career exploration and goal setting among managerial employees

Journal of Vocational Behavior 29, 102-114 (1986)

Career Exploration and Goal Setting among Managerial Employees

THOMAS D. SUGALSKI

Stevens Institute of Technology

AND

JEFFREY H. GREENHAUS

Drexel University

This study examined career exploration and goal setting among 257 managers in a large communications company. High work role salience and the perceived availability of mobility opportunities were associated with extensive participation in career exploration. Moreover, managers who aspired to different positions in the organization engaged in more career exploration than managers who intended to remain in their current positions. Highly anxious managers were less likely to select a career goal and were less certain about the appropriateness of their goal than managers low in anxiety. Few gender differences were observed in the managers’ exploration and goal-setting tendencies. 8 1986 Academic press, h.

Career exploration plays a prominent role in many models of career development (Jordaan, 1963; Super, 1957). Presumably, participation in exploratory activities promotes an understanding of self and environment that enables people to develop realistic vocational goals and plans. Indeed, research suggests that career exploration can help students learn more about themselves and the world of work (Taylor, 1985), choose occupations to pursue (Greenhaus, Hawkins, & Brenner, 1983), develop effective job search skills (Stumpf, Austin, & Hartman, 1984; Stumpf & Colarelli,

This paper is based on data from the first author’s doctoral dissertation under the direction of the second author at Stevens Institute of Technology. The authors thank committee members H. Karl Springob and Richard Skov for their valuable contributions to the study. The present manuscript incorporates additional analysis and conceptualization and we are grateful to Saroj Parasuraman and Robert Rohs for their constructive comments on an earlier draft and to Katie DeCastro for her very able assistance in data analysis. Corre- spondence, including reprint requests, may be directed to Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Department of Management and Organizational Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

102 OOOl-8791/86 $3.00 Copyiigbt 0 1986 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

CAREER EXPLORATION 103

1981), and develop more realistic job expectations (Stumpf & Hartman, 1984).

Not surprisingly, research has focused on the career exploration of students, for it is during adolescence and young adulthood that initial occupational choices are often formed and refined. However, recent models of adult career development and decision making (Mihal, Sorce, & Comte, 1984; Schein, 1978) suggest that the need to explore oneself and one’s career options never really ceases, since employees must regularly make decisions about their career and life goals.

Despite the importance of exploration throughout the career cycle, there is very little empirical research on the career exploration process among employed adults. The present study begins to fill this gap by examining career exploration among a group of managers in a large organization. In particular, the goals of the study were to examine (a) the factors that stimulate managers to participate in career exploration and (b) the relationship between managers’ participation in exploratory activities and their development of a career goal.

The first hypothesis proposes that perceived mobility opportunities and work role salience trigger career exploration. Consistent with an expectancy theory view of motivation (Vroom, 1964), a person must see a potential payoff before he or she engages in a particular behavior. If mobility opportunities are believed to be low or nonexistent, there may be little incentive for managers to engage in career exploration. In fact, it is thought that one of the most important factors that facilitates career self-management is an organization’s policy regarding job mobility (Hammer & Vardi, 1981).

However, favorable mobility opportunities may not be a sufficient condition for career exploration. There is evidence that work role salience is positively related to students’ participation in career exploration (Greenhaus & Sklarew, 1981). Apparently, when work is a sufficiently salient part of one’s self-concept, there is a real incentive to acquire career-related information. By implication, people who place little importance on the work role may be unlikely to engage in career exploration regardless of the potential for job mobility.

Therefore, Hypothesis 1 predicts an interaction between job mobility opportunities and work role salience on career exploration. In particular, it is predicted that the positive relationship between perceived mobility opportunities and career exploration is stronger for high work role salient managers than for low work role salient managers.

Although research continues to examine the vocational indecision of students (Hartman, Fuqua, & Blum, 1985; Osipow & Reed, 1985), little attention has been paid to the career indecision of employees. However, it is generally assumed that exploration promotes career decision making and goal setting. That is, the acquisition of information regarding oneself

104 SUGALSKI AND GREENHAUS

and alternative jobs or career paths should enable an employee to select a career goal.

However, the facilitating effect of career exploration on goal setting may be stronger for managers of low anxiety than for highly anxious managers. If highly anxious people focus on their own feelings of anxiety and fail to process information thoroughly and accurately (Wine, 1971), then career exploration would not be expected to help such people formulate career goals. There is evidence that high levels of anxiety can weaken the impact of career exploration among college students choosing occupations (Greenhaus & Sklarew, 1981). However, to our knowledge, the role of exploration and anxiety in employees’ career goal-setting behavior has not yet been examined. Hypothesis 2 predicts an interaction between career exploration and anxiety on career goal setting. The positive relationship between exploration and goal setting is predicted to be stronger for managers reporting low anxiety than for managers reporting high anxiety.

