Career anchors of managers with global careers

Evaluation of the impact of occupational anchoring and organizational commitment to improving efficiency

"Background and Aim: One of the most effective ways to improve efficiency in organizations is human resources management. Job Anchors and Organizational Commitment are constructs having important implications for human resources management practices, especially in efficiency. The purpose of this perusal was to study a structural equation model (SEM) of the impact of job anchors and organizational commitment on efficiency in a military hospital. Methods: The statistical population of this study was the personnel of a military hospital, which gathered accomplishing simple random sampling method. As a result, the research used two hundred and thirty questionnaires so to analyse, accomplishing as survey was developmental-applied, that was, requirement data with questionnaires. To measure efficiency, organizational commitment and job anchors variables respectively the Persian version of Hersey & Goldsmith, Meyer & Allen, and Schein questionnaires standard were used. In order to test the research conceptual model, structural equations modelling based on partial least squares method was used, and the model was analysed using AMOS statistical software. Results: The results of data analysis demonstrated that hidden variables such as organizational commitment, job anchors, and efficiency had acceptable convergent validity, and the fitness of the conceptual model was confirmed. Based on the research model analysis, organizational commitment did not have impact on efficiency, and job anchors had a positive and significant impact on efficiency. Eventually, the modified model showed that organizational commitment variable moderates the connection between job anchors and efficiency. Conclusion: In light of the findings of this research, managers of military organizations should develop programs to create and improve organizational commitment in personnel. Furthermore, they should pay attention to employees' characteristics and the proportion of their occupation with job anchors in cases of changing and promoting employees. Implementing aforementioned items will have a positive impact on improving the efficiency of military organizations. "

Local worker perspectives from Nicaraguan surf tourism: revisiting career anchors in non-standard work contexts

Purpose

This qualitative study explores, through the lens of Schein's (1978) career anchor theory, the internal career perceptions (self-perceived values, challenges and capabilities) of local surf workers in the highly internationalized sector of surf tourism in Nicaragua.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 22 local surf tourism workers. Participant experiences were analyzed using thematic analysis to distinguish their career anchor orientations.

Findings

The results indicate the sustained value and instrumentality of Schein's original career anchor theory, specifically in terms of the interconnectedness of dominant and supporting anchors and the relevance of anchor groupings for workers in non-standard working environments. The anchors of lifestyle, entrepreneurial creativity, and security and stability were closely interrelated and complementary, as participants from this context were ultimately striving for security and stability.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should consider more explicitly the role of the socio-political, environmental or economic context in shaping the internal career self-concepts and experiences of workers.

Practical implications

This study sheds light on the internal career drivers — the unique dilemmas, challenges, passions and motives — of local workers in a resource-constrained environment. Managers, business owners and other economic actors stand to gain important insights into the realities of workers they employ, but do not intimately understand. Such insights could be generalizable to a variety of work settings in which there are high material, social or cultural constraints.

Social implications

Non-standard work contexts and local worker voices are both thematically underrepresented in the careers scholarship. Research on these topics can contribute to broader discussions of sustainability, sustainable development goals and decolonial perspectives in social science scholarship. Bringing local workers from the Global South into view means turning scholarly attention towards less-visible “others” working alongside those having received the lion's share of academic discussion, i.e. expatriate workers on a global assignment or self-initiated expatriates, most often from the Global North.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to explore the career anchors of local workers in the Global South in a non-standard, non-bureaucratic vocational setting. The study sheds light on local workers' career decisions, an often-neglected perspective within international human resource management.

Two decades of research into SIEs and what do we know? A systematic review of the most influential literature and a proposed research agenda

Purpose

This paper aims: to undertake a systematic literature review on SIEs, examining twenty years of literature published between 2000 and 2020, focusing on the most-cited empirical work in the field; to analyse the topics covered by these studies; and to propose a research agenda.

Design/methodology/approach

We conducted a systematic literature review, identifying the 20 most-cited empirical articles through citation analysis during the period and, because citations accrue over time, the six most-cited empirical articles of the last three years. We then used content analysis to examine the main themes they address and identify the research gaps.

Findings

The most common themes addressed in the SIE literature are: analysis of the types and distinctions of SIEs, motivation to undertake self-initiated expatriation, SIEs' adjustment to the new country, and SIEs' careers and outcomes.

Originality/value

This paper provides a first opportunity to look back at 20 years of research into a relatively new topic, highlighting the main research themes and knowledge gaps, and setting directions for future research. The paper expands knowledge on SIEs, assisting SIE scholars and IHRM practitioners to develop a global, critical understanding of SIEs' issues, and hopefully energising future research in this field.

Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Career Values Questionnaire: A Measure Integrating Work Values, Career Orientations, and Career Anchors

Work values, career orientations, and career anchors are conceptually and empirically linked, and the aim of this article was to develop a new questionnaire that assesses their underlying common dimensions from a set of newly generated items. A first study, using a sample of Swiss French–speaking employees ( N = 239) and exploratory factor analysis techniques, enabled the identification of eight career values: social, management, specialization, mobility, independence, salary, work–life balance, and variety. In a second study with another sample of Swiss French–speaking employees ( N = 313), we confirmed this eight-factor structure and showed that these dimensions are reliable and stable over time. The measured career values were also meaningfully related to different work meanings and to job and career satisfaction. This newly created questionnaire enables an integrative assessment of career values and should be useful for researchers and practitioners to better understand and assist people in their career choices.

Career path from a dentist to a leader

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to study the career paths of leaders with a career background as a dentist from basic degree to chief or executive leadership positions and individual factors that influenced their decisions. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interview and a questionnaire were used to study 13 leaders using the structure of Edgar Schein's career anchor interview and career orientation inventory questionnaire. Theory-driven content analysis was used to analyze the data according to themes which included career paths, factors associated with job and career changes and thoughts about future careers. Findings Three different career path types were identified: Progressives (Type A), By chance (Type B), and Enthusiasts (Type C). The main motives were: the Progressives' goal orientation to proceed to higher leadership positions, the By chance group's job and even career changing by taking a chance on an interesting possibility that comes their way and the Enthusiasts' willingness to make a difference and search for possibilities to change things. The most important career anchor was "pure challenge" among the Progressives and By chance groups and "general managerial competence" among the Enthusiasts. Originality/value Studies on personal factors associating with career paths in health care are scarce and similarly leaders with a dentist background are less studied, even though leadership could be an excellent career choice for a dentist. Different individuals can have varied motives and career paths toward executive positions. Because of the multi-professional functions in health care, organizations could benefit from having leaders with different expertise backgrounds.

Basic Values, Career Orientations, and Career Anchors: Empirical Investigation of Relationships

In today's dynamic and uncertain career context, values play an important role for career choice and lifelong career self-management. Values are desirable goals that are sought by individuals to satisfy their needs and are important for understanding career orientations in terms of protean and boundaryless career orientations and career anchors. However, how career orientations or career anchors fit into a well-established and supported model and into the structure of basic human values remains an important and under-investigated question. The aim of this study was to use Schwartz's model of structural values to empirically explore the relationships and structural correspondences among basic values, career orientations, and career anchors. A heterogeneous sample of 238 employees from French-speaking Switzerland (Mage = 35.60, SD = 13.03) completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ5X), the Protean and Boundaryless Career Attitudes Scales (PCAS, BCAS), and the Career Orientation Inventory (COI) via an anonymous and confidential survey questionnaire. The results showed that it was possible to meaningfully position both career orientations and career anchors in Schwartz's values structure. The protean and boundaryless career orientations were positively related to Schwartz's basic values that emphasized openness to change and career anchors meaningfully followed the motivational continuum of these basic values. Overall, the overlap among the basic values, career orientations, and career anchors appeared relatively important, suggesting that these basic values, orientations, and anchors should be considered simultaneously to understand and address the factors and processes underlying individuals' career choices and paths.

Unlocking hospitality managers career transitions through applying Schein’s career anchors theory

Purpose

This paper seeks to unlock the career transitions of hospitality managers through applying Schein’s career anchors theory. It seeks to understand how Schein’s Career Anchors help explain the career transitions of managers in the Scottish hospitality industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts a non-sequential multi-method design. All 22 hospitality managers who participated in the study completed an online version of Schein’s Career Anchors containing 40 items covering all eight career anchors. The career histories of participants were then gathered through use of a semi-structured interview. Comparisons were then drawn across the career anchor classification and the data on career transitions collected from participants.

Findings

The results highlight the continued relevance of Schein’s career anchors theory and indicate that Schein’s career anchors theory may constitute a useful tool for understanding hospitality managers’ career needs and engaging in meaningful career planning.

Originality/value

The study provides a useful insight into hospitality managers’ career motivations, and knowledge of career anchors will help hospitality organisations more effectively engage, recruit and retain hospitality managers.

Unpacking differences in psychological contracts of organizational and self-initiated expatriates

Purpose

Global staffing has remained a main focus within the field of international human resource management (IHRM) since the 1970s. However, research in the psychological contract (PC) of expatriates is limited. The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences in PC breach and violation for organisational expatriates and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs).

Design/methodology/approach

A survey questionnaire was developed covering 52 organisational expatriates and 119 SIEs from 35 countries/regions working in China. Four follow-up focus group interviews including four organisational expatriates and 12 SIEs were conducted to further explain the findings of the survey.

Findings

The findings indicate that organisational expatriates experience significantly lower levels of PC breach and violation than SIEs. Three broad thematic areas arose from the triangulation of focus group interviews, including uncertainties in functioning of contracts, differences in job securities and career development opportunities, and cultural differences.

Practical implications

Employers should give a comprehensive orientation and cultural training to meet the needs of SIEs. Moreover, long-term career advancement paths should also be provided to SIEs to alleviate their vulnerability and insecurities working abroad.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the scholarship of self-initiated expatriation and PCs and give implications to IHRM strategies.

Do three years make a difference? An updated review and analysis of self-initiated expatriation

Self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) were initially described by Inkson et al. (J World Bus 32:351–368, 1997) as individuals who move abroad on their own volition, with personal funding, oriented towards development and career goals. After almost two decades of research, it is imperative to review the knowledge that has been developed and identify future areas of intervention. Doherty (Int J Manag Rev 15:447–469, 2013. doi:10.1111/ijmr.12005) initiated the review and this paper aims to update it and explore some unapproached aspects. Five different data bases were targeted and searched for peer-reviewed articles published in English, between 1997 and 2014, which recognized self-initiated expatriation as a distinguished form of mobility and used this terminology in the title and/or keywords list. A total of 94 articles met these inclusion criteria, 45 of which were published between 2012 and 2014. By systematically analyzing them, it was observed a surpassing growth in the number of published articles in the last 3 years. This signalizes an increase of the academic interest in studying the SIEs all over the world, involving bidirectional moves between developed and developing countries. The constructs identified by Doherty (2013) at the three different levels (micro, meso and macro) continued to be explored, using qualitative or quantitative approaches. Besides this, a multi-informant approach has been adopted in some studies, while others focused on concept clarification, taking into consideration some of Doherty’s (2013) suggestions for future research. Three years of research made an enormous contribution to the development of knowledge about SIEs, but some aspects can be further explored; hence they are identified and thoroughly discussed.

Comparing the Validity of Turnover Predictors in the United States and Mexico

This article compared the relative validity of traditional predictors of turnover intentions using samples from the USA and Mexico. Matched samples of retail grocery store employees (USA: N = 187; Mexico: N = 150) completed questionnaires that reported perceptions of inter-role conflict, positive affect, job satisfaction, perceived ease of movement and turnover intentions. Results indicate that job satisfaction and perceived ease of movement predicted turnover intentions in both the USA and Mexico. However, job satisfaction and perceived ease of movement were stronger predictors of turnover intentions in the USA. Unexpectedly, work-family and work-personal conflict did not predict turnover intentions in either sample.

Antecedent factors for success in international assignments: the case of expatriates in Peru

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the relative most important antecedent factors related to success in international assignment (IA) in specific context such as Peru. It reviews the full range of individual, organizational and contextual factors associated with success in IA as well as discusses the importance of context in expatriate research. Combined with limited interviews, synthesis is offered and the most relevant determinant factors are identified.

Design/methodology/approach

– This is a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with 45 participants who currently hold IA positions or have broad experience in overseas positions. The interviews were conducted in the English and Spanish languages. A priori coding system classification technique based on a content analysis methodology was administrated for the purpose of analyzing and codifying the interviews.

Findings

– The findings reveal that a combination of individual, organizational and contextual antecedent factors are relevant for explaining success in IA. However, only nine of the 32 factors were found to be the most determinant to success. In particular, cross-cultural competencies, spouse adjustment, motivational issues, time on assignment, emotional competencies, previous international experience, language fluency and social relational skills, as well as contextual cultural differences and organizational recruitment and selection practices, were found to be the most associated to success in IA. The relative importance of the antecedents are discussed related to the context.

Research limitations/implications

– Because of the nature of qualitative design, a single factor may affect the interpretation and generalization of the findings. In addition, the ample and broad conceptualizations and definitions of the antecedent factors examined from different viewpoints may cause theoretical overlapping and cross-over definition biases, which may result in misleading findings. Therefore, the authors encourage future research to continue examining the full range of antecedent factors employing different methodological approaches by integrating context in a more systematic manner.

Practical implications

– The paper reviews the implications for IA selection design and process implementation, cross-cultural training and development.

Originality/value

– To begin with, this paper fills a need to study the antecedents of IA success and determine their relevance. In particular, and to the best of the knowledge, this is one of the few studies that include multi-level perspective: individual, organizational and contextual factors. This comprehensive approach aids in better understanding of the role and relevance of the respective antecedent factors that leads to success in IA with an aim to integrate context in the equation. Second, the sample consists of expatriates in particularly in Peru which gives information about adjustment of expatriates in Peru.

