A comparison of the work needs,attitudes, and preferences of professional accountants at different career stages

Although the concept of career stages has played an increasingly important role in vocational psychology, little research exists on career stage differences among professionals. In the present study, a sample of male professional accountants (N = 764) at different career stages were compared with respect to their work needs, work attitudes (intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction, organizational and professional commitment), and vocational preferences. Accountants at different stages were found to differ significantly in their needs, work attitudes, and the extent to which they fit the Conventional type in Holland's model. In particular, accountants over the age of 60, in the preretirement stage of their career, when compared to their younger counterparts, reported significantly lower levels of job satisfaction but higher levels of organizational and professional commitment, and they demonstrate weaker higher-order needs but stronger security needs.     

Changing correlates of job involvement in three career stages

The nature of correlates of job involvement over three career stages (i.e., early, mid, and late career) was explored in order to account for the lack of consistency of past empirical work in the job involvement area. Data relating to perceptions of job involvement, job characteristics, job satisfaction, rewards, and individual differences were collected from 332 Canadian transportation ministry employees. Utilizing correlational analysis, support was found for the hypothesis that career stage moderated the relationship of job involvement and various situational, individual difference, and outcome measures. These results are discussed in light of the current literature.     

Career Stages in Australian Professional Women: A Test of Super's Model

This study empirically tested Super's career stage theory by examining whether differences in Australian professional women's attitudes toward work vary across the career life cycle. A number of career stage research criticisms relating to sample type, recycling issues, and career stage measurement were addressed. Hypotheses were tested via trend analyses providing support for the theoretical propositions in Super's career stage model. Results show that satisfaction with pay and job involvement were lowest in the exploration stage, women in the establishment stage were significantly more satisfied with pay and less willing to relocate for promotion compared to women in the exploration stage, while women in the maintenance stage were more committed to their profession and more involved in their careers than women in establishment and exploration stages. The research findings suggest that Super's career stage model is a useful framework for understanding women's career development.     

The relationship between external job mobility and salary attainment across career stages

The current study examines the relationship between external job mobility and salary for employees in different career stages. Based on career stage and career timetable theories, we predict that external job mobility would generate the greatest salary benefits for early-career employees whereas external job mobility would generate fewer salary benefits for employees in mid- and late career stages. Data collected from multiple industries in Hong Kong and the United States consistently show that, as expected, highly mobile early-career employees earn significantly greater salaries than their less mobile peers do. The positive effects of external job mobility on salary were stronger for early-career workers than for mid-and late-career workers.     

Pressures from work,self, and home in the life stages of married women

Following Lopata's (1966) model of the life cycle of the married woman's role, it was predicted and found that a woman's life stage would be related to her role pressures (work, home, self, and time), conflict, and satisfaction. Age and number of roles were not as strongly related to these variables as was life stage. Work activities and pressures declined through the peak child-rearing stage and then increased for women with older children, while pressures from home generally rose throughout the life cycle. The differential impact of various sources of conflict in different life stages was reported, and forms of organizational career support oriented toward particular life stages were suggested.     

Gender and Preferences for Job Attributes: A Cross Cultural Comparison

This study examined attitudes toward work and worker compensation among American (n = 201) and Australian (n = 177) business students. Although country-related differences were found, the data did not support the presumption that men and women differ in preferences for job attributes or work-related attitudes that might influence career progression. Expectations for salary were not related to gender or to work experience. In contrast to a self-selection theory of attitude and occupational choice, similarities between men and women were apparent before career entry and not related to prior employment. Observed differences in work attitudes between countries appeared to reflect the greater emphasis placed on achievement through work by Americans.     

The Influence of Career Stage on Job Attitudes: Toward a Contingency Perspective

Building on career stage theory and contingency theory, the exploratory study considers the influence of career stage on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Findings show that salespeople in exploration report higher satisfaction and lower turnover intentions when paid a fixed salary, whereas salespeople in establishment report higher satisfaction and lower turnover intentions when given incentives. Further, during the establishment stage, salespeople employed by firms pursuing a prospector or analyzer strategy indicate higher satisfaction and lower turnover intentions than those employed by defender firms. Suggestions are provided concerning how to effectively manage salespeople as they progress through the various career stages.     

