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DOI: 10.1177/1059601104269118

2005 30: 565Group & Organization ManagementLillian T. Eby, Tammy D. Allen and Andi Brinley

Career-Related AttitudesA Cross-Level Investigation of the Relationship Between Career Management Practices and

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10.1177/1059601104269118GROUP & ORGANIZATION MANAGEMENTEby et al. / CAREER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

A Cross-Level Investigation of

the Relationship Between

Career Management Practices and

Career-Related Attitudes

LILLIAN T. EBY

University of Georgia

TAMMY D. ALLEN

University of South FloridaANDI BRINLEY

University of Georgia

The relationship between an organizations use of various career management practices and

career attitudes was examined in a multisource, cross-level field study using organization-level

datafrom 65companiesand individual-leveldata from1,876employees.A bundleapproachwas

used to categorize 16 career management practices into clusters. As expected, the career man-

agement bundle associated with future strategic planning was positively related to satisfaction

with the promotionprocess and negativelyrelated to perceptionsof job content plateauing.Con-

sistent with research on strategic human resource management, significant interactions were

found between some of the career management bundles in predicting satisfaction with the pro-

motionprocess. A significantinteractionwas alsofound between the careermanagement bundle

of future strategic planning and sex, in terms of predicting satisfaction with the promotion

process. Implications for theory and applied research are discussed.

Keywords: careers; career management; career attitudes; strategic human resource

management

Scholars from a variety of management disciplines have discussed theimportant role of human resource management (HRM) practices in under-

standing employee attitudes, employee behavior, and organizational perfor-

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2002annualmeeting of the Southern Man-

agement Association, Atlanta, GA. Appreciation is expressed to Alison Konrad and two anony-

mousreviewers for theirhelpful commentsandsuggestions andto RightAssociatesfor financial

support of thisproject.Pleaseaddressall correspondence to LillianT. Eby, Department of Psy-

chology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 31024 or [email protected] & Organization Management, Vol. 30 No. 6, December 2005 565-596

DOI: 10.1177/1059601104269118

2005 Sage Publications

565

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mance (Becker & Gerhart, 1996; Huselid, 1995). The argument is that HRM

practices can increase the human capital available to an organization by

developing employee skills, increasing employee motivation, and reducing

employee turnover. Empirical research has substantiated the link between

HRM practices and organizationally relevant outcomes. Much of this

research is conducted at theorganization level.For example, Huselid (1995)

found that high performance work practices (HPWP) could be classified into

two categories: those that focus on employee skills and organizational struc-

tures (e.g., company incentive plans) and those associated with employee

motivation (e.g., systematic use of performance appraisals). More impor-

tantly, the use of HPWPs related to lower turnover, as well as higher produc-

tivity and corporate financial performance. Similarly, MacDuffie (1995)

found that combinations of HRM practices predicted organizational perfor-mance. Other studies have documented the relationship between organiza-

tion-level staffing practicesand corporate performance (Delaney & Huselid,

1996; Terpstra & Rozell, 1993), benefits and voluntary turnover (Shaw,

Delery, Jenkins, & Gupta, 1998), training and both discharge rates (Shaw

et al., 1998) andorganizational performance (Delaney & Huselid, 1996),and

the provision of work-family programs and organizational performance

(Perry-Smith & Blum, 2000).

Another line of research has investigated individual-level effects; in par-

ticular, the relationship between perceptions of HRM practices and both

employee attitudes and behavior. For example, Kinicki, Carson, and

Bohlander (1992) found that favorable individual-level perceptions of com-

mitment to 11 different human resource (HR) practices (e.g., training, selec-

tion) related to a variety of employee work attitudes. In addition, actual HRactivities related to several employee attitudes, such as company values and

company pride. Ogilvie (1987) also found that perceptions of an organiza-

tions HRM practices related positively to organizational commitment. A

recent study by Lambert (2000) extended this line of research to organiza-

tional citizenship behavior, finding that the perceived utility of work-life

benefits related positively to citizenship behavior.

Although existing research helps substantiate the link between HRM

practices and outcomes, several gaps in the literature exist. First, there is a

lack of research on career management systems, a specific type of HRM

practice. Second, very little research examines cross-level effects, which

predict that an organizations use of HRM practices (an organization-level

variable) relate to employee attitudes (an individual-level variable; seeTsui,

Pearce, Porter, & Tripoli, 1997, for an exception). This study fills thesetwo gaps and breaks new ground by examining the relationship between

organization-level career management practices and individual-level career

566 GROUP & ORGANIZATION MANAGEMENT



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attitudes, using matched data from 65 diverse organizations and 1,876

employees. We also examine whether combinations of career management

practices interact in predicting career attitudes and whether an employees

sex moderates the relationship between career management bundles and

satisfaction with the promotion process.

ORGANIZATIONAL CAREER MANAGEMENT AND

CAREER ATTITUDES

Career management is the process by which individuals develop insight

into themselves and theirenvironment, formulatecareer goalsandstrategies,

and acquire feedback regarding career progress (Greenhaus, Callanan, &

Godshalk, 2000, p. 423-424). Career management practices include a wide

range of programs andinterventions that focus on both theinternal(e.g., self-assessment tools) and external career (e.g., career pathing; Van Maanen &

Schein, 1979).

There is some individual-level research supporting the positive effects of

specific career management practices on career outcomes. This includes

research on formal mentoring programs (Ragins, Cotton, & Miller, 2000),

job rotation (Campion, Cheraskin, & Stevens, 1994), career management

assistance (Callanan & Greenhaus, 1990), and career ladders (Tharenou &

Conroy, 1994). Although this line of research is important, organizations

tend to offer several career management programs in tandem. For example,

R. J. Reynolds Tobacco offers tuition reimbursement, extensive in-house

training and development courses, a formal mentoring program, and a

company-wide job posting system (www.rjrt.com). As another illustration,

Dow offers substantial opportunities for growth within the organization

through theuseof individualized employee development plans, internal pro-

motion systems, formalized skill assessment, and a wide range of training

programs (www.dow.com). The useof integrated and complementarycareer

management practices can help create and reinforce a companys firm-level

HRMstrategyby signalingthat theorganization valuesemployees, iswilling

to invest in employee development, and is committed to creating opportuni-

tiesfor employeegrowth andadvancement (Gutteridge, Leibowitz,& Shore,

1993; Hall, 1986).

Types of career management activities. Examining groups of related

career management practices (referred to as career management bundles

from here forward) is consistent with strategic human resource management(SHRM) research, which often examines how bundles of related HRMprac-

tices relate to organizational outcomes (e.g., Huselid, 1995; Ichniowski,

Eby et al. / CAREER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES 567



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Shaw, & Prennushi, 1997; Perry-Smith & Blum, 2000). Consistent with the

ideas put forward byHall (1986) and Gutteridge et al. (1993), the SHRMlit-

erature discusses how companies tend to organize human resource practices

into integrated packages that reinforce the organizations culture and strat-

egy (Huselid, 1995; MacDuffie, 1995; Noe, 2002).

