PREDICTORS OF CAREER SUCCESS

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PREDICTORS OF CAREER SUCCESS GENDERA
PRELIMINARY CONCEPT PAPERByRachel
SamuelSupervisors Intan Osman Mahfooz A
AnsariUniversiti Sains MalaysiaWk 6.1
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• BACKGROUND
• Women make up an increasing proportion of full
  time workforce and of managers around the world
  (Wirth, 2001) yet they are under-represented in
  management in most countries and in senior
  management everywhere (Davidson Burke, 2004).
• Top management and senior management positions
  related to being successful in career.
• Does this mean that women have not been as
  successful as men in terms of career?

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Distribution of Female Employment by Occupation,
2004 in Malaysia ()

• Legislators, senior officials managers 5.9
  Professionals 6.7Technicians associate
  professionals13.0Clerical workers17.5Service
  workers, shop and market sales workers18.4Skilled
  agricultural fishery workers10.0Craft and
  related trade workers5.2Plant machine
  operators and assemblers11.4 Elementary
  Workers12.0

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DEFINITION

• Career success can be divided into 2
• Extrinsic (Objective) Intrinsic (Subjective)
• Salary Satisfaction
• Promotion Life success
• (Gattiker Larwood, 1988
• (Judge et al, 1995) Boudreau et al, 2001)

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• career success in two distinctive ways first,
  the external, extrinsic or objective perspective.
  Here, visible metrics or tangible indicators are
  used, for example, salary, promotions or status.
  These measures have been considered as the
  hallmarks of career success across a wide range
  of societies (Nicholson, 2000). In addition,
  proximity to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
  and employability are also included as extrinsic
  aspects. CEO proximity reflects power, authority
  and responsibility in the current organization.
  Employability is an increasing indicator of
  success as multiple-employer and
  multiple-profession careers become more common
  (Boudreau et al., 2001).

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• The second measure is subjective, intrinsic or
  internal and this would depend on what
  individuals perceive the criteria of success to
  be using personal definitions of success or
  failure, across any dimensions that are important
  to that individual (Van Maanen, 1977 Gattiker
  Larwood, 1989 Miguel, 1993). Intrinsic success
  is made up of job success, interpersonal success
  and hierarchical success. Job success means the
  extent to which individuals perceive that their
  jobs offer opportunities for achievement,
  satisfaction, learning and development.
  Interpersonal success is the degree to which
  individuals perceive they are respected and
  accepted by their work colleagues. Hierarchical
  success is the extent to which individuals are
  satisfied with their up-to-date hierarchical
  advancement and their prospects for future
  advancement.

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• Subjective career success is also measured by
  career satisfaction (Burke, 2001 Ng et al, 2005)
  and life satisfaction. Adding life satisfaction
  to the measures of career success acknowledges
  the importance of work-life and family balance
  (Boudreau et al., 2001). A dual
  operationalization of career success is necessary
  because the two do not always overlap (Poole,
  Langan-Fox Omodei, 1993 Bozionelos, 2003).

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• The analysis of researches on career success
  since 1980 show that the objective criteria/
  measure have dominated most research (Burke
  Vinnicombe, 2005Arthur Rousseau, 1996 Ng et
  al, 2005 Eddleston et al, 2004 Ismail, Mohd
  Rasdi Abdul Wahat, 2005 Kottke Agars, 2005).
  The subjective criteria, though not commonly
  used, has been increasingly adopted over the last
  decade (Nabi, 2001 Greenhaus, 2003 Hall, 2002
  Ng et al., 2005).

