Does grade point average have a long-lasting impact on career success later in life? A resource caravans' perspective from adolescence to mid-career

Abstract

We draw on a resource caravans' perspective to explain pathways to career success among a longitudinal sample, covering the first 15 years of their careers. By applying a latent growth model, we investigate how the role of university grade point average (GPA) on career success changes across time. The results from latent growth curve analysis revealed that GPA was not positively related to initial levels of career success (i.e., salary and leadership level), however, GPA was positively related to increases in career success over time and positively related to subjective career success. These findings indicate that the positive impact of GPA on career success accumulates over time, in line with the resource caravans and gain spirals of conservation of resources theory. Further, we examine the joint role of GPA and affective-identity motivation to lead (MTL) measured at the start of university studies to explain growth in career success over time. As expected, affective identity MTL moderated the relationship between GPA and leadership level, salary level and subjective career success, such that the positive relationship was stronger for individuals higher on affective-identity MTL. Our findings highlight that the pathway to career success is based on gain spirals that may develop slowly over time as individuals accumulate resources in their resource caravan and invest these resources further to achieve their career outcomes. Implications for practice are discussed.