The literature suggests there may be several broad categories of career

management practices. The first two focus on the internal career and reflect

employee efforts at career management (Van Maanen & Schein, 1979). One

includes self-exploration and assessment activities. Self-exploration is the

first step in thecareer management process because it leads to the identifica-

tion of ones strengths and interests and focuses on career goal setting

(Greenhaus & Connolly, 1982; Noe, 2002). Exploration leads to enhanced

awareness and should promote more realistic career decisions (Greenhauset al., 2000; Greenhaus, Hawkins, & Brenner, 1983; Noe, 2002). Tools that

can help individuals engage in career exploration include career assessment

inventories and experiential activities designed to provide a realistic preview

of an occupation or position (e.g., internships, formal mentoring programs).

A second type of internally-focused career management activity involves

career planning. These activities focus on helping employees assimilate and

integrate information on their personal strengths and weaknesses into career

goals that are individualized,appropriate, and supported by the organization

(Greenhaus et al., 2000; Harris & DeSimone, 1994). To accomplish this,

organizations might offer career planning workshops and individual career

counseling sessions for employees.

Other career management activities focus on the external career (Van

Maanen & Schein, 1979) and reflect efforts to integrate individuals careerplans with organizational opportunities and prepare individuals for future

jobs within the organization (Harris & DeSimone, 1994). A unique aspect of

these activities is an emphasis on helping individuals carry out their career

plans in conjunction with strategic planning of an organizations human

resource management needs (Greenhaus et al., 2000). One type of practice

involves theprovisionof skill-building and trainingopportunities to employ-

ees. This allows employees to achieve career goals through structured learn-

ingexperiences(Greenhaus etal., 2000; Noe, 2002).Theoverarchinggoal of

these activities is a change in employee knowledge, skill, or behavior on the

job, which, in turn, should increase an organizations ability to maximize its

human capital (Noe, 2002). Such efforts include in-house training activities

using corporate staff or external training opportunities, such as off-site

seminars or formal educational opportunities.




6/33

A final category of practices also focuses on the external career and pro-

vides employees with internal labor market information. Internal labor mar-

kets represent administrative rules and employment policies that facilitate

employeesability to obtain successivejobs within an organization (Cappelli

& Cascio, 1991). Ideally, such systems allow people to see how jobs and

positions are related within the organization and provide mechanisms for

pursuing internal opportunities. Job posting systems, information on career

ladders and paths, and succession planning are examples of such practices

because theobjective is to match individuals with jobs and to encourage pro-

motion from within (Gutteridge, 1986; Gutteridge et al., 1993).

Career attitudes. We examined two career attitudes in the present study:

satisfaction with the promotion process and perceptions of job contentplateauing. Satisfaction with the promotion process is defined as an individ-

ualsperception that theorganization provides employeeswithopportunities

for promotion and advancement within the company. Job content plateauing

refers to theperception that theopportunity for challenge in ones job is lim-

ited (Milliman, 1992). It is conceptually similar to the concept of job enrich-

ment but differs in that job enrichment is the extent that the job contains cer-

tain elements or attributes that supposedly contribute to the motivating

potentialof the jobwhereas jobcontent plateauing is theextent that the job

continues to be perceived as challenging.

Our rationale for expecting career management bundles to relate to these

particular dependent variables is that career management is used to develop

internal talent (Russell, 1991), which should be perceived more favorably to

employees than hiring from outside the organization. Also, career manage-ment practices allow individuals to exercise initiative in, and control over,

their own career development and see how their career goals fit in with the

organizations future needs. This should be associated with greater satisfac-

tion with the promotion process. Furthermore, the provision of learning and

development opportunities can enhance job challenge (Russell, 1991) and is

recommended as a remedy for both job content and hierarchical career

plateauing (Feldman, 1988). Indeed, individuals who report engaging in

career management activities, such as career planning and exploration, are

less likely to report job content plateauing (Allen, Russell, Poteet, & Dob-

bins, 1999). Taken together, this suggests that satisfaction with the promo-

tion process and job content plateauing are proximal criteria that have utility

inunderstandinghow careermanagementbundlesrelateto employeeattitudes.




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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND

HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT

In making predictions about how organization-level career management

bundles relate to individual-level career attitudes, we were informed by sev-

eral theories, including Pfeffers (1981) ideas about symbolic action, social

exchange theory, and research on SHRM. Although these represent diverse

approaches, they all support the contention that firm-level career manage-

ment practices may relate to employee career attitudes.

Symbolic action. According to this perspective, organizational policies

and practices can influence employee outcomes through the symbolic value

that employees place on them (Pfeffer, 1981). More specifically, organiza-tionalpractices that arediscretionary (e.g.,notrequiredby law, nota resultof

union negotiations) and have not been institutionalized across all organiza-

tions can signal the firms core values and operating philosophy (Perry-

Smith & Blum, 2000; Pfeffer, 1981). Pfeffer (1981) discussed symbolic

actionwith respect to themessage that organizational restructuring andother

forms of organizational change can send to employees, the symbolic mean-

ing associated with voluntary or involuntary executive succession, and how

thedesign anduseof physical spacecanindicatean organizationsvalue sys-

tem. However, human resource management practicesmayalso send signals

to employees (Perry-Smith & Blum, 2000). More specifically, firms that

invest greater time and resources in human resource management activities

are signaling to employees that they care for them and are willing to offer

them special treatment (Perry-Smith & Blum, 2000, p. 1106). As a result,organizations that send stronger signals of care and concern stand to benefit

in terms of enhanced performance, internalization of company goals, and

morepositiveemployeeattitudes(Perry-Smith& Blum,2000;Pfeffer, 1981,

1994).

Previous empirical research uses symbolic action to understand the rela-

tionship between the provision of work-family human resource bundles and

organizational performance (Perry-Smith & Blum, 2000). We extend this

logic to understand howcareermanagement bundles mayrelate to individual

career attitudes. Consistent with the tenets of symbolic action, career man-

agement bundles arediscretionary because they arenot legally required ben-

efits, such as overtime pay. Furthermore, such practices are not used consis-

tently across organizations (Russell, 1991). As such, firms that offer more

extensive career management bundles may signal that the organization isoffering something unique and special to its employees.




8/33

Because symbolic organizational actions legitimize and rationalize orga-

nizationalpolicies (Pfeffer,1981), theprovisionof career management prac-

tices may communicate the organizations stance on helping employees

manage their careers and developing talent from within the organization.

Such actions should, in turn, foster more positive employee attitudes about

the fairness of the promotion process and reduce perceptions of being

plateaued in ones job. This is consistent with Pfeffers discussion of how

symbols help individuals make sense of their world and shape beliefs about

their organization.

