Description
Study on The Influence Of Career Identity And Social Networks On Career Transition Magnitude, Transition Methodology is the process of migrating knowledge, systems, and operating capabilities between an outsourcing environment to an in-house staff.
STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF CAREER IDENTITY AND SOCIAL NETWORKS ON CAREER TRANSITION MAGNITUDE
ABSTRACT Increasingly, scholars and journalists are suggesting that there is a trend toward greater magnitude in career transitions signified by the crossing of career boundaries (such as level, functional, organizational, industry and professional boundaries). To date, much of the quantitative empirical research suggests that organizational, relational and environmental factors influence career transition behavior. However, while we know that these external influences may cause an individual to transition, we know less about the process through which career transitions evolve, especially those of larger magnitude and how forces internal to the individual may help to explain variance above and beyond these external factors. In this dissertation, I use qualitative and quantitative methodologies to develop and refine a model of career transition focusing on career transition magnitude. Specifically, I use research from social identity, social networks and role exit theory to develop a model of career transition magnitude that posits career identity (the cognitive representation of the
self derived from past career experiences, beliefs, values, attributes and motives that define the individual in terms of their career) and network characteristics (the pattern of interpersonal relationships) influence the magnitude of intended career transition, the career exit behaviors one engages in and the evaluation of career opportunities. Further, I use path analysis to find that career exit behaviors are influenced by the magnitude of the intended career transition as well as strong coworker ties and social and personal turbulence. Additionally, I find that the favorable evaluation of career transition opportunities is impacted by career identity centrality and organizational satisfaction. Finally, I find that the magnitude of the intended career transition is influenced by the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities, network career range, organizational satisfaction and social and personal turbulence. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.
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Table of Contents
Dedication ..................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements...................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents......................................................................................................... vi List of Tables .............................................................................................................. vii List of Figures ............................................................................................................ viii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Exploratory Qualitative Study................................ 6 Chapter 3: Methods..................................................................................................... 45 Chapter 4: Results ....................................................................................................... 56 Chapter 5: Discussion ................................................................................................ 78 Appendix A: Biographical Narrative Instrument....................................................... 94 Appendix B: Interview Protocol ................................................................................ 96 Appendix C: Pilot and Quantitative Study Instruments........................................... 100 Appendix D: Trusted Other Survey ......................................................................... 118 Appendix E - Magnitude Pattern Coding................................................................. 122 References................................................................................................................. 164
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List of Tables
Summary of Career Transitions Research?????????????.?..5 Study Respondents and Career Transitions Included in Study??????..13 Qualitative Data Structure Overview ????????????????19 Career Transition Magnitude Analysis by Pattern Code, Provisional Code?.21 Network Member Career Range?????????????????....31 Pilot Study Variable Means, SDs, and Intercorrelations.??????..??44 Quantitative Study Variable Means, SDs, and Intercorrelations.......................52 Career Identity Centrality and Identity Conflict Factor Analysis ???..??55 Organizational Satisfaction, Strong Coworker Ties, and Social and Personal Turbulence Factor Analysis?????????????????..??..56 10. Opportunity Evaluation Factor Analysis???????????????57 11. Magnitude Factor Analysis????????????????????.57 12. Reidentification and Disengagement Factor Analysis??????????58 13. Path Coefficients for Alternative Model.............................................................62 14. Summary of Hypotheses and Findings???????????????...68 15. Trusted Other Variable Means, SDs and Intercorrelations????????.71 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
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List of Figures
1. Biographical Narrative for Interviewee #105 - Michelle???????.13 2. Theoretical Framework for the Determination of Career Transition Magnitude.....................................................................................................39 3. Path Diagram for Original Conceptual Model???????????..60 4. Path Diagram for Alternative Model???????????????61 5. Path Diagram with Control Variables??????????????...67 6. Trusted Other Analysis Path Diagram??????????????..73 7. Cycle of Career Transition Magnitude Determination ????????..81
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Chapter 1: Introduction
"Most people who have made big career changes have heard loved ones tell them, 'You're out of your mind.' Sabotage is not their intention, but a shared history has entrenched certain expectations, and reinventing oneself can amount to breaking the implicit 'contract,'"(Ibarra, 2003, p. 121) Although there is increasing interest in career transitions, we know relatively little about how the magnitude or size of career transitions is chosen especially, as suggested in the above quote, why individuals choose to make "big career changes" that expose one to social censure and changing or modifying one's identity ("reinventing oneself"). Career transition magnitude is defined by how novel or far reaching the personal and professional adjustments are required to make the transition a reality (Nicholson & West, 1989). Because the nature of the personal and professional adjustments differ as a function of transition size, it is also likely that the process and consequences of transition differ as a function of size (Bruce & Scott, 1994; Kirschenbaum & Weisberg, 2002; Latack, 1984; Louis, 1980; Stephens, 1994). Given the potentially increasing number and size of career transitions (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; DeFillippi & Arthur, 1994) and the importance of career identity in how people define the global self (Hall, 2002; Baker & Aldrich, 1996), addressing issues of career transition magnitude and career identity change is critical. Unfortunately, our current understanding of career transitions and career identity may be insufficient to help us understand the career transition process as it relates to the determination of career transition size. First, there is a dearth of literature on the subject of career transition magnitude. In general, when career 1
transition has been studied in the literature, the empirical studies have tended to focus on career change that is internal to a single organization. Although almost twenty years ago Nicholson and West (1989) stated that career transition magnitude is an important topic for future career transition research, Table 1 demonstrates that the research has been focused primarily on career transitions that are internal to organizations. This table was constructed by conducting queries of the Social Sciences Citation Index using the terms career and transition, work role and transition, and job and transition. The list is compiled from articles in ten peer reviewed, well respected journals that publish careers research: Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Organization Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Personnel Psychology. In the fifty-seven studies that met the criterion imposed on the search, only 8 (14%) discussed occupational change or transitions to a different profession. The vast majority (63%) of the studies discussed internal mobility or turnover (studies of transitions between organizations that do not specifically address career transition magnitude). In a similar manner, the literature on changes in career identity is primarily on professional adaptation to new roles (Ibarra, 1999, Pratt, Rockmann & Kaufmann, forthcoming) and it is not clear that insights concerning adaptation to roles within organization or even within professions can be transferred to adaptation to roles within new organizations or new professions. For example, research on professional
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adaptation is rooted in identity theory and, as a result, examines the impact of others perceptions of the individual on identity construction within the same profession. To illustrate, in Ibarra's (1999) influential research on provisional selves, the participants are junior consultants or bankers that move from serving in analytic roles to more senior roles managing client relationships in thesame organization . However, it is not clear that the perceptions of others plays a similar role when people are deconstructing and reconstructing the self (Ebaugh, 1988) and the required changes in identity are more substantial such as leaving medicine or the priesthood to pursue entirely different careers including those of less status. Further, career transition research to date, even that which looks at sizeable career transitions (Ibarra, 2003) may not be sufficient to explain the serial, voluntary career transitions of varying magnitude that occur within the careers of many individuals. As a result, the literature currently offers career transition "snippets" rather than a holistic understanding of career transition, career identity and how one makes sense of their career. The purpose of this dissertation is to build and enrich theory around how individuals determine the size of a given career transition and "reinvent" their career identity to make such a career transition and therefore I examine the process of career transitions in two ways. First, in an exploratory qualitative study, I examine careers over the life course in alignment with early pioneers of career theory who suggested that "career" includes institutionalized roles as well as avocations where individuals are sometimes moving vertically but the career is not limited to vertical movement (Barley, 1989) and therefore I use biographical narratives to gain a better
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understanding of how individuals construct, navigate and make sense of the career over time rather than cross-sectionally. Second, I test a model based on the results of the exploratory qualitative study by quantitatively measuring the behaviors and perceptions of individuals concerning a current career transition. Although my interest is in building and enriching theory, I begin this dissertation by providing a brief theoretical review of career transition and career transition magnitude in Chapter 2.
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Table 1 Summary of Career Transitions Research
Type of Transition Internal mobility - promotions, level changes, job rotation, developmental experiences Number of Studies and Citation 16 Zhao & Zhou, 2004; Ibarra, 1999; Mael, Waldman, & Mulqueen, 2001; Singh & Greenhaus, 2004; Finegold, Mohrman, & Spreitzer, 2002, Ostroff & Clark, 2001; McCauley, Ruderman, Ohlott, & Morrow, 1994; Murrell, Frieze, & Olson, 1996; Miner, 1987; Campion, Cheraskin, & Stevens, 1994; Bruce & Scott, 1994; Miner & Robinson, 1994; Ohlott, Ruderman, & McCauley, 1994; Kondratuk, Hausdorf, Korabik, & Rosin, 2004; Latack, 1984; Prince, 2003 4 Noe & Barber, 1993, Eby & Dematteo, 2000, Feldman & Bolino, 1998, Munton & West, 1995 3 Kraimer & Wayne, 2004, Gregersen & Stroh, 1997, Gregersen & Black, 1996 2 Singh & Greenhaus, 2004, Bruce & Scott, 1994 2 Raghuram, Wiesenfeld, & Garud, 2003, Raghuram, Garud, Wiesenfeld, & Gupta, 2001 2 Thompson & Van de Ven, 2002, Wrzesniewski, 2001
Internal mobility geography/relocation Internal mobility - expatriate adjustment/repatriation Internal mobility change in function Internal change (telecommuting work style changes) Role change brought on by organizational change (physicians that change from practitioner to employee) Organizational entry
Change in organization (move from one organization to another)
Change in "field" (move from one occupation or profession to another) External mobility (unknown destination) Retirement Psychological orientation Nonwork roles
5 Singh & Greenhaus, 2004, Kammeyer-Mueller & Wanberg, 2003, Ashford & Black, 1996, Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, & Gardner, 1994, Jackson, Stone, & Alvarez, 1992 7 Pearce & Randel, 2004, Higgins, 2001, Kondratuk et al., 2004, Blau, 2000, Blau & Lunz, 1998, Lynn, Cao, & Horn, 1996, Blau, Tatum, & Ward-Cook, 2003 8 Smart & Peterson, 1997, Blau, 2000, Blau & Lunz, 1998, Oleski & Subick, 1996, Snape & Redman, 2003, Lee, Carswell, & Allen, 2000, Lynn et al., 1996, Blau et al., 2003 2 Robson, Wholey, & Barefield, 1996, Miner & Robinson, 1994 3 Feldman, 1994, Blau, 2000, Blau & Lunz, 1998 2 Stephens, 1994, Arnold & Nicholson, 1991 1 Mirvis & Hall, 1994
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Chapter 2: Literature Review and Exploratory Qualitative Study
Career Transitions and Magnitude: A Brief Review Studies involving career transition magnitude have been few (Latack, 1984; Bruce & Scott, 1994), thus, the construct has not been well defined. One of the earliest definitions is provided by Nicholson and West (1989) who define career transition magnitude1 in terms of the demands placed on the individual, that is, the novelty or radicalness of the career change in relation to one's current career role. Therefore, magnitude may be defined along a continuum ranging from low magnitudes, where there are minimal demands associated with transition, to high magnitudes where the change is dramatic. For example, a career transition involving intraorganizational movement such as changing from one job to another within the same function is a relatively low magnitude transition while a career transition that breaks industry or occupational boundaries would be characterized as a high magnitude transition. I further refine the definition of career magnitude to reflect that the demands associated with career transition magnitude can be thought of in terms of changes in career competencies: knowing why, knowing what and knowing whom (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1994, 1996). Knowing why competencies speak to identity or the beliefs, values and definition of self applied in the career context. Knowing what refers to the knowledge and skills associated with a particular career experience. Finally, knowing whom competencies reflect the relationships needed to learn and facilitate career growth. Thus, career transitions of low and high magnitude are differentiated by the
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Nicholson uses the term amplitude to discuss the size of a career transition in terms of how radical or novel the change is compared with the previous career role.
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degree to which a change in career choice or a new career role will demand significant investments in new relationships, skills, knowledge and changes in the career identity. Several theories implicitly or explicitly address the process of career transition and examine how or why individuals make career transitions of varying magnitudes. From these literatures, I identified three theories as especially helpful in understanding career transition magnitude: career and role transitions, social network theory and role exit theory. Though I ultimately found that each perspective provides insights into how individuals determine the magnitude of the transition they will pursue, none are adequate to explain my findings. This is due, in part to the fact that career magnitude is rarely discussed in studies of career transition (Bruce & Scott, 1994; Kirschenbaum & Weisberg, 2002; Latack, 1984; Nicholson & West, 1989). Career/Role Transitions. Research on career and role transition suggest that the process of career transition is cyclical comprised of preparation for the change, initial sensemaking once one is in the new role (encounter) followed by adjustment to provide for greater fit between the individual and the new role. Finally, the individual settles into the new role (stabilization) and the cycle begins again with preparation for entrance into the next role (Nicholson, 1984, 1987, Nicholson & West, 1989). In this literature, transitions are largely inter-organizational and role changes are imposed upon individuals. In contrast Rhodes and Doering's (1983, 1993) work on career change process does examine movement to a new occupation but defines this type of career change as atypical career movement and does not examine "job change" such as promotions at all. Thus, much of the transition literature stops short of examining
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how the career transition may be affected by changes in career magnitude ranging from promotion to voluntary changes in profession or movement outside of an organization. The research on career and role transitions also discusses identity change as a function of role change. According to Nicholson (1984), an individual may change their values, goals and self concept (absorption), may make changes in the assumed role (determination) or may experience and enact personal and role changes (exploration). Ibarra contributes significantly to this literature by examining the process of career transition and noting that individuals experiment with identity by observing others, determining identities that "match", and imitating and adapting those identities to discover the self best suited for the new role. While this research describes the process of identity construction, it focuses on identity as an outcome of transition but says little about identity change as an antecedent of career choice or how identity change might determine the size of career changes. Social Network Theory. A second literature that either implicitly or explicitly deals with career transition magnitude is research on social networks. Research on social networks and careers has investigated the relationship between network structure and career change. For example, Granovetter's (1973) seminal work on the strength of weak ties demonstrated that connections between individuals served as conduits for career information, specifically, career opportunities. Recent social networks/careers research has also explored the relationship of career range (the diversity in the social network) to career change. Higgins (2001) found that individuals with broad career networks were more likely to change careers than
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individuals with narrow career networks. She speculates that the positive relationship between network range and career change is the result of the importation of both opportunity and identity information. Further, there is recognition that social networks are critical to the understanding of one's career identity. "Social identity emerges through network processes: the people around us are active players in the co-creation of who we are at work. Our work identities are created, deployed and altered in social interactions with others" (Ibarra, Kilduff, & Tsai, 2005, p. 363). However, little is said of how social interactions and changes in work identities may influence the size or magnitude of the career transition that one chooses. Role Exit Theory. A third literature that deals with the process of career transition and career transition magnitude more directly is role exit theory. Ebaugh defines role exit as "the process of disengagement from a role that is central to one's self-identity and the reestablishment of an identity in a new role that takes into account one's ex-role" (p. 1). For example, Ebaugh studied ex-nuns, women who left the cloister to marry or pursue secular careers. Ebaugh also argues that there are two major steps in the role exit process: disengagement and re-identification.2 Disengagement, defined as withdrawing from relationships associated with the role exited, is characterized by a reduction in the number ofrelationships associated with the role that is being left, less frequent contact with individuals
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Ebaugh (1988) actually uses the terms disidentification. However, that term is used by organizational scholars to describe antagonism toward one's connection with an organization (Bhattacharya & Elsbach, 2002; Elsbach & Bhattacharya, 2001). Therefore, I choose the term re-identification to give the sense of disconnecting from and establishing a new career identity as well as to avoid confusion with the definition of disidentitifaction used in prior organizational studies.
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associated with that role and a decrease in the quality or intimacy of the interaction with individuals associated with the role one is leaving (Kahn, 1990). The role exit process also includes re-identification. Re-identification occurs when individuals shift identities, that is, define themselves according to the current role less and adopt a definition of self consistent with the role they are adopting. Thus, individuals may shift reference groups and internalize the norms and values of the desired group showing greater identification with the new group and the desired role. However, to date, careers researchers have done little investigation of how role exit and the concomitant changes in identity influence the size of career transition. Thus, while research in role exit theory, career/role transitions and social network theory is promising, these concepts remain a loose set of confederates providing little insight into the relationship between career identity and career transition magnitude determination. I seek to redress this shortcoming by building theory on how career transition magnitude is determined and career transitions of various magnitudes are pursued. METHODS Sample and Participants The aim of this section of the dissertation is to build theory in the area of career transition and to extend existing theory on career transitions and determination of career transition magnitude. I adopt the view held by Nicholson and West that "career" describes the sense that individuals make of their work histories or sequence of work experiences and, as a result, qualitative research is uniquely positioned to provide an opportunity to explore the ways individuals come to understand their
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careers (Miles & Huberman, 1994) by capturing the individuals perceptions of their careers in their own words. In order to build and elaborate theory, I searched for participants that could offer variety across the types of career transition magnitude possible (Stake, 2000). That is, the sample for the exploratory qualitative study contains individuals that have experienced at least two career transitions of varying magnitudes. Therefore, there are individuals within the sample who have made career transitions of large magnitude as well as those that have experienced transitions of small magnitude. Further, individuals were obtained through snowball sampling (Visser, Krosnick, & Lavrakas, 2000). In snowball sampling, respondents are asked to identify individuals that would also serve as good study respondents. While snowball sampling does not ensure a random sample of respondents, it is an excellent method to gather study subjects for theory building when the sampling characteristic is somewhat uncommon. Therefore, I asked my initial respondents if they knew of other people who had made significant career transitions in an attempt to locate people who would have experienced transitions of varying magnitudes. Table 2.1 describes each respondent and their career transitions. Data collection was accomplished through two complementary processes: biographical narratives and semi-structured interviews. Interviews and biographical information were collected from 12 individuals. These narratives covered 42 career transitions or approximately 3.5 career transitions per person. 33% or 4 of the participants were male. 58% or 7 of the participants were married. The individuals
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within the sample were all over 30 years of age. All the participants in the sample had a bachelor's degree. Most also had advanced degrees (83% or 10 participants). Although this study involves a small number of respondents, the number of cases or transitions analyzed (42) provides for a rich understanding of career transition magnitude and the dual data collection methods help to establish theoretical saturation which is defined as occurring when new data fits into categories that have been previously defined (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Charmaz, 2000). I read through each of the biographical narratives developing preliminary codes and their properties. Then, I conducted semi-structured interviews with respondents. The codes developed during the analysis of the biographical narratives were used and described in the analysis of the semi-structured interviews. I provide a detailed review of the data collection methods below. Biographical Narratives. To complete the biographical narrative, participants were asked to think about their career history as a book. They were asked to write an introduction to the story that provides an overview and any background that might be relevant to the reader. Next, the individuals were instructed to think of each career transition as a chapter in the book and to describe when the transition occurred (age), and provide a title for each chapter. Finally, they were asked to write an epilogue where they reflected on the experiences and discussed the sense they have made of the story and where they believed their career was headed next. The length of the biographical narratives ranged from 1 to 8 pages. A short sample narrative is provided in Figure 2.1.
