: Data from a large survey of 193 graduates of the degree program “Information Systems” at University od Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover (Germany) show characteristics of their professional life like work satisfaction, motivation, career ambition, satisfaction with opportunities, development and career advancement, satisfaction with work-life balance. It is also asked whether men and women gain the same experiences when entering the job market and have the same perceptions. Findings: The participants were highly satisfied with their work, but limitations or re-strictions due to gender are noteworthy. Recommendations for Practitioners: The results provide information on how human resource policies can make IT professions more attractive and thus convince graduates to seek jobs in the field. For instance, improving the balance between work and various areas of private life seems promising. Also, restrictions with respect to the work climate and improving communication along several dimensions need to be considered. Future Research: More detailed research on ambition and achievement is necessary to understand gender differences.

Principal-Agent Theory, Career Prospects, and U.S. Attorneys

This chapter explores two theories central to understanding the behavior of federal prosecutors. First, principal-agent theory is introduced to frame the relationship between national political actors, or principals, in the executive and legislative branches and their agents—U.S. Attorneys (USAs). In that exploration, the chapter focuses on problems of adverse selection and the monitoring of agents by principals. Second, the chapter considers career ambition theory as it pertains to the post-service employment opportunities of USAs. That discussion focuses on the potential of USAs to ascend to higher positions in the administration or secure nomination to the federal bench, both of which require the approval of principals in the executive branch.

U.S. Attorneys, Political Control, and Career Ambition

United States Attorneys (USAs), the chief federal prosecutors in each judicial district, are key in determining how the federal government uses coercive force against its citizens. How much control do national political actors exert over the prosecutorial decisions of USAs? In this book, the authors investigate this question using a unique data set of federal criminal prosecutions between 1986 and 2015 that captures both decisions by USAs to file cases as well as the sentences that result. Utilizing intuitions from principal-agent theory, work on the career ambition of bureaucrats and politicians, and selected case studies, they develop and advance a set of hypotheses about control by the President and Congress. Harnessing variation across time, federal judicial districts, and five legal issue areas—immigration, narcotics, terrorism, weapons, and white-collar—Miller and Curry find that USAs are subject to considerable executive influence in their decision making, supporting findings about the increase of presidential power over the last three decades. In addition, they show that the ability of the President to appoint USAs to higher-level positions within the executive branch or to federal judgeships is an important mechanism of that control. This investigation sheds light on how the need to be responsive to popularly elected principals channels the enormous prosecutorial discretion of USAs. Clearly written and empirically sophisticated, the authors’ study has important cross-disciplinary implications and engages salient questions for students of politics, law, and criminal justice.