Social exchange theory. Social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) proposes

that as one party provides benefits to another party, a sense of obligation is

created that requires thereceivingparty to reciprocate in some way(Gouldner,1960).An important element of socialexchangetheory is theidea that discre-

tionary benefits are more highly valued by recipients than are benefits that

are required by circumstances beyond the donors control (Blau, 1964;

Gouldner, 1960). Consistent with the previous discussion of symbolic

action, we argue that because careermanagement practicesarenotmandated

by unions or by government policies, they represent discretionary resources

that an organization canchoose to provide (or not provide) to employees. As

such, career management practices have the potential to influence employ-

ees career attitudes.

Socialexchangetheoryhasbeen used tounderstand a variety of organiza-

tional phenomena, including citizenship behaviors (Moorman, 1991; Tsui

et al., 1997), individual performances (Tsui et al., 1997), work attitudes

(Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchinson, & Sowa, 1986), and leader-subordinate relationships (Liden, Wayne, & Stillwell, 1993). We use research

on the link between social exchange principles and work attitudes to suggest

how the provision of career management bundles may facilitate positive

employee career attitudes. In a recent reviewof theperceived organizational

support literature, Rhodes and Eisenberger (2002) discussed how dis-

cretionary resources offered by an organization that create favorable job

conditions, such as promotions and job enrichment are likely to lead to more

positive attitudes about work. Career management practices have clear con-

ceptual links to promotions (e.g., succession planning, formal mentoring

programs) and to jobenrichment (e.g., jobrotation, training). Thus, this theory

can also be used as a conceptual platform to substantiate why organization-

level career management bundles relate to individual career attitudes.

Strategic human resource management. The literature on SHRM high-

lights the necessity of investing in human resources as a way to create and




9/33

sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace (Becker & Gerhart,

1996). Research in this area has demonstrated that investing in human

resources can pay off in terms of lower turnover and higher corporate finan-

cial performance (Huselid, 1995; Shaw et al., 1998; Terpstra & Rozell,

1993).Similar to theideasdiscussed in termsof symbolicaction, SHRMpro-

poses that HR systems cancontribute to and support a firms strategicobjec-

tives,complement itsoperating philosophy, andcreatevalueby utilizingHR

practices that are not routinely used by its competitors (Becker & Gerhart,

1996; Perry-Smith& Blum, 2000).Moreover, investment in human resource

management activities is expected to enhance employee work attitudes,

which, in turn, reduces turnover and enhances corporateperformance (Shaw

et al., 1998).

Whereas some research on SHRM examines specific HR practices, suchasselection(Terpstra& Rozell, 1993) orcompensation (Gerhart& Milkovich,

1990), resource-based views of the firm highlight the importance of com-

plementary resources (Barney, 1986, p. 56). Inother words, it is thesimulta-

neous useof multiple HR practices (i.e., HR bundles) that areresponsible for

addingvalue, rather than singleHR practices(Barney,1986; Huselid, 1995).

In the present study, we embrace this idea by examining bundles of career

management practices. We also explicitly test the assumption that the use of

SHRM practices is related to more favorableattitudeson thepart of employ-

ees by examining how the use of career management bundles relate to

employee career attitudes.

Integration and hypothesis development. Consistent in the above-

mentioned approaches is the idea that discretionary organization-level HRpractices that are relatively novel and are likely to be valued by employees

may influence organizationally relevant outcomes. No research to date has

examined career management bundles as a type of HR practice; but, because

career management is used to assess employee skills, to develop competen-

cies, and to facilitate internal mobility within the organization, it seems rea-

sonable toexpectthatcompaniesthat usemoreextensivecareer management

practices will have employees who report more favorable career attitudes.

For example, career management practices, such as promotability forecasts,

career ladders, andmentoringprograms, providetheopportunity for increased

responsibility, more authority, and the potential to move up within the orga-

nization, all of which should positively influence satisfaction with how pro-

motions are handled (Russell, 1991). Furthermore, training programs and

job rotation can help employees develop skills and may, therefore, reduceperceptions of being plateaued (Feldman, 1988). Based on the theories pre-

sented and extrapolating from previous research, we predict the following:




10/33

Hypothesis 1:Organizations with more comprehensive career management bun-dles will have employees who report greater satisfaction with the promotionprocess.

Hypothesis 2:Organizations with more comprehensive career management bun-dles will have employees who report lower job content plateauing.

Interactions among career management bundles. In addition to having

main effects, it is possible that career management bundles interact in pre-

dicting career attitudes. The idea of synergistic or interactive effects among

HR systems is a point of debate in the SHRM literature, and the evidence is

mixed as to whether HR systems influence outcomes as main effects or

because of interactive effects (cf. Becker & Gerhart, 1996, for a conceptual

discussion or Huselid, 1995, for an empirical example). Those endorsing the

idea that HR systems may interact in predicting outcomes suggest that fitamong HR systems (i.e., the extent to which human resource management

practices complement one another) is important because it allows firms to

usepracticesthatcomplementeach other(e.g.,systematic performance man-

agement systems thatareclosely linked to individualcompensation;Gerhart,

Trevor, & Graham, 1996). Huselid and Becker (1995) found some support

for the importance of fitby demonstrating nonlinear gains in marketvalue as

organizations increasingly adopt high performance work systems.

In the present study, we extend the discussion of fit in HR practices to fit

among career management bundles. For example, organizations that offer

opportunities for individuals to engage in self-exploration and assessment

butdo notprovide careerplanningassistance to translatethisknowledge into

goals may have employees who feel more plateaued in their jobs. Or, offer-

ing career planning assistance without providing information on internallabor markets in the organization may lead employees to feel frustrated and

less satisfied with the promotion process. Similarly, providing information

on internal labor markets mayonly improve careerattitudes if employeesare

also able to build skill sets to compete for internal positions. It is also plausi-

ble that career management practices may compensate for one another, such

that providing limited assistance in one area (e.g., career planning) can be

offset by offering more extensive assistance in another area (e.g., self-

exploration and assessment).

Thus, we predict the following:

Hypothesis 3:Career management bundles will interact in predicting favorablereports of satisfaction with the promotion process.

Hypothesis 4: Career management bundles will interact in predicting lowerreports of job content plateauing.




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Interactions with employees sex. Another possibility is that employees

sex interactswith careermanagement bundles in predicting satisfactionwith

the promotion process. For example, because of greater nonwork demands

and more potential for work-family conflict (Eby, Casper, Lockwood,

Bordeaux, & Brinley, in press), women may not be able to benefit from

career management programs as much as men, particularly those that are

designed to prepare employeesfor positionsof greater responsibility. In fact,

it is possible that the presence of these programs is demoralizing for women

who may see the potential opportunity for career advancement but do not

have support on thehome front to take advantage of such programs. Women

also face overt and subtle forms of discrimination (Greenhaus et al., 2000;

Stroh, Brett,& Reilly, 1992), andgender stereotypes can limit womens pro-

motional opportunities (Heilman, 1989). Therefore, women may not benefitas much from career management practices as men, particularly if male-

typed jobs, such as fast-track management positions, are the target of career

management practices(e.g., succession planning,developmentalassessment

centers). In fact, women mayactually perceive thepromotionprocess as less

fair if accessto careermanagement activities is restricted because of discrim-

ination or stereotyping.