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Table 2.1 Study Respondents and Career Transitions Included in Study
Name John Transition 1 From chemistry major (college and first job) to industrial sales From college to variety of psychology and Master's From political science major (college and first job) to seminary From law student to first job in law firm Moving within organization to various jobs and departments (analyst) From variety of jobs to college administrati on From priest to jobs with the state From musician and promoter to law student From college to series of temp jobs Transition 2 From industrial sales to academia Transition 3 Transition 4 Transition 5 Transition 6
Mar y
Barb ara
From counselor (master's degree) to PhD psychologist From seminary to work at nonprofit
From full time to part time psychologist jobs and new organization From nonFrom stay at profit to home stay-atparenting to home coordinator parenting
From coordinator to psychologist with an organization (PhD)
From psychologist to private practice
Susan
Michelle
Moving within law firm practice ar eas From analyst to manager
From lawyer to priest
Shelby
Derrick
Ke n
From college admin to PhD program in college admin From jobs with the state to professor From law student to lawyer
From manager back to various jobs and departments (analyst) From PhD program to college admin
From analyst to private law practice
From college admin to HR
From professor to retirement From lawyer to lawyer in a different firm From nonprofit to part-time work From lawyer to consultant, author From parttime work to entrepreneur
Sheila
From series of temp jobs to non-profit
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Paul
Marilyn
From engineering to MBA From fulltime to contract lawyer From aviation mechanic to aviation safety
Jessica
From MBA to entrepreneur From contract lawyer to doctoral student From aviation safety to aviation law
From entrepreneur to academia
To different law firms within aviation law
From private law firms to the federal government
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Intro to career history I started working on a job that influenced my career choices early - in high school, when I was employed as a student reporter for a regional newspaper. This was meaningful because I had always been told I was a good writer, and planned to major in Journalism upon entering college, which I did (Communications major). I have remained an active writer throughout my career, and it plays a major role in my current profession as a lawyer. State and Age Pre-career stage, 16 Realizing necessity of college degree, 19 Post-college secretarial work, 21 Planning for graduate school, 22 Move to Atlanta, 23 Enrollment in Grad school, 25 Receipt of M.P.A. degree, 27 Federal employment, 27-43 Graduation from law school, 33 Transition from management, 27 Complete upheaval & confusion, 37-43 Resignation & entrepreneurship, 43 Chapter Title Evolving as a Journalist Not just a Kelly Girl The Wyatt Years No Plan, No Future Overqualified Secretary On My Way First Real Job - Presidential Mgt Internship The Land of Opportunity First managerial position First "Failure" Escape Reborn: Charting my own course
Epilogue Stepping out from a secure job, starting my own practice and thereby finding my own way has proved more exciting, "right", and timely that I could have imagined. I have found new opportunities, colleagues, confidence and even a meshing with my singing avocation. I have learned to trust my intuition, to take a chance, to realize that opportunities are there for the taking. There are some sacrifices; I took a 60% pay cut. But I hope, and believe, the monetary rewards are forthcoming. The rewards of freedom and meaning are already being realized. I have no regrets, except perhaps that I had done it sooner, and had take care of a few more financial details first. The future holds whatever I can handle and attempt. It amazes me that within six months of resigning from my job I have almost more clients than I can handle, have gained visibility and prominence within my new arena, and am thinking of ways to manage growth while expanding. Amazing. At the same time, the amount of work for which I am now responsible can be overwhelming, and requires management as well. Yet when I think of what I was managing before - frustration, a sense of aimlessness and insignificance, feeling I had maximized my potential 20 years before retirement, disconnectedness from my work in particular and career success in general the tradeoff seems more than fair! I am grateful to have made the transition, and anticipate a bright and challenging career future. Figure 2.1. Biographical Narrative of Interviewee #105 - Michelle
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Semi-structured Interviews. After I received the biographical narrative, I conducted interviews with each respondent. The interviews took place face-to-face as well as by telephone. The interviews ranged from approximately 60-120 minutes. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim3. Additionally, I took detailed notes of each interview. The interviews selectively discussed transitions based on magnitude and recency. I took this approach to maximize the value of the information collected in the limited interview time frames. Although interview protocols were modified during data collection to take advantage of emerging themes (Spradley, 1979), common to each interviews were questions about: a) the meaningfulness of the career choice to the individual and significant others (career identity centrality), b) career transition considerations, c) descriptions of defining moments and subsequent career exit behaviors, d) network characteristics and network member reactions to career transition decisions and e) consequences associated with the career transition. Data Analysis In an iterative fashion, I analyzed the qualitative data by traveling back and forth between the data and theory as a structure of theoretical arguments emerged (Miles & Huberman, 1994, Pratt et al forthcoming). This analysis utilized three major steps. Step 1: Creating a provisional "start list" of codes. This list was based on a preliminary conceptual framework derived from the literature review as suggested by
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One interview was not recorded because of technical difficulties (interview #104). However, the notes were sent electronically to the respondent to ensure accuracy. The respondent provided a review and additional information as requested.
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Miles and Huberman (1994). I initially conceptualized career transition magnitude as being driven primarily by the individual's career identity. However, I also posited that the opinions of significant others have an influence on the size of career transitions and that the actual size of a career transition is influenced by the exit behaviors individuals engage in as they consider career transition. Contact summary sheets were written up after each of the first nine interviews to allow reflection on emerging concepts and themes (Miles and Huberman, 1994). The information surfaced by the use of the contact summary sheets was used to establish new codes as well as questions that should be used in subsequent interviews. As new codes were added, I reviewed transcripts and biographical narratives to determine if there was data that fit into the new codes. This review of data led to the clarification of code definitions as well as abandoning other codes. Step 2: Between case analysis of provisional codes and creating pattern codes. To develop pattern codes, I examined the summary sheets across interviews and looked for common themes between informants as well as differences among informants with transitions of varying magnitudes. "Pattern codes are explanatory or inferential codes that identify an emergent them, configuration or explanation?they are a sort of mega codes (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 69). For example, as I looked across informants it became clear that career transitions of large magnitude take longer and are discussed by respondents as "gradual" (42% of transitions involving profession or occupational change) and preceded by a career transition considerations of various size (47% of transitions involving profession or occupational change had statements concerning career transition considerations)
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while smaller transitions such as promotion were described as gradual less frequently (16%) and considerations were discussed in fewer cases (33%). Step 3. Developing constructs and a theoretical framework. Once pattern codes were developed, I formed theoretical categories and initial propositions concerning the relationship between these categories. Additionally, I examined the data for "conceptual analogues" (Miles & Huberman, 1994) in the extant literature to provide support for the emergent conceptual framework. For example, the consideration of career transitions of various magnitudes seemed to be a part of career growth and career identity development (Hall, 2002). Career growth is defined as "the actual creation of new aspects of the self, in the career area" (p. 72). Thus, I hypothesized that career transition considerations are positively related to behaviors associated with reshaping the career identity (re-identification) and disengagement activities that move the individual toward development of the self and the career. The process that I followed is summarized in Table 2.2. This shows the provisional codes, pattern codes, and the key constructs of the theoretical framework. The framework describes the process of career transition magnitude determination.
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Table 2.2. Qualitative Data Structure Overview
Provisional Codes Statements that indicate career identity centrality or that the career was meaningful to the individual (e.g. "seeing direct impacts" on clients, "rewarding", "passionate") Pattern Codes There are many things that indicate the meaningfulness of the career to an individual's definition self such as allows authenticity, balance, or a return to earlier selves, etc. Individuals also discuss the importance of other identities in global self-concept which may conflict with career identity. Key Constructs Definitions of self: Career identity centrality Identity conflict
Statements about the work environment offering (or failing to offer) validating experiences, challenge, fit, freedom, job satisfaction, prestige, positive or negative ties, etc.
Statements about factors that external or societal factors that pushed respondents in to pursing a career transition that was considered Statements concerning exit behaviors Active behaviors such as borrowing money, counseling, taking courses or enrolling in degree programs, experimentation, job hunting, joining or becoming more active in professional organizations, reading, relationship building, seeking role models, sabbaticals, simultaneous roles, talking, transitioning work, etc. Many people indicate that the responses of network members were important in transition magnitude. Additionally, dynamism in the careers of others as well as the role models in the network influenced magnitude of transition considerations. Considerations come in all magnitudes and are the result of self-reflection, information from counselors and others, gradual as there is constant evaluation and exploration, learning about career and learning about self resulting in career growth and personal development Statements that indicate how individuals evaluate career alternatives such as whether it allows some expression of an avocation, family concerns may play a role in evaluation (both financial, geography), spouse's move, insecurities, money (or not money), other perspectives, spiritual considerations Statements about "bad" decisions, realizations about self or career path post transition, regrets, worry as well as hope for becoming the person that they want to be, excitement, optimism, pride, satisfaction, social, and thanksgiving.
Validation and Violation of Self: Organizational satisfaction and Strong coworker ties Challenges to Self: Social and personal turbulence Experimenting with Self: Reidentfication and Disengagement
Statements concerning the response of network members to cues of career transition Statements that indicate consideration of possible career alternatives ("I considered working for another firm", "considered teaching")
Reflections of Self: Network structure and response Magnitude considerations
Opportunity evaluation
Statements concerning the negative and positive consequences of career transitions
Transition sensemaking
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I continue with a brief overview of my findings and this chapter concludes with the hypotheses used in the quantitative study of the process of career transition magnitude determination. FINDINGS Upon looking at the data from the respondents, two main findings emerged. First, there are differences in the process of career transition as a function of magnitude. As noted in Table 2.3 (a truncated version of the magnitude pattern coding provided in its entirety in Appendix E), some constructs were mentioned in high magnitude transition cases more frequently than in those of low magnitude transition cases. Second, Table 2.2 reflects career identity plays a strong role in the process of career transitions and especially in transitions of increasing magnitude such that even organizational or societal events, for example, were seen as validations, violations, or challenges to the understanding of self (Appendix E).
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Table 2.3. Career Transition Magnitude Analysis by Pattern Code, Provisional Code
Magnitude Description of Transition
5 Changing professions
Sample Transition
Analyst to lawyer, from aviation mechanic to aviation lawyer Remaining as a psychologist but changing organizations Analyst to lawyer, from aviation mechanic to aviation lawyer Analyst to lawyer, from aviation mechanic to aviation lawyer Transitioning from career as "student" to pursuing career path dictated by major - law student to lawyer Moving within an single organization to a number of positions Remaining as a psychologist but changing organizations
# of transitions with magnitude
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Pattern Code
Exit behaviors
Code
Borrow money
# transitions with code
2
% transitions with code
10
3
Changing organizations
7
Exit behaviors
Career counseling
2
29
5
Changing professions
20
Exit behaviors
Career counseling
5
20
5
Changing professions
20
Exit behaviors
Taking courses or pursuing certification, etc. Taking courses or pursuing certification, etc
9
45
1
Changing levels or seeking a promotion
11
Exit behaviors
4
36
2
Changing functions
3
Exit behaviors
Taking courses or pursuing certification, etc Taking courses or pursuing certification, etc.
1
33
3
Changing organizations
7
Exit behaviors
2
29
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In describing the process of career transition magnitude determination, I begin with a discussion of career identity and identity conflict which provide insight into how individuals evaluated opportunities and the magnitude of transitions considered. I continue by addressing how the context and attitudes toward the work and social context such as organizational satisfaction, social and personal turbulence, relationships with coworkers, and network influences correlate with opportunity evaluation and transition consideration magnitude. Finally, I discuss the relationship of opportunity evaluation and transition consideration magnitude to disengagement and re-identification. I conclude the chapter proposing a theoretical framework and hypotheses that build theory in the area of career transition magnitude and provide a basis for testing in Chapter 3. Definitions of self: Career Identity Centrality and Identity Conflict What shapes career path and transition decisions? Much careers research suggests that career decisions are an outgrowth of an understanding of the self (Hall, 2002; Holland, 1985;Roe, 1957; Super, 1957, 1990). Scholars have used a number of different terms to capture individuals' career identity such as occupational identity (Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999), professional identity (Ibarra, 1999) and career subidentity (Hall, 1971, 2002). In this dissertation, the term "career identity" is defined as the cognitive representation of the self derived from past work experiences, beliefs, values, attributes and motives that define the individual in terms of their work roles. This definition is consistent with the meanings that underlie all three terms as well as definitions of identity and self-schema (Markus, 1977). A career identity may be considered central when the career identity is important to one's global definition of
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self and dominates other identities in one's view of self (Rosenberg, 1979; Stryker & Burke, 2000; Stryker & Serpe, 1994). Logically, we can expect career identity centrality to play a central role in the evaluation of transition opportunities and the magnitude of transitions considered. One illustration of how career identity centrality influences the magnitude of intended career transitions from my data is Marilyn, a former lawyer currently pursuing a doctorate in industrial psychology as a foundation for a career in academia. As she ends her degree program and contemplates her next career transition, she states thatshe is learning toward position s at teaching universities or consulting firms rather than research universities because the identity as a researcher is not a central identity. It's kind of like the law, it hasn't been something that drove me, like there's no, I don't have this real intrinsic interest in it, so I just kind of do it. However, an individual has many important identities such as a parent identity or daughter identity (Hall, 1986) and it is likely that at times the demands of one identity cause conflict with the demands of another important identity (Settles, Sellers, & Damas Jr., 2002). Therefore, while the career identity and it's centrality in one's definition of self will influence career decision making, it is only one identity in a hierarchy of identities such that conflicts between identities may also drive career decision making (Lobel & St. Clair, 1992; McCall & Simmons, 1966). For example, during Mary's career transition from a full time university counseling psychologist to a part-time university counseling psychologist in a chapter
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she titled "Motherhood?changes everything", she found a conflict between her identity as a new mother and as a career woman. I was one of those people, and my boss even remembers me, I remember before I had [her son], I said, "no, I like what I do, I'll definitely go back to work full time" and a month into maternity leave, I said, "I have to get out of this house and I want to go back to work' and because I like what I do, I've always liked what I do, and I want to have that professional life. So, I knew that very early on but I also didn't want to go back to the intensity [of the university counseling center]. I didn't want to go back to full time work. Finally, as magnitude increases, it appears that many of the codes associated with centrality are mentioned with decreasing frequency (Appendix E). For example, individuals who changed professions mentioned the importance of authenticity in 58% of cases while individuals involved in changing functions or changing organizations mentioned influencing in 67% and 63% of cases respectively. This may be due to the high degree of centrality of a current career choice such that the person cannot imagine being defined by a career choice that is significantly different (recall that changes high in magnitude equal significant changes in knowing what, knowing whom and knowing why). These data suggest that definitions of self, demonstrated in career identity centrality and identity conflict, play an important role in the magnitude of intended transitions (considerations) and the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. Therefore: Hypothesis 1a: Career identity centrality is negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities.
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Hypothesis 1b: Career identity centrality is negatively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Hypothesis 1c: Identity conflict is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. Hypothesis 1d: Identity conflict is positively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Validation and Violation of Self: Organizational Satisfaction and Strong Coworker Ties How does the process of magnitude determination unfold? Many individuals seemed to struggle with particular choices along the career path experiencing a type of career identity violation or seeking career identity validation. These struggles are often captured in the biographical narrative titles chosen such as: "Bench chemistry ain't for me", "I am who I was meant to be", "The golden handcuffs are too tight", "The negreto (the darkness)", "Finding a new path", "Reborn: Charting my own course" and "Finding my own voice." Often, violations and validations of the self in a current career choice became defining experiences leading to transition and were linked to organizational satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) and strong positive (or negative) coworker ties. To illustrate: I felt it was far beneath what I was capable of and uninteresting if nothing else. [Michelle - organizational dissatisfaction]
I was really hiding [being inauthentic] 'cause I didn't really like them that much and I didn't like being there. [Ken - negative coworker ties]
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The identity and self-concept literature shows that individuals tend toward self-enhancement and self-verification and, as a result, selectwork situations where their values are reflected and their sense of self worth will be validated (Crocker & Park, 2000; Kristof, 1996; Kristof-Brown, 2005; Schneider, 1987). Intriguingly, research shows that even when an individual has a negative self-concept, they will still seek self-verification choosing situations and interaction partners that validate the self-concept (McNulty & Swann, 1994; Swann, 1987;Swann & Hill, 1982; Swann, Stein-Seroussi, & Geisler, 1992). Indeed, the qualitative data seems to suggest that the statements signifying violation of the self-concept or a need for verification of the self-concept increased as a function of magnitude. For example, 42% of the cases involving profession change mentioned misfit while those changing organizations or functions mentioned misfit in 38% and 33% of the cases. Thus, it appearsthat the greater the degree of fit and the more satisfied one is with the current organizational context including relationship to coworkers, the less likely the individual is to favorably evaluate career transition opportunities or to make career transitions of significant magnitude. Hypothesis 2a: Organizational satisfaction is negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. Hypothesis 2b: Organizational satisfaction is negatively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Hypothesis 2c: Strong coworker ties are negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities.