Beyond job satisfaction: A five-year prospective analysis of the dispositional approach to work attitudes

Mounting evidence indicates a dispositional component to global job satisfaction. Unfortunately, however, relatively little attention has been given to the potential effects of dispositions on work-related attitudes other than global job satisfaction. We used a five-year prospective design to investigate the relationships of affective disposition with a set of attitudes oriented toward different aspects of work: the job, the organization, and the career. Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement, career commitment and career satisfaction each showed significant stability over five years. Cross-lagged panel analyses suggested that affective disposition plays an important role in the change of job attitudes across time. Analyses also support the hypothesis that affective disposition would be more weakly related to job involvement than to the other attitudes.     

职业生涯高原对员工工作满意度、组织承诺、离职意愿的影响

职业生涯高原是指个体在当前组织中职业生涯发展的停滞。在控制人口统计学变量以及同一方法偏差的基础上,研究发现职业生涯高原的不同维度对不同组织效果变量有不同影响。（1）层级高原对员工工作满意度和组织承诺并没有显著负向影响,但会增加员工离职的可能性。不过,层级高原对员工离职意愿的影响受到工龄的调节;（2）内容高原对员工的工作满意度、组织承诺均具有显著负向影响,并增加员工离开组织的可能性;（3）中心化高原对员工的工作满意度、组织承诺均具负向影响,但对员工离职意愿却没有显著影响     

The relationship between short-term mentoring benefits and long-term mentor outcomes

Little is known about the short- and long-term benefits mentors gain from their mentoring relationships. This study examined the extent to which short-term proximal benefits reported by mentors (improved job performance, recognition by others, rewarding experience, and loyal base of support) predicted the long-term distal outcomes of mentor career success, work attitudes and behavioral intentions to mentor in the future. Mentors’ reports of short-term mentoring benefits significantly predicted their work attitudes and their intentions to mentor again in the future, but were unrelated to their career success. Upon closer inspection, short-term instrumental mentor benefits (improved job performance, recognition by others) were more important in predicting mentor work attitudes, whereas short-term relational mentor benefits (rewarding experience, loyal base of support) were more important in predicting intentions to mentor in the future. Implications for mentoring theory, future research, and practice are discussed.     

Managerial career stage and facets of job satisfaction

The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between a three-stage model of careers (establishment, advancement, and maintenance) and facets of managers' job satisfaction. Four hundred eighty-three managers responded to a questionnaire regarding the length of time they had been in their occupation and their satisfaction with various aspects of work. The results indicated that career stage moderated managers' satisfaction with all facets of work. Specifically, managers in the establishment stage were significantly more satisfied than those in the advancement and maintenance stages with five of the six facets studied. Further analyses indicated that the first year in the occupation accounted for the differences in satisfaction obtained in the three-stage model. The results are discussed in terms of the implications for the study of managerial careers and the need for consistency in the operational definition of career stages.     

组织承诺与职务投入对技术人员行为的影响

文章讨论了不同职业发展阶段条件下组织承诺和职务投入分别对工程技术人员工作绩效和离职倾向的预测效应.针对Werbel(1984)提出的只有职业发展后期组织承诺才能有效预测离职以及Keller(1997)提出的职务投入对工程师绩效不具有预测力,论文提出了不同观点.通过问卷法对210位工程技术人员进行测量发现,无论离职倾向还是工作绩效,随着职业发展,其预测变量呈现组织承诺-职务投入-组织承诺交替出现的特征.文章对交替过程中的职业发展阶段划分及不同阶段的任务特征作了进一步探讨.     

Organizational factors and work involvement

The aim of this paper is to describe a study which investigated the influence of organizational factors on job involvement and specialization involvement. It was hypothesized that rank, self-expression, participation in decision making, and career factors affect job and specialization involvement. The independent variables were chosen by considering an extension of Schein's (1971, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 7, 401–426) “career cone” concept. The hypotheses were tested using a sample of Australian Army officers (N = 384) in a questionnaire survey. The results showed that job involvement is associated primarily with self-expression, although the latter is influenced in turn by participation in decision making, and that specialization involvement is associated with both self-expression and career factors. Rank does not affect either involvement variable. It was concluded that Schein's concept is a useful guide to theory and research on career attitudes. The results support the proposition that job and specialization involvement are distinct constructs. Implications for organizations are discussed.     

Mentoring and transformational leadership: The role of supervisory career mentoring

Leaders may need to serve as mentors to activate transformational leadership and promote positive work attitudes and career expectations of followers. To test this premise, incremental effects of transformational leadership and mentoring over each other were examined using N=275 employed MBAs. Respondents with supervisory mentors reported receiving higher levels of career mentoring than respondents with non-supervisory mentors. Supervisory career mentoring (SCM) and transformational leadership had incremental effects over each other for job satisfaction. SCM had mediating effects over transformational leadership for organizational commitment and career expectations. Career mentoring by non-supervisory mentors was not associated with career expectations but there were incremental effects with idealized influence and inspirational motivation for job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Implications for the changing role of mentorship in organizations are discussed.     