Based on the literature that was just reviewed, we expect that sex will

interact with career management bundles in predicting satisfaction with the

promotion process. No comparable interaction is expected for job content

plateauing because men are just as likely as women to report experiencing

such plateauing (Allen et al., 1999), and there is no theoretical or empirical

rationale to suspect that career management practices aimed at lessening job

content plateauing, such as job rotation or training, would have differentialeffects for men and women.

Hypothesis 5:An employees sex and career management bundles will interact inpredicting satisfaction with the promotion process. Specifically, the positiveeffect of career management bundles on satisfaction with the promotion pro-cess will be greater for men than for women.

METHOD

Procedure and Levels of Analysis

Participation in thestudy wassolicitedwith theassistance of a nationwide

outplacementfirmwith branchoffices throughout theUnited Statesand Can-

ada. Organizations were contacted that were clients of this outplacement

firm, along with other organizations in thearea that were notcurrentlyclients




12/33

of thefirm. Organizations agreeing to participate in thestudy were contacted

directlyby theuniversity research team andgiventwooptions with respect to

selecting employees to participate in the study. This included sampling the

entire population of employees (in the case of small organizations) or ran-

domly selecting employees to participate in the study (in the case of large

organizations). Data were collected in the mid-1990s.

Because we were interested in how organization-level career manage-

ment practices relate to individual-level-career-related attitudes, multi-

source, multilevel survey datawere used.Organization-level information on

the companys current career management practices was obtained from

human resource management representatives via a survey. Individual-level

attitude data were obtained from a separate survey sent to employees. Once

collected, the data were matched through a unique code that representedeach participating organization. In other words, organization-level data was

assigned to the individual-level data.

Participants

Sixty-five human resource representatives, one from each participating

organization, provided data on available career management practices. These

company representativeshad anaverage of 4.6yearsof organizational tenure

(SD= 4.5). Participating companies were geographically dispersed (10%

northeastern United States, 48% southern United States, 29% midwestern

United States, 12% western United States, 1% Canada) and represented a

wide range of industries (e.g., banking, retail trade, energy, communica-

tions) in the private (24%), public (70%), governmental (3%), and nonprofit(3%) sectors. Organizational size also varied widely, from 155 to 750,000

employees worldwide (Md= 35,308,M= 74,817,SD= 155,323).

Surveys were sent to 4,850 employeesand1,876 completedsurveys were

returned, for a response rate of 39%. Participants were, on average, 38 years

old (SD = 8.3) and had worked in their current organization for an average of

10 years (SD= 8.1). They were employed in a wide range of jobs, with the

most commonly reported jobs being general management (32%), sales or

marketing (19%), and engineering or research (13%). The modal annual

income of participants was $50,001 to $75,000, and 78% of the sample was

male and 72% were married.

Assessment of potential response bias. We obtained information on the

characteristics of those initially sent surveys (N= 4,850) from the humanresource representatives in each organization. Comparisons of the total sam-

ple to those completing surveys indicatedthat these twosamples were highly




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similar with respect to sex(81% of thetotalsamplewasmale;78%of respon-

dents were male), age (mean age of total sample was 36 to 40; mean age of

respondents was 38), marital status (75% of the total sample was married;

72% of respondents were married), salary (modal salary for total sampleand

respondents was $50,000 to$75,000), and education level (modal education

level for total sample and respondents was a college degree). This provides

some evidence that respondents were similar to nonrespondents on socio-

demographic variables.

Organizational response rates varied from 3% to 100% (Md= 34%), rais-

ing thepossibility that differential response rates influenced our findings. To

examine this,a continuousvariablewascreated thatrepresented eachorgani-

zations response rate. Then, the correlations between response rate and the

two dependent variableswereexamined.Response ratewas not significantlycorrelated with satisfaction with promotions (r= .03, n.s.) or with job con-

tent plateauing (r= .03, n.s.). We also examined whether there were differ-

ences in participant characteristics as a function of response rate, as well as

organizational size. For the categorical variables of sex and marital status,t

testswere conducted, anda significance level ofp < .01wasadopted because

of multiple nonindependent comparisons. No significant differences were

found for sex (average response rates were 43% and 40% for male and

female respondents, respectively) or for marital status (average response

rates were 42% and 39% for nonmarried and married respondents, respec-

tively). Forthe continuous variablesof age, salary, educationlevel, andorga-

nizational, size correlations were examined. The response rate was not sig-

nificantly related to employee age (r= .00, n.s.), education level (r= .02,

n.s.), or organizational size (r= .02, n.s.), yet it was correlated with salarylevel (r= .10,p< .001). Although organizations with higher response rates

tended to have somewhat higher paid employees, including salary as a con-

trol variable did not affect our findings. This provides some evidence that

differences in response rates is not a likely threat to the validity of our

findings.

Measures

Organizational survey. Three sources were used to generate the list of

career management practices used in the present study. Gutteridge and Otte

(1983) conducteda structuredtelephonesurvey of 30 companies,throughout

theUnited States, known tohave careerdevelopmentprogramsand stratified

by employment size, geographic location, and industry. Ten career manage-

ment practices were identified through the interview process. Several years




14/33

later, Gutteridge (1986) reviewed the literature and identified 20 of the most

common career management practices used by organizations. A study by

Russell and Curtis (1993) surveyed 182Fortune 500companies about their

career development practices and identified 17 primary interventions along

with 25 additional interventions targeted toward particular groups (e.g.,

programs to assist employed spouses or parents).

Allof thecareer management practicesassessedin thepresent study came

from at least twoof thesources previously described. Based on these sources

a list of 16 career management practices was generated. The presence of

career management practices was assessed using a checklist-type format

where human resource managers indicatedif their organizationutilized each

practice. Table 1 lists the16 specific practices included in theorganizational

survey and the sources for each. Data were coded 1 if the company had thepractice and 0 if the company did not have the practice.

Employee survey. Multi-item scales were used to assess career-related

attitudes. Satisfactionwith thepromotionprocess wasmeasuredusingQuinn

andStainess (1979) Two-Item Scale:(Thechances forpromotionaregood

in this organization, I am satisfiedwith theway promotions are handled in

this organization, = .88). Job content plateauing was measured usingMillimans (1992) Six-Item Measure (My current job tasks and activities

will become routine for me in the future, I expect to be constantly chal-

lenged inmyjob in the future (reverse), I willcontinue tolearn and grow in

my current job (reverse), My current job responsibility will increase sig-

nificantly in the future (reverse), My current job will continually require

me todevelop myabilitiesand knowledge (reverse), I will bechallenged inmy current job,= .78).