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Hypothesis 2d: Strong coworker ties are negatively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Challenges to Understanding of Self: Social and Personal Turbulence How do factors in the wider environment influence one's career path? Hall (1986) suggests that there are "triggers" that signal an opportunity for choice resulting in exploration and possibly, changes in the career path. These triggers include changes in society, major external events or personal life changes such as changes in an individual's family or health. More recently, Wrzniewski (2002) discusses how the bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11 changed work meanings for many individuals and became the impetus for changes in the career path. Individuals in my study discussed the importance of both social and personal turbulence in challenging their current understandings of self and the direction that the career path should take in the future. This is the time, not only of the assassinations but the Viet Nam moratorium and things like that so just suddenly feeling that maybe it wasn't me, maybe I just needed to be in a different place [Barbara]
At that time, the aviation work, you know, aviation was in bad shape before 9/11 and then after 9/11, the aviation work was just non-existent. The firm, or no, the airlines and stuff, anybody in aviation basically couldn't afford to pay the firm [Jessica]
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I do realize part of what was wrong was I got impatient and that impatience was driven by?the death of [wife's] father. I was very close to him, and her moving here, my desire to be with her and I think I had a secret desire to be with her also for my own self, not just be husband and be supportive but also because I was hurting about that as well. [Ken] Thus, social and personal turbulence triggers are indicated in the favorable evaluation of career opportunities. Additionally, in general, more statements indicating the influence of social and personal turbulence were present in transitions of higher magnitude than in those of lower magnitude. Therefore, I predict: Hypothesis 3a: Social and personal turbulence is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. Hypothesis 3b: Social and personal turbulence is positively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Reflections of Self: Network Structure and Response. How do others influence the determination of career transition magnitude? From the earliest hypotheses concerning identity, scholars have suggested that our beliefs about who others think we are have a profound impact on our own selfconceptions (McCall & Simmons, 19966; Roberts, Dutton, Spreitzer, Heaphy, & Quinn, 2005; Tice & Wallace, 2003). This is clearly seen in Cooley's (1902) description of the looking glass self or the self that is constructed and reconstructed as a result of glimpsing the self through interaction with significant others. Career identities are constructed in a similar manner with the reflected appraisal of others influencing one's view of the self including one's strengths and weaknesses (Ibarra,
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1999; Markus & Nurius, 1986; Roberts et al, 2005). In Ibarra's insightful study of junior consultants and bankers transitioning into new roles, she found the following: External parties also confer identity by providing social signals about who one is becoming. By gauging others' reaction to their behavior, people learn more about who they and who they want to be?others' reactions lead junior members to come to think of themselves in new terms and begin to act and feel accordingly." [Ibarra, 1999, p. 781] The respondents in my study suggested that the evaluations of others on the career had a significant impact on career transitions considered and pursuit of career transitions. For example, Michelle, an analyst for the federal government suggests that she did not like the reflection she saw in the eyes of others and that lead to pursuit of a profession change: Interviewer: Was it [her work for the federal government] meaningful to other people in your life? Michelle: I never thought that, no. I think that's one of the reasons that I sought a law degree. Additionally, respondents found that as they considered career transitions of significant magnitude, they often received a great deal of encouragement and affirmation from significant others. Such positive responses from the network seemed to facilitate career transitions of significant magnitude. To illustrate: I would actually say he was one of the people that planted the seed that I could really do this, would be my own therapist as well as my friend. Then
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lots of people who offered whatever help I needed to get started [Barbara on transition to private practice] Role models also seemed to play a significant role in magnitude as suggested by Markus and Nurius (1986), the career transitions of others were instructive: "what others are now, I could become", (p. 954). I had some good friends who had done the same thing [transitioning because they wanted more life balance]. Sol they were good role models, just kind of forging the way and saying 'no, this is what I want.' [Mary on transition to part time work following birth of first child]
I have always?gravitated towards these articles and magazines?spotlighting somebody who made a transition. I always made a mental note of people who, you know, just up and quit their jobs and why and how well they did afterwards. So, I was influenced by that to read that you know, people can do it and many people have done it. You can do it, too. [Michelle on transition from analyst with federal government to private law practice] Often, the role models are from a variety of career types suggesting that greater diversity in the variety of career contexts may have an influence on career transition magnitude and the evaluation of opportunities. Indeed, research by Higgins (2001) found that network diversity directly affected career change. Although her empirical results did not fully examine why, she did report that network membership yielded no increases in the number of opportunities leading to career change. Instead, she posited that a diverse network changed one's thinking about career and career
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opportunities. My data seems to support this supposition because in the cases where individuals identified networks, those with diverse networks made the greatest transitions (Table 2.4). In this table, range represents the percentage of network members from different occupations or professions. Hypothesis 4a: Network career range is positively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Hypothesis 4b: Network career range is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities, that is, transition opportunities will be evaluated more favorably when network career range is high.
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Table 2.4. Network Member Career Range
Interviewee and Member 1 and career most recent choice transition John - industrial Equipment sales sales to academia Mary - full time Psychologist psychologist to part time psychologist Barbara - full Professor time psychologist to psychologist in private practice Susan - attorney Attorney to Episcopalian priest Shelby - doctoral Professor student in college administration/ college administrator to human resource professional Ken - attorney to Pastor consultant, author Member 2 and career choice Entrepreneur Psychologist and mother Member 3 and career choice University business school professor Psychologist and mother Member 4 and career choice Psychologist Industrial sales Member 5 and career choice Maintenance manager Member 6 and career choice Range
100% 25%
Homemaker
Therapist/psychologist
Psychologist
40%
Attorney
Professor
Actress
Attorney
Doctoral student/women studies
50%
Professor
Vice president (at a university)
33%
Doctoral student
Was hesitant to name influences on decision making, felt that decision was not influenced by others in general
100%
Other Respondents
Either identified only one network member or did not identity a network, did not feel that the career network exerted influence
NA
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Consideration of Possible Selves: Magnitude of Intended Transitions Ibarra's (1999) research on role transitions found that a key step in professional adaptation was identifying possible selves. Possible selves are defined by Markus and Nurius (1986) as "the ideal selves that we would very much like to become" (p. 954) but also the selves that we want to avoid becoming. Therefore, in my construction of the interview protocol, I asked individuals to tell me about career transitions that they considered to get an idea of the possible selves that individuals were constructing and the size of the career transition that results from these visions of self. This link between possible selves and the magnitude of intended career transitions is crucial because it determines the motivation or the direction, intensity and persistence with which individuals will move toward desired career transitions (Locke, 1997; Markus & Nurius, 1986). The participants seemed to conceive of a number of possible selves: I thought maybe about more teaching but I knew I really didn't want to go in route of tenure track, publications, things like that. That didn't seem to be the direction. So, I think it became sort of an obvious decision to start out on my own practice. [Barbara on transition to private practice]
When she left the firm, she wasn't sure that she would leave the law. Considered teaching but didn't have the publications?also considered being part time in seminary while still full time at the firm, considered and applied for jobs at non-profits. [Susan on transition to priesthood, from field notes]
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I explored all kinds of careers?I considered going into another program. I just did a lot of things to explore what my next step would be. I considered?different types of fields. [Shelby on transition from doctoral program in college administration to human resource management]
Oh, I considered so many things! Running my own catering business, going and getting my MBA?what else did I think of? I tried to think of everything and anything that you know, seemed interesting to me. [Marilyn on transition from attorney to doctoral program in organizational/industrial psychology] Therefore, career transition considerations and the magnitude of intended career transitions motivate career transition behavior and enables determination of transition magnitude for "ultimate" transition. Opportunity Evaluation Turnover research has long suggested that the decision to make changes in the career path is mediated by the evaluation of opportunities using criteria such as ease of movement, availability of alternatives, and the possibility of values attainment in a new career choice (March & Simon, 1958; Mobley, Griffeth, Hand, & Meglino, 1979, Maertz & Campion, 2004). Further, Markus and Nurius (1986) found that possible selves are antecedents to behavior; however, this relationship is mediated by beliefs about what is possible and the importance of these beliefs. So, the favorability of an opportunity for achieving important goals or achieving values congruence will determine whether individuals engage in behaviors that lead to career transition.
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In my study, participants conducted a variety of evaluations considering opportunities, money, avocations, values and other important factors. For example, consider Paul's evaluation of entrepreneurship versus taking a prestigious job with large, Fortune 100 firms: So, I told my wife, 'well, let's do this for maybe three years and if it doesn't work out I'm sure I could go to Bank of America or something. I could go back and interview again.' So, I felt kind of safe. [Paul on transitioning into entrepreneurship] In some cases, such as Jessica's, the individual has a career dream and each career transition is evaluated on the basis of how it may help her to achieve the dream: The aviation work?began to dry up and I found myself doing less and less aviation and I'm thinking?I can't continue to do this because this is going to weaken my long term goal. I need to get as much aviation experience as I possibly can. So?the second firm that I went to had a very, very thriving aviation transactional work practice [Jessica on transition to another firm] Individuals may also evaluate their strengths and whether a transition would make better use of their skills, talents and aptitudes. I just started evaluating what I might be good at. It didn't seem like it was chemistry, enough to be wealthy [John on transition away from chemistry and toward industrial sales]
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Money also played an important role in opportunity evaluation. Although individuals may have transitioned and accepted less money, money was an issue that had to be considered. I was afraid?what was I going to do for money, for my mortgage or my livelihood?my practice was a practice that was started as a side business. It was never designed to support me financially. I'm a single woman. I have no other source of financial support. So, it was, I was certainly concerned about money. [Michelle on transition to private law practice]
These golden handcuffs?I was able to make a good income. You know, why risk that?it would have been easier if I was making less money at my primary job. That would've made it easier [John on transition from industrial sales to academia] Experimenting with Self: Re-identification and Disengagement. How do individuals engage in the process of career transition and fix on a specific career magnitude and direction? Although the antecedents mentioned above (such as organizational satisfaction, social and personal turbulence, network range) have an impact on opportunity evaluation and the magnitude of the intended career transition, research shows that experimentation or trying out new roles facilitates transition (Ebaugh, 1988; Ibarra, 1999). Ibarra (2003) suggest that individuals often engage in liminal experiences to assist in career transitions: "sabbaticals, vacations and leisure activity, for example are temporal means of gaining freedom from institutional obligations and, therefore, freedom to play with new ideas" (p. 3). The
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participants in my study engaged in a variety of behaviors aimed at transition "play" and reconceiving the self such as career counseling, enrolling in courses or degree programs, joining or becoming active in professional organizations, developing relationships, and talking possible career transitions through with others. For example: I was just tired of trying to figure it out and so that's why I hired this guy. I was like, someone has to help me figure this out?I remember him vaguely pushing a little bit on like, what other areas of law but he also seemed to think?based on my testing outcomes?there was a huge opportunity for me to find something that really suited me. [Marilyn on the transition from attorney to academia]
Well, first, I went back for my MBA. So, there is an example of how you can tell it was building for years because I wasn't going back to get my MBA to become a better salesman. You know, I was trying to do something that I thought would get me out of the industrial sales [John on transition from industrial sales to academia]
There's this girl?I had met through a friend at a part like years before and listening to what she did, what she was studying, I was like, 'oh, that's so interesting. What is that?' and it kind of popped back into my head?because I was interested in psychology?I went and called her up and took her to lunch [Marilyn on the transition from attorney to academia]
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Moreover, statements concerning re-identification and disengagement behaviors tend to be correlated with larger transitions. For example, statements about returning to school or taking certification courses are mentioned in 47% of the cases involving profession changes and only 33% of those seeking changes in level and 25% of those changing organizations. Similarly, individuals that changed professions talked more about simultaneous career experiences such as starting a business on the side or taking a part time job (53% of cases) than those that changed organizations or changed levels (38% and 17% of cases respectively). Therefore, the data suggest that career transition magnitude and the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities are related to disengagement and re-identification behaviors. Hypothesis 5a: The favorable evaluation of transition opportunities is positively related to disengagement. Hypothesis 5b: The favorable evaluation of transition opportunities is positively related to re-identification. Hypothesis 6a: The magnitude of intended career transition is positively related to disengagement. Hypothesis 6b. The magnitude of intended career transition is positively related to reidentification. Transition Sensemaking Hall, Zhu and Yan (2002) ask the following insightful question regarding career sensemaking: How can one change in a way that keeps one true to one's career history and basic values but still engenders a fundamental transformation of identity that
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is congruent with the new adaptive behavior unfolding over time and that is still integrated with one's earlier identity? [Hall, Zhu & Yan, 2002, p. 160] Role exit research (Ebaugh, 1988) and my data may help to answer this question by focusing on role residual, that is, the carrying of a previous career identity into the transition. Ebaugh refers to role residual as "hangover identity" (p. 173) and found that professionals or individuals in highly visible roles (e.g. celebrities) experienced a greater degree of role residual than non-professionals. In a similar manner, individuals within my sample that experienced transitions of great magnitude discussed a greater degree of role residual. For example, Jessica who was once an aviation mechanic and became an aviation attorney expressed feelings that she never really left aviation mechanics. Derrick, a former Catholic priest carries the Catholic identity, such that it precluded him from becoming an Episcopalian priest, as well as the "minister" identity, as he continues to look for ministry opportunities in his work and his volunteer work as a lay leader in the Catholic church. Ken, a former musician and music promoter who is now an attorney and consultant discusses role residual in this way: Well, when you look at the resume' and/or the Bio, it appears I shifted careers, but I didn't really view it as shifting careers at the time. In fact, even looking back, I still don't because I didn't really decide to stop doing music? I wasn't the guy who was playing and decided, ' I don't want to play any more, I want to be a lawyer.' I'm actually still playing and looking forward to going back into um, music on a more regular basis, probably as early as next
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year. I want to produce a CD and really pick up where I left off before I went to law school. Hall and his colleagues suggest that individuals that are competent in career change make sense of career change through response learning or reading external signals to understand the environment and its requirements, identity exploration or uncovering knowledge about the self and integrative potential or seeing the congruence between the transition and the self. Many of the individuals in the qualitative sample seemed to make sense of the career according to these principles. For example, previous career transitions were considered unsuccessful when the individuals did not see congruence between the career choice and the self. I shouldn't have taken it to be honest with you. One of the things that I talk about in this book [in a book he is writing on dating] is how people fall within one of three zones of compatibility?one is the red zone, zero to minimum compatibility, the other is the yellow zone, which is moderate to high?and the green zone is maximum and what you want obviously is maximum compatibility and if you don't find that, you should move on and so when looking back at the job, this job was like yellow to red. It was even like a high yellow. It was like a yellow to a red and I knew that, but I convinced myself that it was the right thing to do. [Ken on his transition from a very prestigious attorney role to entrepreneurship, consulting] In other cases, individuals are making sense of the career by reflecting on what they have learned about themselves or the career choice that leads them to believe they are now in the right place.
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I've been progressing slowly to me?it's almost like you've heard them say before, people without a vision will perish but I've got my eye on the prize. I feel like I'm really moving. [Shelby on transition from doctoral program to human resource management] On the other hand, making a transition does not alleviate all worries. Often individuals in the study expressed the realization that the career change may not be able to live up to all of their expectations or they may not be as competent in the new career path as they would like. However, there is a sense of openness or hope about the future as demonstrated by Marilyn as she discusses why she titles the final chapter "Finding my own voice":
?really listening and kind of believing the kind of things that I'm good at and
interested in, that I don't have to be in the same mind as other people. I don't even have to be as good as other people. I just need to be happy with how much I'm doing, whether it be less or more than people around me are doing, how much time I reserve for myself?to do other things that I like [Marilyn on the transition from attorney to academia] Additionally, relationships often changed or ended as a result of transition. In some cases, there was regret about the change in the relationship. Yet, individuals seemed to feel that relationship change was inevitable especially if the relationships were not close (e.g. relationships with coworkers). Finally, in many cases, the relationships changed for the better or the ties were maintained despite geographical or organizational boundaries.
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The people that I worked with at that firm, they are among my best friends. I mean, even now I still keep in touch with them?you spend a lot of time with people. You develop very close relationships and so?I love these people dearly and I still?e-mail them back and forth every day, just about, I'm getting an email from somebody at my first firm [Jessica on organizational transition from one law firm to another law firm] Therefore, while there are a range of possible outcomes for transitions of varying magnitude, individuals seemed to make sense of the career in ways that are dependent, to some extent, on career transition magnitude such that those experiencing large transitions discussed a greater degree of role residual (demonstrated in the need to create the image of a consistent self) as well as expressed more hope, learning about the self and satisfaction than individuals with small magnitude transitions. Theoretical Framework Figure 2.2 is a summary of my main findings to help make sense of the concepts and their relationships. This illustration reflects how identity, network relationships and the determination of career transition magnitude are intricately linked as described in Table 2.1.
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Definitions of self: Career identity and identity conflict Validation and violations of self: Organizational satisfaction and strong coworker ties Challenges to self: Social and personal turbulence Reflections of self: Network structure and member response Magnitude of intended career transition
Favorable evaluation of transition opportunities
Experimenting with self: Reidentification and disengagement
Magnitude of actual career transition
Transition sensemaking
Figure 2.1. Theoretical framework for determination of career transition magnitude This initial study suggests that the process of career transition magnitude determination is set in motion by four stimuli involving the self: the definition of the self through career identity and identity conflicts, the validation or violation of the self through organizational satisfaction and coworker ties, the presence of challenges to the way that one sees the world and the place of the self in it through social and personal turbulence and the reflection of the self through network members and their responses. As suggested throughout the data analysis and in Figure 2.2, the career identity (self) as well as theinfluence of network members is heavily implicated in the determination of career transition magnitude and the evaluation of career transition opportunities. Further, mediators of career transition magnitude determination include the magnitude of intended career transitions and the favorable evaluation of career opportunities. I found that individuals considered a variety of career transitions as 43
possible intended career transitions and the magnitude of those considerations varied. Additionally, transition opportunities were evaluated using several criteria (such as money, availability of alternatives) and those that were most favorable led to experimenting with the self through re-identification and disengagement behaviors. Re-identification and disengagement behavior are a function of the magnitude of the intended consideration and lead to the magnitude of the actual career transition. In the next chapter, I discuss the methodology underlying the development of measures and the testing of hypotheses 1-6b.
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Chapter 3: Methods
In chapter 1 of this dissertation, I described the data collection methods that would be used to build theory and test hypotheses in this research. In chapter 3, I describe the methodology of the pilot study used to examine the psychometrics of the measures that will used to assess the central concepts of the conceptual framework (Figure 2.1, p. 43) derived from my qualitative research as well as the path analysis that will be used to test hypothesis 1-6b taken from the underlying conceptual framework. I begin with a brief description of the pilot study.
PILOT STUDY Study Purpose The pilot study was conducted to ensure the reliability of scales to be used in hypothesis testing. Therefore, I tested scales that were created based on the qualitative analysis as well as testing scales used in previous published research. Additionally, I performed principal components analysis and an assessment of the content validity of constructs discussed in the model. Descriptive statistics characterizing the variables examined in the pilot study are provided in Table 3.1.
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Table 3.1. Means, Standard Deviations, Cronbach's Alphas, and Correlations of Pilot Study Variables
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Variable Sex Race Education Org. Tenure Prof. Tenure Centrality .0 1 Satisfaction Social and Personal Turbulence Strong Co-Worker Ties Opportunity Evaluation Magnitude M 0 .65 3 .64 3 .43 2 .30 3 .00 3 .88 -.10 2 .47 3 .78 2 .94 3 .36 SD 0 .487 0 .727 0 .507 0 .974 1 .348 0 .951 .0 3 0 .832 1 .099 0 .625 .0977 1 (-) -.12 -.10 -.05 .0 7 -.25 .2 6 -.06 -.23 -.27 .1 1 (-) -.30 .0 8 -.02 -.17 .60** -.27 -.10 -.13 -.36 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
(-) -.10 -.26 .3 6 -.19 .57 * .2 0 .0 3 .4 1
(-) .59** .0 0 .1 0 .0 0 .2 6 .0 7 -.30
(-) -.14
(.933) 7.
Disengagement
2 .73
0 .682
.
10. 11. 12. 13.
-.08 .1 9 .1 2 -.15
.0 7 .65** -.22 -.17
.1 4 -.24 -.40 .0 4
.3 9 -.24 -.00 .43 *
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Table 3.1. Means, Standard Deviations, Cronbach's Alphas, and Correlations of Pilot Study Variables
9. 10. Variable Organizational Satisfaction Social and Personal Turbulence Strong CoWorker Ties Opportunity Evaluation Magnitude M 3 .43 2 .47 SD 1 .005 0 .832 9 (.853) .0 0 10 11 12 13
(.787)
11. 12. 13.
