Identifying patterns of Success

Submitted to L Prasad
Arit Kumar Mondal (1011084) Bhavika Kansara (1011090) Mahidhar Surapaneni (1011106) Prateek Bhurat (1011123) Varun Bahri (1011142)

12/6/2010

I Defining Career Success

Success means different things to different people. What is success for me may be a failure for you or vice versa. Under this premise we tried to look for various definitions of success defined in research literature over the past 2 decades. Career success: can be defined as the real (objective) or perceived (subjective) achievements individuals have accumulated as a result of their work experiences i . Career success can be divided intoii: Extrinsic success (External): is relatively objective and observable, and typically consists of highly visible outcomes such as pay, number of promotionsiii. Another metric of extrinsic success gaining popularity off-late has been Occupational Status the attainment of high status and prestigious jobsiv. Most researchers we looked at used Occupational status and a measure of extrinsic success.

Occupational Status

perceptions of power and authority afforded by the job the single most important dimension in social interaction increased job-related responsibilities and rewards Required educational skills, potential extrinsic rewards offered by the occupation single most important sign of sucess in contemporary society

Figure 1 from contemporary researchvviviiviii

Intrinsic success (Internal): is defined as an individuals subjective reactions to his or her own career, and is most commonly measured by job satisfaction ix . Job satisfaction is the most relevant aspect. Individuals who are dissatisfied with many aspects of their current jobs are unlikely to consider their careers, at least at present, as particularly successful consider job satisfaction as the most salient aspect of career successx. Career success is ______? This is the question we asked a group of approximately 100 students at IIM Bangalore and tried to get open ended answers without constricting answers by choices to prevent imposition of our

Page | 1

definition on the subjects. We received varied responses which ranged from conventional to pure bizarre. We have listed a set of responses from the responses in the table below. IIM Bangalore Study Extrinsic (47%) Intrinsic (53%) Similar study in Nottingham UK Extrinsic (38%) Intrinsic (62%) Wealth Happiness Design/methodology/approach A total Health Love of 36 in-depth interviews were undertaken Women Self-esteem with MBA alumni who sought to capture Affection Satisfaction the individual's own account of their Health relationships Gratification career success in relation to their MBA. & Friendship Nothing The study utilized an inductive data Prestige Peace analysis approach. Wine Nonsense never ending Findings The findings revealed a Everything life term diversity of meanings given to MBA Need A Weakness career success, with success generally Want Game of fortune being expressed in much broader terms An Addiction Freedom than conventional notions of fast track Competition Pushing yourself to the career advancement. The salience of Proving to others limit internal criteria for judging MBA career Re-defining boundaries success is thus highlighted. The findings may be seen to further dispel the myth that MBA students are concerned exclusively with status and salary.

Learning for IIMB students: MBA and career success Most IIM students are looking for intrinsic success similar to students abroad. The IIM B community has a higher percentage of people looking for extrinsic success. This can be caused due to relatively low work experience. But clearly the majority is not driven by salary or status. Another deduction is that security is valued more in the Indian context and forcing choices on individual causes them to be ignorant of inner satisfaction and success. Family obligation also contributes to the choice of extrinsic factor choice by Indian students.

II Individual theories of success

These are broadly divided into two types of theories. The first type focuses on personality traits (Nature) and the other on human capital (Nurture).

Page | 2

1. Trait theory of Success NATURE

We concentrated on correlation studies between personality traits and success both intrinsic and extrinsic. We could draw the following conclusions from literature review.Most researchers linking traits to success believe that trait is a second level trait dependent on primary personality traits. We mainly concentrated on knowledge work based theories for intrinsic success factors.

Relationship Studies Equanimity is negatively correlated to Furnham&Zacherl, 1986; Smith, Organ, & Near, 1983; Tokar&Subich, 1997; Judge and Locke (1993); Brief, intrinsic career success
Butcher, & Roberson, 1995; Watson & Slack, 1993