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• The deficiency of using objective success
  criteria has been recognized for a long time
  (Hilton Dill, 1962). However, many studies
  continue to use this measure as the sole criteria
  of career success (Chenevert Tremblay, 2002
  Judiesh Lyness, 1999 Lyness Thompson, 2000).
  Likewise, subjective measures of career success
  also have its limitation. Subjective measures
  should include reactions to actual and
  anticipated career-related attainments across a
  broader time frame than ones immediate job
  satisfaction (Greenhaus, Callanan Godshalk,
  2000) as well as wider range of outcomes, such as
  a sense of identity (Law, Meijers Weijers,
  2002), purpose (Cochran, 1990) and work-life
  balance (Friedman Greenhaus, 2000). Job
  satisfaction may contribute to subjective career
  success but it could be distinct and not
  necessarily related. Hence, future research
  should avoid adopting job satisfaction alone as
  proxy for subjective career success (Heslin,
  2005).

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• AN ERA OF CHANGE?
• For career success to be measured using objective
  measures, one has to advance hierarchically
  within a single organization over the course of
  their career (Eby et al., 2003). However,
  linear, secure and predictable careers have been
  replaced by dynamic, flexible and
  multidirectional career paths (Baruch, 2006).
  Since late 1990s, career no longer follow a
  linear path but are boundaryless, protean and
  portable in nature (Sullivan, 1999 Goffee
  Jones, 2000). In a linear career path,
  managerial success is normally looked at using
  tangible outcomes and the milestones are
  compensation, promotions offered and managerial
  level. In a boundaryless career, however,
  success is marked by career impatience (the need
  to move to something better), marketability,
  willingness to relocate, mentoring efficacy and
  exposure to powerful networks (Arthur, Inkson
  Pringle, 1999 Eby et al., 2003).

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• The individual factors of success which are
  discussed within the boundaryless career
  literature are career competencies (knowing why,
  knowing how and knowing whom), locus of career
  development responsibility and the boundary
  between work and personal life (which is
  considered as part of intrinsic success) (Arthur
  Rousseau, 1996 Cappellen Janssens, 2005).
  As organizations begin to downsize and delayer,
  hierarchical success is difficult to achieve. If
  career is boundaryless, then success is related
  to accomplishments, expertise and personal
  achievement (Wellington, Kropf Gerkovich,
  2003).

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• Linked to boundaryless career is the concept of
  protean career which is internally-oriented,
  flexible, and mobile and may involve both
  horizontal and vertical growth in the pursuit of
  goals defined by individual workers (Hall, 1999
  Sullivan, 1995). Protean model assumes that
  careers continue to develop throughout life as
  skills and knowledge is continuously sought in
  accordance with individual goals (MacDermid
  Lee, 2001). This model allows workers with
  various personal or family needs or different
  definitions of success to adjust the pace of
  their career development while continuing to make
  valuable contributions to the organization. The
  increasing diversity of the workforce will
  continue to increase the pressure on
  organizations to create niches whereby all
  workers, not just those following the traditional
  external career, can be successful (MacDermid
  Lee, 2001).

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• Role of Gender
• Research on career success and gender has long
  been examined (Powell Mainiero, 1992 Lyness
  Thompson, 2000). When objective criteria is used
  to measure career success, women fall short.
  Though with equal employment policies women are
  given more opportunities to advance, a wide wage
  gap remains between men and women.

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• Women however report equal levels of subjective
  success to men (Kirchmeyer, 1998 Bradley, Brown
  Dower, 2003). Understanding of womens careers
  require the acknowledgement that women have
  fundamentally different experiences and women
  find themselves in different situations when
  developing their career compared to men (Mavin,
  2001). Pay and position do not appear to define
  how women managers and older managers define
  success for themselves (Sturges, 1999). Women
  were more likely than men to describe success
  with reference to internal intangible criteria
  especially accomplishment, achievement, and in
  particular personal recognition. Women have
  transcended material career success and their
  definition of success is broader. Career success
  is just one part of the success they wish to
  achieve in other parts of their lives as a whole.
  That is why balance is important for women.

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• For men, it is essentially career success when
  they talk about success (Wellington et al,
  2003). Despite poorer income progression and
  lower returns from promotion, women may perceive
  careers to be as successful as males. In fact,
  once the effects of the career determinants were
  considered simultaneously, womens perception of
  success is higher than men (Jackson, 1989).