3 .78 2 .94 3 .36
1 .099 0 .625 .0977
.3 5 -.07 -.08
-.17 -.02 .2 6
(.903) .0 6 -.24 (.893) .2 4 (.640)
* - significant at .05 level
** - significant at .01 level
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Participants and Procedures The participants in the pilot study were MBA students at a university in the Northeast. A pilot survey, based on the results of The qualitative study, was administered to students electronically. MBAs were considered an appropriate sample as many MBA students rate career enhancement (such as increasing earning potential and improved career options) as driving the perceived value of the MBA degree (GMAC, 2005). I administered the pilot survey to students in two small summer classes and received twenty-five useable surveys, a response rate of 65%. In terms of sample demographics, 63% of respondents were female. The racial composition of respondents was: 71% White, 12.5% Asian, and 8% African American. Measures and Results Career identity centrality. Career identity centrality refers to the importance of a career identity to an individual and the extent to which that identity occupies a prominent place within the individual's global definition of self. Ashmore and his colleagues have praised the identity scale provided by Luhtanen and Crocker as "perhaps the purest operational definition of explicit [identity] importance" (p.88). Thus, my measure of career identity centrality used an adaptation of the work of Luhtanen and Crocker (1992). An example item derived from Luhtanen and Crocker's scale is "In general, my current line of work is an important part of my self image." The career identity centrality scale is composed of 5 items on a 5-point Likert scale. The reliability of the scores of this scale was acceptable with a coefficient alpha of .933.
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Disengagement. The disengagement scale measures the behaviors that individuals engage in as they consider or actively pursue a career transition. The items I developed are based on Ebaugh's (1988) qualitative study of role exits and I also build on the work of Arthur, Claman & DeFillippi (1995) and Parker, Arthur and Inkson (2004) on career investments and career communities. The disengagement items used in the quantitative study asked individuals to consider the extent to which they are disconnecting from the current career choice. Two sample items are: "I spend less time with co-workers from my current line of work" and "I attend fewer occupational functions (professional organization meetings, etc) for my current line of work". Individuals were asked to respond to four items using a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. The resulting reliability was acceptable (Cronbach's alpha = .930). Re-identification. The re-identification career exit behavior scale is intended to measure the process of learning professional values, behaviors and social knowledge for a desired career choice in anticipation of career transition. It is based on Ebaugh's (1988) qualitative and theoretical work on role exits while also building on the experiences of individuals interviewed in my qualitative study. Items in the measure include "I have joined an organization associated with the line of work that I desire" and "I am attending training classes or a certification program to prepare me for the line of work that I desire" and are measured with a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. The resulting reliability was an acceptable .837.
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Organizational satisfaction. Based on the findings of the qualitative study, I added scales to measure the influence that one's work organization, changes in one's environment (social and personal turbulence) as well as relationships with co-workers have on career transition magnitude. The organizational satisfaction scale consists of five items from Martins, Eddleston & Viega (2002) and a modification of an embeddedness item from Lee and his colleagues (2004). Primarily, these items measure an individual's contentment with career status, career progress and the current job. A sample item is "I feel I am a good fit for my current organization". The reliability of the items of this scale was acceptable with a coefficient alpha of .853. Social and personal turbulence. The social and personal turbulence scale consists of six items based on the results of the qualitative study. The items in the scale measure the dynamism in one's environment such as downsizing, changes in the economy and momentous events (for example, national or personal tragedies) have on career decision making. A sample item is "A change in my family (such as the birth of a child or needing to care for elderly parents) has been a motivation for career change". The reliability of the scale scores was acceptable with a coefficient alpha of .787. Strong coworker ties. Finally, the strong coworker ties scale consists of four items. These items were adapted from Chao and colleagues' research (1994) assessing the extent to which an individual has positive relationships within their work group. A sample item is "I consider many of my co-workers as my friends". The reliability of the scale was acceptable with a coefficient alpha of .903.
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The favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. The opportunity evaluation scale measures the extent to which expected benefits and costs associated with a career transition make the opportunity attractive to an individual. I assessed this concept with a modification of a scale used by Hom & Kinicki (2001) that includes four items for each type of career transition (20 items total). These items ask the individual to assess the chances, on a scale of 0-100%, that a given career transition would provide an expected outcome such as increased career satisfaction, more balance between family and career, and greater career opportunities. The reliability of the scale was acceptable with a Cronbach's alpha of .903. Convergent and Discriminant validity I performed correlational analyses among the study variables to determine convergent and discriminate validity because some measures consisted of new items developed from information received in the qualitative study. My first investigation involved re-identification and disengagement. I expected medium correlations of the two variables in the range of .30 - .50 consistent with the results of qualitative studies examining conditions of role engagement and identity construction which suggest that the social processes of engagement and the cognitive processes of identification are linked in the construction of identity, so much so in fact, that cognitive and social processes have often been confounded (Kahn, 1990; Pratt, Rockman & Kauffman, forthcoming). The correlation between disengagement and re identification (r = .11) is lower than expected, however, this may be a function of my attempts to differentiate the constructs in item development as well as small sample size which may have yielded a non-representative result.
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Next, I examined the correlation between organizational satisfaction, social and personal turbulence and strong coworker ties. I expected that there would be a small to moderate relationship between organizational satisfaction and strong coworker ties consistent with Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sabylnski and Erez'(2001) research on job embeddedness which shows that the degree of attachment to an organization is related to the links that an individual has with the organization, including co-worker relationships, as well as organizational characteristics that cause one to feel comfortable or a fit with the organization (r = .22; p < .01). The relationship I found between organization satisfaction and strong coworker ties was similar and marginally significant (r = .35; p < .10.). Additionally, social and personal turbulence is not related to organizational satisfaction (r = -.00, p = n.s.) and strong coworker ties are weakly related to social and personal turbulence (r = -.17, p = n.s.) suggesting that the constructs are distinct (Table 3.9). In summary, the pilot study showed that (a) all of the scales exhibited good reliability, and (b) that each of the constructs demonstrated content validity and therefore the instruments may be used in hypothesis testing. HYPOTHESIS TESTING Study Purpose The objective of the final study was to test the hypotheses proposed in the theoretical model developed from the qualitative data and analyses. Descriptives and internal consistency reliabilities for the quantitative study are provided in Table 3.2. Participants and Procedures
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The potential sample for this study consisted of approximately 1,010 individuals comprised of MBA students at the University of Maryland (650 students) and attendees of the PhD Project Conference originally surveyed in November (360 individuals). I e-mailed invitations to the lists provided by the university and PhD project, however, 59 of e-mail addresses were returned as undeliverable leaving a potential sample of 618 University of Maryland students and 333 PhD Project participants (951 total invitees). 206 surveys were completed and returned from the University of Maryland sample providing for a response rate of 33%. The return rate from the PhD Project sample was considerably smaller with 47 respondents (response rate = 14%). This yielded a total sample of 253 and a response rate of 27%. In the combined group (University of Maryland and PhD Project participants), 34% of respondents were female. The racial composition of the respondents in the combined group was: 51% White, 18 % African American, 9.5 % Hispanic-American/Latino, and 16% AsianAmerican. 48% percent of the individuals in the sample had bachelor's degrees while another 48% had post-graduate degrees. 64% had been with their current organization for 1-5 years. Professional tenure was more varied than the tenure distribution with individuals having been in the current occupation/profession for less than one year (10%), 1-2 years (11.5%), 3-5 years (38%), 6-10 years (30%) and more than 10 years (10%). Fifty-eight percent (58%) of respondents were between 20-30 years of age.
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Table 3.2. Means, Standard Deviations, Cronbach's Alphas, and Correlations of Study Variables
1. 2. 3. 4. 8. Variable Sex Race Education Org Tenure Participant Central Identity Conflict personal turbulence Strong coworker ties Disengagement Re-identification Opportunity Evaluation M 0.35 3.56 3.53 2.03 3.44 2.67 SD 0.47 0.92 0.549 0.70 0.98 1.01 1 (-) -.07 .16** .00 .00 .05 2 (-) -.19** -.06 -.09 -.01 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
(-) -.08 .06 .02
(-) 5. .03 -.01
Prof Tenure .16 -.08 -.04 -.06
3.19 1.09 -.24** .08
-.00 (.89) 9. -.02
-.17** .00
.34**
(-) 6.
(.92) 10.
Org Satisfaction 3.08
12. 13. 14.
3.79 2.63 1.88 2.21
0.81 1.03 0.86 0.60
-.02 .02 .09 .10
.02 -.08 -.11 -.15*
.02 .06 .17** .17**
-.03 .04 .09 -.06
-.04 -.01 -.09 .07
.04 -.03 -.033 -.02
-.12 .32** .244** .13*
.26** -.15* -.07 .04
-.05 .17** .04 15. .16*
* - significant at .05 level
** - significant at .01 level
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Table 3.2. Means, Standard Deviations, Cronbach's Alphas, and Correlations of Study Variables
Variable 10. Org Satisfaction 11. Social and personal turbulence 12. Strong coworker ties 13. Disengagement 14. Re-identification 15. Opportunity Evaluation
M 3.08 1.86 3.79 2.63 1.88 2.21 0.96 0.91 0.81 1.03 0.86 0.60
SD (.82) .02
10 (.81)
11
12
13
14
15
.31** -.24** -.07 -.05
-.11 .13* .26** .10
(.80) -.25** -.07 -.02
(.86) .22** .20**
(.78) .08
(.87)
* - significant at .05 level
** - significant at .01 level
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Chapter 4: Results
Overview The results section is divided into six sections. In the first section, exploratory factor analysis results are presented for all variables. In the next five sections, analyses and results for each of the hypotheses (social network influences, identity centrality, identity conflict, social and personal turbulence, strong coworker ties, organizational satisfaction, magnitude, and opportunity evaluation) are presented. A summary table containing all hypotheses and results can be found in Table 4.9. Factor Analyses I used factor analysis in the quantitative study to provide evidence that the items used were good indicators of the constructs studied such as centrality, magnitude and opportunity evaluation. Definitions of self: Career Identity and Identity conflict The items used to measure career identity centrality and identity conflict were entered into a principal axis factor analysis with oblique rotation where I sought to confirm that there were two distinct factors. The results of these analyses can be found in Table 4.1. Two factors explaining 63% of the variance were extracted. The items loaded cleanly on each of the factors as predicted with no cross loading.
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Table 4.1. Career Identity Centrality and Identity Conflict Factor Analysis Item Central1 Central2 Central3 Central4 Central5 Idcon1 Idcon2 Idcon3 Idcon4 Idcon5 Idcon6 Idcon7 Factor 1 Oblique -.125 .051 .029 -.061 .023 .810 .783 .800 .753 .779 .835 .772 Factor 2 Oblique .749 .830 .646 .824 .870 .167 .059 -.020 -.023 -.029 -.152 -.106
Validations, Violations and Challenges to self: Organizational satisfaction, strong coworker ties, and social and personal turbulence The items measuring social and personal turbulence, organizational satisfaction, and strong coworker ties were entered into a principal axis factor analysis with oblique rotation to verify the existence of three distinct constructs. The results of these analyses can be found in Table 4.2. Three factors explaining 50% of the variance were extracted. The items loaded cleanly on each of the factors as predicted with no cross loading.
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Table 4.2. Organizational Satisfaction, Strong Coworker Ties, and Social and Personal Turbulence Factor Analysis Item Orgsat1 Orgsat2 Orgsat3 Orgsat4 Orgsat5 Socper1 Socper2 Socper3 Socper4 Socper5 Socper6 Cowork 1 Cowork 2 Cowork 3 Cowork 4 Factor 1 Oblique .743 .786 .683 .572 .553 -.375 .365 .092 .088 -.001 .176 .144 .158 .102 .212 Factor 2 Oblique .023 .016 -.030 .067 .055 .705 .682 .544 .708 .622 .644 -.050 .013 .051 .088 Factor 3 Oblique .112 .145 .211 .231 .066 .142 .150 -.150 .192 .011 -.108 .651 .727 .833 .534
Opportunity Evaluation All opportunity evaluation items were entered into a principal axis factor analysis. The results of these analyses can be found in Table 4.3. One factor explaining 32% of the variance was extracted.
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Table 4.3a Opportunity Evaluation Factor Analysis Item Cpeval3 Cpeval4 Cpeval5 Cpeval6 Cjeval3 Cjeval4 Cjeval5 Cjeval6 Cfeval3 Cfeval4 Cfeval5 Cfeval6 Coeval3 Coeval4 Coeval5 Coeval6 Cieval3 Cieval4 Cieval5 Cieval6 Factor 1 .299 .462 .413 .302 .295 .550 .611 .322 .485 .665 .658 .487 .556 .714 .782 .527 .375 .656 .663 .417
The Magnitude of Intended Career Transition Principal axis factor was also used to ensure that all of the magnitude items loaded on a single factor. Indeed, a single factor explaining 54% of the variance was extracted. The results are shown in Table 4.4.
Table 4.4. Magnitude Factor Analysis Item Mag1 Mag2 Mag3 Mag4 Factor Loadings .622 .440 .735 .694
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Experimenting with self: Reidentification and disengagement (exit behaviors) The exit behaviors that I studied were disengagement and re-identification. All exit behavior items were entered into a principal axis factor analysis with oblique rotation. The result of this analysis can be found in Table 4.5. Two factors explaining 50% of the variance were extracted. Table 4.5. Reidentification and Disengagement Factor Analysis Item Diseng1 Diseng2 Diseng3 Diseng4 Deid1 Deid2 Deid3 Deid4 Deid5 Deid6 Deid7 Deid8 Factor 1 - Oblique .094 .194 .145 .136 .687 .716 .574 .445 .584 .432 .402 .532 Factor 2 - Oblique .837 .676 .846 .693 .103 .086 .093 .185 .104 .158 .039 .104
Path Analysis I used path analysis to test the hypotheses because path analysis allows for a better understanding of the sources of variance, such as relationships between independent variables, which is not possible in regression. I believed, based on the qualitative analysis as well as the correlational data, that there were important relationships between some independent variables, such as organizational satisfaction and strong coworker ties. Additionally, interpersonal relationships (such as coworker ties) are theorized to have a causal relationship to identity (Cooley, 1902; McCall &
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Simmons, 1966). Path analysis allows researchers to address concerns about such relationships. The path model analyzed is shown in Figure 4.2. The chi-square test for this model was significant ( 2 (13, N=253) = 25.76, p < .05). However, the model indicates a moderate degree of fit (CFI = .928, NFI = .884, RMSEA = .073) where the RMSEA and NFI indices are not quite within Hu and Bentler's (1999) recommendations. Therefore, I tested a alternative model with a covariance added between disengagement and re-identification as suggested by the correlational and LaGrange multiplier test. Additionally, the LaGrange multiplier test suggested that the addition of direct paths from some independent variables to disengagement and re-identification would improve the model fit. The model fit improves significantly when I add the covariance and suggested paths (CFI = 1.000, NFI = .966, RMSEA = .000). Additionally, the difference between the chi-squares of the two models are significant ( 2 (3, N=253) = 17.58, p < .01). Therefore, the
alternative model (shown in Figure 4.3) is the better model. The dashed lines in the model diagram represent non-significant paths while the solid lines are significant paths. All test statistics and path coefficients for the alternative model are shown in Table 4.6. This table shows all of the variables hypothesized to explain variance in the dependent and mediator variables, the extent of the effects of the variables (shown in the path coefficients column) and the statistical significance of those relationships (t-test statistic).
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Career Identity Centrality Identity Conflict Organizational Satisfaction Social and Personal Turbulence Strong CoWorker Ties Network Range Magnitude of Intended Career Transition Disengagement Favorable Evaluation of Transition Opportunity
Reidentification
Figure. 4.2. Path Diagram for Original Conceptual Model
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Identity Conflict
Career Identity Centrality
Organizational Satisfaction Network Range
Magnitude of Intended Career Transition
Disengagement
Social and Personal Turbulence Strong CoWorker Ties
Favorable Evaluation of Transition Opportunity
Reidentification
Figure 4.3. Path Diagram for Alternative Model.
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Table 4.6. Path Coefficients for Alternative Model of Career Transition Model Dependent Predictors Variable Disengagement Opportunity evaluation Magnitude Identity conflict Strong coworker ties ReOpportunity evaluation identification Magnitude Social and personal turbulence Opportunity Network range evaluation Career identity centrality Identity conflict Organizational satisfaction Social and personal turbulence Strong coworker ties Magnitude Network range Career identity centrality Identity conflict Organizational satisfaction Social and personal turbulence Strong coworker ties Path t -Test Coefficients Statistic .210 1.684 .258 3.622* .162 2.359* -.218 -2.653* .187 1.958 .288 5.102* .167 2.707* .011 .140 .058 -.093 .058 -.035 .079 -.071 .031 -.253 .265 .001 0.524 2.926* 1.393 -1.877 1.216 -0.683 2.332* -0.907 0.455 -3.142* 3.427* 0.018 SE .125 .071 .069 .082 .096 .450 .062 .021 .048 .041 .049 .047 .051 .034 .078 .068 .081 .077 .083 R2 .161
.212
.068
.193
* t - Test statistic is significant at the .05 level Career Identity Centrality and Identity Conflict Hypothesis 1 proposed relationships between the internal factors, career identity centrality and identity conflict, and the intermediate variables (career transition magnitude and opportunity evaluation).
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Career identity centrality, the magnitude of intended career transition and opportunity evaluation. I hypothesized that career identity centrality is negatively related to the magnitude of intended career transition and the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities positing that individuals who have define themselves according to a current career identity would be less likely to consider transition favorably or consider transitions that involved significant change in the career competencies (knowing whom, knowing what and knowing why). However, the relationship between career identity centrality and the magnitude of intended career transition was not supported (hypothesis 1b). Hypothesis 1a posited that career identity centrality is negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. However, the analysis shows that career identity centrality is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities (t = 2.92, p < .05). Therefore, while the direction of the hypothesis was not supported, the influence of career identity centrality on the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities was demonstrated. Identity conflict, the magnitude of intended career transition and opportunity evaluation. Hypothesis 1d, which states that identity conflict is positively related to the magnitude of intended career transition, was not supported by the data. Similarly, hypothesis 1c which states that identity conflict is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities was not supported by the data. Social and Personal Turbulence, Organizational Satisfaction, and Strong Coworker Ties
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Hypothesis 2 and 3 proposed relationships between social and personal turbulence, organizational satisfaction, and strong coworker ties and the intermediate variables, opportunity evaluation and the magnitude of intended career transition. Organizational satisfaction, strong coworker ties, social and personal turbulence and opportunity evaluation. Specifically, hypothesis 3a states that social and personal turbulence is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. This hypothesis was not supported. In contrast, hypothesis 2a states that organizational satisfaction is negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. This hypothesis was also not supported. Hypothesis 2c states that strong coworker ties are negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. However, support for this hypothesis was not found. Organizational satisfaction, strong coworker ties, social and personal turbulence and the magnitude of intended career transition. Hypothesis 3b posits that social and personal turbulence is positively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. This hypothesis was supported (t = 3.41, p < .05). Similarly, hypothesis 2b which states that organizational satisfaction is negatively related to career transition magnitude was supported by these data (t = -3.14, p < .05). Finally, the relationship predicted between strong coworker ties and the magnitude of intended career transition was not supported (hypothesis 2d). Network Range Hypothesis 4 involved tests of the relationship of network career range to the intermediate variables, the magnitude of career transitions considered and opportunity evaluation. According to the model, diversity in one's social network is positively
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related the magnitude of transitions considered (hypothesis 4a) as well as the favorability of opportunity evaluation (hypothesis 4b). Hypothesis 4a is supported. Magnitude is positively related to career range (t = 2.37, p
Study on The Influence Of Career Identity And Social Networks On Career Transition Magnitude, Transition Methodology is the process of migrating knowledge, systems, and operating capabilities between an outsourcing environment to an in-house staff.
STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF CAREER IDENTITY AND SOCIAL NETWORKS ON CAREER TRANSITION MAGNITUDE
ABSTRACT Increasingly, scholars and journalists are suggesting that there is a trend toward greater magnitude in career transitions signified by the crossing of career boundaries (such as level, functional, organizational, industry and professional boundaries). To date, much of the quantitative empirical research suggests that organizational, relational and environmental factors influence career transition behavior. However, while we know that these external influences may cause an individual to transition, we know less about the process through which career transitions evolve, especially those of larger magnitude and how forces internal to the individual may help to explain variance above and beyond these external factors. In this dissertation, I use qualitative and quantitative methodologies to develop and refine a model of career transition focusing on career transition magnitude. Specifically, I use research from social identity, social networks and role exit theory to develop a model of career transition magnitude that posits career identity (the cognitive representation of the
self derived from past career experiences, beliefs, values, attributes and motives that define the individual in terms of their career) and network characteristics (the pattern of interpersonal relationships) influence the magnitude of intended career transition, the career exit behaviors one engages in and the evaluation of career opportunities. Further, I use path analysis to find that career exit behaviors are influenced by the magnitude of the intended career transition as well as strong coworker ties and social and personal turbulence. Additionally, I find that the favorable evaluation of career transition opportunities is impacted by career identity centrality and organizational satisfaction. Finally, I find that the magnitude of the intended career transition is influenced by the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities, network career range, organizational satisfaction and social and personal turbulence. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.
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iii
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Table of Contents
Dedication ..................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements...................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents......................................................................................................... vi List of Tables .............................................................................................................. vii List of Figures ............................................................................................................ viii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Exploratory Qualitative Study................................ 6 Chapter 3: Methods..................................................................................................... 45 Chapter 4: Results ....................................................................................................... 56 Chapter 5: Discussion ................................................................................................ 78 Appendix A: Biographical Narrative Instrument....................................................... 94 Appendix B: Interview Protocol ................................................................................ 96 Appendix C: Pilot and Quantitative Study Instruments........................................... 100 Appendix D: Trusted Other Survey ......................................................................... 118 Appendix E - Magnitude Pattern Coding................................................................. 122 References................................................................................................................. 164
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List of Tables
Summary of Career Transitions Research?????????????.?..5 Study Respondents and Career Transitions Included in Study??????..13 Qualitative Data Structure Overview ????????????????19 Career Transition Magnitude Analysis by Pattern Code, Provisional Code?.21 Network Member Career Range?????????????????....31 Pilot Study Variable Means, SDs, and Intercorrelations.??????..??44 Quantitative Study Variable Means, SDs, and Intercorrelations.......................52 Career Identity Centrality and Identity Conflict Factor Analysis ???..??55 Organizational Satisfaction, Strong Coworker Ties, and Social and Personal Turbulence Factor Analysis?????????????????..??..56 10. Opportunity Evaluation Factor Analysis???????????????57 11. Magnitude Factor Analysis????????????????????.57 12. Reidentification and Disengagement Factor Analysis??????????58 13. Path Coefficients for Alternative Model.............................................................62 14. Summary of Hypotheses and Findings???????????????...68 15. Trusted Other Variable Means, SDs and Intercorrelations????????.71 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
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List of Figures
1. Biographical Narrative for Interviewee #105 - Michelle???????.13 2. Theoretical Framework for the Determination of Career Transition Magnitude.....................................................................................................39 3. Path Diagram for Original Conceptual Model???????????..60 4. Path Diagram for Alternative Model???????????????61 5. Path Diagram with Control Variables??????????????...67 6. Trusted Other Analysis Path Diagram??????????????..73 7. Cycle of Career Transition Magnitude Determination ????????..81
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Chapter 1: Introduction
"Most people who have made big career changes have heard loved ones tell them, 'You're out of your mind.' Sabotage is not their intention, but a shared history has entrenched certain expectations, and reinventing oneself can amount to breaking the implicit 'contract,'"(Ibarra, 2003, p. 121) Although there is increasing interest in career transitions, we know relatively little about how the magnitude or size of career transitions is chosen especially, as suggested in the above quote, why individuals choose to make "big career changes" that expose one to social censure and changing or modifying one's identity ("reinventing oneself"). Career transition magnitude is defined by how novel or far reaching the personal and professional adjustments are required to make the transition a reality (Nicholson & West, 1989). Because the nature of the personal and professional adjustments differ as a function of transition size, it is also likely that the process and consequences of transition differ as a function of size (Bruce & Scott, 1994; Kirschenbaum & Weisberg, 2002; Latack, 1984; Louis, 1980; Stephens, 1994). Given the potentially increasing number and size of career transitions (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; DeFillippi & Arthur, 1994) and the importance of career identity in how people define the global self (Hall, 2002; Baker & Aldrich, 1996), addressing issues of career transition magnitude and career identity change is critical. Unfortunately, our current understanding of career transitions and career identity may be insufficient to help us understand the career transition process as it relates to the determination of career transition size. First, there is a dearth of literature on the subject of career transition magnitude. In general, when career 1
transition has been studied in the literature, the empirical studies have tended to focus on career change that is internal to a single organization. Although almost twenty years ago Nicholson and West (1989) stated that career transition magnitude is an important topic for future career transition research, Table 1 demonstrates that the research has been focused primarily on career transitions that are internal to organizations. This table was constructed by conducting queries of the Social Sciences Citation Index using the terms career and transition, work role and transition, and job and transition. The list is compiled from articles in ten peer reviewed, well respected journals that publish careers research: Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Organization Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Personnel Psychology. In the fifty-seven studies that met the criterion imposed on the search, only 8 (14%) discussed occupational change or transitions to a different profession. The vast majority (63%) of the studies discussed internal mobility or turnover (studies of transitions between organizations that do not specifically address career transition magnitude). In a similar manner, the literature on changes in career identity is primarily on professional adaptation to new roles (Ibarra, 1999, Pratt, Rockmann & Kaufmann, forthcoming) and it is not clear that insights concerning adaptation to roles within organization or even within professions can be transferred to adaptation to roles within new organizations or new professions. For example, research on professional
2
adaptation is rooted in identity theory and, as a result, examines the impact of others perceptions of the individual on identity construction within the same profession. To illustrate, in Ibarra's (1999) influential research on provisional selves, the participants are junior consultants or bankers that move from serving in analytic roles to more senior roles managing client relationships in thesame organization . However, it is not clear that the perceptions of others plays a similar role when people are deconstructing and reconstructing the self (Ebaugh, 1988) and the required changes in identity are more substantial such as leaving medicine or the priesthood to pursue entirely different careers including those of less status. Further, career transition research to date, even that which looks at sizeable career transitions (Ibarra, 2003) may not be sufficient to explain the serial, voluntary career transitions of varying magnitude that occur within the careers of many individuals. As a result, the literature currently offers career transition "snippets" rather than a holistic understanding of career transition, career identity and how one makes sense of their career. The purpose of this dissertation is to build and enrich theory around how individuals determine the size of a given career transition and "reinvent" their career identity to make such a career transition and therefore I examine the process of career transitions in two ways. First, in an exploratory qualitative study, I examine careers over the life course in alignment with early pioneers of career theory who suggested that "career" includes institutionalized roles as well as avocations where individuals are sometimes moving vertically but the career is not limited to vertical movement (Barley, 1989) and therefore I use biographical narratives to gain a better
3
understanding of how individuals construct, navigate and make sense of the career over time rather than cross-sectionally. Second, I test a model based on the results of the exploratory qualitative study by quantitatively measuring the behaviors and perceptions of individuals concerning a current career transition. Although my interest is in building and enriching theory, I begin this dissertation by providing a brief theoretical review of career transition and career transition magnitude in Chapter 2.
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Table 1 Summary of Career Transitions Research
Type of Transition Internal mobility - promotions, level changes, job rotation, developmental experiences Number of Studies and Citation 16 Zhao & Zhou, 2004; Ibarra, 1999; Mael, Waldman, & Mulqueen, 2001; Singh & Greenhaus, 2004; Finegold, Mohrman, & Spreitzer, 2002, Ostroff & Clark, 2001; McCauley, Ruderman, Ohlott, & Morrow, 1994; Murrell, Frieze, & Olson, 1996; Miner, 1987; Campion, Cheraskin, & Stevens, 1994; Bruce & Scott, 1994; Miner & Robinson, 1994; Ohlott, Ruderman, & McCauley, 1994; Kondratuk, Hausdorf, Korabik, & Rosin, 2004; Latack, 1984; Prince, 2003 4 Noe & Barber, 1993, Eby & Dematteo, 2000, Feldman & Bolino, 1998, Munton & West, 1995 3 Kraimer & Wayne, 2004, Gregersen & Stroh, 1997, Gregersen & Black, 1996 2 Singh & Greenhaus, 2004, Bruce & Scott, 1994 2 Raghuram, Wiesenfeld, & Garud, 2003, Raghuram, Garud, Wiesenfeld, & Gupta, 2001 2 Thompson & Van de Ven, 2002, Wrzesniewski, 2001
Internal mobility geography/relocation Internal mobility - expatriate adjustment/repatriation Internal mobility change in function Internal change (telecommuting work style changes) Role change brought on by organizational change (physicians that change from practitioner to employee) Organizational entry
Change in organization (move from one organization to another)
Change in "field" (move from one occupation or profession to another) External mobility (unknown destination) Retirement Psychological orientation Nonwork roles
5 Singh & Greenhaus, 2004, Kammeyer-Mueller & Wanberg, 2003, Ashford & Black, 1996, Chao, O'Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, & Gardner, 1994, Jackson, Stone, & Alvarez, 1992 7 Pearce & Randel, 2004, Higgins, 2001, Kondratuk et al., 2004, Blau, 2000, Blau & Lunz, 1998, Lynn, Cao, & Horn, 1996, Blau, Tatum, & Ward-Cook, 2003 8 Smart & Peterson, 1997, Blau, 2000, Blau & Lunz, 1998, Oleski & Subick, 1996, Snape & Redman, 2003, Lee, Carswell, & Allen, 2000, Lynn et al., 1996, Blau et al., 2003 2 Robson, Wholey, & Barefield, 1996, Miner & Robinson, 1994 3 Feldman, 1994, Blau, 2000, Blau & Lunz, 1998 2 Stephens, 1994, Arnold & Nicholson, 1991 1 Mirvis & Hall, 1994
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Chapter 2: Literature Review and Exploratory Qualitative Study
Career Transitions and Magnitude: A Brief Review Studies involving career transition magnitude have been few (Latack, 1984; Bruce & Scott, 1994), thus, the construct has not been well defined. One of the earliest definitions is provided by Nicholson and West (1989) who define career transition magnitude1 in terms of the demands placed on the individual, that is, the novelty or radicalness of the career change in relation to one's current career role. Therefore, magnitude may be defined along a continuum ranging from low magnitudes, where there are minimal demands associated with transition, to high magnitudes where the change is dramatic. For example, a career transition involving intraorganizational movement such as changing from one job to another within the same function is a relatively low magnitude transition while a career transition that breaks industry or occupational boundaries would be characterized as a high magnitude transition. I further refine the definition of career magnitude to reflect that the demands associated with career transition magnitude can be thought of in terms of changes in career competencies: knowing why, knowing what and knowing whom (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1994, 1996). Knowing why competencies speak to identity or the beliefs, values and definition of self applied in the career context. Knowing what refers to the knowledge and skills associated with a particular career experience. Finally, knowing whom competencies reflect the relationships needed to learn and facilitate career growth. Thus, career transitions of low and high magnitude are differentiated by the
1
Nicholson uses the term amplitude to discuss the size of a career transition in terms of how radical or novel the change is compared with the previous career role.
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degree to which a change in career choice or a new career role will demand significant investments in new relationships, skills, knowledge and changes in the career identity. Several theories implicitly or explicitly address the process of career transition and examine how or why individuals make career transitions of varying magnitudes. From these literatures, I identified three theories as especially helpful in understanding career transition magnitude: career and role transitions, social network theory and role exit theory. Though I ultimately found that each perspective provides insights into how individuals determine the magnitude of the transition they will pursue, none are adequate to explain my findings. This is due, in part to the fact that career magnitude is rarely discussed in studies of career transition (Bruce & Scott, 1994; Kirschenbaum & Weisberg, 2002; Latack, 1984; Nicholson & West, 1989). Career/Role Transitions. Research on career and role transition suggest that the process of career transition is cyclical comprised of preparation for the change, initial sensemaking once one is in the new role (encounter) followed by adjustment to provide for greater fit between the individual and the new role. Finally, the individual settles into the new role (stabilization) and the cycle begins again with preparation for entrance into the next role (Nicholson, 1984, 1987, Nicholson & West, 1989). In this literature, transitions are largely inter-organizational and role changes are imposed upon individuals. In contrast Rhodes and Doering's (1983, 1993) work on career change process does examine movement to a new occupation but defines this type of career change as atypical career movement and does not examine "job change" such as promotions at all. Thus, much of the transition literature stops short of examining
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how the career transition may be affected by changes in career magnitude ranging from promotion to voluntary changes in profession or movement outside of an organization. The research on career and role transitions also discusses identity change as a function of role change. According to Nicholson (1984), an individual may change their values, goals and self concept (absorption), may make changes in the assumed role (determination) or may experience and enact personal and role changes (exploration). Ibarra contributes significantly to this literature by examining the process of career transition and noting that individuals experiment with identity by observing others, determining identities that "match", and imitating and adapting those identities to discover the self best suited for the new role. While this research describes the process of identity construction, it focuses on identity as an outcome of transition but says little about identity change as an antecedent of career choice or how identity change might determine the size of career changes. Social Network Theory. A second literature that either implicitly or explicitly deals with career transition magnitude is research on social networks. Research on social networks and careers has investigated the relationship between network structure and career change. For example, Granovetter's (1973) seminal work on the strength of weak ties demonstrated that connections between individuals served as conduits for career information, specifically, career opportunities. Recent social networks/careers research has also explored the relationship of career range (the diversity in the social network) to career change. Higgins (2001) found that individuals with broad career networks were more likely to change careers than
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individuals with narrow career networks. She speculates that the positive relationship between network range and career change is the result of the importation of both opportunity and identity information. Further, there is recognition that social networks are critical to the understanding of one's career identity. "Social identity emerges through network processes: the people around us are active players in the co-creation of who we are at work. Our work identities are created, deployed and altered in social interactions with others" (Ibarra, Kilduff, & Tsai, 2005, p. 363). However, little is said of how social interactions and changes in work identities may influence the size or magnitude of the career transition that one chooses. Role Exit Theory. A third literature that deals with the process of career transition and career transition magnitude more directly is role exit theory. Ebaugh defines role exit as "the process of disengagement from a role that is central to one's self-identity and the reestablishment of an identity in a new role that takes into account one's ex-role" (p. 1). For example, Ebaugh studied ex-nuns, women who left the cloister to marry or pursue secular careers. Ebaugh also argues that there are two major steps in the role exit process: disengagement and re-identification.2 Disengagement, defined as withdrawing from relationships associated with the role exited, is characterized by a reduction in the number ofrelationships associated with the role that is being left, less frequent contact with individuals
2
Ebaugh (1988) actually uses the terms disidentification. However, that term is used by organizational scholars to describe antagonism toward one's connection with an organization (Bhattacharya & Elsbach, 2002; Elsbach & Bhattacharya, 2001). Therefore, I choose the term re-identification to give the sense of disconnecting from and establishing a new career identity as well as to avoid confusion with the definition of disidentitifaction used in prior organizational studies.
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associated with that role and a decrease in the quality or intimacy of the interaction with individuals associated with the role one is leaving (Kahn, 1990). The role exit process also includes re-identification. Re-identification occurs when individuals shift identities, that is, define themselves according to the current role less and adopt a definition of self consistent with the role they are adopting. Thus, individuals may shift reference groups and internalize the norms and values of the desired group showing greater identification with the new group and the desired role. However, to date, careers researchers have done little investigation of how role exit and the concomitant changes in identity influence the size of career transition. Thus, while research in role exit theory, career/role transitions and social network theory is promising, these concepts remain a loose set of confederates providing little insight into the relationship between career identity and career transition magnitude determination. I seek to redress this shortcoming by building theory on how career transition magnitude is determined and career transitions of various magnitudes are pursued. METHODS Sample and Participants The aim of this section of the dissertation is to build theory in the area of career transition and to extend existing theory on career transitions and determination of career transition magnitude. I adopt the view held by Nicholson and West that "career" describes the sense that individuals make of their work histories or sequence of work experiences and, as a result, qualitative research is uniquely positioned to provide an opportunity to explore the ways individuals come to understand their
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careers (Miles & Huberman, 1994) by capturing the individuals perceptions of their careers in their own words. In order to build and elaborate theory, I searched for participants that could offer variety across the types of career transition magnitude possible (Stake, 2000). That is, the sample for the exploratory qualitative study contains individuals that have experienced at least two career transitions of varying magnitudes. Therefore, there are individuals within the sample who have made career transitions of large magnitude as well as those that have experienced transitions of small magnitude. Further, individuals were obtained through snowball sampling (Visser, Krosnick, & Lavrakas, 2000). In snowball sampling, respondents are asked to identify individuals that would also serve as good study respondents. While snowball sampling does not ensure a random sample of respondents, it is an excellent method to gather study subjects for theory building when the sampling characteristic is somewhat uncommon. Therefore, I asked my initial respondents if they knew of other people who had made significant career transitions in an attempt to locate people who would have experienced transitions of varying magnitudes. Table 2.1 describes each respondent and their career transitions. Data collection was accomplished through two complementary processes: biographical narratives and semi-structured interviews. Interviews and biographical information were collected from 12 individuals. These narratives covered 42 career transitions or approximately 3.5 career transitions per person. 33% or 4 of the participants were male. 58% or 7 of the participants were married. The individuals
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within the sample were all over 30 years of age. All the participants in the sample had a bachelor's degree. Most also had advanced degrees (83% or 10 participants). Although this study involves a small number of respondents, the number of cases or transitions analyzed (42) provides for a rich understanding of career transition magnitude and the dual data collection methods help to establish theoretical saturation which is defined as occurring when new data fits into categories that have been previously defined (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Charmaz, 2000). I read through each of the biographical narratives developing preliminary codes and their properties. Then, I conducted semi-structured interviews with respondents. The codes developed during the analysis of the biographical narratives were used and described in the analysis of the semi-structured interviews. I provide a detailed review of the data collection methods below. Biographical Narratives. To complete the biographical narrative, participants were asked to think about their career history as a book. They were asked to write an introduction to the story that provides an overview and any background that might be relevant to the reader. Next, the individuals were instructed to think of each career transition as a chapter in the book and to describe when the transition occurred (age), and provide a title for each chapter. Finally, they were asked to write an epilogue where they reflected on the experiences and discussed the sense they have made of the story and where they believed their career was headed next. The length of the biographical narratives ranged from 1 to 8 pages. A short sample narrative is provided in Figure 2.1.
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Table 2.1 Study Respondents and Career Transitions Included in Study
Name John Transition 1 From chemistry major (college and first job) to industrial sales From college to variety of psychology and Master's From political science major (college and first job) to seminary From law student to first job in law firm Moving within organization to various jobs and departments (analyst) From variety of jobs to college administrati on From priest to jobs with the state From musician and promoter to law student From college to series of temp jobs Transition 2 From industrial sales to academia Transition 3 Transition 4 Transition 5 Transition 6
Mar y
Barb ara
From counselor (master's degree) to PhD psychologist From seminary to work at nonprofit
From full time to part time psychologist jobs and new organization From nonFrom stay at profit to home stay-atparenting to home coordinator parenting
From coordinator to psychologist with an organization (PhD)
From psychologist to private practice
Susan
Michelle
Moving within law firm practice ar eas From analyst to manager
From lawyer to priest
Shelby
Derrick
Ke n
From college admin to PhD program in college admin From jobs with the state to professor From law student to lawyer
From manager back to various jobs and departments (analyst) From PhD program to college admin
From analyst to private law practice
From college admin to HR
From professor to retirement From lawyer to lawyer in a different firm From nonprofit to part-time work From lawyer to consultant, author From parttime work to entrepreneur
Sheila
From series of temp jobs to non-profit
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Paul
Marilyn
From engineering to MBA From fulltime to contract lawyer From aviation mechanic to aviation safety
Jessica
From MBA to entrepreneur From contract lawyer to doctoral student From aviation safety to aviation law
From entrepreneur to academia
To different law firms within aviation law
From private law firms to the federal government
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Intro to career history I started working on a job that influenced my career choices early - in high school, when I was employed as a student reporter for a regional newspaper. This was meaningful because I had always been told I was a good writer, and planned to major in Journalism upon entering college, which I did (Communications major). I have remained an active writer throughout my career, and it plays a major role in my current profession as a lawyer. State and Age Pre-career stage, 16 Realizing necessity of college degree, 19 Post-college secretarial work, 21 Planning for graduate school, 22 Move to Atlanta, 23 Enrollment in Grad school, 25 Receipt of M.P.A. degree, 27 Federal employment, 27-43 Graduation from law school, 33 Transition from management, 27 Complete upheaval & confusion, 37-43 Resignation & entrepreneurship, 43 Chapter Title Evolving as a Journalist Not just a Kelly Girl The Wyatt Years No Plan, No Future Overqualified Secretary On My Way First Real Job - Presidential Mgt Internship The Land of Opportunity First managerial position First "Failure" Escape Reborn: Charting my own course
Epilogue Stepping out from a secure job, starting my own practice and thereby finding my own way has proved more exciting, "right", and timely that I could have imagined. I have found new opportunities, colleagues, confidence and even a meshing with my singing avocation. I have learned to trust my intuition, to take a chance, to realize that opportunities are there for the taking. There are some sacrifices; I took a 60% pay cut. But I hope, and believe, the monetary rewards are forthcoming. The rewards of freedom and meaning are already being realized. I have no regrets, except perhaps that I had done it sooner, and had take care of a few more financial details first. The future holds whatever I can handle and attempt. It amazes me that within six months of resigning from my job I have almost more clients than I can handle, have gained visibility and prominence within my new arena, and am thinking of ways to manage growth while expanding. Amazing. At the same time, the amount of work for which I am now responsible can be overwhelming, and requires management as well. Yet when I think of what I was managing before - frustration, a sense of aimlessness and insignificance, feeling I had maximized my potential 20 years before retirement, disconnectedness from my work in particular and career success in general the tradeoff seems more than fair! I am grateful to have made the transition, and anticipate a bright and challenging career future. Figure 2.1. Biographical Narrative of Interviewee #105 - Michelle
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Semi-structured Interviews. After I received the biographical narrative, I conducted interviews with each respondent. The interviews took place face-to-face as well as by telephone. The interviews ranged from approximately 60-120 minutes. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim3. Additionally, I took detailed notes of each interview. The interviews selectively discussed transitions based on magnitude and recency. I took this approach to maximize the value of the information collected in the limited interview time frames. Although interview protocols were modified during data collection to take advantage of emerging themes (Spradley, 1979), common to each interviews were questions about: a) the meaningfulness of the career choice to the individual and significant others (career identity centrality), b) career transition considerations, c) descriptions of defining moments and subsequent career exit behaviors, d) network characteristics and network member reactions to career transition decisions and e) consequences associated with the career transition. Data Analysis In an iterative fashion, I analyzed the qualitative data by traveling back and forth between the data and theory as a structure of theoretical arguments emerged (Miles & Huberman, 1994, Pratt et al forthcoming). This analysis utilized three major steps. Step 1: Creating a provisional "start list" of codes. This list was based on a preliminary conceptual framework derived from the literature review as suggested by
3
One interview was not recorded because of technical difficulties (interview #104). However, the notes were sent electronically to the respondent to ensure accuracy. The respondent provided a review and additional information as requested.
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Miles and Huberman (1994). I initially conceptualized career transition magnitude as being driven primarily by the individual's career identity. However, I also posited that the opinions of significant others have an influence on the size of career transitions and that the actual size of a career transition is influenced by the exit behaviors individuals engage in as they consider career transition. Contact summary sheets were written up after each of the first nine interviews to allow reflection on emerging concepts and themes (Miles and Huberman, 1994). The information surfaced by the use of the contact summary sheets was used to establish new codes as well as questions that should be used in subsequent interviews. As new codes were added, I reviewed transcripts and biographical narratives to determine if there was data that fit into the new codes. This review of data led to the clarification of code definitions as well as abandoning other codes. Step 2: Between case analysis of provisional codes and creating pattern codes. To develop pattern codes, I examined the summary sheets across interviews and looked for common themes between informants as well as differences among informants with transitions of varying magnitudes. "Pattern codes are explanatory or inferential codes that identify an emergent them, configuration or explanation?they are a sort of mega codes (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 69). For example, as I looked across informants it became clear that career transitions of large magnitude take longer and are discussed by respondents as "gradual" (42% of transitions involving profession or occupational change) and preceded by a career transition considerations of various size (47% of transitions involving profession or occupational change had statements concerning career transition considerations)
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while smaller transitions such as promotion were described as gradual less frequently (16%) and considerations were discussed in fewer cases (33%). Step 3. Developing constructs and a theoretical framework. Once pattern codes were developed, I formed theoretical categories and initial propositions concerning the relationship between these categories. Additionally, I examined the data for "conceptual analogues" (Miles & Huberman, 1994) in the extant literature to provide support for the emergent conceptual framework. For example, the consideration of career transitions of various magnitudes seemed to be a part of career growth and career identity development (Hall, 2002). Career growth is defined as "the actual creation of new aspects of the self, in the career area" (p. 72). Thus, I hypothesized that career transition considerations are positively related to behaviors associated with reshaping the career identity (re-identification) and disengagement activities that move the individual toward development of the self and the career. The process that I followed is summarized in Table 2.2. This shows the provisional codes, pattern codes, and the key constructs of the theoretical framework. The framework describes the process of career transition magnitude determination.
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Table 2.2. Qualitative Data Structure Overview
Provisional Codes Statements that indicate career identity centrality or that the career was meaningful to the individual (e.g. "seeing direct impacts" on clients, "rewarding", "passionate") Pattern Codes There are many things that indicate the meaningfulness of the career to an individual's definition self such as allows authenticity, balance, or a return to earlier selves, etc. Individuals also discuss the importance of other identities in global self-concept which may conflict with career identity. Key Constructs Definitions of self: Career identity centrality Identity conflict
Statements about the work environment offering (or failing to offer) validating experiences, challenge, fit, freedom, job satisfaction, prestige, positive or negative ties, etc.
Statements about factors that external or societal factors that pushed respondents in to pursing a career transition that was considered Statements concerning exit behaviors Active behaviors such as borrowing money, counseling, taking courses or enrolling in degree programs, experimentation, job hunting, joining or becoming more active in professional organizations, reading, relationship building, seeking role models, sabbaticals, simultaneous roles, talking, transitioning work, etc. Many people indicate that the responses of network members were important in transition magnitude. Additionally, dynamism in the careers of others as well as the role models in the network influenced magnitude of transition considerations. Considerations come in all magnitudes and are the result of self-reflection, information from counselors and others, gradual as there is constant evaluation and exploration, learning about career and learning about self resulting in career growth and personal development Statements that indicate how individuals evaluate career alternatives such as whether it allows some expression of an avocation, family concerns may play a role in evaluation (both financial, geography), spouse's move, insecurities, money (or not money), other perspectives, spiritual considerations Statements about "bad" decisions, realizations about self or career path post transition, regrets, worry as well as hope for becoming the person that they want to be, excitement, optimism, pride, satisfaction, social, and thanksgiving.
Validation and Violation of Self: Organizational satisfaction and Strong coworker ties Challenges to Self: Social and personal turbulence Experimenting with Self: Reidentfication and Disengagement
Statements concerning the response of network members to cues of career transition Statements that indicate consideration of possible career alternatives ("I considered working for another firm", "considered teaching")
Reflections of Self: Network structure and response Magnitude considerations
Opportunity evaluation
Statements concerning the negative and positive consequences of career transitions
Transition sensemaking
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I continue with a brief overview of my findings and this chapter concludes with the hypotheses used in the quantitative study of the process of career transition magnitude determination. FINDINGS Upon looking at the data from the respondents, two main findings emerged. First, there are differences in the process of career transition as a function of magnitude. As noted in Table 2.3 (a truncated version of the magnitude pattern coding provided in its entirety in Appendix E), some constructs were mentioned in high magnitude transition cases more frequently than in those of low magnitude transition cases. Second, Table 2.2 reflects career identity plays a strong role in the process of career transitions and especially in transitions of increasing magnitude such that even organizational or societal events, for example, were seen as validations, violations, or challenges to the understanding of self (Appendix E).
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Table 2.3. Career Transition Magnitude Analysis by Pattern Code, Provisional Code
Magnitude Description of Transition
5 Changing professions
Sample Transition
Analyst to lawyer, from aviation mechanic to aviation lawyer Remaining as a psychologist but changing organizations Analyst to lawyer, from aviation mechanic to aviation lawyer Analyst to lawyer, from aviation mechanic to aviation lawyer Transitioning from career as "student" to pursuing career path dictated by major - law student to lawyer Moving within an single organization to a number of positions Remaining as a psychologist but changing organizations
# of transitions with magnitude
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Pattern Code
Exit behaviors
Code
Borrow money
# transitions with code
2
% transitions with code
10
3
Changing organizations
7
Exit behaviors
Career counseling
2
29
5
Changing professions
20
Exit behaviors
Career counseling
5
20
5
Changing professions
20
Exit behaviors
Taking courses or pursuing certification, etc. Taking courses or pursuing certification, etc
9
45
1
Changing levels or seeking a promotion
11
Exit behaviors
4
36
2
Changing functions
3
Exit behaviors
Taking courses or pursuing certification, etc Taking courses or pursuing certification, etc.
1
33
3
Changing organizations
7
Exit behaviors
2
29
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In describing the process of career transition magnitude determination, I begin with a discussion of career identity and identity conflict which provide insight into how individuals evaluated opportunities and the magnitude of transitions considered. I continue by addressing how the context and attitudes toward the work and social context such as organizational satisfaction, social and personal turbulence, relationships with coworkers, and network influences correlate with opportunity evaluation and transition consideration magnitude. Finally, I discuss the relationship of opportunity evaluation and transition consideration magnitude to disengagement and re-identification. I conclude the chapter proposing a theoretical framework and hypotheses that build theory in the area of career transition magnitude and provide a basis for testing in Chapter 3. Definitions of self: Career Identity Centrality and Identity Conflict What shapes career path and transition decisions? Much careers research suggests that career decisions are an outgrowth of an understanding of the self (Hall, 2002; Holland, 1985;Roe, 1957; Super, 1957, 1990). Scholars have used a number of different terms to capture individuals' career identity such as occupational identity (Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999), professional identity (Ibarra, 1999) and career subidentity (Hall, 1971, 2002). In this dissertation, the term "career identity" is defined as the cognitive representation of the self derived from past work experiences, beliefs, values, attributes and motives that define the individual in terms of their work roles. This definition is consistent with the meanings that underlie all three terms as well as definitions of identity and self-schema (Markus, 1977). A career identity may be considered central when the career identity is important to one's global definition of
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self and dominates other identities in one's view of self (Rosenberg, 1979; Stryker & Burke, 2000; Stryker & Serpe, 1994). Logically, we can expect career identity centrality to play a central role in the evaluation of transition opportunities and the magnitude of transitions considered. One illustration of how career identity centrality influences the magnitude of intended career transitions from my data is Marilyn, a former lawyer currently pursuing a doctorate in industrial psychology as a foundation for a career in academia. As she ends her degree program and contemplates her next career transition, she states thatshe is learning toward position s at teaching universities or consulting firms rather than research universities because the identity as a researcher is not a central identity. It's kind of like the law, it hasn't been something that drove me, like there's no, I don't have this real intrinsic interest in it, so I just kind of do it. However, an individual has many important identities such as a parent identity or daughter identity (Hall, 1986) and it is likely that at times the demands of one identity cause conflict with the demands of another important identity (Settles, Sellers, & Damas Jr., 2002). Therefore, while the career identity and it's centrality in one's definition of self will influence career decision making, it is only one identity in a hierarchy of identities such that conflicts between identities may also drive career decision making (Lobel & St. Clair, 1992; McCall & Simmons, 1966). For example, during Mary's career transition from a full time university counseling psychologist to a part-time university counseling psychologist in a chapter
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she titled "Motherhood?changes everything", she found a conflict between her identity as a new mother and as a career woman. I was one of those people, and my boss even remembers me, I remember before I had [her son], I said, "no, I like what I do, I'll definitely go back to work full time" and a month into maternity leave, I said, "I have to get out of this house and I want to go back to work' and because I like what I do, I've always liked what I do, and I want to have that professional life. So, I knew that very early on but I also didn't want to go back to the intensity [of the university counseling center]. I didn't want to go back to full time work. Finally, as magnitude increases, it appears that many of the codes associated with centrality are mentioned with decreasing frequency (Appendix E). For example, individuals who changed professions mentioned the importance of authenticity in 58% of cases while individuals involved in changing functions or changing organizations mentioned influencing in 67% and 63% of cases respectively. This may be due to the high degree of centrality of a current career choice such that the person cannot imagine being defined by a career choice that is significantly different (recall that changes high in magnitude equal significant changes in knowing what, knowing whom and knowing why). These data suggest that definitions of self, demonstrated in career identity centrality and identity conflict, play an important role in the magnitude of intended transitions (considerations) and the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. Therefore: Hypothesis 1a: Career identity centrality is negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities.
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Hypothesis 1b: Career identity centrality is negatively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Hypothesis 1c: Identity conflict is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. Hypothesis 1d: Identity conflict is positively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Validation and Violation of Self: Organizational Satisfaction and Strong Coworker Ties How does the process of magnitude determination unfold? Many individuals seemed to struggle with particular choices along the career path experiencing a type of career identity violation or seeking career identity validation. These struggles are often captured in the biographical narrative titles chosen such as: "Bench chemistry ain't for me", "I am who I was meant to be", "The golden handcuffs are too tight", "The negreto (the darkness)", "Finding a new path", "Reborn: Charting my own course" and "Finding my own voice." Often, violations and validations of the self in a current career choice became defining experiences leading to transition and were linked to organizational satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) and strong positive (or negative) coworker ties. To illustrate: I felt it was far beneath what I was capable of and uninteresting if nothing else. [Michelle - organizational dissatisfaction]
I was really hiding [being inauthentic] 'cause I didn't really like them that much and I didn't like being there. [Ken - negative coworker ties]
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The identity and self-concept literature shows that individuals tend toward self-enhancement and self-verification and, as a result, selectwork situations where their values are reflected and their sense of self worth will be validated (Crocker & Park, 2000; Kristof, 1996; Kristof-Brown, 2005; Schneider, 1987). Intriguingly, research shows that even when an individual has a negative self-concept, they will still seek self-verification choosing situations and interaction partners that validate the self-concept (McNulty & Swann, 1994; Swann, 1987;Swann & Hill, 1982; Swann, Stein-Seroussi, & Geisler, 1992). Indeed, the qualitative data seems to suggest that the statements signifying violation of the self-concept or a need for verification of the self-concept increased as a function of magnitude. For example, 42% of the cases involving profession change mentioned misfit while those changing organizations or functions mentioned misfit in 38% and 33% of the cases. Thus, it appearsthat the greater the degree of fit and the more satisfied one is with the current organizational context including relationship to coworkers, the less likely the individual is to favorably evaluate career transition opportunities or to make career transitions of significant magnitude. Hypothesis 2a: Organizational satisfaction is negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. Hypothesis 2b: Organizational satisfaction is negatively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Hypothesis 2c: Strong coworker ties are negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities.