Employees’ work engagement and job commitment: The moderating role of career anchors

Orientation: Organisations continue to focus on human resource initiatives for enhancingemployee commitment, satisfaction and engagement in order to gain a competitive edge in adynamic and fast-changing marketplace.Research purpose: The objective of the present study was to assess whether individuals’career anchors (measured by the career orientations inventory) significantly moderate therelationship between their work engagement (measured by the Utrecht work engagementscale) and job commitment (measured by the organisation-related commitment scale).Motivation for the study: Although the literature review suggests that people’s workengagement and job commitment may be influenced by their career anchors, there seems to bea paucity of research examining the interaction effects between these three variables.Research approach, design and method: A cross-sectional quantitative survey approach wasused. A non-probability purposive sample of adults (N = 318) employed in a human resourcecapacity in the South African service industry participated in the study. Stepwise hierarchicalmoderated regression analysis was performed to achieve the objective of the study.Main findings: The results showed that the work engagement-job commitment relationshipwas generally stronger for high career anchor preferences than for low career anchorpreferences.Practical/managerial implications: The results of the study can be useful when human resourceinterventions for enhancing employees’ engagement and commitment are developed.Contribution: The results of the study add new insights to the career literature by showing thatpeople’s career self-concepts (as reflected by their career anchors) are important to consider inenhancing their work engagement and job commitment.

Underlying Factor Structure of Schein’s Career Anchor Model

More than 20 years after Edgar H. Schein introduced career anchor theory (1977), Daniel Feldman and Mark Bolino critiqued both the theory and the methods Schein used to describe career anchors. They propose that understanding the underlying factor structure of the Career Orientations Inventory (COI) will give insight into the relationships between multiple career anchors. These relationships describe which career anchors are complementary (i.e., having congruous characteristics) or mutually inconsistent (i.e., having oppositional characteristics) and enable a study of the degree to which those relationships have an impact upon career outcomes. This study examined how well each of the four models of career anchor relationships, found in the career anchor literature, describe mutually inconsistent relationships found within data from seven empirical career anchor studies. The mutually inconsistent career anchor pairs suggested by Feldman and Bolino were not found to have stronger negative correlations with one another than those proposed by the other three models. Also, the mutually inconsistent pairs proposed by Feldman and Bolino were not found to have on the whole a better fit from confirmatory factor analysis than those proposed by the other three models. Instead, Schein’s proposed model of mutual inconsistency was the best fit, albeit, a weak fit. Weaknesses were also found in the two-dimensional octagonal models proposed by Feldman and Bolino, by Chapman, and by Bristow. The data do not support a two-dimensional model. An additional finding was that the relationship between the anchors actually fits an orthogonal model better than either the complementary or mutually inconsistent representations proposed by each of the four models. Continued research opportunities are available for those interested in studying career anchor theory.

An investigation of career change using a narrative and story-telling inquiry

Orientation: The role of the career change experience has been investigated in this research. Understanding career change will assist with organisational interventions for the support and retention of employees.Research purpose: The study explores the factors that influence career change amongst a sample of distance learners.Motivation for the study: Distance learning is becoming popular in South Africa as individuals can work and learn simultaneously. Some people use distance learning to facilitate career change.Research design, approach and method: A narrative and storytelling inquiry was used. Data was obtained through unstructured interviews by purposive sampling.Main findings: Sources of career change included personal growth and ambition, and structural changes in relation to current work. The career change experience was found through participants’ stories and narratives to influence individual well-being. Finally, distance learning was favoured as a vehicle for career change for its flexibility and low cost.Practical/managerial implications: Organisations will benefit from an understanding of employee career change experiences as identified in this study. Arising from this, support and retention interventions can be put in place.Contribution/value-add: The research study shifts attention to career change as part of the career decision-making process. This focus is an emerging area of inquiry in the careers literature. This adds to the body of knowledge by identifying, in a South African context, the factors influencing career change and the impact of this on the individual. Interventions for individuals and organisations are suggested.

Die Bedeutung internationaler Erfahrungen für den Karriereerfolg von Führungskräften

Die langfristigen Auswirkungen internationaler Einsätze von Führungskräften auf deren Karrieren sind bislang kaum empirisch untersucht worden und die wenigen vorliegenden Ergebnisse sind widersprüchlich. Ziel dieser Studie ist deshalb die empirische Untersuchung der Auswirkungen internationaler Erfahrungen auf den Karriereerfolg von Führungskräften anhand eines Vergleichs von Führungskräften mit und ohne internationale Erfahrungen.

Es zeigt sich, dass internationale Erfahrungen zu einem höheren subjektiven Karriereerfolg (gemessen über die Karrierezufriedenheit) und auch zu einem höheren objektiven Karriereerfolg (gemessen über Einkommen, Anzahl unterstellter Mitarbeiter und Hierarchieebene) führen. Weiterhin kann ein positiver Einfluss bestimmter Funktionsbereiche und der Bedeutung der Auslandsgesellschaft auf den Karriereerfolg durch internationale Tätigkeiten gezeigt werden.