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• How do women fit into these changes in the career
  and working world? Women now prefer a
  kaleidoscope model of career that fits their
  concerns for authenticity, balance and challenge,
  vis-à-vis the demands of their career in the new
  millennium (Mainiero Sullivan, 2005). They
  prefer self-crafted careers that suit their
  objectives, needs and life-criteria, where they
  can blend and integrate rather than separate the
  work and non-work facets of their lives. Todays
  managerial and professional women do not have a
  typical male-type linear career. She is prepared
  to settle for a satisfying career than one that
  maximises her capacity to reach the top (Mainiero
  Sullivan, 2005). Hence, research should focus
  on finding the most valid predictors of job
  performance or success regardless of the job
  (Canger, 2003).

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• Womens career might not follow the same trend as
  mens where in the middle and later career years,
  men experience stability, maintenance and
  decline. Women, on the other hand, might find
  renewed sense of purpose, energy and increased
  vitality for work pursuits in middle adulthood
  (ONeil Bilimoria, 2005). Between the ages of
  24 and 35 years, women experience positive
  management. The trend in career is positive in
  this stage. In the second stage, between the
  ages of 36 and 45 years, women are between middle
  and upper levels of management in many
  organizations. If their needs are not met at
  this stage, they can quit and this will result in
  continued under-representation of women in senior
  organizational levels. For women in management
  positions, the burdens placed upon them during
  this stage are enormous, and it often happens at
  a time in their lives when they are trying to
  juggle the requirements of young families, ageing
  parents and developing their own careers (Cross
  Linehan, 2006). The career trend is negative in
  this stage. The third stage, between ages 46 and
  60, the career trend is positive again. Success
  for these women is about recognition, respect and
  living integrated lives (Wellington et al, 2003).

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• The relationship between mentoring, networking
  and career success has been noted in literature
  on career success (OReilly, 2001 Higgins and
  Kram, 2001). Would these variables still be
  critical when determining success in the
  boundaryless career? In the pursuit of
  boundaryless career success within the
  organizational setting, individuals still need
  the factors of information, support and
  relationship ties. In fact, extra-organizational
  support which is one of the outcomes of
  boundaryless career is drawn from the
  individuals peer group within the same
  occupational or industrial setting (Arthur
  Parker, 2002). Hence, these variables are also
  related to boundaryless career success measures.

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• In the boundaryless career, too, some personality
  factors are pertinent to strive for goals in the
  individuals lives. Self-confidence
  (self-efficacy) which is important for advancing
  careers in organizations could be an equally
  important factor for success in the boundaryless
  career (Hollenbeck Hall, 2004 Hall, 2002). To
  chart your own direction and to pursue goals
  which are important to an individual,
  self-confidence is a very effective tool.

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THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

• Contest-mobility perspective
• Sponsored-mobility perspective (Turner, 1960)
• PREDICTORS THAT HAVE BEEN FREQUENTLY USED
• Human capital (Wayne, 1999 Kirchmeyer, 2002)
• Organizational sponsorship (Dreher Ash, 1990)
• Socio-demographic predictors (gender, race,
  marital status age) (Powell Butterfield,
  2003 Simpson et al, 2004)
• Stable individual differences (Seibert et al,
  2001 Eby et al, 2003)

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ISSUES TO BE LOOKED AT

• Salary, promotion career satisfaction represent
  conceptually distinct aspects of career success
  (Judge et al, 1995 Poole et al, 1993 Jaskolka
  et al, 1985)need to isolate key variables that
  predict a particular aspect of career success.
• In sponsored-mobility perspective, need to look
  at person-organization fit.

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Continued

• Boundaryless careerto examine the presence of
  strong external networks (Eby et al, 2003 Arthur
  Rousseau, 1996)
• Specific conditions where men and women may have
  advantage over one another (Ragins et al, 1998
  Ng et al, 2005)