Did economic globalization destabilize careers? Evidence from Germany

In this article, we analyze the impact of economic globalization on the turbulence of early work careers in Germany. We conceptualize turbulence as the absolute number of employer changes, the predictability of the order of jobs, and the variability of the durations spent in different employment states. Results from empirical analyses based on the German Life History Study (N = 5,432) show that – contrary to what is often implicitly assumed in careers research – there has been only a small increase in the turbulence of work careers over the last decades. Early work careers became slightly more dynamic for individuals born in the 1930s and 1940s, but for individuals born in the 1950s onwards, there are no significant differences in the turbulence across the cohorts. Additionally, we find no evidence that industry-specific economic globalization influences the turbulence of work careers. We conclude that researchers should consider the relative stability of careers and that the impact of globalization on work careers might be overestimated

Careers and career patterns of international managers

Bei zunehmender Internationalisierung ergeben sich für Unternehmen vermehrte Koordinationserfordernisse zwischen dem Stammhaus im Inland und den verschiedenen Auslandsgesellschaften. Die Auslandsentsendung von Führungskräften ist ein möglicher Weg, diesen Erfordernissen erfolgreich zu begegnen. Allerdings wurden die langfristigen Auswirkungen eines Auslandseinsatzes von Führungskräften auf deren Karrieren bislang kaum empirisch untersucht und die wenigen vorliegenden Ergebnisse sind defizient und zudem widersprüchlich. In dieser empirischen Untersuchung wurden Führungskräfte mit (n=159) und ohne internationale Erfahrungen (n=73) verglichen. Es zeigte sich, dass internationale Erfahrungen zu einem höheren subjektiven und objektiven Karriereerfolg führen. Weiterhin konnte ein positiver Einfluss der Personalentwicklung als unternehmensseitiges Entsendungsziel und der Bedeutung der Auslandsgesellschaft auf den Karriereerfolg durch internationale Tätigkeiten nachgewiesen werden. Zur Analyse der Karrieremuster wurden bestehende Typologien von Borg (1988), Mayrhofer (1996) sowie von Banai und Harris (2004) überprüft. Ergänzend erfolgte die Entwicklung eigener Taxonomien mit der Optimal Matching Analyse. So konnten verschiedene Karrieremuster abgegrenzt werden. Beispielsweise lassen sich globale Führungskräfte mit Berufserfahrung fast ausschließlich im Ausland und internationalen Karrieristen mit ungefähr einem Drittel der Berufserfahrung im Ausland kontrastieren. Letztere unterscheiden sich u.a. durch einen höheren objektiven Karriereerfolg, eine höhere Karriereorientierung und eine lange Unternehmenszugehörigkeit

Infraservices als Alternative zum Outsourcing: Stand und Entwicklungsperspektiven

'In Anbetracht der nach wie vor angespannten wirtschaftlichen Lage stehen in vielen Unternehmen die Service-Bereiche auf dem Prüfstand, Business Process Outsourcing heißt das aktuelle Stichwort. Laut einer Studie der Gartner Group sind jedoch mehr als die Hälfte der Unternehmen mit ihren Outsourcing-Ergebnissen unzufrieden. Die Financial Times Germany schreibt, dass in immer mehr Firmen Outsourcing gar zu höheren Kosten führt. Eine alternative Vorgehensweise besteht darin, die Leistungen bisher rein interner Einheiten auch am Markt anzubieten und so zusätzliche Erlöse zu erzielen. Im Gegensatz zum Outsourcing verbleibt bei diesem Vorgehen die Kontrolle weitgehend im Unternehmen. Gleichzeitig sind die auf diese Weise entstehenden Infraservice-Unternehmen aufgefordert, ihre Kosten und Leistungen dem Marktniveau anzupassen. Eine Studie, die von der Professur für Unternehmungsführung und Organisation der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen in Kooperation mit der Unternehmensberatung Baumgartner & Co. erstellt wurde, zeigt, dass es Infraservice-Unternehmen gelingt, ihre Effizienz deutlich zu steigern, Kundenorientierung zu entwickeln und Kosten zu senken. Die Gründung von Infraservice-Unternehmen erweist sich somit als Alternative zum Outsourcing, die bei geringerem Risiko eine Verbesserung der wirtschaftlichen Situation verspricht. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die wichtigsten Ergebnisse der Studie.' (Textauszug

