Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between career ambition – defined as high achievement motivation and strong career orientation – and both extrinsic (salary, position) and intrinsic success (job satisfaction, goal attainment) of psychologists. Over and above this, the authors explore whether extrinsic success predicts intrinsic success or vice versa.

In order to analyze the impact of career ambition on extrinsic and intrinsic success, the authors conducted two online studies with psychology graduates – a cross-sectional study (Study 1; n=119) and a longitudinal one (Study 2; n=63; two-three years interval between assessment points). The authors applied regression and cross-lagged analyses to investigate the interplay of career ambition and career success.

The results show that career ambition impacts on both extrinsic and intrinsic success. More specifically, extrinsic success was positively predicted by career orientation in Study 1. In contrast, achievement motivation was negatively related to intrinsic success (Study 1) and even diminished it over time (Study 2). Findings of the cross-lagged analysis further underlined that intrinsic success predicts extrinsic success.

The study contributes by separately investigating two aspects of career ambition and showing their different effects on career success in the specific profession of psychologists. As cross-lagged findings revealed that psychologists’ intrinsic success predicted their extrinsic success and not vice versa, the authors discuss whether psychologists might be worsening their career development in the long run by showing high achievement motivation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of success of elite athletes by applying the concept of career success to a sporting context. The concept of career success includes extrinsic (i.e. tangible) career accomplishments like medals as well as intrinsic factors referring to subjective judgements about career attainments. Thereby, a holistic perspective is taken which has not been studied extensively before.

Based on previous literature, a theoretical model was derived outlining how human capital, motivation, organisational characteristics and socio-demographics affect both intrinsic and extrinsic career success. To measure the impact of these factors, primary (n=1,249) and secondary data of elite athletes were collected. Regression analyses indicated that all factors included in the theoretical model were associated with extrinsic and intrinsic success.

Institutional support was an important driver for intrinsic career success while financial support affected extrinsic career success. There was no significant influence of extrinsic career success on intrinsic career success.

These findings imply that policy makers should offer enhanced dual career options, such as mentoring programmes, aspects like sport-psychological support and nutrition counselling, and long-term, stable financial support for athletes to maximise career success.

This paper applies the construct of career success to sports. A focus on the athletes’ intrinsic career success is placed as this area has been neglected in past research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether individuals seeking feedback from either a supervisor or co-worker relate to intrinsic and extrinsic career success.

Survey data were collected from 168 employees in three different organizations in the southeastern United States. Moderated multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses.

Results support interactions of feedback seeking and feedback source (both supervisor and co-worker) to predict extrinsic career success. There was no support for the proposed interaction of feedback seeking and feedback source to predict intrinsic career success.

The results support the need for organizations to focus on developing feedback environments that encourage feedback-seeking behaviors. Individuals that desire more feedback and take initiative within their careers by seeking feedback may have positive outcomes related to extrinsic career success.

The study is one of the few studies to evaluate feedback-seeking behaviors in relation to individual outcomes such as career success. The findings support proactive behaviors in relation to extrinsic career success and continue the call for more research related to proactive behaviors in the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the competencies motivation, integrity and social skills on both intrinsic and extrinsic career success.

In total, 1,112 individuals aged 45 or above registered at a job agency specialized in older employees in the Netherlands filled out a survey. The results were analyzed using multiple regression.

The three competencies had a positive relationship with intrinsic career success (job satisfaction). Motivation and social skills were also positively related to extrinsic career success, while integrity was unrelated.

The influence of competencies on career success of older workers has received only little attention from researchers.

The study investigated the relationship of career instrumental and expressive intra‐organizational network resources with extrinsic and intrinsic career success and with the Big‐Five of personality in a sample of 264 white‐collar workers. Total network resources were associated with extrinsic and intrinsic career success above the contribution of human capital, demographics and mentoring received. And instrumental network resources contributed more strongly than expressive network resources to extrinsic career success. Furthermore, instrumental network resources emerged as important for intrinsic evaluations of hierarchical and interpersonal career success while expressive network resources emerged as important for intrinsic evaluations of job and interpersonal career success. There was limited support for the influence of personality on the accumulation of network resources. As hypothesized, conscientiousness was negatively associated with instrumental network resources; however, extra‐version, openness and agreeableness failed to make significant contributions to network resources over and above the contribution of human capital and demographics. The implications of the findings for individual career tactics and for organizational practices are discussed and the limitations of the study are considered along with directions for future research.

The conceptual framework developed in the present study aims to highlight the importance of human resource (HR) practices as a mediator between national culture and employees' careers.

The approach taken is a literature review and the development of a conceptual model.