In addition to testing the hypotheses, the present study examined two other issues. First, although the career goal-setting literature normally implies an intention to acquire a different (usually higher status) position, many employees may find their current job particularly satisfying and therefore choose to remain on their job for the foreseeable future. Moreover, for the plateaued employee (Ference, Stoner, & Warren, 1977), a focus on the present job may be the most realistic career goal to pursue. The present study examined factors associated with the selection of mobility- oriented and stability-oriented career goals in order to provide additional insights into the career exploration and goal-setting process.

Second, the present study examined the correlates of career exploration and goal setting separately for male and female managers. The recent increase in the number of female managers makes it desirable to understand how women in managerial roles manage their careers. Exploratory analyses can determine the presence or absence of gender differences in managers’ career exploration and goal-setting tendencies.

METHOD Sample and Procedure

Participants in the research were first- and second-level managers from five departments in a large national communications company located in the northeastern portion of the United States. The five departments that were sampled-accounting, engineering, foreign, marketing, and personnel-include the vast majority of managers in the company. These departments exhibit considerable similarity in the administration of their career systems (e.g., job performance ratings, centralized job posting systems). Combining respondents across the five departments provided a larger sample and a greater opportunity to generalize results than could have been possible if the sample had come from a single department.


A questionnaire was administered through the company mail system to 500 managers randomly selected from the managerial pool of the five departments. Several reminders brought the total number of respondents to 257 (51.4% response rate). Respondents were assured of the anonymity of their returned questionnaires.

One hundred and forty (54.4%) of the respondents were male, 137 (53.3%) were first-level managers, and 120 (46.7%) were second-level managers. The managers’ ages ranged from 22 to 56 with a mean of 36.32 years (SD = 7.51). The mean number of years in the present position and in the company were 2.14 (SD = 1.87) and 10.72 (SD = 7.33), respectively. The managers had held an average of 5.14 (SD = 3.51) job assignments within the company, and the modal annual salary range was $32,000-$35,999.

The respondents were generally representative of the population of managers in the company, and a wide variety of job functions-technical, administrative, marketing, and financial-were represented in the present sample. The respondents did tend to be slightly younger, less tenured, and more likely to occupy a second-level position than the population of managers in the company. Nevertheless, the range of job functions and the gender composition of the respondents suggest considerable sample-population similarity.

Instruments

The questionnaire was part of a larger study of the career management process and included measures of work role salience, perceived mobility opportunities, career exploration, trait anxiety, and career goal setting. Descriptive data, intercorrelations, and reliability estimates are shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Intercorrelations among Major Variables

2 3 4 5 6 7 M SD a

1. Work role salience 43 54 -31 27 39 14 3.25 0.73 0.86 2. Mobility opportunities 37 -23 26 19 01 3.36 0.80 0.85 3. Career exploration -29 21 18 08 3.01 0.60 0.90 4. Anxiety -36 -36 03 1.57 0.31 0.84 5. Career goal selection” NA 10 1.54 0.50 NA 6. Career goal certainty -06 3.78 0.75 0.86 7. Gende? 1.46 0.50 NA

Note. Decimals omitted from correlations. For career goal certainty, n = 140 (r t .166, p < .05; r 2 .218, p < .Ol). For all other variables, n = 257 (r t ,124, p < .05; r 2 .163, p < .Ol).

a 1 = No career goal selected; 2 = career goal selected. b 1 Male; female. = 2 =


Work role salience was measured by a lo-item version of a scale that assesses the importance of work and career in one’s life (Greenhaus, 1971). The choice of the IO-item version was based on a factor analysis of the longer scale reported by Greenhaus, Springob, and Souerwine (1979). Each item had a S-point response format, and the responses to the 10 items were averaged to produce a total work role salience score.

Eight items were developed to measure the extent to which managers perceive that opportunities exist for them to move into other jobs within their current organization. The items tapped beliefs regarding (a) performance-mobility contingency, (b) supervisory support for the manager’s mobility aspirations, (c) the availability of information regarding other jobs in the company, (d) the encouragement to pursue formal and informal training activities, and (e) the organization’s commitment to releasing managers from present work assignments so that mobility opportunities can be pursued. Each item had a 5-point response format and the responses to the eight items were averaged to produce a total perceived mobility opportunity score.