Signs of narcissism? Reconsidering a widely used measure

Recent research on CEOs’ narcissism has mostly used unobtrusive measures, even though such measures have not been validated sufficiently. In two settings (Study 1 with 601 participants from various occupations and Study 2 with 97 managing directors), we analyze the construct validity of the commonly used narcissism index (NI). We find that the NI is only moderately correlated with the established and validated Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), which calls into question the convergent validity of the NI. We further alter the company’s financial performance in our simulation to test whether performance affects the NI. Results show that individuals have different levels of NI after a period with a high compared with a low financial performance. This casts doubt on previous findings in organizational research using the NI and other unobtrusive measures because it reverses the common assumption of cause and effect

A taxonomy of global careers: Identifying different types of international managers.

Research on expatriates indicates that substantial differences exist within internationally active employees. Several typologies of expatriates have been suggested to account for this diverseness. However, empirical evidence on the accuracy of these classification schemes is scarce. Based on these research efforts, we introduce a data-based taxonomy of internationally mobile managers. By means of sequence analysis we derive four career patterns from the curriculi vitae of 202 German managers. These patterns are built on the dimensions mobility and duration of the stays abroad. We further show that these patterns differ with regard to various individual and organizational variables. Based on these findings, we argue that expatriation career management practices and responsibilities need to be differentiated

The emergence of similar personalities in similar occupations

Personality research suggests that individuals tend to develop more homogeneous—or similar—personalities within, rather than between, occupations due to attraction and selection, attrition, and socialization effects. We expand this perspective using a distance‐based methodological approach that relates similarities between combinations of individuals' personality traits to similarities between their occupations. Leveraging German panel data tracing individuals' careers from 2005 to 2017, we test how attraction and selection, attrition, and socialization effects contribute to the emergence of similar personalities in similar occupations over time. Our results reveal that individuals with more similar Big Five personality traits join more similar occupations, whereas those with personalities less similar to those of other occupational incumbents are more likely to leave the occupation. Moreover, individuals staying in more similar occupations develop more similar personalities. These findings enhance our understanding of the intricate interplay between individuals' personalities and occupations, providing evidence that similar personality traits emerge not only within the same occupation but also between similar occupations over time

A career ecosystem perspective on societal and organizational characteristics and careers to the top in higher education

The context in which careers develop is attracting increasing scholarly attention. Building on career ecosystem theory, we examine how societal and organizational actors within career ecosystems influence the development of careers. In our study of university leaders in 60 countries, we find that career trajectories are more similar within than across countries and that the overall organizational context relates to the similarity of career trajectories within the career ecosystem. We identify six distinct career patterns to the top of organizations within the ecosystem of higher education (e.g., ‘university president’ or ‘rector’). Furthermore, we identify several societal and organizational characteristics that are related to the prevalence of specific career patterns. Key findings include that academic leaders' careers tend to follow career patterns within the same organization in countries with low power distance, low labour market flexibility and low meritocracy, as well as in universities with less research focus. Our findings add to the literature on career ecosystems and advance the understanding of career paths to the top of organizations, using the case of academic careers

Strong signals in HR management: How the configuration and strength of an HR system explain the variability in HR attributions

In explaining the effectiveness of a human resource (HR) system within an organization, scholars have turned their attention to HR attributions, which capture employees' perceptions about the intentions behind their organization's HR practices, and have demonstrated that an HR system's content and process of communication drive employees to form specific HR attributions. However, current research has not yet explained why HR attributions differ among employees. We investigate the variability in HR attributions among individuals and the organizational factors that influence this variability. Using signaling theory and the concept of situational strength, we argue that employees' HR attributions vary less when signals sent by HR management are unambiguous and the conveyed information is consistent. Using an online scenario-based experiment with 760 participants, our findings reveal that the configuration and the strength of an HR system as well as their combination have significant effects on the variability in HR attributions among employees, and these effects differ for the different HR attributions