تاثیر طولی خوداثربخشی و اهداف شغلی در موفقیت شغلی عینی و ذهنی

The present research reports on the impact of occupational self-efficacy and of career-advancement goals on objective (salary, status) and subjective (career satisfaction) career attainments. Seven hundred and thirty four highly educated and full-time employed professionals answered questionnaires immediately after graduation, three years later, and seven years later. Controlling for discipline, GPA at master’s level, and gender, we found that occupational self-efficacy measured at career entry had a positive impact on salary and status three years later and a positive impact on salary change and career satisfaction seven years later. Career-advancement goals at career entry had a positive impact on salary and status after three years and a positive impact on status change after seven years, but a negative impact on career satisfaction after seven years. Women earned less than men, but did not differ from men in hierarchical status and in career satisfaction. Theoretical implications for socio-cognitive theorizing and for career-success research as well as applied implications for vocational behavior are discussed.

Research interest in career success both regarding objective parameters (e.g., salary, promotions, hierarchical status) and regarding subjective ones (e.g., subjective evaluation of one’s career) has been high for many years. One main strand of research concerns what predicts success. The present research addresses the influence on career success of two well-known individual difference variables, namely self-efficacy beliefs and personal goals. Self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1986 and Bandura, 1997) and personal goals (Austin and Vancouver, 1996, Little, 1983 and Locke and Latham, 2002) are important constructs in socio-cognitive models of career interests and performance (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). There is considerable research on the influence of self-efficacy and of personal goals on task performance as well as on job performance (e.g., Stajkovic & Luthans, 1998). There are also findings on self-efficacy and goals influencing early phases of an individual’s career choice (e.g., Betz & Hackett, 2006). However, there is almost no research on the influence these variables have on career success conceptualized as the objective and subjective outcomes an individual receives in his/her career. A recent meta-analysis on determinants and correlates of career success (Ng, Eby, Sorensen, & Feldman, 2005) listed not a single study on this topic. The aim of the present study is to close this research gap. We will present findings on the impact that self-efficacy beliefs (i.e., occupational self-efficacy) and personal occupational goals (i.e., career-advancement goals) have on career outcomes measured both on an objective level (salary, hierarchical status) and on a subjective level (career satisfaction).