RESULTS

Career Management Bundles

Several different strategies exist for examining the relationship between

career management practicesand career attitudes. This includesusingcluster

analysis to classify organizations, identifying ideal practices a priori and

examining an organizationsdeviation from the ideal, homogeneity indexes,

treating career management practices individually, and using factor or prin-

cipal components analysis to create scales or indexes that represent groupsof practices (Delery, 1998). Cluster analysis and the use of a priori ideal

practices were not appropriate in the present because they classify entire




15/33

578

TABLE1

ResultsofPrincipalComponentsFactorAnalysis(Oblim

inRotation)

CareerPlan

ning

Future

InternalLabo

r

Formal

Formal

andExplora

tion

StrategicPlanning

MarketInformation

ExternalTraining

InternalTraining

1.Careerp

lanningworkshopsa

bc

.85

.13

.21

.04

.24

2.Formalmentoringprogramsac

.73

.02

.38

.04

.09

3.Successionplanningabc

.09

.81

.02

.04

.24

4.Outplacementabc

.19

.78

.23

.20

.11

5.Careerladdersandpathsa

bc

.31

.04

.66

.25

.09

6.Jobpostingabc

.13

.10

.75

.15

.12

7.Individu

alcounselingabc

.30

.20

.70

.05

.24

8.Externaltrainingseminarsac

.02

.07

.09

.78

.13

9.Tuitionreimbursementac

.08

.02

.02

.75

.03

10.In-house

trainingac

.03

.11

.15

.08

.74

11.Preretire

mentprogramsac

.22

.00

.07

.23

.71

12.Promota

bilityforecastingac

.45

.61

.23

.02

.02

13.Jobrotationac

.21

.66

.50

.02

.05

14.Develop

mentalassessmentcentersac

.57

.19

.48

.20

.06

15.Careerresourcesystemsa

bc

.80

.42

.13

.06

.02

16.Careerp

lanningworkbookabc

.78

.47

.04

.07

.05



16/33

579

Eigenvalue(%

varianceexplained)

4.73(2

9%)

2.35(15%)

1.45(9%)

1.41(9%)

1.07(7%)

Meanindexd(SD)

.69(.88)

1.33(.78)

2.21(.97)

1.96(.21)

1.60(.54)

Relativemeane(SD)

.34(.44)

.66(.39)

.74(.32)

.98(.11)

.80(.27)

NOTE:Num

bersinboldfaceindicateprimaryfactorloading

s.Items12to16deletedbecauseofcross-loadi

ngs.40orhigher.

a.FromGut

teridge(1986).

b.FromGutteridgeandOtte(1983).

c.FromRus

sellandCurtis(1993).

d.Meanindexistheaveragesumscoreforeachcareermanagementbundle.

e.Relativem

eanistheaveragemeanscoreforeachcareerm

anagementbundle,where0indicatesthatonav

eragenocareermanagementpracticesinthebun-

dleareoffer

edand1indicatesthatonaverageallcareermanagementbundlesassociatedwiththebundleare

offered.



17/33

organizations and do not allow for an analysis of different types of career

practices. Homogeneity indexes are a relative comparison method because

an organization receives a high score only by using a practice to a greater

extent than other firms in the sample. This approach has been criticized for

the use of an arbitrary cut-off percentile and lack of generalizability beyond

thesampleused to make comparisons (Delery, 1998).Using individual mea-

sures of career management practices is also an option, yet multicollinearity

amongindividual practicescanmakeinterpretation difficult (Delery, 1998).

A final approach is to use factoror principal components analysis to iden-

tify groups of covarying practices. Several studies have used this approach

(Huselid,1995; Perry-Smith & Blum, 2000),andit is theone that we adopted

in thepresent study.To identify thenumber of factors to retain, weconducted

a parallel analysis (Horn, 1965). This procedure involves simulating randomdata that has the same characteristics as the original data and subjecting the

random data to a factoranalysis.Thepremise is that meaningful components

extracted from sample data will have larger eigenvalues than components

extracted from randomly created data of equal size and that contain thesame

number of variables. Thus, the criterion for the number of factors to retain is

the number of eigenvalues from the real data that are greater than the

eigenvalues from therandom data (cf. Horn, 1965).Theresultsof theparallel

analysis suggested the retention of five factors. We used the conventional

factor loading cutoff of .40 to identify cross-loading items. Five items with

cross-loadings of .40or greater were deleted (see Table1).Then we followed

Delerys (1998)suggestion andcreatedan index foreach factorto representa

career management bundle by summing the number of practices reported in

each factor.The results of the factor analysis are shown in Table 1, and correlations

among the five bundles and other study variables are shown in Table 2. As

shown inTable 1, the first factor explained 29% of the total varianceand was

labeledcareer planning and exploration. As shown in Table 1, this factor

included the practice of career planning workshops and formal mentoring

programs. Thesecond factorwas labeledfuture strategic planning. This fac-

tor explained an additional 15% of the total variance and included the prac-

tices of succession planning and outplacement. Factor 3 explained9% of the

variance and was labeledinternal labor market information. It consisted of

careerladdersandpaths, jobpostingsystems, andindividual counseling. The

fourth factor included external training programs and tuition reimbursement

and was labeledformal external training (varianceexplained, 9%). The fifth

and final factor consisted of in-house training and preretirement workshops.This factor explained 7% of the variance and was titled informal internal




18/33

training. Five practices with cross-loadings of .40 or greater were not

included in any career management bundle (see Table 1).

Table 1 also provides the mean index and relative mean for each career

management bundle. The mean index is the average sum score associated

with each career management bundle. In contrast, the relative mean is the

average mean score for each career management bundle, where 0 indicates

that on average no career management practices in the bundle are offered,

and 1 indicates that on average all career management bundles associated

with the bundle are offered. The relative mean is particularly useful because

it allows us to compare how extensively each of the five career management

bundles are used across organizations. Formal external training was used

mostextensively (relativeM= .98), whereas careerplanningandexploration

was used least extensively (relativeM= .34). Moreover, because almost all

organizations used formal external training (SD= .11 for relative mean) this

career management bundle was excluded from hypothesis testing.

Relationship Between Career Management

Bundles and Employee Attitudes

To provide a strong test of the hypotheses, we considered several control

variables at both the individual and organizational level. Because


TABLE 2

Means, Standard Deviations and

Correlations Among Study Variables

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Career planning and exploration

Future strategic planning .08**

Internal labor market

information .48** .04

Formal external training .13** .11** .12**

Formal internal training .27** .10** .17** .21**

Employees sex .05 .05 .06* .01 .05*

Satisfaction with promotion

process .13 .08* .06* .05* .03* .02Job content plateauing .06 .01 .02 .09** .01 .06* .42**

M 0.69 1.33 2.21 1.96 1.60 0.22 4.04 2.73

SD 0.88 0.78 0.97 0.21 0.54 0.41 1.49 0.92

NOTE: Employeessex coded 1 = female and 0 = male.Nranges from 1,400 to 1,876 based onmissing data.*p< .05. **p< .01.



