Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Maimunah Ismail
Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education
Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia
43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
E-mail: mismail@educ.upm.edu.my
Tel: 603 – 8946 8111
Jegak Uli
Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education
Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia
43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
E-mail: jegak@ace.upm.edu.my
Tel: 603 – 8946 8234
Abstract
The study examined dimensions and levels of career aspirations and their relationships with
objective and subjective career success among managers in the Malaysian public sector.
The findings revealed heterogeneity of managers’ career aspirations, and therefore, suggest
that the respondents were mostly aspired in managerial competence, job security, and sense
of service. Further analyses showed that overall career aspirations were not significantly
related with objective career success component such as monthly gross incomes and
number of promotions. However, objective career success was only positively correlated
with managerial competence and technical-functional competence, and negatively
correlated with job security. On the other hand, overall career aspirations were significantly
related with subjective career success. Besides that, managerial competence, pure
challenge, sense of service and entrepreneurial creativity were significantly correlated with
subjective career success. Implications for management and suggestions for future research
are put forward.
1. Introduction
Managers in the public sector are experiencing substantial transformation in organizations via
organizational as well as career changes which affects the long-term relationship and psychological
contract between organizations and employees. According to Hall and Mirvis (1996) and Callanan
(2003), the psychological contract which embodies perceptions and beliefs regarding the reciprocal
obligations that exist between employers and employees has shifted from relational to transactional. In
this realm, our traditional understanding of careers as a linear career path or as a series of upward
progression, followed by increasing income status, security within a functional area and often within a
single organization (Capelli, 1992; Eddleston et al., 2004) has shifted to lateral and horizontal
movement. According to Ackah and Heaton (2004), these new paradigms of careers can provide wider
alternatives, positions and experience in order to fulfill the personal needs as well as intrinsic
satisfaction of employees. Accordingly, these structural and social transitions have influenced many
aspects of managers’ career behaviors, one of which is career success (Baruch, 2004).
Career success is being described as having both objective and subjective dimensions (Gattiker
& Larwood, 1988; Judge et al., 1995; Nabi, 1999; 2003; Baruch, 2004; Breland et al., 2007). Objective
career success refers to the external categories in a profession which defined by society, one’s peers or
culture, and illustrates the typical steps toward success. The movement may be horizontal (increased
job security, longer vacations) or hierarchical (promotion, different job title) (Nabi, 1999). On the
contrary, subjective career success is an individual’s perceptions of career experience which influenced
by a person’s own preferences for development, needs and values (Gattiker & Larwood, 1986). The
significance of subjective career success has been contended since the late 70s by Van Maanen and
Schein (1979). Additonally, Gattiker and Larwood (1988), Peluchette (1993), Nabi (2003) and
Maimunah and Roziah (2006) have also highlighted the importance of examining subjective career
success together with objective career success because of their implications to psychological well-
being and quality of working life of employees.
Career which links individuals and the organizations for which they work has been viewed
from both external and internal perspectives. Previous research on employees’ career especially among
managers in the public sector were more incline towards the external careers, that is, on the sequence
of jobs and positions as well as career paths through which employees progress (Greenhaus &
Callanan, 1994; Igbaria et al., 1999). Therefore, there is a paucity of research-based evidence on
managers’ internal careers such as their career aspirations, values, perceptions and effective reactions
to job experiences especially in the Malaysian context.
Features of the internal careers are important as they will implicate employees’ satisfaction,
devotion and involvement within an organization. An important aspect of the internal careers is career
aspirations. It refers to individuals’ occupational self concept, beliefs and values about themselves in
the workplace regarding their capability, significance and worthy in their occupations (Rosenberg,
1979). These notions have led to many corresponding concepts of career aspirations that have been
researched in many career development studies, such as the internal career (Bigliardi et al., 2005;
Ituma, 2006), career orientations (Igbaria et al., 1999; Erdogmus, 2004; Kim, 2004; Buchanan et al.,
2007) and career anchors (Schein, 1978; Marshall & Bonner, 2003). According to Schein (1996), most
people form a strong self-concept which holds their internal career together even as they experience
unexpected changes in their external career. Rosenberg (1979) further suggested that an individual’s
thoughts about his/her occupation would also explain the person’s perception on non-organizational
success. Likewise, Gattiker and Larwood (1986) found that positive occupational self-concept would
positively influence individuals’ perception of career success.
4. Methodology
The study was a portion of a large cross-sectional career success study conducted on managers of
Malaysian public sector organizations. The managers were from various managerial grades starting
from the low management level of M44 to the chief executive level also known as JUSA. A
quantitative survey was designed to answer the research questions. Specifically, data were collected
from a sample of men and women managers who worked in the 21 ministries located at Putrajaya. The
selection of Putrajaya was because 21 out of the 28 government ministries are centralized in the city.