A behavioral checklist was devised to assess career exploration. Man- agers were instructed to indicate how frequently, within the past year, they sought information regarding each of 26 topics (e.g., “my current technical skills,” “ which positions involve high visibility and which do not, ” “who gets promoted in the company”). Responses to each item were obtained on a 5-point scale, the anchors of which (rarely, seldom, sometimes, rather often, very often) were chosen to represent approx- imately equidistant frequency perceptions (Seidel, 1981). The 26 career exploration items elicited information regarding oneself, alternative jobs, and the organization’s career-related practices and policies. Since sub- sequent analyses revealed similar patterns of results for self, job, and organizational exploration, only data on the 26-item total career exploration score are reported.

Trait anxiety was measured by the trait anxiety portion of the State- Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), developed by Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene (1970). Respondents indicated how frequently they experienced each of 18 feelings (e.g., “I am secretly afraid”) on a 3-point scale. (Although the STAI contains 20 items, 2 items were excluded because they were deemed unsuitable for the present sample.) Responses to the 18 items were averaged to obtain a total anxiety score.

There were two indicators of career goal setting: goal selection and goal certainty. In order to assess the selection of a career goal, managers were instructed to indicate what position they wanted to hold in the upcoming 12-18 month period. They were specifically told that the position could either be their present position or a different position. The 140 managers who identified a particular position were considered to have selected a specific career goal. The remaining 117 managers, who either


had more than one position in mind or were completely undecided, were considered not to have selected a career goal. The goal selection variable was dichotomously scored as the presence (2) or absence (1) of a specific goal. Of the 140 managers who selected a career goal, 64 identified their current job as the position they wished to hold in the 12-18 month period, and 76 identified a job other than their current position.

Those managers who reported the presence of a career goal answered four items designed to assess goal certainty. The S-point items tapped the managers’ feelings of certainty and confidence that their selected position was appropriate and suitable for them. Responses to the four items were averaged to obtain a total goal certainty score.

Data Analysis

Hypothesis 1, postulating an interaction between work role salience and perceived mobility opportunities on career exploration, was tested with moderated multiple regression analysis (Zedeck, 1971). Career exploration was regressed first on a block of five background variables- age, education, job tenure, organizational tenure, and the number of jobs held within the organization. Next, the two hypothesized predictors of exploration, work role salience and perceived mobility opportunities, entered the analysis. In the third step, the work role salience x mobility interaction term entered the analysis. This procedure permitted an examination of the predictors’ additive and interactive effects on exploration, while statistically controlling for the managers’ background characteristics.

Hypothesis 2, postulating an interaction between career exploration and anxiety on goal setting, was also tested with moderated regression. Separate analyses were conducted to predict goal selection and goal certainty. In each analysis, the criterion was regressed first on the block of five background variables. The second block included work role salience and perceived mobility opportunities, which conceptually precede career exploration. In the third step, the two hypothesized predictors, exploration and anxiety, entered the analysis, and in the final step, the exploration x

anxiety interaction term was entered. The two hypotheses were tested separately for males and females and

the significance of the difference between respective /3 weights for males and females was assessed (Pfeffer & Ross, 1982). For reasons of space limitations, only the results of the regression analyses for the total sample are presented. However, gender differences are reported for those predictor variables that exhibited significant differences in /3 weights between the male and female samples.

Multiple discriminant function analysis was used to examine the factors associated with the selection of mobility-oriented and stability-oriented career goals. The sample was divided into three groups: (a) managers who had not selected a goal; (b) managers whose goal was to remain on


the same job they currently held; and (c) managers whose goal was to secure a different job than the one currently held. A stepwise analysis was conducted in which group membership (no goal/same job/different job) was the dependent variable, and age, education, job and organizational tenure, number ofjob assignments, gender, work role salience, perceived mobility opportunity, anxiety, and career exploration were the discriminating variables.

RESULTS

Prediction of Career Exploration

Table 2 presents the results of the regression analysis predicting career exploration. First, it can be seen that education was the only background variable related to exploration; the more highly educated the manager, the more extensive the career exploration. Consistent with Hypothesis 1, work role salience and perceived mobility opportunities were positively related to career exploration, although the hypothesized interaction was nonsignificant.

Regarding potential gender differences, males and females did not differ in their level of participation in exploratory activities (Table 1). Moreover, none of the p weights predicting career exploration was significantly different for the male and female managers.

