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London's Career Motivation Theory: An Update on Measurement and Research

Article in Journal of Career Assessment · December 1997

DOI: 10.1177/106907279700500105

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 61

London’s Career Motivation Theory: An Update

on Measurement and Research

Manuel London
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Raymond A. Noe
Michigan State University
The concept of career motivation initially presented by London
(1983) integrates individual differences into three domains: career
resilience, career insight, and career identity. This serves as an
organizing framework in which to understand and enhance the
effects of situational conditions on career decisions and behavior.
This article summarizes London’s career motivation theory, describes
assessment center and paper-and-pencil measures of the career
motivation domains, presents a study showing the convergent
validity of three measures, and reviews research findings.
Suggestions are made for future research and practice.
Since London (1983) outlined the foundation for a theory of career
motivation, research has examined the content, antecedents, and
consequences of career motivation. The theory has also been applied to the
design of career development programs, often in changing organizations. The
purpose of this article is to describe London’s model, examine how the
domains of career motivation have been measured, present the results of a
convergent validity study of three career motivation measures, and review
research stimulated by the model.
Background
The variables and relationships proposed by London’s (1983) model are
depicted in Figure 1. The model was originally developed in the process of
answering a research question, What motivates managers? Specifically,
research during the mid-to-late 1970s showed that young managers were not
as motivated to attain leadership positions as those of a generation earlier
(Howard & Bray, 1981). The career motivation model began by a priori
organizing relevant needs, interests, and personality variables into a set of
a priori dimensions. The model was intended to be an integrative, organizing
framework for existing variables. As the content of the model was developed

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Manuel London, PhD,

Harriman Hall, SUNY-Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3775. E-mail
mlondon@fac.har. sunysb. edu
62

and refined, processes were proposed to consider how individual differences

that comprise career motivation were associated with behaviors and
influenced by situational conditions. The relationships among the situation
and career motivation variables proposed in the model and tested in
subsequent research helped establish guidelines for creating an environment
that supports and encourages career motivation.

Figure 1. London’s model of career motivation.

London (1983, 1985; London & Mone, 1987) viewed career motivation
as a multidimensional concept organized into three a prior domains: career
resilience, career insight, and career identity, defined as follows: (a) Career
resilience is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, even when the
circumstances are discouraging or disruptive. It consists of such variables
as belief in oneself, need for achievement, and willingness to take risks.
(b) Career insight is the ability to be realistic about oneself and one’s career
and to put these perceptions to use in establishing goals. It consists of
establishing clear career goals and knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses.
(c) Career identity is the extent to which one defines oneself by work. It
consists of job, organizational, and professional involvement and needs for
advancement, recognition, and a leadership role. Career identity is the
direction of motivation, insight is the energizing or arousal component,
 63

and career resilience is the maintenance or persistence component (Noe, Noe,

& Bachhuber, 1990).
The concepts of resilience, insight, and identity have a foundation in
trait-factor career theories. Resilience is conceptually similar to Holland’s
(1985; Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980) notion that career decisions are
influenced by the ability to face barriers, the need for information and
reassurance, and vocational identity. Also, career resilience is conceptually
similar to the concepts of hardiness (Kobasa, Maddi, & Kahn, 1982), self-
efficacy (Bandura, 1977), and achievement motivation (McClelland, 1965).
The concept of human agency-being assertive, instrumental, and
interpersonally facile-is also similar to resilience (cf. Williams’s [1992]
treatment of the human context of agency). Career maturity is another
similar concept. People who are strong in career maturity make career
decisions in a way that demonstrates involvement, decisiveness,
independence, task orientation, and willingness to compromise between
needs and reality (Crites, 1978). Resilience is also similar to the idea of
flexibility in Dawis and Lofquist’s (1984) theory of work adjustment. Work
adjustment depends on the congruence between individual abilities and
the requirements of the job and the congruence between individual needs
and reinforcers in the environment. People who are strong in work
adjustment are characteristically strong in perseverance, flexibility, and
reactiveness (taking action to overcome barriers).
Career insight is conceptually similar to Super’s vocational self-concept
called crystallization (Super, 1957, 1963). Career identity is conceptually
similar to work commitment (Dubin & Champoux, 1975), organizational
commitment (Salancik, 1977), and organizational citizenship (Organ, 1988).
Also, career identity is similar to Blau’s concept of career commitment
(Blau, 1985, 1988, 1989; Blau, Paul, & St. John, 1993; see also, Colarelli &
Bishop, 1990). Hall’s (1976, 1987) model of career identification proposes that
the importance of career to an individual depends on awareness of one’s
inclinations (career insight) and being successful (which enhances self-
confidence, a part of career resilience). Farmer and Chung (1995) outlined
a model based on three dimensions of motivation: commitment, mastery
motivation, and aspiration, which may be interpreted as paralleling
resilience, insight, and identity, respectively.
The career motivation model predicts that situational conditions influence
motivation. For this reason, the model can be categorized as an exogenous
motivational theory (Katzell & Thompson, 1990). According to the model,
situational characteristics that influence career resilience include positive
reinforcement and constructive performance feedback, encouragement of
autonomy, organizational change, opportunities for individual control and
discretion (e.g., chance for input into work methods), opportunities to
demonstrate achievement, support for creativity, demands for quality, and
support for learning and skill development. Situational characteristics that
affect career insight include structure for goal setting (e.g., existence of
career alternatives, procedures, and assistance for setting career goals), path

