The impact positive organisational factors on the career success of black
employees in the South African work environment: An exploratory study
Malan, DJ & Roux, S
Empowering Development Conference, 17 July 2015
STIAS, Wallenberg Centre, Stellenbosch
Research Initiating Question?
 Which organisational and individual factors influence the experience
of career success amongst black employees in the South African
work environment?
Aim of the current study
 Develop and evaluate an exploratory theoretical model containing the
most salient variables that impact on the subjective career success of
black employees in the South African work environment
Research Design
 Mixed-Methods Exploratory Sequential Design Variant
(Creswell et al., 2011)
Three Phases:
 Phase 1: Qualitative Study (N=30)
Semi-structured interview (Thematic analysis)
 Phase 2: Quantitative Strand: Pilot Study (N=220)
Composite questionnaire (Reliability, EFA, CFA)
 Phase 3: Quantitative Strand: Main Study (N= 418
Composite questionnaire (Reliability, CFA, MRO & SEM (Smart
PLS plus LISREL)
Measuring Instruments
Transformational Leadership (Idealised Influence, Intellectual Stimulation, Inspirational Motivation,
Individualised Consideration):
 Adapted version of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Bass & Avolio, 1994)
Past Leadership:
 Self-Developed Scale
Job Resources (Growth Opportunities, Social Support, Organisational Support, Advancement):
 Adapted version of the Job Demands-Resources Scale (JDRS) (Jackson & Rothmann, 2005)
Past Job Resources:
 Self-Developed Scale
Supportive Organisational Climate (Managerial Competence, Employee Commitment,
Cooperation/Coordination, Cultural Sensitivity):
 Adapted version of the Supportive Organisational Climate Questionnaire (Rogg et al., 2001)
Psychological Empowerment (Competence, Meaning, Self-Determination, Impact) :
 Psychological Empowerment Scale (Spreitzer, 1995)
Psychological Capital:
 Self-rater version of the Psychological Capital Questionnaire - 24 (PCQ-24) (Luthans et al., 2007)
(Luthans et al., 2007)
Measuring Instruments
Psychological Capital (Hope, Efficacy, Resilience, Optimism)
 Psychological Capital Questionnaire – 24 (Luthans et al., 2007)
Objective Career Success (Current):
 Self-Developed Scale
Objective Career Success (Past):
 Self-Developed Scale
Subjective Career Success:
Perceived Career Success (Career Satisfaction):
 Perceived Career Success Scale (Greenhaus et al., 1990)
Perceived Internal Marketability:
 Perceived Internal Marketability Scale (Johnson, 2001)
Perceived External Marketability:
 Perceived External Marketability Scale (Johnson, 2001)
Theoretical Model
Model 6 (Final Results)
Results
Main Study (n= 418)
Correlation Analysis
Subjective career success significantly correlated (p<.05) with all variables
except objective career success (past)
Stepwise Multiple Regression
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Empowering Job resources: 27%
Psychological Capital: further 6%
Supportive Organisational Climate: further 2%
Total variance in Career Satisfaction explained = 35%
Model 6 (Structural Model): Final
Composite Reliability:
TL (α= .97); JR (α= .86); SOC (α= .91); PE (α= .88); PSYCAP (α= .86); SCS (α= .87)
R2 in Career Success explained (SmartPLS) = 42%
Goodness-of-fit:
RMSEA= .07 (.07; .08); NFI= .94; CFI= .96; SRMR= .70
Managerial Implications
 Considerations
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Changing nature of employment relationship
Retention vs employability
Is there an ethical responsibility?
Consequences of organisational support of career
development
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Internal and external marketing
Exchange implications of Psychological Contract
Increased engagement/commitment
Positive job attitudes
Managerial Implications (Continued)
 Leadership development
 Transformational leadership training
(Personal growth, conceptual understanding of impact on
career development, feedback, skill building)
 Develop feedback learning-oriented culture
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Organisational efforts to improve quality of feedback
Develop policies supportive of this orientation
Align supportive interventions with policy
Adhere to principle of employee being self-developer
Aim to establish organisational climate marked by being
supportive, co-operative and direction-giving
Managerial Implications (Continued)
 Career supporting strategies
 Promote career identity by clarifying requirements for vertical
progression - develop career plans
 Career advancement through feedback, mentoring, training and
development
 Facilitate self-assessment – understand own values, goals and
motivation
 Collaboratively identify areas for improvement
 Reinforce excellent performance and adopt remedial strategy
towards failure experiences
 Coaching interventions
 Boost self-knowledge and shift behaviour in desired direction
Managerial Implications (Continued)
 Psychological Capital Interventions
 Hope – facilitate career goals, establish more than one pathway
to overcome blockages
 Self-efficacy – actively promote identifying of mentors, mentors
provide modeling & positive feedback
 Optimism – adopt leniency for past ; appreciate the present, and
seek opportunities for future
 Identify resources under control of employee and utilise to
solve current problems
 Resilience
 Assets – resources used to deal with setbacks
 Risk factors – reduce resiliency
 Influence processes – interpretation of setbacks (assetfocussed, risk-focussed, and process-focussed)
 Latter means continuously identifying resources
Thank you