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Recent evidence suggests that leaders' communication is central to an organization's success. The purpose of the current research is to examine how the leader's motivating language (direction giving, empathetic and meaning-making) translates into positive career outcomes through the mechanism of positive affective tone.

A three-wave time-lagged research design was applied to collect data (N = 320) from employees of the telecom sector of Pakistan.

Employing structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, the study results indicate that high levels of leader's motivating language (direction giving and meaning-making) result in positive affective tone in employees, which further creates career motivation (career insight, career resilience and career identity) and career satisfaction. In contrast, positive affective tone does not mediate between empathetic language and career motivation (career insight, career resilience and career identity) and career satisfaction relationship.

The present study's findings explicate the unique effects and mechanism through which leaders motivating language becomes influential in reaping its benefits for followers' career outcomes. More research is warranted to examine other attitudinal and behavioral outcomes of leaders motivating language. This study research prepares future researchers to investigate other mediators and moderators in the leaders motivating language–career outcomes relationship. The authors recommend further implications of the study's findings for research and practice in the domain of leadership, affect and careers.

The current study opens up a new perspective in leaders motivating language literature by examining the underlying mechanism of positive affective tone.

Career plateau is a major concern for many seasoned employees because they often stay in the same position longer than expected and over time begin to lack job challenges. This phenomenon is now considered a normal stage in career development. The purpose of this study is to test the effects of two types of career plateau: hierarchical and job content on career commitment (career identity, career insight and career resilience), along with the mediating effect of perceived external employability. We also determined in the moderated mediation model if Super's (1957) three career stages amplify and attenuate the indirect effect of hierarchical/job content plateau on career commitment (career identity, career insight, career resilience) via perceived external employability.

We tested the hypotheses with survey data collected from a convenience sample of 472 white-collar full-time employees who also studied in the MBA and continuing education program in five large universities in Taiwan (77% return rate).

The mediation model result showed that perceived external employability partially and negatively mediated the influence of hierarchical plateaus on career commitment (career identity, career insight and career resilience). Perceived external employability partially and negatively mediated the influence of job content plateaus on career identity and career insight but fully and negatively mediated on career resilience. The result of the moderated mediation model also demonstrated that only employees in the trial stage had influences on the mediation relationships among the hierarchical plateau, perceived external employability and career commitment with its two dimensions of career identity and career insight only other than those in the stabilization and maintenance stages.

The findings of this study can benefit career management scholars and practitioners since they promote a better understanding of the career management practices that are relevant for seasoned employees who are valued for their knowledge, experience and expertise when encountering the three career stages.

Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theoretical perspective, we fill the gap in the literature by proposing perceived external employability as a mediator in the link between career plateau and career commitment and generalize the results to plateaued employees at the different career stages.

This study seeks to examine the extent to which the use of career center services results in the significant incremental prediction of career outcomes beyond its established predictors.

The authors survey the clients of a public agency's career center and use hierarchical multiple regressions in order to examine the extent to which it achieved its goals.

Career center usage predicted career resilience and action as well as perceived management commitment to employee development beyond established predictors for these variables. Employees' belief that they were personally responsible for their careers was the prime predictor of career center usage.

The primary limitations of this research are the cross‐sectional research design, the self‐selected sample, and the single source of survey data.

Making a career center available to employees can help them adjust to the new protean career model and an environment of considerable downsizing. Using the career center leads to positive results with respect to the perceptions of management.

Although the cultural barrier to career center usage is likely to be resolvable only over time, supervisors could be encouraged to offer more support and coaching to employees. Also, employees' jobs can be developed by increasing the extent to which supervisors provide feedback to employees, allow employees to work autonomously, and require the use of multiple skills.

Career motivation is usually examined among young or mid‐career workers. The older worker is left alone. Unfortunately, in an environment in which the older person represents the fastest growing segment of the labour force, this critical resource is being frittered away. Examination of current practices suggests a large portion of older workers are persuaded by their employers′ actions that their careers are at an end. Alternatives to extend and increase this group′s career motivation are discussed.

The present study has two purposes. One is to investigate the relationship between an Inter‐Organizational Career Orientation (IOCO) of employees and their career strategies. The second is to investigate the effects of the career attitudes that an IOCO has on employee career strategies.

The facts and conclusions presented in this paper were obtained from a study of 365 employees from 16 companies. A multiple regression analysis was adopted for testing hypotheses.

With regard to the first objective, it was determined that IOCO has a positive effect on inter‐organizational career strategies (career exploration) and a negative one on organizational career strategies (self‐nomination). With regard to the second objective, the moderating effects of career attitudes toward the relationships described as follows became clear: job involvement of employees with regard to the relationship between IOCO and creating career opportunities; job involvement of employees with regard to the relationship between IOCO and self‐nomination; job involvement of employees with regard to the relationship between IOCO and career insight; and career goal commitment of employees with regard to the relationship between IOCO and challenging work behavior.