Extraversion is positively correlated Watson and Clark (1997) ; Furnam&Zacherl, 1986; Tokar&Subich, 1997; Watson & Slack, 1993 with intrinsic career success Equanimity is negatively correlated with extrinsic career success Extraversion is positively correlated with extrinsic career success Conscientiousness is positively correlated with extrinsic career success General mental ability is positively correlated with extrinsic career success. No correlation between mental ability and intrinsic career success.
Rawls and Rawls (1968) ; Melamed, 1996a, 1996b; Harrell, 1969; Harrell & Alpert, 1989 Rawls and Rawls (1968); Melamed, 1996a, 1996b; Caspi, Elder, and Bem (1988) ; Howard and Bray (1994) Barrick& Mount, 1991; McCrae & Costa, 1991; Orpen (1983); Howard & Bray, 1994; Jones & Whitmore, 1995; Barrick& Mount, 1991; Salgado, 1997 Ganzach 2003 argues, this apparent paradox may be due to offsetting effects-intelligence increases job satisfaction indirectly by contributing to extrinsic success, but this advantage may be offset by the tendency of intelligent individuals to be more critical (perhaps due to higher aspirations) in evaluating their jobs.

Problem with trait theories of success: A preliminary search on major books on success brought forward their own traits linking the same to success.Within a theory we foundcontradictions egMastery and Well Roundedness are contradictory. There are countless books on success and traits: our estimate is there would be at least 500 traits. Some major problems are better explained with examples.Same traits can cause both success and failure same trait different behavior. Trait definitions and effect on success change with time-EQ these day is more important than IQ. Learning for IIM B students Same traits can cause both success and failure same trait different behavior
S.No 1 Trait Excitable Success behavior Empathy and concern Failure behavior Emotional explosiveness Page | 3

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Skeptical Cautious Reserved Leisurely Bold Mischievous Colorful Imaginative Diligent Dutiful

Social and Political Insight Evaluates risks appropriately Emotionally unflappable Good Social Skills Courage and energy Unafraid of risk Celebrations and Entertainment Creativity and Vision Hard work and high standards Corporate Citizenship

Excessive suspicion Indecisiveness and risk aversion Insensitive and poor communication Passive Aggression Overbearing and manipulative Reckless and deceitful Impulsive and distractible Bad ideas Micromanagement Indecisiveness

Trait definitions and effect on success change with time-EQ more Important than IQ When most psychologists wrote about intelligence, they mostly concentrated on the cognitive aspects. However most of the researchers like David Wechsler, Robert Thorndike, and Hemphill etc. stressed the importance non-cognitive aspects as also requirements for successxi. A depictive example concerning the equal importance of EQ to that of an IQ can be given as below. One needs a very high IQ to get admission into a college like IIMB; there is no ruling away of that. Once you are admitted, however, what matters in terms ofhow you do compared to your peers has less to do with IQ differences and more to do with socialand emotional factors. Goleman stated, at best,IQ contributes about 20 percent to the factors that determine life success

2. Human Capital Theory (Nurture)

The Human capital theory is making a comeback. Human capital theory xii suggests that individuals who invest the most in human capital attributes such as education, training, and experience are expected to show higher level of work performance and subsequently obtain higher organizational rewards. According to this theory, an individual's career progression and success is contingent upon the quantity and quality of human assets one brings to the labor marketxiii and that the skills and experiences that individuals bring to their work are related to their compensation xiv . To the extent that human capital factors influence the performance of employees, greater personal attributes would enable them to better perform their job, and their pay should increase accordingly to compensate them for the additional amount of human capital required by their job. Recent empirical evidence supports the positive linkage between human capital variables and career successxv.
Page | 4

Learning for IIM B students As careers become more uncertain, these personal and portable characteristics become more critical, perhaps more than ever, for students that are facing different models of career success.Human capital factors, including education level, work investment, work experience, and the number of hours worked are each positively related to career success. Simple: Time to burn the midnight oil chaps

3. Behavior based Theories

There are also patterns to the behavior of people successful at work. The actions and behaviors one exhibits at work are the cornerstone of interpersonal relationships that exists within the organization. There are certain behavioral patterns that exist among people who are successful in their career. 3.1 Self-management Behaviour (Individual Level): It is the behaviours related to the management of self and career. These behaviours include job mobility preparedness and developmental feedback-seeking behaviours. The common behavioural of such people include:xvi Focus, discipline and persistence: They have a clear understanding of how their work will help them create the life they want and work incessantly towards achieving it. Selfishness: Successful people know that their time, energy and money are precious commodities and use them only to fulfil their goals. Responsible: Successful people have high levels of personal commitment and they know they control the outcome through their behaviour. They change their behaviour and move towards the desired outcome. Result-orientation: They understand that most of the times its only results that count in determining career success.

Page | 5

3.2

Interpersonal

relationship

Behaviour

Model

(Group

Level):Interpersonal

relationship is the affiliation, social association and connections that form between people. If one gets along harmoniously with ones co-workers, these positive interpersonal relationships will fuel work achievement and success. Successful people are usually recognize differences in people and be ready to adapt, listen proactively and are known for their positive interactions and ability to resolve conflict.xvii 3.3 Political Behaviour Model (Organizational level):Political view on organizations states that to achieve success in careers, individuals just dont rely not only on their skills and expertise but also on their ability to skilfully navigate social and political contexts. Individuals are motivated to engage in political behaviour when they suppose that doing so helps them to achieve their goal. Personal needs motivate such behaviours. The need for achievement and need for power are the two most important antecedents that motivate political behaviour at work. xviii Research done by Liu and Wu states that political behaviour is associated with enhanced career growth potential through increased personal power, but only when individuals are politically skilled. This behaviour also helps in obtaining valued organizational resources and rewards. The effect of political influence behaviour on career success is studied by Judge and Bretz xix. It showed how political influence variables - supervisor-focused tactics (manifesting a strategy of ingratiation) and job-focused tactics (manifesting a strategy of self-promotion) were correlated with intrinsic and extrinsic career success. The following graph clearly shows that supervisorfocussed strategy resulted in high career success.

Page | 6

The IIM B PPO behaviour study We contacted a group of 15 PGP 2 students who received PPOs during last summer placements. We have asked them to simply rate the following on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 signifies least and 10 signifies the most): Question Value of Self-management behaviour/job focused in getting them a PPO Value of Interpersonal behaviour towards in getting them a PPO Value of Political behaviour in getting them a PPO Learning for IIM B students These days being job focused will get you nowhere in life. It is very important to wield good interpersonal behaviour. Supervised focuses skills are also important to intrinsic and extrinsic career skills. With most of MNCs relying on 360 degree feedback the value of Interpersonal behaviour on career success cannot be overstated. Job focus self-management is just a hygiene criterion. Avg. Score 4.3 7.8 6.2

4. Structural Theories
Structural characteristics help individual in their career advancement. Under this approach, certain organizational factors such as organizational size and internal promotional practices influence career aspirants' success. The management theory of organizations supports the view because it supports than compensation and rewards are directly realated to an organizations size. This is the case because large organizations do more complex operations and the strong heirachy aids in upward movement both in salary and in status. Recent empirical evidence supports the structural approach to career pathsxx. IIM B Student Survey We asked a group of 25 IIM B students about whether they would join a start-up in the first 5 years after passing out of IIM B or they would prefer to stay at a big company. 64% said no.

Page | 7

IIM B Student Survey Though a higher percentage of students claimed that they would join start-ups; the history of outgoing students betrays the claim. IIM B students just claim to be entrepreneurs. Thus, they are inadvertently going with the fining of the structural theory and are finding high career success at the beginning of their career. We dont say that this is a bad thing. Future research has to be done though on high tech start-ups to find out the truth about the structural theory.

5. Situational Fit Theories

5.1 Person-Environment fit theory Individuals and environments impose requirements on one another. One of the propositions of the theory states that the correspondence between the organizational characteristics and the person determines the job satisfaction and hence the success of the person. The fit if the person in the organization has implications on his job involvement, organizational commitment, work attitudes and thus work performance. That is because of its inherent assumption that work motivation is at its maximum when the individual fits the organization. This proposition is strengthened by both expectancy and the reinforcement theory. Holland argued that, over time, reinforcements constrain individual behavior to be consistent with organizational desires. That is, people who display proper behavior and attitudes should stay longer, be more satisfied, and have the indicators of career success bestowed upon them. Type of PE fit: Person-Jobfit and Person- Organization Culture fit.
Person Job Fit

First Level Fit: individuals' knowledge, skills, abilities (KSA), and other attributes are compatible with what the job requires Second Level Fit: individuals' needs and desires are commensurate with what the job supplies (job attributes) in order to be performed

Person Culture Fit

Congruence between personal values and organizational values

Please refer to appendix 1 for details on Fit for jobs for individuals.