Apart from that, data were also taken from the managers attending training at the National Institute for
Public Administration also known as INTAN training centre in order to capture the remaining
population that was not included in the Putrajaya’s territory. Respondents were identified using
stratified random sampling procedures.
besides the monthly fixed allowance. The table also shows that one-tenth of the managers earned the
JUSA’s remuneration scale which starts from RM6595.99 to RM9717.79. The JUSA level can be
further divided into three progressive levels such as JUSA C, JUSA B and JUSA A, where there are
different remuneration scales for each level. The JUSA managers also received their monthly fixed
allowance of RM4800.00 plus other standing allowances.
Referring to the number of promotions, the overall mean was 2.77 with a standard deviation of
1.18. It should be noted that the managerial ladder of the Administrative and Diplomatic Officers starts
progressively from M41, M44, M48, M52, M54 and chief executive level (JUSA). Therefore, the
managers’ current managerial position reflects the number of promotions that they have received, and
hence, the percentages of these variables were similar. Most of the managers (39.9%) have achieved
two promotions and one-tenth of the managers have each accomplished one promotion (11.1%) and
five promotions (10.4%) respectively.
As for the subjective career success, the overall mean level of perceived career success
experienced by the managers was 5.14 with a standard deviation of .83. Table 2 shows that 97.5% of
the respondents have experienced moderate to high level of subjective career success. The results
further indicate that the respondents were generally perceived their career as successful.
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Career Aspirations
Career Aspirations
M SD
MC AU JS PC T SS L EC
MC 4.18 .66
AU 3.35 .90 .077
JS 4.45 .60 .267** .095
PC 3.86 .66 .452** .034 .205**
T 2.85 .90 .185** .210** .082 .160**
SS 4.45 .51 .343** .203** .386** .325** .167**
L 3.53 .78 .029 .515** .230** .027 .308** .224**
EC 3.95 .72 .453** .029 .159** .551** .089 .370** -.029
GS 2.84 1.19 .053 .129* .059 .022 .86** .055 .297** -.075
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level
MC = Managerial Competence, AU = Autonomy, JS = Job Security, PC = Pure Challenge, T = Technical, SS = Sense of Service, L = Lifestyle, EC =
Entrepreneurial Creativity, GS = Geographic Stability.
5.4. The Relationships between Managers’ Career Aspirations and Career Success
Table 4 and Table 5 show the magnitude and direction for the nine career aspirations towards career
success components, namely, monthly gross incomes, number of promotions and perceived career
success. Specifically, Table 4 reveals that only managerial competence (r=.139, p=.018) and technical-
functional competence (r=.163, p=.005) have positive significant relationships with monthly gross
incomes. Additionally, job security (r=-.133, p=.024) was negatively related with monthly gross
incomes. Similarly, Table 4 also indicates that only managerial competence (r=.174, p=.003) and
technical-functional competence (r=.171, p=.004) were positively related with number of promotions.
Moreover, job security (r=-.138, p=.019) has a negative relationship with number of promotions.
Besides that, these results also showed that overall career aspirations did not significantly relate with
objective component of career success such as monthly gross incomes and number of promotions.
The managers’ remuneration scale is very rigid and highly determined by the Administrative
and Diplomatic Officers’ service scheme. Furthermore, their salary was also based on their managerial
grade and current managerial work load. These explain the irrelevant relationship between overall
career aspirations and the managers’ monthly gross incomes. The fact that the managers’ promotions
were to a great extent determined by the decision of the higher management group has explained the
insignificant relationship between career aspirations and number of promotions. These further imply
that other factors such as networking and individual career management may have influenced the
managers’ promotions.
Table 5 displays the magnitude and direction of relationships between career aspirations and
subjective career success. The results exhibit that managerial competence (r=.242, p=.000) was
positively correlated with subjective career success. In addition, pure challenge (r=.195, p=.000), sense
of service (r=.103, p=.040), entrepreneurial creativity (r=.126, p=.016) and overall career aspirations
(r=.172, p=.002) were positively correlated with subjective career success. These indicate that the
more the managers valued managerial competence, pure challenge, sense of service and entrepreneurial
creativity as their career aspirations, the higher they perceive their subjective career success.
Table 5: Relationships between Components of Career Aspirations and Subjective Career Success (n=288)
Moreover, the findings also reveal that the talent-based aspirations (managerial competence and
entrepreneurial creativity) and the value-based aspirations (pure challenge and sense of service) were
positively and significantly influence the managers’ career needs, values and interest. Similarly,
findings of Igbaria et al. (1999) also found that career aspirations were aspects of the internal career
that determine one’s career outcomes such as job satisfaction, commitment and motivation, which later
guide their subjective career success.