goal structure (e.g., standard career paths to various organization levels or

positions), organizational flexibility, opportunity for change, and visibility
64

of organizational processes (e.g., methods for appraisal and personnel

decisions are explicit, observable, and veridical). Situational characteristics
that influence career identity include encouragement of professionalism,
press for organizational commitment (e.g., value of inducements such as
salary and pension for good performance and loyalty), advancement
opportunities, potential for recognition (e.g., reward programs), leadership
opportunities, and potential for monetary gain.
Also, the model holds that prospective and retrospective rationality
processes help us understand how individual characteristics, situational
conditions, and their interaction affect behaviors. Prospective rationality
predicts that the situation influences the career motivation domains, which,
in turn, affect career decisions and behavior. Retrospective rationality
processes argue that behaviors influence feelings of career motivation and
perceptions of the situation. London (1985; London & Mone, 1987) suggested
that resilience variables develop from reinforcement contingencies in the
environment as one is growing up. As such, employees’ career resilience
should be well developed by early adulthood, although it may be
strengthened or weakened over extended periods of time. Insight and
identity develop through information processing. As such, they should be
easier to affect through career development processes. Over time, resilience
should contribute to developing accurate insight, which, in turn, should
contribute to developing a career identity that is realistic and meaningful
to the individual. Together, an individual’s career resilience, insight, and
identity form a pattern that describes the individual’s career motivation.
London and Mone (1987) identified different patterns of career development.
Examples include: (a) people who start their careers with reasonably strong
resilience and are able to use information about themselves and the
environment to establish meaningful, long-lasting career identities,
(b) people who redirect their careers because of the barriers they face,
(c) people who experience failure and question their abilities but have the
resilience to take action that restores belief in themselves, and (d) people
who become mired in self-doubt, yet eventually achieve small successes
and establish new, realistic goals.

Measurement
Assessment centers and paper-and-pencil questionnaires have been used
to measure career resilience, insight, and identity. These are described as
follows.

The Career Motivation Assessment Center

London and Bray (1984; see also London, 1985) developed a 2-day
assessment center to study career motivation. The components included a
personal history form, a 2-hour background interview, projectives (Thematic
Apperception Test; Rotter Incomplete Sentences Test), measures of
intellectual abilities (tests of quantitative and verbal abilities), personality
indexes (e.g., Edwards measure of 15 personality variables), and interest
inventories. A fact-finding exercise lasting 30 minutes gave the participants
three hypothetical job choices: assistant branch manager of a bank, staff
 65

member in the new services development department of the bank, or

assistant product manager in a consumer products company. The participants
then had a chance to question a resource person about the alternatives.
Another exercise gave participants six cases describing life or career
decisions. For each situation, the participant was asked what advice he or
she would give to the character in the case. A career and life expectations
measure asked the participants to describe their future, outline their ideal
business day, and indicate what they want in life. A career projectives test
presented participants with six pictures focusing on career-related topics.
All the test scores and written reports of responses to the exercises and cases
were reviewed by a group of assessors (several clinical psychologists,
industrial organizational psychologists, and managers) during an integration
session. After hearing the reports and test results for a given participant,
each assessor used a 5-point scale to rate the participant on the career
motivation dimensions. The assessors discussed any dimension on which they
disagreed in an effort to reach consensus so that all assessors agreed within
one point of each other.