Page | 8

5.2 Organization Support Theory extension of Fit theories Specifically, the in-fit individuals are supported socially and politically and those do not are ostracized and undermined. Therefore those who fit in are likely to receive more support to perform well, thereby increasing the likelihood to perform better and succeed better. Greater fit leads to more challenging early career assignments, mentoring relationships and fast track promotion ladders. Since early career success has been shown to affect the latter career success, DtBertz strongly suggests that the logic of basing job choice decisions on immediate fit seems compellingxxi. HR Evidence for these theories our talk with a McKinsey Partner 1 out of 10 associates we hire eventually make partner. 9 of them either leave on their own or are asked to leave. We have found that over 70% of the people who leave are not a fit either in terms of skill or culturally
Learning for IIM B students Choose careers more carefully. Just level 1 fit is not important. Level 2 fits are very important in the long run. Join organizations you believe in not just organizations that pay the most money and status. In the long run Intrinsic satisfaction and success will translate into extrinsic career success. Organization fit Organizational Support Organizational success

6. Social Capital Theories of success ACCESS based THEORIES

Popular advice for getting ahead in one's career rarely fails to mention the importance of networking for the achievement of career goalsxxiixxiii. Indeed, it has been found that the most successful managers spent 70 percent more time engaged in networking activities and 10 percent more time engaged in routine communication activities than their less successful counterpartsxxiv. Advances in social capital theory have begun to provide a finer-grained analysis of the ways individuals social networks affect their careers in organizationsxxv. Let us discuss the most popular ones which have been widely accepted. We will later present a correlation study to combine these 3 theories with the aim to come up with learnings for IIM students.

Page | 9

6.1 Weak Tie Theory The weak tie theory (Granovetter, 1973), focuses on the strength of the social tie used by a person in the process of finding a job. He defines two types of ties. Strong Ties are ties between members of a social clique. Such ties are frequent, emotionally intense and involve multiple relationship types resulting in quick spread of information to members. This information soon becomes redundant and of little use. Weak Ties are ties between social cliques or between members of one clique with a member of another clique. Such are informal, infrequent, non-emotionally intense ties restricted to a single relationship type. These ties act as bridges between social cliques resulting in new source of unique information and resources. In the sample set it was found that weak ties were a source of information for most candidates on job openings. Hence, the larger number of weak ties the larger is the chance of success. Subsequent research has provided mixed support for the weak tie hypothesisxxvi. 6.2 Social Resource Theory extension of weak tie theory Social resources theory focuses on the nature of the resources embedded within a network. Lin and coauthors (1981) argued that it is not the weakness of a tie per se that conveys advantage, but the fact that such ties are more likely to reach someone with the type of resource required for ego to fulfill his or her instrumental objectives. A contact that possesses characteristics or controls resources useful for the attainment of the individual's goals can be considered a social resource. Lin's research showed that tie strength was negatively related to the occupational prestige of the contact (that is, weak ties reach higher status contacts) and that the contacts occupational prestige was in turn positively related to the prestige of the job secured by the individualxxvii. 6.3 Structural HoleTheory Burt's (1992) structural holes approach hits out at the very concept of bridging of social cliques. He says structural holes exist between any two individuals who are not connected to each other within a social clique. A network rich in structural holes provide an individual with three primary benefits: more unique and timely access to information, greater bargaining power and thus control over resources and outcomes & greater visibility and career opportunities throughout the
Page | 10

social system. Thus it is advantageous to form ties with as many unique individuals (who dont have a mutual friend with you). Initial empirical evidence has been supportive of structural holes theory but has also provided a number of boundary conditions limiting the range of the theory's applicationxxviii. IIM B Facebook Survey We carried out a research on IIM Bangalore 2nd yr students who were successful in getting a PPO in their internships. Hypothesis: People with larger number of weak ties would continue to develop more such weak ties at their place of work, thus increasing their chances of success. Results:Students who had higher number of friends on facebook thus capable at developing larger number of weak ties, happened to be the ones who were successful at the workplace in bagging a PPO offer. Students who bagged a PPO had an average of 730.4 friends while those who were unsuccessful in same companies had on an average 360.2 friends thus offering a stark interest. Basis for our survey:The Economist article on Facebook and the size of social networks states that the average number of Facebook friends is close to the Dunbar number of 150; and that most people actively interact on Facebook with far fewer people than that (less than 20, however you measure it). What this ignores is the fact that the outer tier of acquaintances represent the weak ties that sociologist Mark Granovetters work has shown to be most valuable in Getting a Job, and other positive outcomes for individuals and social groups: Weak ties, often denounced as generative of alienation (Wirth 1938) are here seen as indispensable to individuals opportunities and to their integration into communities Learning for IIM B students Online social networks, like Facebook, expose our weak ties (as described in Social Networking in Plain English) to us. They also make the weak ties more accessible and more easily activated. Those who denigrate Facebook users for having hundreds of fake friends are really missing the point.

Page | 11

6.4. Unified Social Capital Theory

From a study on the unified social capital theory using a wormdatabase database of people doing research on specific worms the correlations between network ties and success outcomes (research awards) were found out. Using this the best network path is suggested in learning for IIM B students below.

Learning for IIM B students Choose the best path of success : typical networking problem you choose the best path From a practical standpoint, it may be best for a person to invest in the development of weak ties to increase the level of social resources embedded in his or her network, but then to invest (perhaps selectively) in strengthening those ties to increase the benefits actually mobilized on his or her behalf.

Page | 12

APPENDIX
Personality Type and Occupational Type According to Holland Personality Type Realistic Prefers Activities such as Systematic and specific manipulation of objects such as tools, machines or even animals Observational, Symbolic, systemic, creative investigation of physical, biological and cultural phenomenon in order to understand and control them Ambiguous, free, unsystematized work that requires manipulating physical and human characteristics to create art forms or products Manipulation of others to train, cure and enlighten them Dislikes activities that Involve educational or therapeutic goals Require repetition, interaction persuasion, social Typical Occupations Surveyor, Mechanic

Investigative

Chemist, Physicist

or

Artistic

Require being explicit and systematic

Artist, Writer

Social

Enterprising

Require being explicit and systematic, especially when required to work with materials, tools or machines Manipulation of others to attain Require making observation, organizational goal or economic and acting in systematic ways gain or symbolical capacities Explicit and systematic manipulation to attain organizational goal or economic gain Require sensitivity to ambiguity, autonomy, exploration or anything unsystematized

Education, Social Science, teacher, counselor Business Administration, marketing, sales, executive Accounting, business education, clerk

Conventional

Page | 13

References:

Judge, Cable, Boudreau, &Bretz, 1995 Gattiker&Lanvood, 1988; Judge et al., 1995 iii Jaskolka, Beyer, & Trice, 1985 iv Blaikie, 1977; Schooler&Schoenbach, 1994 v Ganzeboom&Treiman, 1996, p. 203 vi Blailue, 1977 vii Korman, Mahler, &Omran, 1983 viii Poole, Langan-Fox, &Omodei, 1993; Weaver, 1977 ix Gattiker&Larwood, 1988; Judge et al., 1995 x Judge &Bretz, 1994 xi Emotional Intelligence: What it is and Why it Matters, Cary Cherniss xii Becker, G.S. (1975), Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, xiii Becker, G.S. (1975), Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, . xiv Agarwal, N. (1981), "Determinants of executive compensation", Industrial Relations, Vol. 20 pp.36-45. xv Tharenou, P. (2001), "Going up? Do traits and informal social processes predict advancing in management?", Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 44 No.5, pp.1005-17 xvi Article by Ron Finklestein, Attitudes and Behaviours of Successful People; Ezine articles xvii The 5 Keys to Interpersonal Success, http://www.wow4u.com/interpersonalsuccess/index.html xviii Yongmei Liu, Jun Liu and Longzeng Wu; Roles of Motivation, Power, and Politics in Career Growth xix Timothy A Judge and Robert D. Bretz, Jr; Political Influence Behavior and Career Success xx McDonald, P., Brown, K., Bradely, L. (2005), "Have traditional career paths given way to protean ones?",Career Development International, Vol. 10 No.2, pp.109-29. xxi Person-Organization Fit and the Theory of Work Assignment, Implications for Satisfaction, Tenure and Career Success. By Robert D. BertzJrand Timothy A. Judge. xxii Boles, 1992 xxiii Kantar, 1977 xxiv Luthans, Hodgetts, and Rosenkrantz (1988) xxv Burt, 1992, 1997; Ibarra, 1995; Podolny& Baron, 1997; Sparrowe& Popielarz,1995 xxvi Bridges &Villemez, 1986; McPherson, Popielarz, &Drobnic, 1992; Murray, Rankin, & Magill, 1981 xxvii Lin et al., 1981a, 1981b; see also De Graaf& Flap, 1988; Marsden &Hurlbert, 1988 xxviii Burt, 1992, 1997; Podolny& Baron, 1997; Sparrowe&Popielarz, 1995
ii

Page | 14