An empirical study of the career anchors that govern career decisions
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-01-2013-0017 |
| Date | 29 July 2014 |
| Published date | 29 July 2014 |
| Pages | 717-740 |
| Author | Jared R. Chapman,Bruce L. Brown |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
An empirical study of the career
anchors that govern career
decisions
Jared R. Chapman
Woodbury School of Business, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah, USA, and
Bruce L. Brown
Psychology Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine two of Feldman and Bolino’s proposals: career
anchor plurality and career anchor relationships.
Design/methodology/approach – A novel method for examining the relationships between career
anchors called “indices of mutual presence” is developed for this study to generate meaningful results
from ordinal and ipsative career anchor data.
Findings – Evidence for some individuals having multiple career anchors was found. Complementary
and exclusivity career anchor relationships are identified and a model for representing them is
presented. The importance and possible benefit of understanding both an individual’s preferred and
“unpreferred” anchors is discussed. The non-reflexive nature of career anchors is explored and the idea
of “mutually” exclusive career anchors is rejected. Weaknesses in the octagon shaped career anchor
relationships diagram presented by Feldman and Bolino are discussed.
Research limitations/impl ications – Despite the ben efits associated with fo rced-choice
assessments, some have expressed concern because of the nature of this type of evaluation. Each time
an item is preferred, another item must be “unpreferred.” Thus, for one item to have a high preference
count, some other item must necessarily have lower preference counts. The resulting data is ordinal
rather than interval or ratio. It contains information regarding order of preference, but provides little
insight into magnitude of preference.This makes it difficult to identifyand examine how much more or
less one individual prefers an item when compared to another individual.
Originality/value – The second property of forced-choice data that raises concern is its ipsative
nature. As respondents are constrained to unprefer an item e ach time the prefer one, the total
preference counts remain the same for every individual. As a result, the preference scores for every
individual will always sum to the same value. When data has this proper ty, it is called ipsative.
Ipsativedata is not free to vary,and thus statistical methods whichanalyze variance may yield spurious
results. Thus, traditional factorial statistical methods cannot be appropriately used with ipsative data
(Baron, 1996;Bartram, 1996; Closs, 1996). It is commonlybelieved that researcherstrade ease of use and
accuracy for fewer available statistical tools when using forced-choice methods. However, this paper
attempts to use “indicesof mutual presence” developed for thisstudy (described below) that do not rely
on variance to generatemeaningful results from ipsative career anchordata.
Keywords Quantitative, Career anchor, Ipsative
Paper type Research p aper
Career anchor theory attempts to understan d and explain the values, needs, and
interests that govern the outcomes of individual and personal career decisions.
A discussion of career anchor theory is benefited by first placing it in the broader
context of general career theory, which includes two perspectives: the exter nal and
internal career. External career research focusses on the sociological nature of careers
and characterizes a career as an objective work history (1989). It is primarily concerned
with the interaction between the individual and an organization. In addition, the
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
Received 30 January 2013
Revised 27 November 2013
Accepted 7 April 2014
Personnel Review
Vol.43 No.5, 2014
pp. 717-740
rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-01-2013-0017
717
Career anchors
that govern
career decisions
external career examines relationships between the individual and people with whom
they interact in work life. Topics related to external career research include career
paths, career stages within an organization, and the nature of various occupations in
society (Derr and Laurent, 1989).
The second perspective found in career theory is the internal career. In contrast to
the external career, this perspective focusses on the psycholog ical nature of careers
and deals with individuals’ own career influence. This perspective views a career as
subjective meanings and themes that people give their work lives (Bailyn, 1989).
Topics related to the internal career include self-development within a career, career
motivation, and career orientation. Career o rientation is a pattern of job related
preferences that remains fairly stable over a person’s work life (Derr and Laurent,
1989). These preferences govern an individual’s career decisions.
In addition, the study of career anchors is found within the study of the career
orientations. Derr and Laurent (1989) suggest that career anchor theory is a conceptual
breakthrough in assessing career orientation. For the past 35 years, Schein’s (1974) career
anchor theory has given individuals insight into their career decisions. By understanding
career anchors, employers and employees can have better insight into motivation (Barth,
1993) and effective career development (Evans, 1996). Research shows that a better “fit”
between an individual’s work environment and career anchor can lead to stronger work
outcomes like organizational commitment, retention, work quality and quantity, job
satisfaction, and job stability (Ellison and Schreuder, 2000; Feldman and Bolino, 1996;
Igbaria et al., 1999; Schein, 1978, 1990b; Sumner et al., 2005).
Schein (1975) describes career anchors as stable collections of one’s career related
needs, values, and talents. As a person gains a better understanding of his or her career
anchor, it becomes “a stabilizing force [y] that guides and constrains [y] career choices”
(Schein, 1990a). The metaphor of an anchor is used to illustrate how career anchors
operate in career decisions. When a boat’s marine anchor is fixed in the sand, the boat is
free to move about within the range of the rope connecting the two. However, if the boat
drifts too far from its anchor, it will respond to the tension created by the anchor’s pull and
return to its central point. Similarly, career anchors are stable personality traits that
influence career decisions. As people move away from the central tendencies of their
career anchor, they feel dissatisfaction and respond to the “pull” of their career ancho r
by making career decisions aligned with their talents, needs, and values. As part of
his career anchor theory, Schein identifies eight career anchors: Technical/Functional
Competence, General Managerial Competence, Autonomy/Independence, Security/Stability,
Entrepreneurial/Creativity,Service/Dedicat iontoaCause,PureChallenge,andLifestyle(see
the list for career anchor profile descriptions).
Profiles for Schein’s eight career anchors (Schein, 1990b):
.Technical/Functional Competence – primarily excited by the content of the work
itself; prefers advancement only in his/her technical or functional area of
competence; generally disdains and fears general management as too political.
.General Managerial Competence – primarily excited by the opportunity to
analyze and solve problems under conditions of incomplete information and
uncertainty; likes harnessing people together to achieve common goals; stimulated
(rather than exhausted) by crisis situations.
.Autonomy/Independence – primarily motivated to seek work situations which
are maximally free of organizational constraints; wants to set own schedule and
718
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