19/33

employees age, pay, sex, education level, job type, and organizational ten-

ure may be related to career attitudes, we examined these individual-level

variables as potential controls. Likewise, we considered several organiza-

tional characteristics as control variables. Because of their greater financial

resources, larger organizations may be likely to have more extensive career

management practices (Perry-Smith & Blum,2000). Also, the prevalenceof

career management practices might vary by industry or type of organization

(e.g.,private, public; Reed & Bruce,1993). In selectingcontrol variables, we

followed therecommendations of Neter andWasserman(1990) andselected

control variables that had a significant relationship with the dependent vari-

able of interest.Thus, forsatisfactionwith thepromotionprocess thefollow-

ing controls were used: organization size, industry, type of organization,

employee age, education level, and job type. For job content plateauing,industry, organization type, job type, education level, and sex were used as

control variables.

Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test all hypotheses. Missing

data were not imputed because in some cases it exceeded 10% (Cohen &

Cohen, 1983). Thus, sample sizes for the regression equations ranged from

1,252 to 1,571. Separate regressions were conducted whereby each attitudi-

nal variable was regressed on to the relevant organizational controls in

Step 1. In Step 2, the relevant individual-level controls were included. At

Step 3, thefour careermanagement bundles were added (career planning and

exploration, future strategic planning, internal labor market information,

and formal internal training). Interaction terms were included in Step 4. For

Hypotheses 3 and4, this included sixinteractiontermsrepresenting two-way

interactions among career management bundles (e.g., career planning andexploration x future strategic planning, internal labor market information x

formal internal training). To test Hypothesis 5, we used four variables to rep-

resent the interaction between employees sex and each career management

bundle. At each step in thehierarchicalsequence, we examined thechangein

R2 for statistical significance. We plotted significant interactions using a

median split to classify career management bundles as less and more

extensive.

Main effect hypotheses. The results of these analyses appear in Table 3.

The first equation (Model 1) tests Hypothesis 1. The second equation

(Model 2) tests Hypothesis 2. Hypothesis 1 received mixed support. The

changeinR2 forStep 3 wassignificant,and whereas futurestrategicplanning

related positivelyto satisfaction with thepromotionprocess (= .07,p


20/33

process ( = .07,p< .05). Hypothesis 2 received partial support. As pre-dicted, the career management bundle of future strategic planning related

negatively to job content plateauing ( = .11,p< .01) and the change inR2

for Step 3 was significant.


TABLE 3

Results of Main Effects and Interactions

for Career Management Bundles

Model 1

Satisfaction with Model 2

Promotion Process Job Content Plateauing

Step 1: Organization-level controls

Organization size .01

Industry .16** .12**

Organization type .04 .03

F(3,1571) = 15.85** F(2,1569) = 11.67**

R2

= .03 R2

= .01Step 2: Individual-level controls

Employee age .07**

Employee job type .06* .02

Employee education level .11** .07*

Employees sex .08**

FforR2

= 10.48** FforR2R

2= 5.75**

R2

= .02 R2

= .01

Step 3: Career management bundles

Career planning and exploration .05 .04

Future strategic planning .07* .11**

Internal labor market information .01 .04

Formal internal training .07* .01

FforR2

= 7.23** FforR2

= 5.37**

R2

= .02 R2

= .02

Step 4: Interaction termsCareer planningFuture strategic .30* .08

Career planningInternal labor market .26 .31

Career planningFormal training .82* .72*

Future strategicInternal labor market .33 .27

Future strategicFormal training .86** .58**

Internal labor marketFormal training .24 .08

FforR2

= 5.31** FforR2

= 2.48

R2

= .02 R2

= .01

NOTE: Industry, organization-type, and employee-job-type nonsense coded (Cohen & Cohen,1983). Beta weights reported are for each step in the hierarchical sequence.*p< .05. **p< .01.



21/33

Interactions among career management bundles. Table 3 also contains

the results of Hypotheses 3 and 4. Interaction terms for career management

bundles were includedasa fourthstep inModel 1 aspredictors of satisfaction

with thepromotionprocess. As shown in Table 3, Hypothesis 3 waspartially

supported; thechange inR2 for Step 4 was significant as were three of the six

interaction terms. Figure 1 illustrates the interaction between career planning

and exploration and future strategic planning. This interaction indicates that

when future strategic planning is more extensive, satisfaction with the pro-

motionprocess ishigh, regardless of thelevelof careerplanningand explora-

tion (M= 4.26 for low career planningandM= 4.11 forhigh careerplanning,

p= .30). However, when future strategic planning is less extensive, career

planning and exploration really matters. Under conditions of less extensive

career planning and exploration, satisfaction with the promotion process is

relatively low (M= 3.65). But, more extensive career planning and explora-

tionappears to compensate for lessextensivefuture strategicplanning,yield-

ing high satisfaction levels (M= 4.34).

The interaction between career planning and exploration and internal

training also illustrates a compensatory effect (see Figure 2). No significant

differences insatisfactionwith thepromotion process were found in themore

extensive internal training group as a function of career planning and explo-ration (M= 3.91 for less extensive career planning, andM= 4.09 for more

extensive career planning,p < .20). In contrast, under conditions of less


3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

4.2

4.4

Less More

Career Planning and Exploration

Promotion

Satisfaction

Less future strategic

planning

More future strategic

planning

Less future strategic

planning

More future strategic

planning

Figure 1: Career Planning and Exploration by Future Strategic Planning Interaction



22/33

extensive training, differences in career planning and exploration did matter

(compareM= 3.97 under conditions of less extensivecareerplanning toM=

4.23 under conditions of more extensive career planning). The final signifi-

cant interaction was between future strategic planning and internal training.

The positive slopes in Figure 3 illustrate that more extensive future planning

yields greater satisfaction with the promotion process, regardlessof whether

very little (M= 4.24) or a lot (M= 4.18) of internal training is offered. How-

ever, the steepness of the slope is greater for organizations offering moreextensive training compared to less extensive training. This suggests that

there is a greater gain in satisfaction with the promotion process by using

more strategicplanning among those companies that also offer more internal

training.

The fourth step in Model 2 included the interaction terms for career man-

agement bundles as predictors of job content plateauing. Hypothesis 4 was

not supported; the change inR2 associated with the addition of career man-

agement bundle interaction terms was not significant.

