Self Directed vis-a-vis Firm Directed Career Paths

What is it about?

The literature on personnel economics has studied firm behavior extensively in so far as promotion behavior is concerned. There are, however, very few studies that attempt to study employees' promotion expectations and employees' preference for either of self directed or company directed career paths. This study develops a survey instrument structure that enables studies of promotion expectations and generates a Latent Factor that enables predictions of employees that are "disenchanted" with company attitudes, practices, or decisions.

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Why is it important?

Employees that otherwise would have built a career at a company can transition to other firms due to disenchantment with company practices, attitudes, or decisions, including promotion decisions. The survey instrument structure I develop in this study enables predictions of employees that are disenchanted with their current employer, but is designed such that it cannot be utilized by current employers. The survey instrument structure facilitates longitudinal studies that attempt to match either of employee promotion expectations or probability of employee disenchantment at some time t with employees' actual outcomes or decisions at some future time or date t+n. Incorporation of the survey instrument structure in longitudinal studies of career paths or choices enables segmentation of employees that transition to other firms primarily for promotion or compensation purposes from employees whose career transitions result primarily from employee disenchantment. This segmentation enables more extensive or rigorous studies of both groups of employees.

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