The present study examined the degree to which demographic, human capital,motivational, organizational, and industry/region variables predicted executive career success. Career success was assumed to comprise objective (pay, ascendancy) and subjective (job satisfaction, career satisfaction) elements. Results obtained from a sample of 1,388 U.S.executives suggested that demographic, human capital, motivational, and organizational variables explained significant variance in objective career success and in career satisfaction. Particularly interesting were findings that educational level, quality, prestige, and degree type all predicted financial success. In contrast, only the motivational and organizational variables explained significant amounts of variance in job satisfaction. These findings suggest that the variables that lead to objective career success often are quite different from those that lead to subjectively defined success. This research was funded by CAHRSThis paper has not undergone formal review or approval of the faculty of the ILR School. It is intended to make results of research, conferences, and projects available to others interested in human resource management in preliminary form to encourage discussion and suggestions. Running Head: EXECUTIVE CAREER SUCCESS Executive Career Success WP 94-08Page 2 AbstractThe present study examined the degree to which demographic, human capital, motivational, organizational, and industry/region variables predicted executive career success.

Work values have been receiving increased research attention. Ravlin, Meglino, and associates have recently conceptualized, and provided measurement of, work values. The effects of work values on job satisfaction, commitment, and individual decision making has been studied to date. However, work values have not been explicitly linked to job choice decisions. Using a sample of professional degree students and a policy capturing design, the influence of work values on job choice was examined in the context of job attributes that have previously been shown to affect this decision process. Work values were found to exhibit significant effects on job choice decisions. Further, individuals were more likely to choose jobs whose value content was similar to their own value orientation. Implications of the results for the study of work values and job choice are discussed. KeywordsCAHRS, ILR, center, human resource, job, work, advanced, labor market, satisfaction, employee, work, manage, management, work value, job choice, job satisfaction, commitment, degree, student, honesty

Recent literature reviews have called into question the impact of recruitment activities on applicants’job choices. However, most previous findings have been based on cross‐sectional ratings obtained immediately after initial screening interviews, thus raising questions about the degree to which prior conclusions are bound to that particular methodology. In contrast, the present study used longitudinal structured interviews to let job seekers explain, in their own words, how they made critical job search and choice decisions. Interview transcripts revealed that recruitment practices played a variety of roles in job seeker decisions. For example, consistent with signaling theory, subjects interpreted a wide variety of recruitment experiences (recruiter competence, sex composition of interview panels, recruitment delays) as symbolic of broader organizational characteristics. In addition, a number of “contingency” variables emerged that seemed to affect the perceived signaling value of recruitment experiences (e.g., prior knowledge of the company, functional area of the recruiter). Also notable were the strongly negative effects of recruitment delays, particularly among male students with higher grade point averages and greater job search success. Finally, our results suggest that certain applicant reactions may be systematically related to sex, work experience, grade point average, and search success. The article concludes with practical and research implications.

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