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Hypothesis 2d: Strong coworker ties are negatively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Challenges to Understanding of Self: Social and Personal Turbulence How do factors in the wider environment influence one's career path? Hall (1986) suggests that there are "triggers" that signal an opportunity for choice resulting in exploration and possibly, changes in the career path. These triggers include changes in society, major external events or personal life changes such as changes in an individual's family or health. More recently, Wrzniewski (2002) discusses how the bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11 changed work meanings for many individuals and became the impetus for changes in the career path. Individuals in my study discussed the importance of both social and personal turbulence in challenging their current understandings of self and the direction that the career path should take in the future. This is the time, not only of the assassinations but the Viet Nam moratorium and things like that so just suddenly feeling that maybe it wasn't me, maybe I just needed to be in a different place [Barbara]
At that time, the aviation work, you know, aviation was in bad shape before 9/11 and then after 9/11, the aviation work was just non-existent. The firm, or no, the airlines and stuff, anybody in aviation basically couldn't afford to pay the firm [Jessica]
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I do realize part of what was wrong was I got impatient and that impatience was driven by?the death of [wife's] father. I was very close to him, and her moving here, my desire to be with her and I think I had a secret desire to be with her also for my own self, not just be husband and be supportive but also because I was hurting about that as well. [Ken] Thus, social and personal turbulence triggers are indicated in the favorable evaluation of career opportunities. Additionally, in general, more statements indicating the influence of social and personal turbulence were present in transitions of higher magnitude than in those of lower magnitude. Therefore, I predict: Hypothesis 3a: Social and personal turbulence is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. Hypothesis 3b: Social and personal turbulence is positively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Reflections of Self: Network Structure and Response. How do others influence the determination of career transition magnitude? From the earliest hypotheses concerning identity, scholars have suggested that our beliefs about who others think we are have a profound impact on our own selfconceptions (McCall & Simmons, 19966; Roberts, Dutton, Spreitzer, Heaphy, & Quinn, 2005; Tice & Wallace, 2003). This is clearly seen in Cooley's (1902) description of the looking glass self or the self that is constructed and reconstructed as a result of glimpsing the self through interaction with significant others. Career identities are constructed in a similar manner with the reflected appraisal of others influencing one's view of the self including one's strengths and weaknesses (Ibarra,
28
1999; Markus & Nurius, 1986; Roberts et al, 2005). In Ibarra's insightful study of junior consultants and bankers transitioning into new roles, she found the following: External parties also confer identity by providing social signals about who one is becoming. By gauging others' reaction to their behavior, people learn more about who they and who they want to be?others' reactions lead junior members to come to think of themselves in new terms and begin to act and feel accordingly." [Ibarra, 1999, p. 781] The respondents in my study suggested that the evaluations of others on the career had a significant impact on career transitions considered and pursuit of career transitions. For example, Michelle, an analyst for the federal government suggests that she did not like the reflection she saw in the eyes of others and that lead to pursuit of a profession change: Interviewer: Was it [her work for the federal government] meaningful to other people in your life? Michelle: I never thought that, no. I think that's one of the reasons that I sought a law degree. Additionally, respondents found that as they considered career transitions of significant magnitude, they often received a great deal of encouragement and affirmation from significant others. Such positive responses from the network seemed to facilitate career transitions of significant magnitude. To illustrate: I would actually say he was one of the people that planted the seed that I could really do this, would be my own therapist as well as my friend. Then
29
lots of people who offered whatever help I needed to get started [Barbara on transition to private practice] Role models also seemed to play a significant role in magnitude as suggested by Markus and Nurius (1986), the career transitions of others were instructive: "what others are now, I could become", (p. 954). I had some good friends who had done the same thing [transitioning because they wanted more life balance]. Sol they were good role models, just kind of forging the way and saying 'no, this is what I want.' [Mary on transition to part time work following birth of first child]
I have always?gravitated towards these articles and magazines?spotlighting somebody who made a transition. I always made a mental note of people who, you know, just up and quit their jobs and why and how well they did afterwards. So, I was influenced by that to read that you know, people can do it and many people have done it. You can do it, too. [Michelle on transition from analyst with federal government to private law practice] Often, the role models are from a variety of career types suggesting that greater diversity in the variety of career contexts may have an influence on career transition magnitude and the evaluation of opportunities. Indeed, research by Higgins (2001) found that network diversity directly affected career change. Although her empirical results did not fully examine why, she did report that network membership yielded no increases in the number of opportunities leading to career change. Instead, she posited that a diverse network changed one's thinking about career and career
30
opportunities. My data seems to support this supposition because in the cases where individuals identified networks, those with diverse networks made the greatest transitions (Table 2.4). In this table, range represents the percentage of network members from different occupations or professions. Hypothesis 4a: Network career range is positively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. Hypothesis 4b: Network career range is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities, that is, transition opportunities will be evaluated more favorably when network career range is high.
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Table 2.4. Network Member Career Range
Interviewee and Member 1 and career most recent choice transition John - industrial Equipment sales sales to academia Mary - full time Psychologist psychologist to part time psychologist Barbara - full Professor time psychologist to psychologist in private practice Susan - attorney Attorney to Episcopalian priest Shelby - doctoral Professor student in college administration/ college administrator to human resource professional Ken - attorney to Pastor consultant, author Member 2 and career choice Entrepreneur Psychologist and mother Member 3 and career choice University business school professor Psychologist and mother Member 4 and career choice Psychologist Industrial sales Member 5 and career choice Maintenance manager Member 6 and career choice Range
100% 25%
Homemaker
Therapist/psychologist
Psychologist
40%
Attorney
Professor
Actress
Attorney
Doctoral student/women studies
50%
Professor
Vice president (at a university)
33%
Doctoral student
Was hesitant to name influences on decision making, felt that decision was not influenced by others in general
100%
Other Respondents
Either identified only one network member or did not identity a network, did not feel that the career network exerted influence
NA
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Consideration of Possible Selves: Magnitude of Intended Transitions Ibarra's (1999) research on role transitions found that a key step in professional adaptation was identifying possible selves. Possible selves are defined by Markus and Nurius (1986) as "the ideal selves that we would very much like to become" (p. 954) but also the selves that we want to avoid becoming. Therefore, in my construction of the interview protocol, I asked individuals to tell me about career transitions that they considered to get an idea of the possible selves that individuals were constructing and the size of the career transition that results from these visions of self. This link between possible selves and the magnitude of intended career transitions is crucial because it determines the motivation or the direction, intensity and persistence with which individuals will move toward desired career transitions (Locke, 1997; Markus & Nurius, 1986). The participants seemed to conceive of a number of possible selves: I thought maybe about more teaching but I knew I really didn't want to go in route of tenure track, publications, things like that. That didn't seem to be the direction. So, I think it became sort of an obvious decision to start out on my own practice. [Barbara on transition to private practice]
When she left the firm, she wasn't sure that she would leave the law. Considered teaching but didn't have the publications?also considered being part time in seminary while still full time at the firm, considered and applied for jobs at non-profits. [Susan on transition to priesthood, from field notes]
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I explored all kinds of careers?I considered going into another program. I just did a lot of things to explore what my next step would be. I considered?different types of fields. [Shelby on transition from doctoral program in college administration to human resource management]
Oh, I considered so many things! Running my own catering business, going and getting my MBA?what else did I think of? I tried to think of everything and anything that you know, seemed interesting to me. [Marilyn on transition from attorney to doctoral program in organizational/industrial psychology] Therefore, career transition considerations and the magnitude of intended career transitions motivate career transition behavior and enables determination of transition magnitude for "ultimate" transition. Opportunity Evaluation Turnover research has long suggested that the decision to make changes in the career path is mediated by the evaluation of opportunities using criteria such as ease of movement, availability of alternatives, and the possibility of values attainment in a new career choice (March & Simon, 1958; Mobley, Griffeth, Hand, & Meglino, 1979, Maertz & Campion, 2004). Further, Markus and Nurius (1986) found that possible selves are antecedents to behavior; however, this relationship is mediated by beliefs about what is possible and the importance of these beliefs. So, the favorability of an opportunity for achieving important goals or achieving values congruence will determine whether individuals engage in behaviors that lead to career transition.
34
In my study, participants conducted a variety of evaluations considering opportunities, money, avocations, values and other important factors. For example, consider Paul's evaluation of entrepreneurship versus taking a prestigious job with large, Fortune 100 firms: So, I told my wife, 'well, let's do this for maybe three years and if it doesn't work out I'm sure I could go to Bank of America or something. I could go back and interview again.' So, I felt kind of safe. [Paul on transitioning into entrepreneurship] In some cases, such as Jessica's, the individual has a career dream and each career transition is evaluated on the basis of how it may help her to achieve the dream: The aviation work?began to dry up and I found myself doing less and less aviation and I'm thinking?I can't continue to do this because this is going to weaken my long term goal. I need to get as much aviation experience as I possibly can. So?the second firm that I went to had a very, very thriving aviation transactional work practice [Jessica on transition to another firm] Individuals may also evaluate their strengths and whether a transition would make better use of their skills, talents and aptitudes. I just started evaluating what I might be good at. It didn't seem like it was chemistry, enough to be wealthy [John on transition away from chemistry and toward industrial sales]
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Money also played an important role in opportunity evaluation. Although individuals may have transitioned and accepted less money, money was an issue that had to be considered. I was afraid?what was I going to do for money, for my mortgage or my livelihood?my practice was a practice that was started as a side business. It was never designed to support me financially. I'm a single woman. I have no other source of financial support. So, it was, I was certainly concerned about money. [Michelle on transition to private law practice]
These golden handcuffs?I was able to make a good income. You know, why risk that?it would have been easier if I was making less money at my primary job. That would've made it easier [John on transition from industrial sales to academia] Experimenting with Self: Re-identification and Disengagement. How do individuals engage in the process of career transition and fix on a specific career magnitude and direction? Although the antecedents mentioned above (such as organizational satisfaction, social and personal turbulence, network range) have an impact on opportunity evaluation and the magnitude of the intended career transition, research shows that experimentation or trying out new roles facilitates transition (Ebaugh, 1988; Ibarra, 1999). Ibarra (2003) suggest that individuals often engage in liminal experiences to assist in career transitions: "sabbaticals, vacations and leisure activity, for example are temporal means of gaining freedom from institutional obligations and, therefore, freedom to play with new ideas" (p. 3). The
36
participants in my study engaged in a variety of behaviors aimed at transition "play" and reconceiving the self such as career counseling, enrolling in courses or degree programs, joining or becoming active in professional organizations, developing relationships, and talking possible career transitions through with others. For example: I was just tired of trying to figure it out and so that's why I hired this guy. I was like, someone has to help me figure this out?I remember him vaguely pushing a little bit on like, what other areas of law but he also seemed to think?based on my testing outcomes?there was a huge opportunity for me to find something that really suited me. [Marilyn on the transition from attorney to academia]
Well, first, I went back for my MBA. So, there is an example of how you can tell it was building for years because I wasn't going back to get my MBA to become a better salesman. You know, I was trying to do something that I thought would get me out of the industrial sales [John on transition from industrial sales to academia]
There's this girl?I had met through a friend at a part like years before and listening to what she did, what she was studying, I was like, 'oh, that's so interesting. What is that?' and it kind of popped back into my head?because I was interested in psychology?I went and called her up and took her to lunch [Marilyn on the transition from attorney to academia]
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Moreover, statements concerning re-identification and disengagement behaviors tend to be correlated with larger transitions. For example, statements about returning to school or taking certification courses are mentioned in 47% of the cases involving profession changes and only 33% of those seeking changes in level and 25% of those changing organizations. Similarly, individuals that changed professions talked more about simultaneous career experiences such as starting a business on the side or taking a part time job (53% of cases) than those that changed organizations or changed levels (38% and 17% of cases respectively). Therefore, the data suggest that career transition magnitude and the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities are related to disengagement and re-identification behaviors. Hypothesis 5a: The favorable evaluation of transition opportunities is positively related to disengagement. Hypothesis 5b: The favorable evaluation of transition opportunities is positively related to re-identification. Hypothesis 6a: The magnitude of intended career transition is positively related to disengagement. Hypothesis 6b. The magnitude of intended career transition is positively related to reidentification. Transition Sensemaking Hall, Zhu and Yan (2002) ask the following insightful question regarding career sensemaking: How can one change in a way that keeps one true to one's career history and basic values but still engenders a fundamental transformation of identity that
38
is congruent with the new adaptive behavior unfolding over time and that is still integrated with one's earlier identity? [Hall, Zhu & Yan, 2002, p. 160] Role exit research (Ebaugh, 1988) and my data may help to answer this question by focusing on role residual, that is, the carrying of a previous career identity into the transition. Ebaugh refers to role residual as "hangover identity" (p. 173) and found that professionals or individuals in highly visible roles (e.g. celebrities) experienced a greater degree of role residual than non-professionals. In a similar manner, individuals within my sample that experienced transitions of great magnitude discussed a greater degree of role residual. For example, Jessica who was once an aviation mechanic and became an aviation attorney expressed feelings that she never really left aviation mechanics. Derrick, a former Catholic priest carries the Catholic identity, such that it precluded him from becoming an Episcopalian priest, as well as the "minister" identity, as he continues to look for ministry opportunities in his work and his volunteer work as a lay leader in the Catholic church. Ken, a former musician and music promoter who is now an attorney and consultant discusses role residual in this way: Well, when you look at the resume' and/or the Bio, it appears I shifted careers, but I didn't really view it as shifting careers at the time. In fact, even looking back, I still don't because I didn't really decide to stop doing music? I wasn't the guy who was playing and decided, ' I don't want to play any more, I want to be a lawyer.' I'm actually still playing and looking forward to going back into um, music on a more regular basis, probably as early as next
39
year. I want to produce a CD and really pick up where I left off before I went to law school. Hall and his colleagues suggest that individuals that are competent in career change make sense of career change through response learning or reading external signals to understand the environment and its requirements, identity exploration or uncovering knowledge about the self and integrative potential or seeing the congruence between the transition and the self. Many of the individuals in the qualitative sample seemed to make sense of the career according to these principles. For example, previous career transitions were considered unsuccessful when the individuals did not see congruence between the career choice and the self. I shouldn't have taken it to be honest with you. One of the things that I talk about in this book [in a book he is writing on dating] is how people fall within one of three zones of compatibility?one is the red zone, zero to minimum compatibility, the other is the yellow zone, which is moderate to high?and the green zone is maximum and what you want obviously is maximum compatibility and if you don't find that, you should move on and so when looking back at the job, this job was like yellow to red. It was even like a high yellow. It was like a yellow to a red and I knew that, but I convinced myself that it was the right thing to do. [Ken on his transition from a very prestigious attorney role to entrepreneurship, consulting] In other cases, individuals are making sense of the career by reflecting on what they have learned about themselves or the career choice that leads them to believe they are now in the right place.
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I've been progressing slowly to me?it's almost like you've heard them say before, people without a vision will perish but I've got my eye on the prize. I feel like I'm really moving. [Shelby on transition from doctoral program to human resource management] On the other hand, making a transition does not alleviate all worries. Often individuals in the study expressed the realization that the career change may not be able to live up to all of their expectations or they may not be as competent in the new career path as they would like. However, there is a sense of openness or hope about the future as demonstrated by Marilyn as she discusses why she titles the final chapter "Finding my own voice":
?really listening and kind of believing the kind of things that I'm good at and
interested in, that I don't have to be in the same mind as other people. I don't even have to be as good as other people. I just need to be happy with how much I'm doing, whether it be less or more than people around me are doing, how much time I reserve for myself?to do other things that I like [Marilyn on the transition from attorney to academia] Additionally, relationships often changed or ended as a result of transition. In some cases, there was regret about the change in the relationship. Yet, individuals seemed to feel that relationship change was inevitable especially if the relationships were not close (e.g. relationships with coworkers). Finally, in many cases, the relationships changed for the better or the ties were maintained despite geographical or organizational boundaries.
41
The people that I worked with at that firm, they are among my best friends. I mean, even now I still keep in touch with them?you spend a lot of time with people. You develop very close relationships and so?I love these people dearly and I still?e-mail them back and forth every day, just about, I'm getting an email from somebody at my first firm [Jessica on organizational transition from one law firm to another law firm] Therefore, while there are a range of possible outcomes for transitions of varying magnitude, individuals seemed to make sense of the career in ways that are dependent, to some extent, on career transition magnitude such that those experiencing large transitions discussed a greater degree of role residual (demonstrated in the need to create the image of a consistent self) as well as expressed more hope, learning about the self and satisfaction than individuals with small magnitude transitions. Theoretical Framework Figure 2.2 is a summary of my main findings to help make sense of the concepts and their relationships. This illustration reflects how identity, network relationships and the determination of career transition magnitude are intricately linked as described in Table 2.1.
42
Definitions of self: Career identity and identity conflict Validation and violations of self: Organizational satisfaction and strong coworker ties Challenges to self: Social and personal turbulence Reflections of self: Network structure and member response Magnitude of intended career transition
Favorable evaluation of transition opportunities
Experimenting with self: Reidentification and disengagement
Magnitude of actual career transition
Transition sensemaking
Figure 2.1. Theoretical framework for determination of career transition magnitude This initial study suggests that the process of career transition magnitude determination is set in motion by four stimuli involving the self: the definition of the self through career identity and identity conflicts, the validation or violation of the self through organizational satisfaction and coworker ties, the presence of challenges to the way that one sees the world and the place of the self in it through social and personal turbulence and the reflection of the self through network members and their responses. As suggested throughout the data analysis and in Figure 2.2, the career identity (self) as well as theinfluence of network members is heavily implicated in the determination of career transition magnitude and the evaluation of career transition opportunities. Further, mediators of career transition magnitude determination include the magnitude of intended career transitions and the favorable evaluation of career opportunities. I found that individuals considered a variety of career transitions as 43
possible intended career transitions and the magnitude of those considerations varied. Additionally, transition opportunities were evaluated using several criteria (such as money, availability of alternatives) and those that were most favorable led to experimenting with the self through re-identification and disengagement behaviors. Re-identification and disengagement behavior are a function of the magnitude of the intended consideration and lead to the magnitude of the actual career transition. In the next chapter, I discuss the methodology underlying the development of measures and the testing of hypotheses 1-6b.
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Chapter 3: Methods
In chapter 1 of this dissertation, I described the data collection methods that would be used to build theory and test hypotheses in this research. In chapter 3, I describe the methodology of the pilot study used to examine the psychometrics of the measures that will used to assess the central concepts of the conceptual framework (Figure 2.1, p. 43) derived from my qualitative research as well as the path analysis that will be used to test hypothesis 1-6b taken from the underlying conceptual framework. I begin with a brief description of the pilot study.
PILOT STUDY Study Purpose The pilot study was conducted to ensure the reliability of scales to be used in hypothesis testing. Therefore, I tested scales that were created based on the qualitative analysis as well as testing scales used in previous published research. Additionally, I performed principal components analysis and an assessment of the content validity of constructs discussed in the model. Descriptive statistics characterizing the variables examined in the pilot study are provided in Table 3.1.
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Table 3.1. Means, Standard Deviations, Cronbach's Alphas, and Correlations of Pilot Study Variables
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Variable Sex Race Education Org. Tenure Prof. Tenure Centrality .0 1 Satisfaction Social and Personal Turbulence Strong Co-Worker Ties Opportunity Evaluation Magnitude M 0 .65 3 .64 3 .43 2 .30 3 .00 3 .88 -.10 2 .47 3 .78 2 .94 3 .36 SD 0 .487 0 .727 0 .507 0 .974 1 .348 0 .951 .0 3 0 .832 1 .099 0 .625 .0977 1 (-) -.12 -.10 -.05 .0 7 -.25 .2 6 -.06 -.23 -.27 .1 1 (-) -.30 .0 8 -.02 -.17 .60** -.27 -.10 -.13 -.36 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
(-) -.10 -.26 .3 6 -.19 .57 * .2 0 .0 3 .4 1
(-) .59** .0 0 .1 0 .0 0 .2 6 .0 7 -.30
(-) -.14
(.933) 7.
Disengagement
2 .73
0 .682
.
10. 11. 12. 13.
-.08 .1 9 .1 2 -.15
.0 7 .65** -.22 -.17
.1 4 -.24 -.40 .0 4
.3 9 -.24 -.00 .43 *
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Table 3.1. Means, Standard Deviations, Cronbach's Alphas, and Correlations of Pilot Study Variables
9. 10. Variable Organizational Satisfaction Social and Personal Turbulence Strong CoWorker Ties Opportunity Evaluation Magnitude M 3 .43 2 .47 SD 1 .005 0 .832 9 (.853) .0 0 10 11 12 13
(.787)
11. 12. 13.