TABLE 2 Regression Analysis Predicting Career

Exploration

Block Predictor R2 P

I Age Organization tenure Job tenure Number of job

assignments Education

Block 1

-.lO -.08

.04

.18

.16* .04

2 Work role salience (W) .45** Mobility opportunities (M) .17**

Blocks 1 + 2 .32**

3 W x M Interaction - .67 Blocks 1 + 2 + 3 .33**

Note. N = 257. * p < .05.

** p < .Ol.


Prediction of Goal Selection

Table 3 presents the results of the regression analyses predicting the selection of a career goal. Highly anxious managers were less likely to have selected a career goal than managers low in anxiety. However, neither career exploration nor the hypothesized exploration x anxiety interaction was sign&ant. Unexpectedly, work role salience and perceived mobility opportunities each had significant regression weights; the more salient the work role and the greater the perceived mobility opportunities, the more likely a manager had selected a career goal.

Women were neither more nor less likely than men to have selected a career goal (Table 1). However, the regression analysis indicated that the p weight for number of jobs held in the company was significantly (t, < .Ol) higher for women (p = .49, p < .Ol) than for men (/I = - .05, ns).

Prediction of Mobility-Oriented and Stability-Oriented Career Goals

As noted earlier, stepwise multiple discriminant function analysis was used to predict membership in the three career goal groups (no goal/same

TABLE 3 Regression Analyses Predicting Career Goal Setting

Block Predictor

1 Age Organizational tenure Job tenure Number of job

assignments Education

Block 1

Career goal selection

Career goal certainty

R2 P

.07 -.20

.17*

.15” .oo

.03

R2 P

.lO -.20

,33**‘0

.31*b .14

.14**

2 Work role salience .19** .31** Mobility opportunities .20** .lO

Blocks 1 + 2 .13** .26**

3 Career exploration (CE) .Ol -.17 Anxiety (A) - .27** - .31**

Blocks 1 + 2 + 3 .20** .35**

4 CE x A Interaction .oo .oo Blocks 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 .20** .35**

Note. N = 257 for career goal selection; n = 140 for career goal certainty. o Significant difference between p for males and females (p < .05 or lower). b Significant difference between p for same-job goal group and different-job goal group

(p < .05 or lower).


job/different job). Seven of the 10 discriminating variables significantly entered the analysis. Each of the two discriminant functions was significant (Function 1, x2 = 68.35, p < .OOl; Function 2, ,$ = 12.92, p < .OS), and the structure coefficients for the two functions are displayed in Table 4. The discriminant functions correctly predicted group membership for 57% of the sample, a significant improvement over chance (K = .30,

p < .Ol). The first discriminant function separated the no-goal group from the

other two groups (see Table 4 for group centroids). Managers undecided about a career goal displayed higher anxiety, lower work role salience, and less favorable perceptions of mobility opportunities than managers who had selected a career goal, whether the goal was to occupy their current job or a different job. These results are, of course, quite consistent with the regression analysis predicting goal selection (Table 3).

The second discriminant function separated the same-job goal group from the different-job goal group. An examination of the function’s structure coefficients indicates that managers who chose to pursue a different job as a career goal participated in more career exploration and had fewer job assignments in the organization than managers whose goal was to remain in their current job.

The Prediction of Goal Certainty

The regression analysis predicting goal certainty is presented in Table 3. Although anxiety was inversely related to certainty, neither career

TABLE 4 Discriminant Functions for Career Goal Groups

Structure coefficients

Discriminating variables Function 1 Function 2

Anxiety Work role salience Mobility opportunities Job tenure Career exploration Number of job assignments Gender

Variance Canonical correlation

-.78 .I1 .57 - .41 .53 .Ol .28 .24 .43 - .62 .06 .47 .21 .29

82% 18% .44 .22

Group centroids

Group 1. No career goal 2. Career goal is same job 3. Career goal is different job

Function I Function 2 -.54 .oo

.44 .34

.46 -.28


exploration nor the exploration x anxiety interaction was significant. Career goal certainty was also stronger for managers with high work role salience, relatively long tenure in their current job, and a relatively large number of job assignments in the company.

Two significant gender differences emerged from the separate regression analyses. Age had a significantly (p < .Ol) higher weight for women (p = .30, p < .05) than for men (p = - .24, ns), whereas job tenure had a higher (p < .Ol) weight for men (/3 = .47, p < .Ol) than for women (p = .13, ns).

Regression analyses were also conducted separately for managers whose goal was to remain in their current job and those whose goal was to secure a different position. The effects of job tenure and number of job assignments on goal certainty were significantly (p < .Ol) stronger for the same-job group (for job tenure, p = SO, p < .Ol; for number of jobs, /3 = .49, p < .05) than for the different-job group (for job tenure, p = .17, ns; for number of jobs, /3 = .21, ns).