Interactions with employees sex.The findings related to Hypothesis 5 are

shown in Table3. Hypothesis 5 ispartially(albeitweakly) supported. In Step

4 of the regression sequence, theR

2

was significant and the sex, by futurestrategic planning interaction term, was significant ( = .15,p< .01). Thepattern of effects is consistent with our prediction (see Figure 4). No gender


3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

4.2

4.4

Les s More

Career Planning and Exploration

Promotion

SatisfactionLess internal training

More internal training

Less internal training


Figure 2: Career Planning and Exploration by Internal Training Interaction



23/33

differences in satisfaction with the promotion process are noted in organiza-

tions, where less extensive future strategic planning is offered (M= 3.79 for

men andM= 3.83 for women). However, in organizations offering more

extensive future strategic planning, men are more satisfied with the promo-

tion process (M= 4.31) than are women (M= 3.81).


3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

4.2

4.4

Le s s More

Future Strategic Planning

Promotion

Satisfaction



3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

4.2

4.4


Promotion

Satisfaction



3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

4.2

4.4


Promotion

Satisfaction



3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

4.2

4.4


Promotion

Satisfaction



3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

4.2

4.4


Promotion

Satisfaction





Figure 3: Future Strategic Planning by Internal Training Interaction

3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

4.2

4.4

Low High


Promotion

Satisfaction

Men

Women

Men

Women

Figure 4: Future Strategic Planning by Employees Sex Interaction



24/33

DISCUSSION

The purposes of the present study were to investigate the relationship

between an organizations use of career management bundles and employee

career attitudes and to examine interactions between career management

practices as interactions with employees sex. Our findings illustrate the

ways that organizations tend to bundle career management practices andillustrate that future strategic planning is consistently related to career-

related attitudes. We also find that several moderated relationships exist.


TABLE 4

Results of Interactions for EmployeesSex

Satisfaction with Promotion Process

Step 1: Organization-level controls

Organization size .01

Industry .16**

Organization type .04

F(3,1571) = 15.85**

R2

= .03

Step 2: Individual-level controls

Employee age .08**

Employee job type .06*Employee education level .11**

Employees sex .06*

FforR2= 10.26**

R2

= .02

Step 3: Career management bundles

Career planning and exploration .05

Future strategic planning .07*

Internal labor market information .02

Formal internal training .06*

FforR2

= 7.65**

R2

= .02

Step 4: Interaction terms

SexCareer planning and exploration .05

SexFuture strategic planning .15**

SexInternal labor market information .04

SexFormal internal training .09

FforR2

= 3.08*

R2

=.01

NOTE: Industry, organization-type, and employee-job-type nonsense coded (Cohen & Cohen,1983). Beta weights reported are for each step in the hierarchical sequence.*p< .05. **p< .01.



25/33

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CAREER MANAGEMENT

BUNDLES AND CAREER ATTITUDES

Some of thecareer management bundles relate to career-related attitudes,

whereas othersdo not, or therelationship is opposite to that expected.Across

the board, career management practices that focus on future strategic plan-

ning within the organization relate to higher satisfaction with the promotion

process and lower perceptions of job content plateauing (see Table 3). Thus,

it appears as if organizations that have programs in place that aredesigned to

help the company strategically plan for the future, in terms of its human

resources, tend to have employees who are more satisfied with how promo-

tions are handled and feel less plateaued in their jobs. Succession planning

demonstrates a strong promotion from within organizational culture, which

should enhance employees perceptions thatpromotions arehandled system-aticallyandfairly. Succession planning processesarealsodesigned toensure

that employeesobtain thedevelopmental skillsneeded to advance within the

organization, so it is not surprising that this bundle also relates to job content

plateauing. Similarly, outplacement services convey to employees that the

organization is thoughtful regarding the career repercussions for its employ-

ees in the event that employees must be terminated for reasons such as a

downsizing. This canhelp employeesfeel secureregarding their futureover-

all career prospects.

No relationship was found between career management practices associ-

ated with career planning and exploration and either dependent variable. In

retrospect, this is not that surprising. Exploration and assessment activities

are designed to help employees understand their strengths and weaknesses,

explore their interests, and develop career goals (cf. Greenhaus et al., 2000).

It is less clear how, when used in isolation, these practices would relate to

career attitudesthathaveonescurrent organizationas thereferent (i.e.,satis-

faction with thepromotion process, perceived plateauing).Rather, theuseof

exploration and career planning might be more logically linked to measures

of vocational identityor careerindecision (cf. Greenhauset al., 2000).Future

research might expand on our study and examine a broader array of career-

related attitudes.

When considered by itself, more extensive internal labor market informa-

tion was also not associated with career-related attitudes. One explanation

for the lack of findings here is that this represents a passive career manage-

ment approach that does not require a great deal of investment by the organi-

zation. For example, a companys HR staff easily handles internal job post-ings and once identified, career ladders do not require on-going investment

by theorganization. Therefore, these systems maynotsend a strongmessage




26/33

to employees about the companys promotional practices. In addition,

the merepresenceof internal labor market information wouldnot necessar-

ily deter job content plateauing; this would require an employee to use this

information and find a new position within the organization that is more

challenging.

In termsof internal training,we found that themore extensive this bundle,

the lower employees satisfaction with the promotion process. (Recall that

external trainingwasnotconsidered inhypothesis testing because of restricted

variance.)Although speculative, it maybe that internal training focuses more

on entry-level skillsand is not geared towardpreparingemployeesfor future

upward mobility. If so, then as employees acquire more skills through train-

ing, they may become less satisfied with the promotion process because the

skillsacquiredcannot bedirectly translated into betterpositions. This maybeparticularlytrue with thepresent sample, which consists in large part of man-

agerial and professional employees. Alternatively, it may be that an organi-

zation offers extensive training but it is not available to all employees. If so,

this mighthave a negative effecton employees perceptions of thefairness of

thepromotionprocess. In addition to replication work, future research might

examine thespecific types of training offered by organizations (e.g., orienta-

tion programs, technical training, soft skill training) to better understand the

relationship between internal training and satisfaction with the promotion

process.

INTERACTIONS AMONG STUDY VARIABLES

Consistent with some of thewriting on SHRM, we found three significant

two-way interactions among career management bundles in terms of satis-

faction with thepromotion process (see Figures 1 to 3).Twoof these interac-

tions demonstrated a compensatory effect for career planning and explora-

tion. In Figure 1, one can see that under conditions of high future strategic

planning, thepresenceof careerplanning andexploration does notaffect sat-

isfactionwith thepromotion process. However, if futurestrategic planning is

low, then more extensive career planning and exploration can compensate

and yield satisfaction levels that are comparable to organizations high on

both types of career management bundles. Although the pattern of results is

somewhat different, a compensatory effect can also be seen in Figure 2 for

career planning and exploration. Specifically, underconditionsof high inter-

nal training, career planning and exploration has little impact on satisfaction

with how promotions are handled. However, when an organization offersless extensive internal training, gains in employee satisfaction with the pro-

motion process can be realized by providing more extensive career planning




27/33

and exploration. Thus, similar to the previous interaction, a company not

offering one type of career management bundle (in this case, internal train-

ing) can still have a workforce that believes in the promotion process, if it

offers more extensive career planning and exploration.