The use of expectancy theory in the explanation of turnover in ROTC

A questionnaire was administered to 142 mate students who were enrolled in ROTC and 18 male students who had dropped out of ROTC. Several months later seven of the above 142 subjects dropped out of ROTC. A ratio expectancy theory model was developed from the questionnaire as an operational definition of motivation to remain in ROTC. The results indicated that the 25 dropouts had a significantly lower (p < .001) score on this motivational measure than the 135 subjects who were still enrolled in ROTC, and also that these latter subjects were as strongly attracted to a civilian job as they were to an Army job. The implications of these findings relative to the ability of the Army to attract career officers were discussed.     

The influence of chance and contingency factors on the vocational choice process of nonprofessional workers

The present study investigated the perceived influence of chance and contingency factors on the career choices of nonprofessional workers. The sample was composed of 447 female workers and 470 male workers. As part of a larger study the workers listed the factors that had influenced their choice of their first job, their present job, and their most satisfying job. They were also asked to consider their entire work history and note events, people, or personal inclinations which influenced their vocational decisions. The workers then rated each of 27 chance or contingency factors concerning the extent of influence (great, some, none) on their career choices. The results are examined and discussed relative to the perceived importance of chance and contingency factors on the career choices of nonprofessional workers. The implications of the results for vocational theory and career counseling are considered.     

Career stage as a moderator of performance relationships with facets of job satisfaction and role perceptions

The relationship between performance indices and facets of job satisfaction, role ambiguity, and role conflict was studied among 102 full-time faculty members across three career stages. Results indicate that an individual's career stage within a profession has an important moderating effect on facets of job satisfaction and role perception relationships with role-related performance.     

Antecedents and outcomes of organizational support for development: the critical role of career opportunities

This study examines antecedents and behavioral outcomes of employees' perceptions of organizational support for development. We first propose that employees' past participation in formal developmental activities and experience with developmental relationships positively relate to their perceptions of organizational support for development. We then propose that perceived career opportunity within the organization moderates the relationship between organizational support for development and employee performance and turnover. Using a sample of 264 exempt-level employees and their supervisors, we found that participation in training classes, leader-member exchange, and career mentoring were each positively related to employees' perceptions of organizational support for development. We also found support for the moderator hypotheses. Specifically, development support positively related to job performance, but only when perceived career opportunity within the organization was high. Further, development support was associated with reduced voluntary turnover when perceived career opportunity was high, but it was associated with increased turnover when perceived career opportunity was low. Our study demonstrates that social exchange and career motivation theory work together to explain when and how employees' perceptions of organizational support for development relate to turnover and job performance.     

Secondary school curriculum and career behavior in young adults

As part of a larger longitudinal study of the effects of secondary school characteristics on career behavior in young adulthood, this paper presents findings obtained from 1007 males and females who graduated from high school in academic or vocational curricula 6 or 8 years ago. Criterion behavior included the completion of career development tasks in the exploration and establishment life stages as measured by the Adult Form of the Career Development Inventory, certainty about immediate occupational plans, and satisfaction with occupational goals and progress toward meeting them. Significant differences were found in the pattern of career development by curriculum but not by sex, in certainty by curriculum and sex, and in satisfaction by neither curriculum nor sex. The implications for a stage theory of career development are discussed.     

组织职业生涯管理与员工心理与行为的关系

通过广泛的开放式问卷调查和访谈,结合国外职业生涯管理的做法,编制了适合我国国情的组织职业生涯管理问卷(简称OCMQ),将问卷在13个国有企业、民营企业、股份制企业的管理者、技术人员中进行了调查,对所获得的449份有效问卷探索性因素分析结果表明：我国组织职业生涯管理的结构主要体现在四个维度：即晋升公平、注重培训、职业自我认识、提供职业信息。后来,利用研制的OCMQ,以及相关问卷职业承诺、组织承诺、工作卷入度、职业满意度、工作绩效等又在11家国有和中外合资企业中进行了调查,399份有效问卷结果进一步验证了OCMQ问卷的结构效度、实证效度和信度;并发现组织职业生涯管理对企业员工的职业承诺、组织承诺、工作绩效、职业满意度、工作卷入度等产生积极的影响,证实了职业生涯管理的价值。