Cognitive Ability and Career Attainment: The Moderating Effects of Early Career Success

Three explanations regarding the prediction that early career success will moderate the relationship between cognitive ability and career attainment are presented along with an empirical examination of this issue. Using longitudinal data provided for 156 managerial, professional, and technical employees, significant moderating effects for an age-graded index of early career success were observed. The relationships between two measures of cognitive ability and later career job level were stronger for individuals identified as below average with respect to early career success than for their above average counterparts. These results agree with the proposition that the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and information is particularly dependent upon cognitive ability for inhviduals competing without the advantages associated with early career signals of high potential

Reframing Turnover/Personality Research in the Context of the Attraction-Selection-Attrition Hypothesis

This paper re-examines data originally reported by Cowan & Dreher (1983) in their examination of personality correlates of turnover among managerial, professional, and technical employees. It is intended to reframe the relationship between personality and turnover in light of recent attention on the attraction-selection-attrition hypothesis and to make the results of the original study more accessable to those studying these issues. Results show no relationship between homogeneity based on personality dimensions measured by the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey (GZTS) and attrition from the organization. Therefore, no support can be offered for the homogeneity hypothesis. Based on these and other failures to find significant relationships between personality dimensions and homogeneity, we suggest that future research about the causes and effects of homogeneity should be based on research that delineates the domain of organizational fit

Do People Make the Place?: An Examination of the Attraction-Selection-Attrition Hypothesis

This study tests the hypotheses that (1) congruence between internal need states and external environments drives the organizational-choice process, and (2) those attracted to particular organizations are more homogeneous than the applicant pool in general. Subjects were evaluated on fourteen needs using the Jackson Personality Research Form. They then viewed two video-taped segments of simulated campus interviews to gain information about two distinct organizational types. The interview segments entered the discussion in-progress to avoid any reference to a particular job which might introduce an occupational confound. Subjects received job offers from both organizations and were asked to indicate which of the two organizations they found more attractive by accepting one of the offers. Analysis of variance results indicated only weak support for the congruency hypothesis. Differences were observed in n Ach between the groups of subjects attracted to each organization. No differences were found for any of the other need strength measures. This suggests that the subjects attracted to the ifferent organizations are substantially similar. Implications for the homogeneity hypothesis are discussed and suggestions for further study of this concept are offered