TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender differences in career planning and success
AU - Jung, Yuhee
AU - Takeuchi, Norihiko
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
PY - 2016/3/14
Y1 - 2016/3/14
N2 - Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it attempts to examine how employees’ career planning (CP) interacts with the quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) to explain subjective career success. Second, the authors investigate how the pattern of such interactions differs between male and female employees. Design/methodology/approach – To increase the generalizability, the study tested hypotheses in two studies whose data were collected in different national settings. Study 1 was designed to analyze 144 Korean employees and Study 2 investigated 140 Japanese employees. Both groups of employees worked for privately owned firms. Findings – The authors found a three-way interaction effect between gender, CP, and LMX quality in predicting subjective career success. As hypothesized, the positive relationship between quality of LMX and subjective career success was stronger for males with high CP, whereas for females such a stronger relationship was found for women with low CP. Research limitations/implications – This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it extends career research by considering the interactive effects of individual and interpersonal factors on employees’ subjective career success. Second, it combines the research streams of social exchange theory (LMX), career theory (the boundaryless career), and gender theory (agentic and communal personality traits). This suggests that the ideas of the three theories could serve together as a useful framework for explaining gender differences in subjective career success through setting career goals and building relationships with supervisors. Practical implications – The findings have important practical implications for managers and leaders, who generally seek to motivate their employees toward career achievement. Originality/value – This study is one of the first to provide a new perspective for understanding the process by which men and women perceive their subjective career success differently with regard to social exchange relations with their supervisors and CP.
AB - Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it attempts to examine how employees’ career planning (CP) interacts with the quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) to explain subjective career success. Second, the authors investigate how the pattern of such interactions differs between male and female employees. Design/methodology/approach – To increase the generalizability, the study tested hypotheses in two studies whose data were collected in different national settings. Study 1 was designed to analyze 144 Korean employees and Study 2 investigated 140 Japanese employees. Both groups of employees worked for privately owned firms. Findings – The authors found a three-way interaction effect between gender, CP, and LMX quality in predicting subjective career success. As hypothesized, the positive relationship between quality of LMX and subjective career success was stronger for males with high CP, whereas for females such a stronger relationship was found for women with low CP. Research limitations/implications – This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it extends career research by considering the interactive effects of individual and interpersonal factors on employees’ subjective career success. Second, it combines the research streams of social exchange theory (LMX), career theory (the boundaryless career), and gender theory (agentic and communal personality traits). This suggests that the ideas of the three theories could serve together as a useful framework for explaining gender differences in subjective career success through setting career goals and building relationships with supervisors. Practical implications – The findings have important practical implications for managers and leaders, who generally seek to motivate their employees toward career achievement. Originality/value – This study is one of the first to provide a new perspective for understanding the process by which men and women perceive their subjective career success differently with regard to social exchange relations with their supervisors and CP.
KW - Career planning
KW - Gender
KW - Leader-member exchange
KW - Subjective career success
KW - Three-way interaction effect
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U2 - 10.1108/JMP-09-2014-0281
DO - 10.1108/JMP-09-2014-0281
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84960402549
VL - 31
SP - 603
EP - 623
JO - Journal of Managerial Psychology
JF - Journal of Managerial Psychology
SN - 0268-3946
IS - 2
ER -