New emerging career paths for professionals are often non-linear, dynamic, and
boundary-less (Baruch, 2004) and have resulted in undefined professional advancement
opportunities for managers and employees in a variety of contexts. Career paths help
individuals make meaning in their job contexts and provide avenues to meet intrinsic and
extrinsic rewards, including economic and social status (Adamson, 1997; Callanan,
2003). As a result, individual perceptions of career paths may impact job satisfaction,
career commitment, and performance.
The purpose of this study was to test a career development model examining the
path of relationships amongst autonomy/prestige, career path, training and learning, job
satisfaction, career commitment, and performance for moderately defined career
professionals. Based on a systematic categorization of careers, from well defined to less
well defined, project managers were determined to have moderately defined careers. The
researcher employed a survey resulting in 644 project manager respondents. Path analysis was effectuated as a modeling technique to determine whether there was a
pattern of intercorrelations among variables.
A career development model framing the relationship between project managersâÂÂ
perceptions of their career paths on their respective performance was explored. The
direct path relationships included: (a) frequency of participation in training and learning
activities was negatively related to performance, (b) career path was positively related to
performance, (c) autonomy/prestige was positively related to performance, and (d)
career commitment was negatively related to performance. The indirect path
relationships included (a) autonomy/prestige was mediated by career commitment and
performance; (b) the connection between career path and performance was mediated by
frequency of participation in training and learning (c) career path to performance, was
mediated by job satisfaction and career commitment, and (d) career path to performance
was mediated by job satisfaction, career commitment, and autonomy/prestige.
Study findings supported the tested model and contributed to increased
understanding regarding the importance of career paths to individual job satisfaction,
career commitment, and performance. Opportunities for new research and implications
for individuals and organizations are outlined.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/5817 |
| Date | 17 September 2007 |
| Creators | Carden, Lila Lenoria |
| Contributors | Callahan, Jamie, Egan, Toby Marshall |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 634066 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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