What it means to succeed: personal conceptions of career success held by male and female managers at different ages

摘要

The aim of this research is to investigate how managers define career success forthemselves. It seeks to discover what differences there are in the way that womenand men, and older and younger managers, see their own career success. It fills anidentifiable gap in the literature on career success, in that it examines the subjectfrom the point of view of the individual, not the organisation. In doing so, itresponds to calls for work in this area, especially the development of "orientationalcategories" which classify peoples' attitudes to careers according to their individualpredispositions (Bailyn 1989).The research, which took place in BT, uses qualitative methods, in particular in-depthinterviewing, to elicit managers' own definitions of career success. Using techniquesof qualitative data analysis and with the help of NUD. IST computer software, itdevelops a typology of managerial career success, which shows that managers viewtheir own career success in one of four ways: as a Climber, who emphasiseshierarchical position, pay and enjoyment in their definition of success; as an Expert,who sees success as being good at what they do and getting personal recognition forthis; as an Influencer, who defines career success primarily as organisationalinfluence; and as a Self-Realiser, who judges their own career success byachievement at a very personal level.Women managers, who generally base their definitions of career success on internaland intangible criteria, are more likely to be Experts and Self-Realisers; men, whotend to base their ideas of success on external criteria are more likely to be Climbersand Influencers. Younger managers, especially men, are most likely to be Climbers,and older managers, Influencers who often see their own success in terms ofachieving something at work by which they will be remembered.