When career success enhances employees' life satisfaction: different effects of two types of goal orientations

Abstract

PurposeDrawing on goal orientation theory, the authors propose a moderated mediation model, wherein objective career success is positively related to employees' life satisfaction through subjective career success moderated by learning and performance goal orientations.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 188 employees in South Korea. The hypotheses were tested with the moderated mediation regression analysis.FindingsThe results indicated that salary and promotion, as indicators of objective career success, were positively related to subjective career success. However, subjective career success mediated only the influence of salary, not promotion, on life satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors found that the indirect relationship between salary and life satisfaction via subjective career success was not significant for employees with high learning goal orientation but was significant for those with high performance goal orientation.Practical implicationsOrganizations need to understand that a higher salary and frequent promotions may not always be positively related to employees' satisfaction with career and personal life and should consider the types of goal orientations.Originality/valueThe authors’ consideration of goal orientation as a dispositional characteristic contributes to the comprehensive understanding of how employees' learning and performance goal orientations interact with objective career success in influencing their subjective career and life satisfaction.