Paper-and-Pencil Instruments
The career motivation assessment center provided a wealth of information
about participants. However, the expense and time required limited its
feasibility for research and practice (although some corporations and
training institutes offer &dquo;insight&dquo; assessment centers for managerial
development). To avoid these problems, several paper-and-pencil measures
of career motivation were developed independently. London’s (1993a) 17-item
instrument focuses on feelings and attitudes. Items measuring resilience
include the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, willingness to take
risks, welcoming job and organizational changes, ability to handle any
work problem, and looking forward to working with new and different
people. Items measuring insight include having clear career goals, having
realistic career goals, knowing your strengths, knowing your weaknesses,
and recognizing what you can do well and cannot do well. Identity is
measured by items such as feeling involved in your job, feeling proud to work
for your organization, believing that your success depends on the success of
your employer, being loyal to your employer, and seeing yourself as a
professional or technical expert. Each item is rated on a 5-point scale
ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high).
Ratings from 183 employees and their supervisors (London, 1993a)
showed high interitem reliability (alphas of .80-.88) and moderate
correlations between the different dimensions within each rater group
(.43-.75 for self-ratings, .62-.69 for supervisor ratings). There was evidence
of higher monotrait-multirater correlations (.36-.42) compared to
multitrait-multirater correlations (.20-.26). A second sample of 59 employees
and their supervisors, with data collected at two points in time with a 31/2
month interval, also reported by London (1993a), showed high test-retest
reliability and construct validity (low correlations between different
constructs). Low correlations between supervisor and self-ratings of the
same dimension suggested that employees did not see their own career
66

motivation in the same way supervisors saw it. The median test-retest
reliability was .52 (p < .01) for self-ratings and .54 (p < .01) for supervisor
ratings.
Whereas London’s (1993a) items tap attitudes and feelings related to
work and career, Noe et al. (1990) developed a 27-item measure of career
resilience, insight, and identity that captures self-reports of behaviors.
Items measuring career resilience include: (a) Have you made suggestions
to others even though they may disagree? (b) Did you make and maintain
friendships with people in different departments? (c) Did you design better
ways of doing your work? (d) Have you outlined ways of accomplishing jobs
without waiting for your boss? and (e) Did you take the time to do the best
possible job on a task? Items measuring career insight include: (a) Did you
have clear specific career goals? and (b) Did you have a specific plan for
achieving your career goal? Career identity items include: (a) Were you
involved in professional organizations related to your career goal? (b) Did
you take courses toward a job-related degree? (c) Did you spend your free
time on activities that related to your job? and (d) Did you ask coworkers
you respect for feedback on your performance? Both London (1993a) and Noe
et al. (1990) used factor analysis to verify the distinctness of the resilience,
insight, and identity dimensions.
Blau’s (1985, 1988, 1989) 7-item measure of career commitment contains
items that are similar to those that measure career identity, such as &dquo;I
definitely want a career for myself in the profession&dquo; and &dquo;If I could do
it all over again, I would not choose to work in the profession&dquo; (reverse
scored), with ratings made on 5-point scales from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree).
Carson and Bedeian (1994) expanded this view further to conceptualize
career commitment as another term for multidimensional career motivation.
As such, they developed a 12-item career commitment instrument that
measures career resilience, identity, and career planning (which correspond
to London’s concept of insight). Their measure avoids the vagueness of the
word career by referring instead to line of work/career field. Career identity
is measured by the following items: (a) My line of work/career field is an
important part of who I am. (b) This line of work/career field has a great deal
of personal meaning to me. (c) I do not feel &dquo;emotionally attached&dquo; to this
line of work/career field. and (d) I strongly identify with my chosen line of
work/career field. Career planning is measured by the items: (a) I do not have
a strategy for achieving my goals in this line of work/career field. (b) I have
created a plan for my development in this line of work/career field. (c) I do
not identify specific goals for my development in this line of work/career field.
and (d) I do not often think about my personal development in this line of
work/career field. Finally, career resilience is measured by the items: (a) The
costs associated with my line of work/career field sometimes seem too great.
(b) Given the problems I encounter in this line of work/career field, I
sometimes wonder if I get enough out of it. (c) Given the problems in this
line of work/career field, I sometimes wonder if the personal burden is
worth it. and (d) The discomforts associated with my line of work/career field
sometimes seem too great.
 67