3 .78 2 .94 3 .36
1 .099 0 .625 .0977
.3 5 -.07 -.08
-.17 -.02 .2 6
(.903) .0 6 -.24 (.893) .2 4 (.640)
* - significant at .05 level
** - significant at .01 level
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Participants and Procedures The participants in the pilot study were MBA students at a university in the Northeast. A pilot survey, based on the results of The qualitative study, was administered to students electronically. MBAs were considered an appropriate sample as many MBA students rate career enhancement (such as increasing earning potential and improved career options) as driving the perceived value of the MBA degree (GMAC, 2005). I administered the pilot survey to students in two small summer classes and received twenty-five useable surveys, a response rate of 65%. In terms of sample demographics, 63% of respondents were female. The racial composition of respondents was: 71% White, 12.5% Asian, and 8% African American. Measures and Results Career identity centrality. Career identity centrality refers to the importance of a career identity to an individual and the extent to which that identity occupies a prominent place within the individual's global definition of self. Ashmore and his colleagues have praised the identity scale provided by Luhtanen and Crocker as "perhaps the purest operational definition of explicit [identity] importance" (p.88). Thus, my measure of career identity centrality used an adaptation of the work of Luhtanen and Crocker (1992). An example item derived from Luhtanen and Crocker's scale is "In general, my current line of work is an important part of my self image." The career identity centrality scale is composed of 5 items on a 5-point Likert scale. The reliability of the scores of this scale was acceptable with a coefficient alpha of .933.
48
Disengagement. The disengagement scale measures the behaviors that individuals engage in as they consider or actively pursue a career transition. The items I developed are based on Ebaugh's (1988) qualitative study of role exits and I also build on the work of Arthur, Claman & DeFillippi (1995) and Parker, Arthur and Inkson (2004) on career investments and career communities. The disengagement items used in the quantitative study asked individuals to consider the extent to which they are disconnecting from the current career choice. Two sample items are: "I spend less time with co-workers from my current line of work" and "I attend fewer occupational functions (professional organization meetings, etc) for my current line of work". Individuals were asked to respond to four items using a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. The resulting reliability was acceptable (Cronbach's alpha = .930). Re-identification. The re-identification career exit behavior scale is intended to measure the process of learning professional values, behaviors and social knowledge for a desired career choice in anticipation of career transition. It is based on Ebaugh's (1988) qualitative and theoretical work on role exits while also building on the experiences of individuals interviewed in my qualitative study. Items in the measure include "I have joined an organization associated with the line of work that I desire" and "I am attending training classes or a certification program to prepare me for the line of work that I desire" and are measured with a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. The resulting reliability was an acceptable .837.
49
Organizational satisfaction. Based on the findings of the qualitative study, I added scales to measure the influence that one's work organization, changes in one's environment (social and personal turbulence) as well as relationships with co-workers have on career transition magnitude. The organizational satisfaction scale consists of five items from Martins, Eddleston & Viega (2002) and a modification of an embeddedness item from Lee and his colleagues (2004). Primarily, these items measure an individual's contentment with career status, career progress and the current job. A sample item is "I feel I am a good fit for my current organization". The reliability of the items of this scale was acceptable with a coefficient alpha of .853. Social and personal turbulence. The social and personal turbulence scale consists of six items based on the results of the qualitative study. The items in the scale measure the dynamism in one's environment such as downsizing, changes in the economy and momentous events (for example, national or personal tragedies) have on career decision making. A sample item is "A change in my family (such as the birth of a child or needing to care for elderly parents) has been a motivation for career change". The reliability of the scale scores was acceptable with a coefficient alpha of .787. Strong coworker ties. Finally, the strong coworker ties scale consists of four items. These items were adapted from Chao and colleagues' research (1994) assessing the extent to which an individual has positive relationships within their work group. A sample item is "I consider many of my co-workers as my friends". The reliability of the scale was acceptable with a coefficient alpha of .903.
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The favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. The opportunity evaluation scale measures the extent to which expected benefits and costs associated with a career transition make the opportunity attractive to an individual. I assessed this concept with a modification of a scale used by Hom & Kinicki (2001) that includes four items for each type of career transition (20 items total). These items ask the individual to assess the chances, on a scale of 0-100%, that a given career transition would provide an expected outcome such as increased career satisfaction, more balance between family and career, and greater career opportunities. The reliability of the scale was acceptable with a Cronbach's alpha of .903. Convergent and Discriminant validity I performed correlational analyses among the study variables to determine convergent and discriminate validity because some measures consisted of new items developed from information received in the qualitative study. My first investigation involved re-identification and disengagement. I expected medium correlations of the two variables in the range of .30 - .50 consistent with the results of qualitative studies examining conditions of role engagement and identity construction which suggest that the social processes of engagement and the cognitive processes of identification are linked in the construction of identity, so much so in fact, that cognitive and social processes have often been confounded (Kahn, 1990; Pratt, Rockman & Kauffman, forthcoming). The correlation between disengagement and re identification (r = .11) is lower than expected, however, this may be a function of my attempts to differentiate the constructs in item development as well as small sample size which may have yielded a non-representative result.
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Next, I examined the correlation between organizational satisfaction, social and personal turbulence and strong coworker ties. I expected that there would be a small to moderate relationship between organizational satisfaction and strong coworker ties consistent with Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sabylnski and Erez'(2001) research on job embeddedness which shows that the degree of attachment to an organization is related to the links that an individual has with the organization, including co-worker relationships, as well as organizational characteristics that cause one to feel comfortable or a fit with the organization (r = .22; p < .01). The relationship I found between organization satisfaction and strong coworker ties was similar and marginally significant (r = .35; p < .10.). Additionally, social and personal turbulence is not related to organizational satisfaction (r = -.00, p = n.s.) and strong coworker ties are weakly related to social and personal turbulence (r = -.17, p = n.s.) suggesting that the constructs are distinct (Table 3.9). In summary, the pilot study showed that (a) all of the scales exhibited good reliability, and (b) that each of the constructs demonstrated content validity and therefore the instruments may be used in hypothesis testing. HYPOTHESIS TESTING Study Purpose The objective of the final study was to test the hypotheses proposed in the theoretical model developed from the qualitative data and analyses. Descriptives and internal consistency reliabilities for the quantitative study are provided in Table 3.2. Participants and Procedures
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The potential sample for this study consisted of approximately 1,010 individuals comprised of MBA students at the University of Maryland (650 students) and attendees of the PhD Project Conference originally surveyed in November (360 individuals). I e-mailed invitations to the lists provided by the university and PhD project, however, 59 of e-mail addresses were returned as undeliverable leaving a potential sample of 618 University of Maryland students and 333 PhD Project participants (951 total invitees). 206 surveys were completed and returned from the University of Maryland sample providing for a response rate of 33%. The return rate from the PhD Project sample was considerably smaller with 47 respondents (response rate = 14%). This yielded a total sample of 253 and a response rate of 27%. In the combined group (University of Maryland and PhD Project participants), 34% of respondents were female. The racial composition of the respondents in the combined group was: 51% White, 18 % African American, 9.5 % Hispanic-American/Latino, and 16% AsianAmerican. 48% percent of the individuals in the sample had bachelor's degrees while another 48% had post-graduate degrees. 64% had been with their current organization for 1-5 years. Professional tenure was more varied than the tenure distribution with individuals having been in the current occupation/profession for less than one year (10%), 1-2 years (11.5%), 3-5 years (38%), 6-10 years (30%) and more than 10 years (10%). Fifty-eight percent (58%) of respondents were between 20-30 years of age.
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Table 3.2. Means, Standard Deviations, Cronbach's Alphas, and Correlations of Study Variables
1. 2. 3. 4. 8. Variable Sex Race Education Org Tenure Participant Central Identity Conflict personal turbulence Strong coworker ties Disengagement Re-identification Opportunity Evaluation M 0.35 3.56 3.53 2.03 3.44 2.67 SD 0.47 0.92 0.549 0.70 0.98 1.01 1 (-) -.07 .16** .00 .00 .05 2 (-) -.19** -.06 -.09 -.01 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
(-) -.08 .06 .02
(-) 5. .03 -.01
Prof Tenure .16 -.08 -.04 -.06
3.19 1.09 -.24** .08
-.00 (.89) 9. -.02
-.17** .00
.34**
(-) 6.
(.92) 10.
Org Satisfaction 3.08
12. 13. 14.
3.79 2.63 1.88 2.21
0.81 1.03 0.86 0.60
-.02 .02 .09 .10
.02 -.08 -.11 -.15*
.02 .06 .17** .17**
-.03 .04 .09 -.06
-.04 -.01 -.09 .07
.04 -.03 -.033 -.02
-.12 .32** .244** .13*
.26** -.15* -.07 .04
-.05 .17** .04 15. .16*
* - significant at .05 level
** - significant at .01 level
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Table 3.2. Means, Standard Deviations, Cronbach's Alphas, and Correlations of Study Variables
Variable 10. Org Satisfaction 11. Social and personal turbulence 12. Strong coworker ties 13. Disengagement 14. Re-identification 15. Opportunity Evaluation
M 3.08 1.86 3.79 2.63 1.88 2.21 0.96 0.91 0.81 1.03 0.86 0.60
SD (.82) .02
10 (.81)
11
12
13
14
15
.31** -.24** -.07 -.05
-.11 .13* .26** .10
(.80) -.25** -.07 -.02
(.86) .22** .20**
(.78) .08
(.87)
* - significant at .05 level
** - significant at .01 level
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Chapter 4: Results
Overview The results section is divided into six sections. In the first section, exploratory factor analysis results are presented for all variables. In the next five sections, analyses and results for each of the hypotheses (social network influences, identity centrality, identity conflict, social and personal turbulence, strong coworker ties, organizational satisfaction, magnitude, and opportunity evaluation) are presented. A summary table containing all hypotheses and results can be found in Table 4.9. Factor Analyses I used factor analysis in the quantitative study to provide evidence that the items used were good indicators of the constructs studied such as centrality, magnitude and opportunity evaluation. Definitions of self: Career Identity and Identity conflict The items used to measure career identity centrality and identity conflict were entered into a principal axis factor analysis with oblique rotation where I sought to confirm that there were two distinct factors. The results of these analyses can be found in Table 4.1. Two factors explaining 63% of the variance were extracted. The items loaded cleanly on each of the factors as predicted with no cross loading.
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Table 4.1. Career Identity Centrality and Identity Conflict Factor Analysis Item Central1 Central2 Central3 Central4 Central5 Idcon1 Idcon2 Idcon3 Idcon4 Idcon5 Idcon6 Idcon7 Factor 1 Oblique -.125 .051 .029 -.061 .023 .810 .783 .800 .753 .779 .835 .772 Factor 2 Oblique .749 .830 .646 .824 .870 .167 .059 -.020 -.023 -.029 -.152 -.106
Validations, Violations and Challenges to self: Organizational satisfaction, strong coworker ties, and social and personal turbulence The items measuring social and personal turbulence, organizational satisfaction, and strong coworker ties were entered into a principal axis factor analysis with oblique rotation to verify the existence of three distinct constructs. The results of these analyses can be found in Table 4.2. Three factors explaining 50% of the variance were extracted. The items loaded cleanly on each of the factors as predicted with no cross loading.
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Table 4.2. Organizational Satisfaction, Strong Coworker Ties, and Social and Personal Turbulence Factor Analysis Item Orgsat1 Orgsat2 Orgsat3 Orgsat4 Orgsat5 Socper1 Socper2 Socper3 Socper4 Socper5 Socper6 Cowork 1 Cowork 2 Cowork 3 Cowork 4 Factor 1 Oblique .743 .786 .683 .572 .553 -.375 .365 .092 .088 -.001 .176 .144 .158 .102 .212 Factor 2 Oblique .023 .016 -.030 .067 .055 .705 .682 .544 .708 .622 .644 -.050 .013 .051 .088 Factor 3 Oblique .112 .145 .211 .231 .066 .142 .150 -.150 .192 .011 -.108 .651 .727 .833 .534
Opportunity Evaluation All opportunity evaluation items were entered into a principal axis factor analysis. The results of these analyses can be found in Table 4.3. One factor explaining 32% of the variance was extracted.
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Table 4.3a Opportunity Evaluation Factor Analysis Item Cpeval3 Cpeval4 Cpeval5 Cpeval6 Cjeval3 Cjeval4 Cjeval5 Cjeval6 Cfeval3 Cfeval4 Cfeval5 Cfeval6 Coeval3 Coeval4 Coeval5 Coeval6 Cieval3 Cieval4 Cieval5 Cieval6 Factor 1 .299 .462 .413 .302 .295 .550 .611 .322 .485 .665 .658 .487 .556 .714 .782 .527 .375 .656 .663 .417
The Magnitude of Intended Career Transition Principal axis factor was also used to ensure that all of the magnitude items loaded on a single factor. Indeed, a single factor explaining 54% of the variance was extracted. The results are shown in Table 4.4.
Table 4.4. Magnitude Factor Analysis Item Mag1 Mag2 Mag3 Mag4 Factor Loadings .622 .440 .735 .694
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Experimenting with self: Reidentification and disengagement (exit behaviors) The exit behaviors that I studied were disengagement and re-identification. All exit behavior items were entered into a principal axis factor analysis with oblique rotation. The result of this analysis can be found in Table 4.5. Two factors explaining 50% of the variance were extracted. Table 4.5. Reidentification and Disengagement Factor Analysis Item Diseng1 Diseng2 Diseng3 Diseng4 Deid1 Deid2 Deid3 Deid4 Deid5 Deid6 Deid7 Deid8 Factor 1 - Oblique .094 .194 .145 .136 .687 .716 .574 .445 .584 .432 .402 .532 Factor 2 - Oblique .837 .676 .846 .693 .103 .086 .093 .185 .104 .158 .039 .104
Path Analysis I used path analysis to test the hypotheses because path analysis allows for a better understanding of the sources of variance, such as relationships between independent variables, which is not possible in regression. I believed, based on the qualitative analysis as well as the correlational data, that there were important relationships between some independent variables, such as organizational satisfaction and strong coworker ties. Additionally, interpersonal relationships (such as coworker ties) are theorized to have a causal relationship to identity (Cooley, 1902; McCall &
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Simmons, 1966). Path analysis allows researchers to address concerns about such relationships. The path model analyzed is shown in Figure 4.2. The chi-square test for this model was significant ( 2 (13, N=253) = 25.76, p < .05). However, the model indicates a moderate degree of fit (CFI = .928, NFI = .884, RMSEA = .073) where the RMSEA and NFI indices are not quite within Hu and Bentler's (1999) recommendations. Therefore, I tested a alternative model with a covariance added between disengagement and re-identification as suggested by the correlational and LaGrange multiplier test. Additionally, the LaGrange multiplier test suggested that the addition of direct paths from some independent variables to disengagement and re-identification would improve the model fit. The model fit improves significantly when I add the covariance and suggested paths (CFI = 1.000, NFI = .966, RMSEA = .000). Additionally, the difference between the chi-squares of the two models are significant ( 2 (3, N=253) = 17.58, p < .01). Therefore, the
alternative model (shown in Figure 4.3) is the better model. The dashed lines in the model diagram represent non-significant paths while the solid lines are significant paths. All test statistics and path coefficients for the alternative model are shown in Table 4.6. This table shows all of the variables hypothesized to explain variance in the dependent and mediator variables, the extent of the effects of the variables (shown in the path coefficients column) and the statistical significance of those relationships (t-test statistic).
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Career Identity Centrality Identity Conflict Organizational Satisfaction Social and Personal Turbulence Strong CoWorker Ties Network Range Magnitude of Intended Career Transition Disengagement Favorable Evaluation of Transition Opportunity
Reidentification
Figure. 4.2. Path Diagram for Original Conceptual Model
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Identity Conflict
Career Identity Centrality
Organizational Satisfaction Network Range
Magnitude of Intended Career Transition
Disengagement
Social and Personal Turbulence Strong CoWorker Ties
Favorable Evaluation of Transition Opportunity
Reidentification
Figure 4.3. Path Diagram for Alternative Model.
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Table 4.6. Path Coefficients for Alternative Model of Career Transition Model Dependent Predictors Variable Disengagement Opportunity evaluation Magnitude Identity conflict Strong coworker ties ReOpportunity evaluation identification Magnitude Social and personal turbulence Opportunity Network range evaluation Career identity centrality Identity conflict Organizational satisfaction Social and personal turbulence Strong coworker ties Magnitude Network range Career identity centrality Identity conflict Organizational satisfaction Social and personal turbulence Strong coworker ties Path t -Test Coefficients Statistic .210 1.684 .258 3.622* .162 2.359* -.218 -2.653* .187 1.958 .288 5.102* .167 2.707* .011 .140 .058 -.093 .058 -.035 .079 -.071 .031 -.253 .265 .001 0.524 2.926* 1.393 -1.877 1.216 -0.683 2.332* -0.907 0.455 -3.142* 3.427* 0.018 SE .125 .071 .069 .082 .096 .450 .062 .021 .048 .041 .049 .047 .051 .034 .078 .068 .081 .077 .083 R2 .161
.212
.068
.193
* t - Test statistic is significant at the .05 level Career Identity Centrality and Identity Conflict Hypothesis 1 proposed relationships between the internal factors, career identity centrality and identity conflict, and the intermediate variables (career transition magnitude and opportunity evaluation).
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Career identity centrality, the magnitude of intended career transition and opportunity evaluation. I hypothesized that career identity centrality is negatively related to the magnitude of intended career transition and the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities positing that individuals who have define themselves according to a current career identity would be less likely to consider transition favorably or consider transitions that involved significant change in the career competencies (knowing whom, knowing what and knowing why). However, the relationship between career identity centrality and the magnitude of intended career transition was not supported (hypothesis 1b). Hypothesis 1a posited that career identity centrality is negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. However, the analysis shows that career identity centrality is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities (t = 2.92, p < .05). Therefore, while the direction of the hypothesis was not supported, the influence of career identity centrality on the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities was demonstrated. Identity conflict, the magnitude of intended career transition and opportunity evaluation. Hypothesis 1d, which states that identity conflict is positively related to the magnitude of intended career transition, was not supported by the data. Similarly, hypothesis 1c which states that identity conflict is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities was not supported by the data. Social and Personal Turbulence, Organizational Satisfaction, and Strong Coworker Ties
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Hypothesis 2 and 3 proposed relationships between social and personal turbulence, organizational satisfaction, and strong coworker ties and the intermediate variables, opportunity evaluation and the magnitude of intended career transition. Organizational satisfaction, strong coworker ties, social and personal turbulence and opportunity evaluation. Specifically, hypothesis 3a states that social and personal turbulence is positively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. This hypothesis was not supported. In contrast, hypothesis 2a states that organizational satisfaction is negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. This hypothesis was also not supported. Hypothesis 2c states that strong coworker ties are negatively related to the favorable evaluation of transition opportunities. However, support for this hypothesis was not found. Organizational satisfaction, strong coworker ties, social and personal turbulence and the magnitude of intended career transition. Hypothesis 3b posits that social and personal turbulence is positively related to the magnitude of intended career transition. This hypothesis was supported (t = 3.41, p < .05). Similarly, hypothesis 2b which states that organizational satisfaction is negatively related to career transition magnitude was supported by these data (t = -3.14, p < .05). Finally, the relationship predicted between strong coworker ties and the magnitude of intended career transition was not supported (hypothesis 2d). Network Range Hypothesis 4 involved tests of the relationship of network career range to the intermediate variables, the magnitude of career transitions considered and opportunity evaluation. According to the model, diversity in one's social network is positively
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related the magnitude of transitions considered (hypothesis 4a) as well as the favorability of opportunity evaluation (hypothesis 4b). Hypothesis 4a is supported. Magnitude is positively related to career range (t = 2.37, p