Conceptualizing and evaluating career success

TLDR

Career success has often been operationalized in a deficient manner in the literature. The study proposes a research agenda to improve the conceptualization and measurement of career success by making it more sensitive to the criteria participants use. The authors use social comparison theory to propose when self‑ versus other‑referent success criteria become most salient. The paper shows that contextual and individual factors influence the relative salience of objective versus subjective career success criteria. © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Abstract Within the vast literature on the antecedents of career success, the success criterion has generally been operationalized in a rather deficient manner. Several avenues for improving the conceptualization and measurement of both objective and subjective career success are identified. Paramount among these is the need for greater sensitivity to the criteria that study participants, in different contexts, use to construe and judge their career success. This paper illustrates that contextual and individual factors are likely to be associated with the relative salience of objective and subjective criteria of career success. Drawing on social comparison theory, propositions are also offered about when self‐ and other‐referent success criteria are likely to be most salient. A broader research agenda addresses career success referent choice, organizational interventions, and potential cultural differences. This article maps out how future research can be more sensitive to how people actually do conceptualize and evaluate their own career success. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.