In aseries of scale development and factor analytic studies using diverse

samples, Carson and Bedeian (1994) demonstrated convergent and
discriminant validity for the three scales comprising career commitment. The
three scales were reasonably independent (intercorrelations of .17-.44)
and reliable (alphas of .79-.85). All three scales were significantly related
to Blau’s (1985) measure of career commitment (correlations of .70-.73).
Nevertheless, the career motivation components were differentially related
to other variables. For instance, in their field sample of 476 employees
from diverse professional groups, Carson and Bedeian found that age was
positively related to career resilience (r .14, p < .05) and negatively
=

related to career planning (r = -.09, p < .05). But career identity was not
significantly related to age (r = .03).
To examine their measure’s convergent validity, Carson and Bedeian
(1994) studied the relationships among the career resilience, identity, and
planning scales, an 8-item measure of affective organizational commitment
(Meyer & Allen, 1984), and a 9-item measure of job involvement (Kanungo,
1982). A joint factor analysis of the items (principal-axis factor analysis with
an oblique rotation) showed that all items loaded cleanly on only the factor

they were designed to measure. Averaging resilience, identity, and planning

into a single career commitment scale, Carson and Bedeian found that the
combined scale was positively related to age, tenure in career field, and
organization tenure and negatively related to career and job withdrawal
cognitions. The overall career commitment measure was more closely related
to career withdrawal cognitions (r =
-.54) than its components, although
career withdrawal cognitions was differentially related to the components
(r = -.47 for career identity; r = -.31 for career planning, and r -.38 for
=

career resilience). Therefore, the combined and component measures may

be useful for predicting and understanding how career motivation and its
constituents are associated with other variables.

The Convergent Validity of the Career Motivation Measures

To determine the relationships among the three sets of career motivation
measures, we administered the instruments developed by Noe et al. (1990),
London (1993a), and Carson and Bedeian (1994) to an opportunity sample
of 336 adults, part-time graduate students, and their acquaintances. Sample
characteristics, presented in Table 1, show that the respondents were
diverse in demographics and career experience. The means, standard
deviations, reliabilities, and intercorrelations for the measures are presented
in Table 2.
The reliabilities were sufficiently high for all scales (alphas of .69-.87).
The relationships among scales within measures were moderate, except
for the Carson and Bedeian instrument, for which resilience was independent
of insight and identity. Turning to the relationships for the same constructs
among measures, the correlations between the London and Noe et al. scales
were reasonably high (r = .49 for resilience, .64 for insight, and .37 for
identity). However, several of the off-diagonal correlations were also high,
indicating lack of independence among the constructs. The insight and
identity scales showed high convergent validity between the London and
68

Table 1
Sample Characteristics for the Convergent Validity Study

Note. N = 336.

Carson and Bedeian measures (r .61 for insight and .46 for identity) and
=

between the Noe et al. and Carson and Bedeian measures (r .60 for
=

insight and .44 for identity), with lower off-diagonal correlations. However,
Carson and Bedeian’s resilience measure was not related to either the
London or Noe et al. measures of resilience (-.06 and -.16, respectively).
Thus, the Carson and Bedeian measure of resilience seemed to capture a
 69

Table 2
Means, Standard Deviations, Reliabilities, and Intercorrelations
for Three Measures of Career Motivation Domains

Note. N = 336. Cronbach alphas are in parentheses. Correlations of .11 or higher are
significant at the p < .05 level.

different construct than the London and Noe et al. instruments, perhaps
because the Carson and Bedeian measure deals more with the perceived
value of putting effort into the job, and the items are worded negatively (e.g.,
&dquo;The costs associated with my career sometimes seem too great&dquo;) and were
reverse coded.

To summarize this section on measurement, career motivation was

initially evaluated by an intensive research assessment center. This provided
a rich source of data, but its expense and time consumption suggested the
need for easier, yet reliable and valid, measures of the career motivation
domains. Three paper-and-pencil instruments capture the career motivation
domains in different ways. London’s measure focuses on attitudes, and
that of Noe et al. focuses on behaviors. Carson and Bedeian’s resilience
measure focuses on the perceived value of putting effort into the job,
whereas their identity and career planning (insight) scales are attitudinal
and behavioral. A study of the relationships among these measures showed
moderate convergent validity for the London and Noe et al. measures of
resilience, insight, and identity. The London and Noe et al. measures of
insight and identity showed high convergent validity with those of Carson
and Bedeian. However, the Carson and Bedeian measure of resilience
differed from that of London and Noe et al. This suggests that the
instruments are not interchangeable and should be used together in
subsequent research.
70

Research Findings
London (1985; London & Bray, 1984) used the career motivation
assessment center described earlier to study 24 managers in each of two
companies. The companies were in the same industry and in approximately
the same region of the country. The managers were all recent college
graduates hired within the last year at the time of the assessment. The
participants were interviewed again about 7 months after the initial
assessment, and their bosses were interviewed 1 year after that. Managers
in one company scored significantly higher on measures reflecting career
identity centered on leadership (e.g., need for advancement, need for
recognition, and importance of advancement). They also scored higher on
commitment to managerial work, personality measures of enterprising
and ascendance, and assessment center ratings of goal flexibility and need
for change, and they scored lower on measures of nurturing, friendliness,
and authoritarianism. Those in the other company scored higher on
authoritarianism and need abasement, meaning that they were more likely
to adhere to conventional values. The fact that the managers in the two
samples were initially equivalent on a variety of background characteristics
suggested that the situation (organizational policies and support for career
development) was instrumental in maintaining and strengthening young
managers’ career motivation. This suggested the importance of
organizational conditions and policies for management development. The
company with advancement-oriented managers had programs that rewarded
desire for advancement. These managers were on a fast track advancement
program. They were reassigned periodically to jobs that would enhance
their development. Their supervisors participated in the program by helping
the managers formulate career goals and obtain experiences that would
further those goals. In the other company, the focus was on getting the
work done. Job assignments were made solely to meet immediate work
needs, not for the development of the managers. Supervisors rarely spent
time with subordinates to provide career counseling, nor did they make
assignments or encourage job moves for developmental purposes.
Wolf, London, Casey, and Pufahl (1995) studied the career motivation of
72 displaced engineers engaged in a semester-long training program in
technology management. Self-report measures were collected at the start of
the program, using London’s (1993a) paper-and-pencil scale. In this study,
the average interscale correlation was .41. The researchers combined the
measures into a single career motivation scale. A measure of training
behaviors contained 16 items gathered from instructor and internship
supervisor reports, attendance forms, and logs (a .82). The training
=

outcomes measure was the sum of the following events (with one point per
event): attainment of full-time employment, timeliness of employment
within 3 months of program completion, relocating, salary adequacy minus
dropping out of the program, underemployment, part-time employment,
quitting the search, and retirement (a .69). A measure of career experience
=

combined the participants’ ages, number of jobs they had in their careers,
and the length of their careers (a .76). Career motivation was not related
=

to training behaviors or outcomes. Training outcomes were higher for the

 71

less experienced participants (r -.19, p < .01), and training behaviors

=

were positively related to training outcomes (r .50, p < .O1). The experience-
=

by-motivation interaction was significantly related to training behaviors

(r .21, p < .05). For highly motivated individuals, experience resulted in
=

a higher training behaviors score. Motivation and experience seemed to

work together to positively affect training behaviors, except when motivation
was low and experience was high. Low career motivation had a deleterious
effect on training behaviors for the most experienced participants, perhaps
because these individuals were wedded to their past careers and found it
difficult to change career directions.
London (1993b) found that older workers showed as much career
motivation as younger workers and that some elements of career motivation
increased with age. He studied a sample of mid- and late-career workers
(mean age 57.8 years) from a variety of backgrounds. Using the paper-and-
=

pencil measure derived from London (1993a), career resilience increased with
age across the sample (r .15, p < .05). However, for men, full-time workers
=

scored lower on career resilience than part-time workers who had to adapt
to changing work schedules and responsibilities. A second sample of 96
employees with a wide age range revealed high levels of career insight for
older workers. Career identity was not affected by age or working full- or
part-time.
Noe et al. (1990) examined the correlates of career motivation in a sample
of 116 employees working in health care, financial services, and computer-
related industries as well as 157 evening students. The importance placed
on work and career and perceptions regarding the presence of motivating

job characteristics were significantly related to all three aspects of career

motivation. Significant relationships were also found among managerial
support, career stage, distance from career goal, and the match between
distance from career goal and various aspects of career motivation. Work-
role salience and job characteristics had the strongest relationships with
career motivation. All three aspects of career motivation (resilience, insight,
and identity) were associated with the importance respondents placed on
work and career and perceptions of motivating job characteristics.
Using the data from our convergent validity study of the three career
motivation measures reported earlier, the relationships among the career
motivation scales and demographic and experience variables were explored.
Gender was significantly related to all three measures of career identity
(London scale, r -.15; Noe et al. scale, r = -.16; Carson & Bedeian scale,
=

r =
-.13, p < .01 for all correlations), showing that men scored higher in
career identity than women. Education was positively related to all three
measures of career insight (London scale, r =
.20; Noe et al. scale, r .32;
=

Carson & Bedeian scale, r .35; p < .001 for all correlations). The Noe et al.
=

measures of career resilience and identity were also positively related to

education (r = .16, p < .01; and r = .48, p < .001, respectively). Having
further advancement opportunities was positively related to career insight
and identity, as measured by all three instruments (career insight: London
scale, r .11; Noe et al. scale, r = .14; Carson & Bedeian scale, r .22, p <
= =

.05 for all measures; career identity: London scale, r = .18; Noe et al. scale,
72

r =
.16; Carson & Bedeian scale, r .14, p < .01 for all measures).
=

Correlations between age and the career motivation measures were

inconsistent. Age was positively related to several different career motivation
scales (r .11, p < .05 for the London measure of career identity; r -.13,
= =

p < .05 for the Noe et al. measure of career resilience; and r =
.16, p < .01
for the Carson & Bedeian measure of career resilience). Other demographic
characteristics were not associated with the career motivation scales.
Other research, although not directly testing elements of the model,
pertains to components of career motivation and may have implications
for the model. Aryee and Tan (1992) examined antecedents and outcomes of
career commitment. Using questionnaire data from 510 teachers and nurses
in Singapore, they found that career commitment, measured using Blau’s
scale, was positively related to the incumbents’ self-reports of organizational
opportunities for development, work-role salience, organizational
commitment, and career satisfaction. Career commitment was positively
related to skill development and negatively related to career and job
withdrawal intentions. Colarelli and Bishop (1990) found that having a
mentor was positively related to career commitment. In samples of 353
health maintenance employees, 196 financial service employees, and 496
public sector engineering department employees, Noe and Wilk (1993)
found that the desire to learn, insight into the benefits of development,
and perceptions of work environment support for development have
independent positive effects on participation in development activity.
Career motivation, and especially career resilience, should be related to
persistence in a career. Farmer, Wardrop, Anderson, and Risinger (1995)
reported that receiving information regarding a science field early in school
was positively related to women’s persistence in technical career fields
over a 10-year period. Reilly and Orsak (1991) found that career commitment
was not related to age, whereas other aspects of job-related commitment (e.g.,
continuous and normative commitment) increased with age.
Bedeian, Kemery, and Pizzolatto (1991) reported that career commitment
and knowing that career growth opportunities are available were important
to predicting intention to leave the job. For people with high career
commitment, the more opportunities for growth expected, the lower the
intention to leave. For people with low career commitment, the more
opportunities for growth expected, the higher the intention to leave. Lam,
Yoke, & Swee (1995) reported that for first-year teacher interns in Singapore,
the more they experienced career commitment, the less they thought about
early career withdrawal.
A longitudinal study of managerial careers found that personality
characteristics associated with career motivation changed as a person ages,
in part due to changing career experiences (Howard & Bray, 1988). In
particular, variables such as managers’ work involvement, optimism about
their futures, job satisfaction, and identification with management declined
over time. Managers at higher organizational levels in mid-to-late career
were less family and community oriented, more involved in their jobs, and
more concerned with self-development than those at lower organizational
levels. It is not surprising that higher level managers had a more varied,
 73

stimulating, and stressful career history, with more job changes and
relocations.
In summary, the initial assessment center research in two organizations
demonstrated the importance of situational conditions to career motivation.
Motivation components were higher in the organizational environment
that supported career development. Research on the career motivation of
unemployed workers showed that motivation and experience worked together
to affect training behaviors. However, highly experienced people with low
career motivation had trouble separating themselves from their former
lives and learning new behaviors and career directions. Other research
demonstrated that older workers were as likely to be strong in career
motivation as younger workers. There was evidence that career resilience
increases with experience, especially when the experience requires adapting
to change. Generally, men and older workers were strong in career identity.
Other research showed that career motivation components were related to
employees’ goal accomplishments, the importance they placed on work,
and organizational support for career development.

Directions for Future Research

In the following section we discuss individual differences and
environmental and organizational factors that may influence career
motivation. We also identify research questions that can help increase our
understanding of the antecedents and consequences of career motivation.
Individual Differences

Physiological Correlates of Career Motivation

A development in research regarding employee attitudes suggests that
work-related attitudes may have a genetic or dispositional component (cf.
Arvey, Bouchard, Segal, & Abraham, 1989). This raises several interesting
questions: Is there a neurological or biological correlate of behaviors related
to perseverance, self-understanding, goal setting, and self-identity? Also,
given that many Americans are being treated for depression through the use
of drug therapy, what might be the impact of these types of mood-altering
drugs on career motivation?
Cognitive Correlates of Career Motivation
Unlike race, gender, or age, which may influence a person’s level of career
motivation because of the attitudes and behaviors of others, cognitive
ability may influence career motivation independently of organizational
factors or interpersonal relationships. Cognitive ability may influence the
degree of career motivation, particularly, career resilience. People with
higher levels of cognitive ability may be more likely to persevere in the face
of career obstacles (e.g., downsizing, relocation).
Issues in Special Populations
We know virtually nothing about the development of career motivation
among groups who have had to overcome cultural and societal barriers to
achieve career success. For example, an important question is, How do
74

resilience, insight,and identity develop in people who have had to overcome

cultural and societal barriers to career entry and progression (e.g., women,
immigrants, the handicapped, people of color)? What type of activities do
these special populations value for increasing career motivation-mentoring,
assessment, job experiences, coaching by their supervisors, formal courses?
Labor projections indicate that in the next decade, the U.S. workforce will
be older than at any time in the last 40 years (see U.S. Department of
Labor, 1994). Organizations will need to successfully deal with issues
related to plateauing and obsolescence to effectively utilize the older
workforce. Because career motivation appears to be linked to development
activities, it is important to identify older workers’ career motivation
patterns. In particular, research should study the career motivation of
older workers who have &dquo;recycled&dquo; into new careers, changed occupations,
or engaged in phased retirement, in comparison to employees who continued

working full- or part-time in their same jobs.

Work Environment
Job Demands
The importance of job assignments to the career development of managers
is well documented (e.g., McCall, Lombardo, & Morrison, 1988). Research
suggests that job demands related to transitions (e.g., facing unfamiliar
tasks), job functions (e.g., having to influence others), and obstacles (e.g.,
having to deal with a difficult boss) are related to learning and development.
For instance, one study reported that job demands related to tasks and
transitions were positively related to learning and development; however,
confronting obstacles was negatively related to learning and development
(McCauley, Ruderman, Ohlott, & Morrow, 1994). Research regarding the
influence of job demands on learning and development is needed. Job
demands influence development directly through the opportunities they
provide and indirectly through the sense of challenge they create. Career
motivation may also influence the relationship between job demands and
learning. Specifically, the relationship between obstacles and learning may
be moderated by career resilience. That is, job demands involving obstacles
may be positively related to learning for people strong in career resilience
and negatively related for people weak in career resilience.

Changes in the Psychological Contract

The psychological contract represents the employee’s understanding of the
terms of the employment relationship (Robinson & Rousseau, 1994). The
psychological contract may include the employee’s understanding of
performance requirements, job security, training, compensation, and career
management issues. Traditionally, the employer was viewed as the caretaker
for the employee. Employees who were satisfactory performers were virtually
guaranteed a job until retirement, the company helped plan their careers,
and employees were loyal and committed to the company. Due to their need
to become more flexible and responsive to customer needs, technological
advances, and financial pressures, organizations have had to reconfigure the
traditional psychological contract. In the new psychological contract, the
 75

organization and the employee focus on work that is mutually beneficial. The
identity and self-worth of employees are self-defined, rather than
organization defined (Hall & Mirvis, 1996).
Career Motivation and Responses to Change
Organizational restructuring and downsizing are realities in today’s
organizations. A positive self-concept is key to finding reemployment or
adapting to change. Brockner and Lee (1995) discussed how change events
cause threats to self-concept. Besides self-concept, career motivation may
be related to a person’s ability to cope with change. In particular, employees
with high levels of career resilience may be better able to cope with change
than people with low levels of career resilience.
Because of the need to compete in a global economy, many organizations
require managers to spend time in a cross-cultural assignment. Managers
with higher levels of career insight may be more successful in cross-cultural
assignments, because they have greater insight into their career goals,
strengths and weaknesses, and plans. Also, they can better cope with
atypical, and perhaps negative, environmental forces (e.g., an unfamiliar
foreign culture) than people with low levels of career motivation.
Consequences of Career Motivation
Research has just begun to investigate the consequences of career
motivation. Recent studies suggest that career motivation plays an important
role in employee development. For example, Maurer and Tarulli (1994)
found that career insight was related to past participation and current
interest in development activity. Jones and Whitmore (1995) examined
whether developmental assessment centers were effective interventions
for the career advancement of insurance company managers. In a 10-year
follow-up study of 113 assessees, they found that participation in
developmental activities contributed to advancement. Further, they found
that career motivation, measured by assessor ratings, was more closely
related to participation in developmental activities and career advancement
than job skills and knowledge.
Overall, research should establish the construct validity of new and
existing measures of career motivation to assess the multidimensional and
integrative aspects of the model, evaluate the applicability of these
instruments to assessment and feedback in career development experiences,
and establish the importance of self-insight stemming from career
development experiences. Research is needed to test the developmental
processes and the emergence and evolution of patterns of career motivation
domains proposed by the model.

Implications for Practice

Career development programs vary in the extent to which they support
career resilience, insight, and identity. For instance, self-assessment
workshops or workbooks and career counseling may focus on promoting
insight. A career motivation assessment center may promote insight through
feedback and promote resilience through rewards for high achievement.
76

Supervisory training may promote identity and insight. Working for a boss
who is a good role model and encourages subordinates’ development may be
a source of resilience, insight, and identity.

Sudden and unexpected career changes are instances when people are
most receptive to new insights about themselves and the environment
(McCall et al., 1988 ). These transitions are times for renewed self-confidence,
increased awareness of one’s capabilities, and establishing new career
goals. Frame-breaking changes can come from within the individual
(endogenous) or from the work environment (exogenous). Life stresses may
cause people to question the meaning of their goals and the extent of their

capabilities, in turn, leading to career shifts. Some people never overcome

mid- or late-career crises, whereas others are able to overcome self-doubt
and commit themselves to new career and life goals. Externally caused
frame-breaking career changes include loosing one’s job, being turned down
for a key promotion, facing a changing organizational culture after a merger,
or having to adapt to a new technology. Frame-breaking changes can destroy
one’s career identity and confuse career insight. However, for people with

strong resilience and environmental support, frame-breaking career changes

can be positive transitions, or at least have positive outcomes.

Varying business conditions result in different levels of support for career

motivation (London, 1988, 1990). For instance, in a declining business
environment, career motivation is generally diminished by layoffs and a focus
on closing down the business, rather than turning it around. However,
career motivation can be supported by communicating openly, discussing
alternative career opportunities, counseling, and employee participation in
organizational redesign and the search for new direction. In the case of
mergers and acquisitions, career motivation is likely to be diminished when
little information is revealed, decisions are made at the top, and employees
are terminated involuntarily. However, career motivation can be supported

during a merger or acquisition by employee involvement in planning,

evaluation of organizational design and job skill requirements.
Career motivation can be bolstered in the wake of frame-breaking change.
It is possible to soften the blow of major changes by interventions that
reinforce good performance and effective use of skills. For instance, in
times of downsizing, job offers at lower organizational levels and at lower
levels of pay should include the possibility for continued achievement and
development, albeit possibly in different career directions.
The career motivation model proposes that career insight, influenced by
resilience and working through career identity, affects persistence and
performance. Feedback processes in organizations also assume that
employees’ insight into their behavior is important to improved performance.
People who receive negative feedback that disagrees with their self-views
may be motivated to analyze why and enhance their performance to conform
to others’ higher expectations of them. People who receive positive feedback
that agrees with their self-views may be motivated to maintain or improve
performance to ensure that others maintain a positive perception of them
(Roney & Sorrentino, 1995).
 77

A number of techniques are geared to enhancing employee insight.

Examples include self-assessment instruments, assessment centers,
performance appraisal feedback, and 360-degree feedback surveys that
collect ratings from subordinates, peers, supervisors, and customers of
managers and feed the information back for development and evaluation
(London & Smither, 1995). However, research indicates that feedback is not
necessarily beneficial (see Kluger & DeNisi’s 1996 review). Career insight
requires receiving information about oneself or others, integrating and
reconciling the information with other information, discounting and
discarding data, interpreting the information, and adding meaning (London,
1994, 1995). People tend to give more importance to objective feedback
than subjective feedback, such as subordinate ratings, unless the objective
information is deemed unreliable (Jussim, Soffin, Brown, Levy, & Kohlhepp,
1992). Kluger and DeNisi’s review found that people tend to ignore, avoid,
or resist feedback that threatens their self-images. They found that feedback
at task and behavioral levels is generally more effective than feedback
that causes one to compare oneself to others (e.g., providing normative
along with individual results).
This has implications for the design of feedback processes. These processes
should recognize cognitive information processing tendencies and means to
encourage people to process information. Such mechanisms may include
organizational policies that hold managers accountable for using the
information (and hold raters accountable for providing accurate information).
They should also consider what information is collected (e.g., task specific
and behavioral versus others’ general impressions of an individual’s
performance) and how the information is presented (e.g., with comparative
results or simply how the individual improved over time; cf. Deci & Ryan,
1985).
Conclusion
The career motivation model is an organizing framework for
conceptualizing elements of motivation, studying their antecedents and
consequences, and designing interventions to enhance career success and
job performance. Considerable research is needed to understand the model
more fully-in particular, how resilience, insight, and identity evolve, affect
one another, are affected by situational conditions, and influence career
outcomes. The results can be used to diagnose and calibrate organizational
programs to the self-understanding and career behavior of individuals.
This is especially important as organizations change and, in the process,
impose increased demands on individuals. It is also important for people who
are particularly susceptible to the negative effects of these changes, such as
older workers.

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