The paper contributes to the literature by focusing on how culture via HR practices might influence career success. Drawing on Hofstede's cultural dimensions, five propositions are developed regarding the impact of culture on career‐relevant HR practices, and how these practices are likely to influence employee career success.

Culture's effect should not be overstated. Looking at the propositions, it is possible that the influence of HR practices on career success is more pronounced than the direct effects of culture on career success. Future work is needed to measure and compare the relative strength of different associations as well as the possibility that other HR dimensions relevant to the study of career success may exist.

At a general level, there is ample evidence of the impact of culture on the effectiveness of a variety of individual outcomes. The paper focused on the mediating role of HR practices as opposed to advancing hypotheses about direct relationships between culture and career success.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a subjective multidimensional measure of early career success during university-to-work transition.

The construct of university-to-work success (UWS) was defined in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic career outcomes, and a three-stage study was conducted to create a new scale.

A preliminary set of items was developed and tested by judges. Results showed the items had good content validity. Factor analyses indicated a four-factor structure and a second-order model with subscales to assess: career insertion and satisfaction, confidence in career future, income and financial independence, and adaptation to work. Third, the authors sought to confirm the hypothesized model examining the comparative fit of the scale and two alternative models. Results showed that fits for both the first- and second-order models were acceptable.

The proposed model has sound psychometric qualities, although the validated version of the scale was not able to incorporate all constructs envisaged by the initial theoretical model. Results indicated some direction for further refinement.

The scale could be used as a tool for self-assessment or as an outcome measure to assess the efficacy of university-to-work programs in applied settings.

This study provides a useful single measure to assess early career success during the university-to-work transition, and might facilitate testing of causal models which could help identify factors relevant for successful transition.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a career success model for academics at the Malaysian research universities.

Self-administered and online surveys were used for data collection among 325 academics from Malaysian research universities.

Based on the analysis of structural equation modeling, the proposed model explained 48 per cent of the variance of academics’ career success. Specifically, the result shows that there are positive significant effects between organizational support, extraversion personality, person-job fit and academics’ career success. A full mediation effect of proactive behavior was established on the relationship between organizational support and career success. Overall, the results confirmed that the proposed model succinctly explains career success among academics in Malaysian research universities.

The authors present a career success model for academics at Malaysian research universities. The study represents an important extension of previous research of which it tested the applicability of the career success theories and identified the key factors related to career success of academics based on the context of Malaysian research universities. Most current career success studies were conducted in the context of the Western culture or developed countries; therefore, the results based on the Malaysian sample provide strong evidence of cross-cultural comparability of the career success construct and model.

The findings provide implications to both individuals and human resource development practitioners on career success among academics. Practical interventions are suggested to assist individuals and organizations toward achieving career success. This study sheds some light on the effective management of the academics.

The authors propose a model of academics’ career success based on the context of Malaysian research universities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of intra‐organizational network resources with career success and organizational commitment.

The study utilized survey data from 316 British individuals who composed a highly heterogeneous sample in terms of both organizational roles and employment settings.

The study finds that total intra‐organizational network resources were related to extrinsic and intrinsic career success, and to affective organizational commitment. Instrumental and expressive network resources were differentially related to career success and organizational commitment.

The relationships were identified after controlling for an array of factors and for mentoring received, which attests to the importance of intra‐organizational network resources for career outcomes and attitudes towards the organization. The cross‐sectional design is a limitation of the study. Future research should investigate moderating factors, and must be extended to cultural clusters other from the Anglo‐Saxon one.

From an individual point of view, building networks of relationships within the organization enhances career prospects, regardless of whether a mentor is present. From an organizational viewpoint, organizational designs and human resource systems that promote the development of informal relationship ties foster those aspects of commitment that have positive consequences and inhibit those that have negative consequences.

The study provided original evidence for the link between intra‐organizational relationship ties and commitment towards the organization. In addition, it consolidated evidence on the relationship of network resources to career success, the distinct nature of instrumental and expressive network resources, and the additive value of network resources and mentoring as parts of social capital.

Graduate underemployment continues to be a serious and growing problem in the UK. Yet, there is a scarcity of research that has attempted to identify the nature, extent and specificity of the problem. This study examines the opportunity for skill use (skill requirements of the job, personal skill levels, congruence between these two measures) and intrinsic (job, career, life satisfaction) and extrinsic career success (salary, promotion) amongst underemployed graduates. Appropriately employed graduates (those who were in jobs for which they required their degree) were used as a comparison group. Questionnaire data were collected from 203 business graduates in the UK. The key findings suggested that underemployed graduates reported significantly lower levels of opportunity for skill use and intrinsic (job, career, life satisfaction) and extrinsic career success (salary). The implications of these findings and avenues for further research are discussed.