The final interaction among career management bundles demonstrates

that for both less and more extensive training groups, greater future strategic

planning on the part of the organization yields greater satisfaction with the

promotion process. However, there appears to be a greater pay-off for future

strategic planning if a company also has extensive training. Scheins (1978)

model of thematching process between individual and organizational career

management supports this finding. Schein discusses how organizational

efforts aimed at employee development must be in line with the companys

forecasting of human resource management needs, such that the most effec-tive careermanagement systemis onewhereemployeesare able tobuild skill

sets that are aligned with the organizations future staffing needs.

As an interesting side note, no significant interactions were found among

the career management bundles for perceptions of job content plateauing.

This may be because job content plateauing reflects a more specific reaction

toones jobandis apparently contingent only on whether thecompany offers

more extensive futureplanning. On theother hand, satisfactionwith thepro-

motionprocess reflects a more general beliefabout the fairness of policies to

promote individuals within the company. As such, various combinations of

career management practices work in tandem to predict employees reac-

tions to the overall equity of how the company handles promotions.

A significant interaction was also found between sex and future strategic

planning on satisfaction with the promotion process. Basically, in organiza-tions offering practices such as succession planning, men were more satis-

fied with the promotion process than were women. Although we cannot iso-

late why this effect exists, it suggests that either women may not be

beneficiaries of some career management practices because of the types of

jobs they hold or discriminatory attitudes (cf. Stroh & Reilly, 1999), or that

women may not be able to take advantage of some career management prac-

ticesbecause of greater work-family obligations than men (Greenhaus et al.,

2000). Future research might examine job type and perceptions of discrimi-

nation, directly, and explore differences in satisfaction with the promotion

process among women based on their organizational experiences. It would

also be interesting to investigatewhether theeffectsdemonstratedin Figure4

vary across organizations that offer more or less extensive family-friendly

practices (e.g.,on siteday-care, relaxed policieson travel, flextime). Perhapsin morefamily-friendly organizations,womendo not feelas dissatisfiedwith




28/33

the promotion process under conditions of future strategic planning because

they may be better able to compete for higher level positions.

LINKS TO THEORY AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Our hypotheses were based on several theoretical perspectives, and our

findings are consistent with each of these perspectives. For example, our

results correspond to Pfeffers (1981) symbolic action perspective, which

suggests that the mere presence of organizational policies and management

practicescan influenceemployeeattitudes. In particular, career management

practices that focus on future strategic human resource planning are associ-

ated with more favorable career attitudes. Consistent with both social

exchange theoryand SHRM, our results show that investment in employees,

through careermanagement, maypayoff for organizations because employ-ees may reciprocate through more favorable career attitudes. An interesting

avenue for future research would be to use protocol analysis to discern the

specific symbols and messages thatareactuallycommunicated through vari-

ous career management bundles. Another area for future study is examining

how the use of various career management practices influences an organiza-

tions image in the recruiting process, thereby creating a strategic competi-

tive advantage. Onanother level itwouldbe interesting toexplore whether an

organizations career management practices influence perceptions of other

organizational constituents, such as customers and shareholders.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Organizations are encouraged to engage in future strategic planning withrespect to their humanresource management needs.Notonly shouldthis lead

to more effective utilization of employees and increase flexibility in work-

force planning,butour findings also suggest that it mayhave theaddedbene-

fitof makingthe promotionprocess seem more fair andreducingperceptions

of plateauing among employees. We also have initial evidence that in some

situations providing career planning and exploration can be beneficial. In

organizations that are not able to engage in extensive future strategic plan-

ning and in companies where not a lot of internal training isoffered, gains in

satisfaction with the promotion process can be realized by providing oppor-

tunities for career planning and exploration. Likewise, when more extensive

internal training is offered, it should be coupled with greater future planning

so that employees can see the potential pay-off of engaging in greater skill

building. However, it should be noted that no such compensatory effectswere found for perceptions of plateauing. Thus, it appears future strategic

planning is more of a must for organizations concerned about employee job-




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content plateauing. The interactions with sex suggest that companies using

greater future planning may want to carefully consider how such practices

are likely to affect female employees because such practices may only be

associated with greater promotion satisfaction among men.

LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Like all research, the present study has several limitations. Although the

bundle approach has been advocated by organizational scholars (Huselid,

1995; MacDuffie, 1995; Perry-Smith & Blum, 2000), a limitation of this

approach is that itdoes notallowus to isolate thespecificcareer management

practices that are responsible for effects obtained. The results of the factor

analysis also ledus toexclude several careermanagement practicesfrom fur-

ther consideration (e.g., job rotation), based on their high cross-loadings.Another limitation of using factor analysis to identify bundles is that it

assumes that the practices included within each bundle have additive, rather

than synergistic, effects. Using bundles is also not sensitive to differences in

the quality or diversity of specific career management practices across orga-

nizations. Future research might examine specific program components or

perceived quality of services in an effort to better understand why organiza-

tional career management practices relate to career-related attitudes. A

related limitation is that we didnot examine theperceivedutility of such pro-

grams from the employees perspective or whether employees are knowl-

edgeableof,or use, such programs.Both symbolicactionand SHRM suggest

that the mere presence of HRM practices should relate to employee percep-

tions, but it is possible that these other factors arealso important to consider.

It is also noteworthy that there was a ceiling effect for some of the career

management bundles, most notably external training. Almost all organiza-

tions offered some form of external training, and, therefore, our argument

that these programs may signal treatment does not likely hold. This also

meant that we were unable to test our predictions with the bundle represent-

ing external training.

Another limitation is that we did not obtain hard data, such as actual

employee turnover or employee job performance. Given the dearth of

research on this topic, making the link between career management and

career attitudes is an important first step. However, future research would

benefit from examining other variables. This seems particularly relevant

given thesmallamount of variance explainedin thepresent study.Other lim-

itations include the external validity of our findings and small amount ofvariance accounted for by the study variables. We collected data in the mid-

1990s when the economy was strong. Economic times have changed since




30/33

then, andadditional research isneededtoexplore whether a similar pattern of

effects holds under tighter economic conditions. In addition, our sample of

employees was large and diverse, but only sixty-five organizations provided

data for the current study. This may limit the extent that inferences can be

made to organizations in general. However, the organizations in the present

study did represent a geographically dispersed sample from various sectors

and industries. Nonetheless, more research is needed before drawing strong

inferences from the findings.

In closing, the present study confirmed linkages between organization-

level career management practices and individual-level career attitudes.

Given that little, if any, research exists linking career management practices

toemployeeattitudes, thecurrent study providesan importantpointof depar-

ture for future conceptual and empirical work on the topic. It also suggeststhat future research on career management practices should continue to

explore the use of complementary or integrated approaches to employee

development. We also highlight the fact that the utility of investing in career

management may vary for men and women. We hope that this research

serves as a springboard for future studies aimed at demonstrating the impor-

tant role of career management in the HR function of organizations.

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