DISCUSSION

Career exploration seems to be triggered by high levels of work role salience. The present data extend prior findings on college students (Greenhaus & Sklarew, 1981) to managerial employees and illustrate the significance of the career subidentity (Hall, 1976) to career planning. Managers who attach substantial importance to the work role seem particularly motivated to acquire additional career-related information. Moreover, the positive relationship between perceived mobility opportunities and career exploration is consistent with Hammer and Vardi’s (1981) observation that an organization’s job mobility policy can encourage career self-management.

The relationship between career exploration and goal setting was not as clear as anticipated. Exploration did not seem to help managers select a career goal or become more certain about their goal. The failure of career exploration to facilitate goal selection or goal certainty may be explained in several ways. For example, although it is possible that the conceptual link between exploration and career goal setting is unfounded, a more likely explanation is that goal selection and certainty depend more on the quality and accuracy of relevant information than on the frequency of exploratory attempts to acquire such information. Future research should not assume that extensive exploration necessarily produces useful information for purposes of career goal setting.

Alternatively, useful information may be acquired through ongoing, informal work experiences in addition to (or instead of) formal exploratory activities, Recall that job tenure was positively related to goal selection and goal certainty, and the number of job assignments in the company was positively related to goal certainty. Perhaps managers who have had


extensive experience on their current jobs or who have had exposure to many different job assignments in the company come to understand themselves and their options more clearly, and therefore feel more comfortable committing themselves to a career goal. More research on the translation of daily work activities into career learning experiences is needed to understand this process better.

Highly anxious managers in the present study were unlikely to select a career goal and, if they did select a goal, were unlikely to express much certainty about the goal. These data suggest that anxiety can affect career decision making in two ways. Consistent with Janis and Mann’s (1976) analysis of decision making under stress, highly anxious managers may either defensively avoid making a career decision (and select no goal at all) or may panic and prematurely select a goal about which they subsequently express little certainty. Recent research confirms the significant role of anxiety in determining students’ level of career indecision (Hartman et al., 1985). The present study suggests that the impact of anxiety on career indecision does not disappear in later stages of the career cycle. This finding highlights the need to conduct more research on the effects of anxiety on career planning behavior throughout the life span.

Despite its failure to predict the selection of a career goal, exploration did predict the type of goal selected. Managers who chose a mobility- oriented career goal had engaged in more extensive career exploration than managers whose goal was to remain on their current job. It is reasonable to infer that extensive exploration enabled the managers to identify an alternative job as a suitable career goal. Although the cor- relational nature of the study leaves the question of causality open, the observed association between exploration and the type of career goal selected identifies a fertile area for future research.

Managers intending to stay on their current job were most certain about the appropriateness of this goal when they had extensive tenure in their present job and when they had held many different jobs in the organization. Because of their extensive and diverse job experiences, such managers may have come to appreciate the relative virtues of their current job and feel comfortable with their decision to remain in their present position. Again, the impact of informal work experiences on goal selection is an area for additional research.

The present study revealed few gender differences in career exploration and goal setting. The major variables in the study were largely unrelated to gender. Moreover, the impact of work role salience and mobility opportunities on career exploration and the effects of anxiety on goal selection and certainty did not vary as a function of the manager’s gender, The few significant gender differences suggest that women become more specific and certain about their career goals with increasing age and


diversity of job assignments. Understanding the reasons behind this findmg requires additional research that is guided by explicit conceptual frame- works linking gender to the career management process.

In summary, the data provided a number of insights into the career management process. Work role salience and perceived mobility opportunities were related to career exploration and goal selection, and anxiety was inversely related to the goal-setting variables under investigation. However, the linkage between career exploration and goal setting requires considerably more research.

Such research should ideally be longitudinal in nature so causal directions among variables can be determined more conclusively. Moreover, although common method variance may not have been a severe problem in the present study (variables included demographic characteristics, behavioral reports, beliefs, and attitudes), alternatives to self-report data sources would certainly reduce the likelihood of obtaining spurious relationships. In addition, research should attempt to assess the quality of exploratory- based information and the degree of insight or awareness produced by exploratory activities.

Finally, the present research examined exploration and career goals relevant to one’s current organization. Intraorganizational career planning and development have always been essential ingredients in career management. Nevertheless, mobility opportunities, exploratory activities, and career goals can certainly transcend organizational and occupational boundaries. Therefore, a more complete understanding of career management requires research on interorganizational and interoccupational phenomena as well.

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Received: March 18, 1986.

career exploration and goal setting among managerial employees

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