MENTORING AND ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION AS PREDICTORS OF CAREER SUCCESS (MANAGEMENT, EXPECTATIONS, AGE, SPONSORSHIP).

Abstract

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204 p.

The purpose of this ex post facto, multi-variate study was to investigate the extent to which career success could be predicted by mentoring and acheivement motivation. The additional predictor variables of educational level, age, seniority, and career expectations were also examined. A sample of 300 male managers from a large service industry corporation was drawn, and the stepwise regression method was used to identify the final set of significant predictors. Seven criteria of career success were used, including: total career wage change, rate of annual wage change, total career position change, rate of position change, range of career success, speed of career success, and overall career success.The primary outcome of this research was the affirmation that mentoring was a significant predictor of career success. Mentoring was analyzed in two ways, both as "mentoring received" from others and "mentoring given" to proteges. All seven career success variables involved at least one form of mentoring as a significant predictor. Mentoring given was a significant predictor for six of the career success variables. Mentoring received was a significant predictor for five of the variables. For four of the career success variables, both mentoring recieved and given were significant. When both types of mentoring were predictors for a single variable, mentoring received always emerged as the most significant predictor. The number of mentors or proteges a manager experienced was not found to be a significant predictor. It was determined that it was the quality or intensiveness of the relationship, not the quantity or extensiveness, that made mentoring a significant predictor of career success.Achievement motivation was a significant predictor for only one of the seven career success variables, rate of annual wage change. The sample used for this research, however, had a mean for achievement motivation almost one standard deviation above the national norm which could explain why it emerges only once as a significant predictor. Educational level, age, seniority, and career expectations were also significant predictors, with education level and career expectations being the most significant.This study concluded by stating implications for practice and proposing suggestions for future research.