An analysis according to demographic factors and the implementation of longitudinal research are suggested as future research subjects.

This paper showed that IOCO contributed not only to the rejection of organizational career strategies but also to that of organizational and inter‐organizational career strategies. “Domain fit hypothesis” was verified in new organizational behavioral concepts between career orientation and a career strategy.

Examines relationships between employment status (working full‐ or part‐time), age, gender, and career motivation variables (career resilience, insight, identity and desire for recognition). Study one focused on individuals in mid and late career. Subjects were 172 employees (mean age = 57.8, ranging from age 43 to 87) from a variety of organizations. Among the 76 men, age was related positively to career resilience and insight. Also, career resilience was higher for men working part‐time than full‐time. Among the women, age was related negatively to desire for recognition, especially for women working part‐time. Study two was conducted to determine the reliability of these relationships for a sample of full‐time employees, including younger as well as older workers. Subjects were 96 employees, 29 of whom were women, in a public utility company. Levels of resilience, insight, identity, and desire for recognition were comparable to the first study. Consistent with Study one, women′s need for recognition was related negatively to age. Also for women, career resilience increased with age. The results are discussed in terms of the stability of the motivational constructs across age groups and the practical implication that employers should expect high levels of motivation from late career employees, whether they work full‐ or part‐time.

Explains that the crescendo effect in career motivation is the driving force behind employee participation, involvement and the lasting value of commitment. Undoubtedly, much of the corporate world has given up on career motivation and commitment since, on average, businesses lose, and have to replace, half their employees in four years, half their mid‐level managers in five years and half their senior executives in seven years. For more than ten years the Human Resource Programme at Northern Illinois University in the USA has focused on studying companies that steadfastly continue to base their strategies for attraction, retention, motivation and employee involvement on career motivation and commitment. Presents a practicable and workable new strategic model based on career motivation to provide a profitable alternative to the turmoil of perpetual churn. Describes parallel organization initiatives to galvanize, simplify, build and leverage human resource career motivation and commitment.

Reports a study of female executives (n = 30) working in the public sector in Hong Kong. The research captures a set of organisational practices in transition: from a colonial to a post‐colonial setting, and from a bureaucracy that offered jobs for life to one that offers them on contract terms. The concept of career motivation is explored in the study through three dimensions of career resilience, career insight, and career identity. Overall, younger executives (n = 19) had higher levels of career motivation and were striving to attain additional responsibility and authority in work assignments, while senior executives (n = 11) were concerned with holding on to their previous accomplishments and competence in their occupational role. Moreover, the more ambiguity and uncertainty existing in the government office, the lesser the levels of career motivation. The results and their implications for future studies of career motivation are discussed.

This paper outlines a programme of concept development, research and application on the career motivation of young managers. An assessment centre was used to evaluate dimensions of career motivation. The results were corroborated by other research data and suggested the need for considering situational conditions affecting career motivation. This led to a set of guidelines for early career development and a consideration of company policies and supervisory strategies for applying them. The impact of the results on the companies involved is described. Finally, the paper addresses the value of this research approach for generating useful knowledge.

Due to globalization and digitalization, the world of work is undergoing comprehensive change. These trends are challenging management accounting (MA) and pressuring individuals and organizations to change. The literature postulates a replacement of traditional organizational careers by “new” career models characterized by dynamism and flexibility. However, the state of the art on careers in MA lacks empirical evidence and has disparate research interests.

In this study, the authors investigate the status quo of careers in MA, key influencing factors and assumed change in such careers. To do so, the authors conducted a quantitative empirical study, based primarily on the careers of 83 graduates of a department offering a MA major at a German-speaking university. Nine qualitative empirical interviews supplement the quantitative findings.

The authors’ findings indicate that while MA careers are changing, the characteristics of the profession are continuing to concur with the traditional organizational understanding of careers. Accumulated professional experience is the key factor to achieving a management position although management accountants tend to become more dynamic in terms of career paths and career understanding. Thus, employment in various functional areas opens new career paths in MA.

The methodology of analysing quantitative and empirical cross-sectional data and the resulting final sample size is too small to guarantee robust statistical inference. Moreover, further interviews would lead to greater data saturation.

The study sheds light on the under-researched question of how careers in MA proceed and develop. This could be of interest for practitioners working with management accountants such as personnel consultants.

This study contributes to the field through its comprehensive consideration of careers in MA in this changed context, thus providing new insights for academia and business practice.