Career anchors and values from different career management perspectives

Rodrigo Cunha da Silva,Leonardo Nelmi Trevisan,Joel Souza Dutra,Elza Fátima Rosa Veloso

doi:10.7819/rbgn.v18i59.2260

Abstract

Purpose – To analyze the relationships between career anchors and young Generation Y professionals’ values, from the career concept perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Research concerning the proposed objective was carried out through quantitative research involving 189 Business Administration majors from a Catholic university in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We used two instruments to identify the career anchors and values of respondents: Schein (1990) and Schwartz (1994), respectively. We used statistical techniques to explore the relationships between career anchors and values. Findings – Among the results, mention should be made to the statistical relationships found between analyzed career anchors and values. It is also important to stress that, although the Lifestyle career anchor was predominantly present in the conglomerate division, this anchor was the predominant characteristic in the differentiation of the smaller group of respondents, the new career group. The General Management Career Anchor, which presents a lower incidence, is the predominant characteristic of the larger group, referring to organizational careers. As well as the Lifestyle career anchor, the Hedonism value was predominant among respondents. Originality/value – The need to consider the following was found: Generation Y presents generational characteristics that drive people management to propose work structures that offer activities to generate learning, pleasure, self-fulfillment and conciliation between work and personal life.

Highlights

Young professionals from the beginning of this century are generally referred to as Generation Y, or are called Millenniums; in Brazil, this generation is made up of people born from 1986 onwards (Silva, Dutra, Veloso, Fischer, & Trevisan, 2015)
Several studies sought to verify the generational differences in terms of their work values (Cennamo & Gardner, 2008; Smola & Sutton, 2002; Twenge, Campbell, Hoffman & Lance, 2010)
Some other studies showed the importance of learning, career growth perspectives and work-life balance to Generation Y commitment (Costanza, Badger, Fraser, Severt, & Gade, 2012; D’Amato & Herzfeldt, 2008)

Summary

Introduction

Young professionals from the beginning of this century are generally referred to as Generation Y, or are called Millenniums; in Brazil, this generation is made up of people born from 1986 onwards (Silva, Dutra, Veloso, Fischer, & Trevisan, 2015). This generation tends to be restless, and is challenging and even insubordinate with regard to different aspects of everyday life within organizations. Some other studies showed the importance of learning, career growth perspectives and work-life balance to Generation Y commitment (Costanza, Badger, Fraser, Severt, & Gade, 2012; D’Amato & Herzfeldt, 2008). Other analyses showed that Generation Y’s organizational commitment could be rooted in the fulfillment of social recognition, lifestyle and pleasure expectations (Lyons & Kuron, 2014; Twenge et al, 2010)

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion