How Reference Groups Exert Influence on Consumer Behavior free essay sample

Component Attitude Model An attitude is the psychological response to a person, an object, to a situation, to society and to life itself that generally influence our behaviors and actions. Attitudes are either positive or negative. However our attitudes are not always dictated by our values and beliefs. Other factors in a given situation may influence our behavior. We can also have different attitudes towards the same thing depending on whom we are dealing with, the actual context of an exchange or an event or occurrence. Three major components of attitude are : 1) Affective: emotions or feelings. (2) Cognitive: belief or opinions held consciously. (3) Conative: inclination for action. Cognitive Component The cognitive component refers to the knowledge, beliefs, and opinions the person has about the Nike product. The cognitive component is the individual’s information and knowledge about an object or concept. A person’s cognition is the knowledge and perceptions that ar e acquired by a combination of direct experience with the attitude-object and related information from various sources. We will write a custom essay sample on How Reference Groups Exert Influence on Consumer Behavior or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This knowledge and resulting perceptions commonly take the form of beliefs; that is, the consumer believes that the attitude-object possesses various attributes and that specific behaviors will lead to specific outcomes. Beliefs are the cognitive component of consumer attitude. Positive brand associations enhance brand equity and are achieved through a number of positioning strategies. The beliefs about an object tend to control the change that may take place in an attitude. Affective Component The affect component of an attitude reflects feelings (â€Å"affect† is the technical term for positive or negative feelings), evaluation, or emotions regarding the attitude object. Affect refers to the way a consumer feels about an attitude object. It relates to the emotional content and arouses either likes or dislikes of a particular object. A consumer’s emotions or feelings about a particular product or brand constitute the affective component of an attitude. Conative Component The conative component reflects behavioral tendencies toward the attitude object. Conation refers to the act of attempting something. Conation is concerned with the likelihood or tendency that an individual will undertake a specific action or behave in a particular way with regard to the attitude-object. This conative component of attitude may include the actual behavior itself. In marketing and consumer research, the conative component is frequently treated as an expression of the consumer’s intention to buy. Buyer intention scales are employed to assess the likelihood of a consumer purchasing a product or behaving in a certain way. Examples of Intention-to-Buy Scales: I definitely will go I probably will go Behavior involves the person’s intentions to do something with regard to an attitude object. The behavioral component of an attitude is one’s tendency to respond in a certain manner toward an object or activity. Consumers are asked to make a subjective judgment on the likelihood of buying a product or brand or taking a specific action in the future.

Marketing research, Taco Bell Essay Example

Marketing research, Taco Bell Essay Example Marketing research, Taco Bell Paper Marketing research, Taco Bell Paper Essay Topic: Marketing Many factors, both within the organization and in the market, have the potential to influence the success or failure of a companys internationalization. In order to put itself in the best position to succeed (or to prevent failure), a company must conduct an in-depth analysis of these factors and use that analysis to make an educated decision as to whether or not they should expand their business abroad. Strengths and weaknesses of the organization must be evaluated. Also, there are opportunities and threats that exist outside the control of the organization in the market that must be assessed. By determining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats through analyzing the company and market research, it will be possible to determine if internationalizing Taco Bell to Great Britain is a financially lucrative and promising decision. Strengths Based on the marketing research, Taco Bell has many strengths that would help it succeed in an internationalization effort in Great Britain. Its primary strength is its corporate ownership. Taco Bell is owned by YUM! Brands, an international organization consisting of six subsidiaries*. Those subsidiaries include Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, AW All American Food Restaurants, and Long John Silvers. YUM! has successfully franchised on an international level, and has done particularly well with Pizza Hut and KFC, featuring 4,348 and 7,088 international units respectively*. Taco Bell itself has internationalized as well, with 209 international units. Another positive aspect in terms of these YUM! Brands figures, is that there are 578 KFCs and 522 Pizza Huts in the UK already, but there are currently no Taco Bells*. These figures imply YUM! Brands would be able to successfully internationalize another of their leading subsidiaries in a market in which they have already been successful. In terms of their franchising strength, YUM! Brands provides the resources Taco Bell would need to establish a lucrative franchise in Great Britain. There are ten Franchise Restaurant Support Centers throughout the world to aid in YUM! Brands franchising. The center for Europe and Great Britain is actually located in England, providing an accessible support center for a newly established Taco Bell franchise*. Within the company there is the personnel support to aid in Taco Bells internationalization to Great Britain. While Taco Bell is under the control of its president and chief operating officer, it also has the extended support of the YUM! Brands executive officers. Furthermore there is actually a separate division called YUM! Restaurants International that would provide additional support to Taco Bell*. As an added support resource within the context of the organization, YUM! has their own board of directors. The board consists of twelve members, each possessing their own valuable experience with other large and often international corporations, which is able to provide valuable advice and support regarding Taco Bells new project. Weaknesses Despite the numerous strengths of the Taco Bell organization and YUM! Brands, there are some important potential weaknesses within the organization to consider before internationalizing. YUM! Brands reliance on franchising, Taco Bells reliance on beef as a cheap, staple product, and the image of Taco Bell as an American restaurant are all possible weaknesses that stem from the organization. Over 80% of YUM! Brands restaurants are franchised. YUM! Brands has had great success with this internationalization mode with existing KFCs and Pizza Huts, however, their reliance on franchising may hurt when trying to introduce a new restaurant, such as Taco Bell in Great Britain*. The culture and expectations of Taco Bell are not yet known in the UK, so the new franchise may not coordinate itself with the company image as well as it should. Another serious detriment for Taco Bells expansion into the UK is their reliance on cheap available beef. Due to regulations in the market (covered later), beef is not a cheap and readily available product in the UK. Many Taco Bell products contain beef and their products are known for being very inexpensive. With beef being more expensive, this creates a problem for Taco Bells core menu and prices*. An interesting weakness for Taco Bell may be its overall image. KFC and Pizza Hut serve American food in an American atmosphere both domestically and abroad. Taco Bell is distinct in that it is supposed to be a Mexican restaurant*. Domestically, the atmosphere of Taco Bell is the same as any other American fast food restaurant, but abroad, consumers may prefer a more Mexican, rather than American approach. Taco Bells American image may create difficulties when attempting to persuade customers that it is a Mexican restaurant. Opportunities Many opportunities exist for the internationalization of Taco Bell in the United Kingdom. Aspects of the British culture, economy, and general food market support the introduction of a Mexican fast food chain. British consumers enjoy spicy food, Indian food being one of the most popular foods. They also enjoy variety and novelty in food choices. Mexican food is generally spicy and Taco Bells line of spicy sauces give consumers a choice in how spicy the food tastes as well as providing an alternative to everyday British food*. Also, living in the UK is quite expensive, especially in London, and Taco Bell appeals to the price sensitive nature of most British consumers*. The ethnic food market in the UK is growing rapidly with Mexican food as one of the fastest growing sectors. Consumer food preferences are evolving to fit the increasingly fast paced lifestyles of the British*. Taco Bell has the opportunity to take advantage of consumers needs for rapidly prepared food. Many consumers have expressed an interest in Mexican food, yet there are few Mexican restaurants. Taco Bell can fill the niche and gain a share of the large ethnic and fast food markets. Taco Bell can gain the first mover advantage in internationalizing to the UK, as there are currently no direct competitors*. The UK has favorable psychological distance from the US. Trade, customs, and governmental policies are well understood by the US and it will not be difficult for Taco Bell to market itself effectively in the UK. Many US citizens also travel to the UK and know little about or do not enjoy British food thus creating a demand for American chains*. McDonalds, for example, has done very well in the UK. Threats Potential threats of Taco Bells entrance involve mainly the legal and economic environment of the UK and its fast food industry. The strict food safety regulations which require beef imported from the US to be tested and prohibit the import of hormone treated meat in the UK complicate the procedures for Taco Bell to acquire and sell their food. This increases their cost, as they have to find suitable meat suppliers and ensure their meats are hormone free. As the UK government is open to foreign investments and free trade, the few regulations and stable economy makes the UK market attractive to many foreign firms. One threat Taco Bell should note is the continuously growing fast food industry and the fact that Mexican food is one of the three most popular foods in the ethic food industry*. As there is currently no established Mexican fast food chain in the UK, Taco Bell could take up great risks including the significant pioneering costs of being the first mover in this market*. Taco Bells main competition includes McDonalds, traditional Mexican restaurants, Indian, Asian, as well as local cuisine*. However, their competition does not fall directly into the Mexican fast food category. Final Analysis The S.W.O.T analysis taken from the marketing research indicates that Taco Bell should internationalize and the United Kingdom will provide a lucrative market. YUM! Brands has proved successful in internationalizing its other leading subsidiaries in the UK market. It has a well-defined franchising plan including a support center located in the UK, which can ameliorate the possible weakness involved with introducing a new restaurant through franchising. Taco Bell has the opportunity to fill a niche within the UK fast food market and appeal to British consumer preferences for spicy, rapidly prepared food. Entering the niche market as a first mover may include high pioneering costs, but allows Taco Bell to take advantage of the rapidly growing ethnic food market. As a result of weighing the organizational strengths against the weakness and market opportunities against the possible threats*, the analysis proves that with careful planning, internationalizing Taco Bell to the UK should be a success.

Unit #8 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Unit #8 - Assignment Example Students study different things depending on which school they attend and which region it is located (Klein, 2001, Page 67, paragraph 1, line 15-17). This challenge was there in the former system of education, and it is still there in the K-12 system. Students who have trained at same levels but in different schools are not equal. The employers prefer employees from certain schools rather than others. Some students may find it unmanageable to work in other states due to this problem. To solve this problem, the government should consider designing a new uniform curriculum that will be used in all the schools. Deaf education is subject to challenges due to the learning capability of the deaf students and those with hard hearing challenges. In the current system, most students with hearing capabilities start getting attention at late stages of their education. Early intervention will enhance educational development (Marschark & Spencer, 2003, Page 67, paragraph 6, line 1-3). It is important to introduce a new policy that requires deaf children to receive special education even during the initial phases of their education. This will help in increasing the chances of the students with hearing capabilities achieving more in education. Curriculum developers in all the states in USA should come together and propose a uniform curriculum that will enable the students undergo one similar system. Although it might be challenging, it will have a lot of advantage in terms of equating all the students and increasing their employability chances in future. Parents with deaf children and children with hard hearing capabilities should notify the teachers at early stages. This will help in installing learning aids for students during initial stages of education The medical fraternity should help parents in knowing if their children have hearing disabilities at early stages. This coordination will help identify students will hearing disabilities and assist them at

Disscuss the relevance of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) to a Essay - 2

Disscuss the relevance of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) to a company seeking to evaluate its cost of capital - Essay Example (Burton, 1998) The CAPM had its origin from the model of portfolio choice developed by Harry Markowitz. In the model, an investor is assumed to decide on the investment portfolio at time t-1 with an expected return at time t. Since the investors are assumed to be risk averse, the data that they care about are the mean and the variance of their one period investment return. â€Å"As a result, investors choose â€Å"mean-variance-efficient† portfolios, in the sense that the portfolios: 1) minimize the variance of portfolio return, given expected return, and 2) maximize expected return, given variance. Thus, the Markowitz approach is often called a â€Å"mean-variance model† (Eugene F. Fama). This figure gives a clear picture of the CAPM. Its horizontal axis shows the portfolio risk which is measure by the standard deviation of portfolio return. Its vertical axis is the expected return. The curve is the minimum variance frontier which â€Å"traces the combination of expected return and variance at different levels of expected return† (Eugene F. Fama). This shows the obvious trade-off between risk and expected return. â€Å"At point T, the investor can have an intermediate expected return with lower volatility. If there is no risk free borrowing or lending, only portfolios above b along abc are mean-variance-efficient, since these portfolios also maximize expected return, given their return variances† (Eugene F. Fama). EM applications. (2009). Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Emapplications.com. Available from; [November 16,

Ethical and psychological Egoism Essay Example for Free

Ethical and psychological Egoism Essay Egoism is the theory suggesting that the motivation and goal of a particular action is the self. Egoism in a general context has two variants, normative and descriptive. The concept of the descriptive variant suggests that egoism as a factual description of human affairs and cannot be described any other way (Moseley, 2006). The normative side gives a conception that individuals should be motivated, without consideration to their current state of motivation (Moseley, 2006). The two variants conflict in principle alone which insinuates a debate on the rightness or wrongness of particular human acts throughout history. Ethical Egoism Ethical Egoism is a normative ethical standpoint which implies moral people should act in accordance to their self-interest. Ethical egoism has three formulations; personal, individual and universal (Waller, 2005). Individual ethical egoism stresses that a person should do what is most beneficial to them (Waller, 2005). Personal ethical egoism suggests that actions should be grounded on a persons own self-interest without concern to what others around him should do, while the concept of universal ethical egoism holds that everyone should act in the basis of their own interests (Waller, 2005). All in all, virtues that suffice an individuals self-interest is egoistic, otherwise it is non-egoistic (Waller, 2005). The strong version of Ethical egoism suggests that the promotion of an individuals own good is moral, not promoting ones own good is deemed as immoral (Moseley, 2006). The weak version still holds that morality is the promotion of ones own good, however, it does not necessarily mean that it is immoral (Moseley, 2006). There are just implications of conditions that the evasion of personal interest has a possibility to be moral (Moseley, 2006). Psychological Egoism Psychological Egoism, on-the-other-hand, posits that every human action has an underlying selfishness, and even altruistic acts have inner selfish motivations (Hazlitt Cook, 1991). Psychological Egoism is a form of egoism under the descriptive variant, suggesting how people should go about themselves. The principles of psychological egoism and its assumtive nature are acquainted to several criticisms that are very crucial (Moseley, 2006). The fallacy of Psychological Egoism  The detractors of Psychological Egoism ground its fallacy on the rejection of the notion that the theory is flawless, that it is structured in such a way that it cannot be approved or disapproved (Hazlitt Cook, 1991). It is evident on the Psychological egoists advocacy that altruism is a mere act of acquiring a good feeling for doing altruistic actions. In a broader scenario, the person doing an act, either selfish or unselfish, is doing what interests him or her which makes the act ultimately selfish (Moseley, 2006). In another note, the fallacy of psychological egoism lies in the suggestion that people only do what makes them feel good. In this context, the description of a Psychological Egoist may project an unselfish person (Moseley, 2006). Furthermore, there is confusion in the concept of psychological egoism found in the object of desire and the subsequent results of the fulfillment of that desire (Moseley, 2006). The Difference between Psychological and Ethical Egoism It is of vital importance to distinguish the two from one another since the two forms of egoism conflict in advocacy, motivation and goal. Ethical Egoism per se, postulates that the promotion of an individuals own good conforms to the standards of morality (Waller, 2005). In contrast to the Psychological Egoist claim that focuses on how people act, not on how they ought to act. The doctrine of motivation for Ethical Egoism lies within self-interest, while Psychological Egoists are motivated by the rational self-interest, even in an act that tends to be altruistic in nature. Self-Interest and Selfishness Self-interest is defined as an agent that stimulates an individuals concern over a particular issue or matter. Self-interest is the element that governs human action. Selfishness, meanwhile is the devotion to satisfy ones own end and interest. It is simply an individuals concern for personal welfare. Philosophically, the two terms may be synonimous to each other as the two terms may refer to the placement of personal needs above others, however, self-interest and selfishness can be deemed independently as self-interest is a subjective element in a persons perspective which can be directed to the self or for others.

Leadership Trait Study Essay

Leadership Trait Study Essay Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision (Robbins Judge, 2009). Leaders play a very important role in every organization. Every organization requires strong leadership and strong management for excellent effectiveness in the organization. Leadership is a quality that comes within us and also that we see from others and learn. Leaders have personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate them from non leaders. Most the leaders have superb risk taking abilities that are very different from a non leader. If they believe in some project they work towards it no matter the difficulties faced they try to overcome it to achieve that vision .hard work pays for itself therefore I believe anything is possible with hard work. Here in this report I have made a leadership trait study of two individuals from two different organizations. These two leaders are from the retailing industry. They are mentioned below: Sam Walton : founder of Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is an American  public corporation that has a chain of discount departmental stores and it also has number of warehouse stores. Wal-Mart according to Forbes global 2010 was rated has the worlds largest public corporation by its revenue. Wal-Mart has been publicly traded on NYSE since 1972. Wal-Mart is the largest private employer and is the biggest grocery retailer in United States of America. It has 8600 stores in fifteen countries and it is under 55 different names. Wal-Mart stores are there in fifty states and they are operated under its own name. The company brings revenue of billions of dollars a year. Kishore biyani : MD and CEO of future group Pantaloons, big bazaar, food bazaar are all part of future group. Some of the regional brands of the company include depot, shoe factory, brand factory, blue sky. Head quartered in Mumbai has almost thousand stores in about seventy one states in the country. It is also the country largest retailer by its revenue. It employees almost thirty thousand people in the country. Here in this report I am going to do an in depth study on the different kinds of leadership style and theories that are related to this two leaders. These two leaders have played a major role in starting their companies and making them the way there company is right now. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Here the focus of study is based on the different kinds of leadership theories associated with the leaders who have contributed a lot to their companies. In this report the qualities of leaders will be studied and the effect of these qualities on their companies will also be studied. In this report I will be also discussing how their leadership styles have affected the independent variables such as productivity and turnover of their organizations. I will also be finding out what changes have to be taken in their leadership style considering the future of the companies. OBJECTIVE To understand the concept of leadership theory related to these leaders. To find out which type of leaders they are and to find their leadership characteristics and style. How their leadership styles have contributed to the success of their company. METHODOLOGY There are two ways of collecting data. They are the primary data and the secondary data. Here I have made my report using secondary data which consist of official websites of companies, literature books, and e-books to collect data to understand the leadership theories. I have taken data regarding the conceptual part from the literature books. I have also studied about their leadership qualities through the organization official websites. I have also read two books regarding these leaders through which I have collected data as well. Data regarding these leaders are taken from published books therefore the details in the report are best to my knowledge. LITERATURE REVIEW Qualities of a good leader are shown below : DEDICATION HUMILITY INTEGRITY OPENNESS CREATIVE GOOD LEADER INTUITION FAIRNESS ASSERTIVENESS Integrity: A leader who has integrity is one who is same on the outside as well as in the inside .Such a person can be trusted because he or she wont deviate from his or her inner values. Trust of the followers has to be won from the followers and therefore a leader should display integrity. Perfect dealings, well controlled emotions and absence of sudden outburst are all a part of integrity. If a leader has good integrity he can be approached by his followers more easily. Dedication: It means giving whatever energy or time that is required to complete the task at hand. He should do whatever it takes so as to keep moving forward so as to reach that goal. A leader has to be an example to their followers. Dedication from every employee plays a vital role in very organizations success. Humility: A leader who has humility believes that they are no better or worse than other members in their team. A good leader is one who does not involve in self-effacing but always tries to elevate everyone in the team. Mahatma Gandhi is an excellent example of these. Creative: It is ability of the leader to think differently. A good leader should always think outside the box. Creativity helps leaders to see thing which others have not seen and hence leads their followers in a new way. A good leader should always think what ifà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦? Openness: It is the ability of a leader to listen to new ideas even if it is very different from the normal way of thinking. If they believe in a certain idea suggested by others then they should go with it even if it is out of the ordinary. Openness helps in creating trust and mutual respect between leaders and their followers. And it also helps in providing the organization with new ideas. Assertiveness: A good leader should be assertive in nature so as to obtain desired results. It is the ability of a leader to clearly state what he expects such that there are no misunderstandings. Along with this the leaders should exactly know what his followers are expecting from him. Based on a study in 2007 February issue of journal of personality and social psychology, that was published by American psychological association it was found out that assertiveness was the most common weakness among most of the leaders. Fairness: It is the ability of a leader to deal with others justly and consistently. A leader should check the facts and then here to everyone before taking the judgment. Based on incomplete evidence a leader should never take a decision. When people feel the leader is treating them fairly only then the employees become loyal and dedicated in what they are doing. He should understand every ones point of view and analysis and take a proper decision. Intuition: A good leader should possess instinctive knowledge so as to make excellent decisions. Few people are gifted naturally with this and others have learned it or have developed it through experiences. One thing is for sure for effective leadership intuition plays a very important role. Most of the times good leader rely on intuition so as make excellent decision. Its not what you make others do its about who you are, how much you know and how you do it. Effective leadership is all about finding skills and talent from many people and forming a cohesive unit. Intuition plays a very important role in every leader in these ways. QUOTES BY SAM WALTON Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, its amazing what they can accomplish The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say. Its terribly important for everyone to get involved. Our best ideas come from clerks and stock-boys Individuals dont win, teams do Money and ownership alone arent enough. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score. Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. If people believe in themselves, its amazing what they can accomplish Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else I probably have traveled and walked into more variety stores than anybody in America. I am just trying to get ideas, any kind of ideas that will help our company. Leadership qualities of Sam Walton would include dedication, humility, creative, openness, fairness, intuition QUOTES BY KISHORE BIYANI We believe that in India we have the opportunity to grow for the next two to three years. We believe at the moment consumers are feeling psychologically stronger than they ever were to spend. Its not a matter of can we take on foreign retailers, but how big a gorilla you are. Who have helped you, share your success with those people Change your goal according to situation or be flexible Listen to others and learn from their ideas Leadership qualities of kishore biyani would include openness, dedication, humility and creative. Path-goal theory:  this theory tells that it is the job of a leader to assist his followers for attaining their goal. The leader should also provide the direction and support to make sure the goals are compatible with the overall objectives of the organization .In the path goal theory the behavior of the leader includes directive, participative, supportive and achievement oriented. Trait theory:  Trait theory gives a clear idea between the leaders from the non leaders through these big five personality framework- Leadership traits: (Robbins Judge, 2009) Extroversion Conscientiousness Openness to experience Emotional stability agreeableness Transformational Leadership:  These leaders are those who gains trust and respect and pass a sense of pride to their followers, they also give a vision of the goals that are to be attained. They show respect to their followers and also provide attention to their followers. These leaders pass on an extraordinary effect on to their followers. They encourage their followers to be more creative and innovative just like themselves Transactional leadership: these leaders are those who motivates followers so as move to in the right direction so as to reach the set goals. They help the followers by clarifying their roles .they provide rewards when the followers gives high performance. If deviation occurs they take measures so as correct it. They only get into action when the standards are not met. Authentic leaders: Here the leader is considered as an ethnical leader by the followers. These leaders know who they are and they also know what they believe in and they value it. These leaders act on their values openly and candidly. The main quality of this type of leader is trust. These leaders believe in their ideals and sticks to them. They also encourage open communication these are few characteristics of this type of leadership. KEY FINDING SAM WALTON: Sam Walton was a businessman from Oklahoma and he had lots of difficulties in his college years. He had couple of jobs like in restaurants, paper boy etcWith lot of difficulties he managed his way out of college with B.A in economics. He believed in the retailing industry and he strongly believed America had lot to offer in the retail market. After leaving the military Walton took his first job in management of the Ben Franklin store that was in Arkansas at the age of 26.This store was a franchisee of the butler brothers. It was very successful because he was able to provide good at a very low cost by taking good from the lowest cost supplier. By Waltons leadership the turnover had gone by 7 times annually. Within a short span of time Walton was able to create a retail empire. At present there is thousands of Wal-Mart all round America. His leadership played a very important role in the success of the company. He is known as the king of the retail industry. There are about 2.1 millio n employees in the company. He always believed in the team and inspired his followers to think big and create new ideas. If people believe in themselves, its amazing what they can accomplish this was the concept he believed in. The big five personality frame work applies to him because he is having characteristics like openness to experience, emotional stability, agreeableness, extroversion and conscientiousness. He looks into different ideas and doesnt stick to one he is very flexible and if he believes in an idea he goes along with it to reach that goal he has set. Based on his study Sam Walton is a transformational leader because he gives personal attention to his co workers and also tells that few of the best ides in the company comes from clerk and stock boys. He provides vision and also gives rewards for the work they do. His leadership style has always had an extraordinary effect on his followers. Traits of authentic leaders are also seen in him because he knows who he is, and also believe in what he does and he acts on his values. If Sam believes in an idea that is superb and might be out of the ordinary if he believes in it, he works hard so as to achieve it no matter what KISHORE BIYANI: Kishore biyani is an exceptional leader and he is also known as the Indian Sam Walton. After completing his graduation in the commerce background. He went into the readymade garment retailing field without joining his family business. He believed in his own ideas while starting has a entrepreneur. Today he has a retail space of 3 million square feet and his future group is spread about 25 cities in India. Bloomberg business week has rated him has top 50 most powerful people in India according to 2009.There was an interview of in kishore biyani in CNBC-TV18 .when the interviewer asked him while starting your first business in Calcutta ,was it a success because of a pure gamble. To which he replied saying it was never a gamble, he told he knew what he was doing and was sure it would work. He also told that there were no signs or number calculation behind it. It was a gut and also an instinct that told him that it work. And when the interviewer asked him what do you think is the most re quired asset in company he replied saying to find the right people in the industry will be his biggest challenge. From this its clearly understood he is team player. He always believed in his team.kishore biyani is also known for diversifying from his field to different in the industry. According to the Hindu business line it was said that kishore biyani is going g to start their mobile services soon. Kishore biyani has also been chosen as the international retailer of the year by the national retail federation in United States of America Based on study on leadership I believe that kishore biyani can be related to the path goal theory he assists and shows them the way so as to reach their way. He tells them how the work has to be done in their organization and also makes sure the overall objectives of the company are met. kishore biyani sets a high standard and tries to achieve that goal and he always wanted to be the best not the biggest ,this shows us that he is achievement oriented and supportive with regard to the employees. Based on the study I believe that kishore biyani is a transformational leader and also traits of authentic leadership can be seen in him. He is a transformational leader because he has brought flexibility and creativity into the company from the starting of the company till were it is today .kishore biyani has inspired many followers and has left an extraordinary effect on his followers mind. This leaders are able to make their followers to look at old problems in new ways are made capable of making their followers to think in a differ way so as to achieve their group goals. Traits of an authentic leader are also seen in kisore biyani. Kishore biyani sticks to the ideals which he believes in and encourages communication that is open. Authentic people have the power to make people to put their faith in the leader.

Patting Down the TSA

Patting Down The TSA Before 9/1 1 happened our country was not as strict with security as we are today. You could once go through air travel without the hassle of having to go through full body scanners and taking off your shoes, belts, hat, etc. Ever since 9/1 1 our country has made a huge change in the security industry. They havent made many changes to buses, ships, and trains. Buses may have security cameras, but no one is checking people for bombs or weapons. Cargo ships get searched, but not to the extent they should be.Tons of people ride the subway system in big cities such as New York and Chicago, but there is no security on the subway. Our country is so worried about air travel security that they do not put enough time and money into the other types of transportation security. â€Å"Transportation is often likened to the bodys circulatory system† (Kulash 5). The circulation of blood is essential for the human life. In the same way the circulation of goods and people is critical to keep society running smoothly. If people and goods are not circulated smoothly, then society will start to slowly fall apart.Doctors remove blood clots and replace valves that have sprung leaks; transportation and logistics rofessional practice the same concept. They are used to keep the distribution system running by eliminating congestion and managing the flows of human traffic. Today there are new concerns about the transportation security (Kulash 5). September 1 1, 2001 shocked the United States by showing us exactly how dangerous our transportation system can be. It made us realize terrorists can make weapons out of any transportation vehicle.The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recognized early on the threats that a terrorist can put on the transportation system. It is not Just an attack by terrorists we should worry about; we have a massive ransportation system that can go virtually anywhere. There are hundreds of thousands of people that are employ ed in the transportation department; an attack could also be an inside Job by an agents. They know how the security system works and could easily get by. Any company can ship goods all around the world on cargo ships, train, cars, and having every container, car, boxcar, and ship inspected would cause the flow to freeze.The goods that are being shipped would take a very long time to get to their destination. The buyers would start to get angry about their goods not arriving on ime, and would stop buying the good from their supplier. The problem has to be solved by not slowing down the transportation flow. The transportation flow is how quickly and efficiently people and goods get from one place to another. Security is a top priority at the U. S Department of Transportation. Their goal is to come up with the most advanced technology and safest and smoothest way to run security. The range of discussions at the meetings are from inexpensive technological gizmos to sophisticated electro nic systems, from common sense business practices to sophisticated end-to-end programs governing the entire supply hain† (Kulash 5). Their are many agencies and companies that have ideas they want to put in place, but they are weighing the costs and benefits, and assessing what really needs to be changed. As decisions get made at many levels, change may come. As they discuss more and more about these issues they will come to an agreement about what is best for the transportation security, and where they should put their time and money.Airport security is the most secure type of public transportation. In the past people did not have to take their shoes or belts off, and they could even bring their drinks through security, but not anymore. Airport security has become more and more secure after the terrorist attacks on September 11 2001. Up until recently everyone had to take their shoes and belts off and throw their drinks away. Everyone is still required to throw any food or dr ink item they may have away. The TSA is becoming more lenient with older people and young children, so they no longer have to take their shoes off and can leave their Jackets on.They feel that these two certain age groups are less likely to commit a terrorist attack. Now the airports have full body scanners that everyone has to step into. This is an upgrade for the TSA so that they an be absolutely sure that no one has any type of weapon on them. The airplane itself is also more secure by adding bullet proof doors to the cockpit, so only people with access to this door can get in. Security is a very time consuming and costly expense. Since 2001 there has been 57 billion dollars spent on the TSA. Most of the money is used by the airports.The TSA is also not as trustworthy as most of us may think. There have been reports of agents stealing money, harassing passengers, and misuse of the money they are given for security. This table explains vey well the cost of security and exactly wha t he TSA does with the money and what they are doing wrong. Elliott, Christopher. â€Å"Patting Down The TSA. † Newsweek 159. 12 (2012): 16. As the table shows there is an awful lot of money that goes into airport security. It also shows how they are loosing money by the inconvenience of screening.Everyone has to take everything off and out of their pockets when they go through a medal detector. Screening is enough for the airport security. It takes up more time and money to have the metal detectors there when the screeners see everything else. More money could be used for other types of transportation. Recommended Security Guidelines for Airport Planning, Design, and Destruction† is a book that describes all the guiltiness that airports and other types of transportation need to follow. 96 percent of this book is followed by airports and only 5 percent is tollowed by all other types ot transportations.Security is virtually percent non-revenue overhead cost; every dollar spent on security is unavailable for new or upgraded facilities, operations, maintenance, manpower, public amenities etc (Kosatka 32). Security requirements are continually changing and the costs are out of the airport managements control. Buses, Trains, and ships do not have nearly the amount of security that airports do. Since there has been no terrorist attack in the United States on a bus, train, or ship, the transportation security administration does not feel the need to spend the time and money to keep these types of transportation very secure.There has been talk about putting bag scanners on ships and trains. As they talk about this more scanners on trains and ships may come into play ( Frank 3a). Money is the most important part, so if the TSA put more money and time into the security of these types of transportation then they would be more secure. Other aspects of the airport may be at risk also. Fuel trucks, construction vehicles, catering equipment and air cargo could b e dangerous if not thoroughly checked. Yes these people have all gotten background check, but someone could easily by-pass that.Michael Boyd, president of the Boyd group international, an aviation consulting firm, says the solution is simple to keep these aspects of the airports secure. â€Å"Having a TSA run by trained security professionals at all levels, with total performance accountability' (Boyd 10a). Today there are Federal Security directors who have very little experience in this field. Boyd says, â€Å"We've also had TSA with zero background in security. † He is saying even though they have strong security there may be a chance a TSA agent with no experience may slip up and let something happen that they did not mean to happen.They have become too concerned with finding things that can be used as weapons than identifying or deterring security threats (Boyd 10a). However, with these other types of transportation only following 75 percent of security guidelines Homel and Security Janet Napolitano says, â€Å"l plan to focus more on mass transit, possibly through redeployment of resources from other areas† (Frank a). She said that they have done a lot of work in that aviation department and could pay more attention to ground transportation.Just before Napolitano took office she found that 37 out of 48 of the nations largest transit systems are not complying with the security guidelines. Paul Lennon, head of mass transit for the TSA, says, † there is no sanction for non-compliance† (Frank 3a). Major systems in big cities such as New York and Washington have greatly improved security while the other smaller agencies to do not see the need of urgency that the larger agencies see. Greg Hull, ecurity director for the American Public Transportation Association, says, â€Å"The industry knows it has difficulty fully complying with guidelines† (Frank 3a).Hull said transit agencies simply need more money from the government to im prove their security. Money is a huge part of security so, the TSA uses it to purchase new and more modern technology and hire more staff member. Without tons of money being poured into the transportation security industry the security would be very weak. They have used a lot of money for the updating technology and new ideas for the airports, but they have not put a lot of money into trains, buses, and ships. The more money these other services can get the better their security will be.The subway system is a huge part ot public transportation in big cities. In major cities such as Boston, New York and Chicago people use more public transportation than in the smaller cities. These cities are so fast moving that putting extra security on them would slow everything way down. In New York City millions of people ride the subway every day. It is more efficient for people to take the subway than drive a car. There can be a high risk of an attack because these cities are so congested and e verybody is moving so quickly. Because of this the subway systems are not very safe.Putting security scanners on every subway system would cost the cities a lot more money and more taxes from the people. Most people do not like paying taxes and most would be very frustrated if they had to pay more for security. Some may argue that nothing terrible has ever happened on a subway to make security necessary on it. Everyones that takes the subway would have to change their routine. They would no longer get to where they are going fast. They would have to plan their schedules accordingly. No on really excepts security to be the best it can be.No matter how much is spent on security, there will always be more that could be done. The challenge is whether or not where and how much security there should be. Wherever the line is drawn, we will have to live with the risk (Kulash 7). For example, everything that has been done to diagnose, prevent, and treat coronary heart disease, they still are America's number one killer. One in five Americans suffer from some form of coronary disease; 954,000 americans die each year from it (Kulash 7). It cost the United States 259 billion dollars each year in health costs and productivity losses (Kulash 7).These numbers do not discourage medical progress, they encourage it. In the same way, exposure to transportation security risks will lead to new organizations, new technologies, and new system. Maintaining the flow of secure transportation has a down side. â€Å"Don't hold your breath and wait for a solution this will be evolving for years; improvements can and will be made† (Kulash 7). It is vital that the United States transportation system be kept running smoothly. U. S transportation and security have made incredible progress in the last twenty years. International trade and freight are expected to double in the next twenty years.Excellent transportation capabilities will continue to spur the nations economic growth (Kulas h 7). Just about everything in life needs money to operator or become better. Security gets better and better the more money that is poured into it, so more money needs to be put into other types of transportation. All types of transportation need to be as safe as possible. Money should not be an issue if it deals with saving a life. No one wants anything tragic to happen to their family so the TSA needs to do whatever it takes to take the security as far as it can go, because you cant put a price on family.

Impact of Organizational Support for Career Development

Career Development International Emerald Article: The impact of organisational support for career development on career satisfaction Belinda Renee Barnett, Lisa Bradley Article information: To cite this document: Belinda Renee Barnett, Lisa Bradley, (2007),†The impact of organisational support for career development on career satisfaction†, Career Development International, Vol. 12 Iss: 7 pp. 617 – 636 Permanent link to this document: http://dx. doi. org/10. 108/13620430710834396 Downloaded on: 18-09-2012 References: This document contains references to 40 other documents Citations: This document has been cited by 17 other documents To copy this document: [email  protected] com This document has been downloaded 7990 times since 2007. * Users who downloaded this Article also downloaded: * Jyotsna Bhatnagar, (2007),†Talent management strategy of employee engagement in Indian ITES employees: key to retention†, Employee Relations, Vol. 29 Iss: 6 pp. 640 à ¢â‚¬â€œ 663 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/01425450710826122 Ans De Vos, Koen Dewettinck, Dirk Buyens, (2008),†To move or not to move? The relationship between career management and preferred career moves†, Employee Relations, Vol. 30 Iss: 2 pp. 156 – 175 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/01425450810843348 Marilyn Clarke, Margaret Patrickson, (2008),†The new covenant of employability†, Employee Relations, Vol. 30 Iss: 2 pp. 121 – 141 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/01425450810843320 Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by UNIVERSITY OF GUJRAT For Authors: If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service.Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www. emeraldinsight. com/authors for more information. About Emerald www. emeraldinsight. com With over forty years' experi ence, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education. 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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www. emeraldinsight. com/1362-0436. htm The impact of organisational support for career development on career satisfaction Belinda Renee Barnett Queensland Rail, Sandgate, Australia, and Support for career development 617 Received December 2006 Revised July 2007 Accepted August 2007Lisa Bradley School of Management, Queensland University of Technology , Brisbane, Australia Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between organisational support for career development (OSCD) and employees’ career satisfaction. Based on an extended model of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and an integrative model of proactive behaviours, the study proposed that career management behaviours would mediate the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction, and between proactive personality and career satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach – Public and private sector employees (N ? 90) participating in career development activities completed a survey regarding their proactivity, OSCD, career management behaviours and career satisfaction. Findings – OSCD, proactive personality and career management behaviours were all positively related to career satisfaction and career management behaviours mediated the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction. There wa s no support for the career management behaviours mediating between OSCD and career satisfaction.Research limitations/implications – This study provided support for the extended SCCT model by testing a subset of its proposed relationships using a cross-sectional approach. The sample surveyed (employees participating in career development activities) and the large proportion of full-time employees, may limit the generalisability of the ? ndings. Future longitudinal research could more fully test the relationships proposed by the extended SCCT model and include a greater representation of part-time and casual employees. Practical implications – The results suggest that there are bene? s for organisations and individuals investing in career development.. First, from an organisational perspective, investing in OSCD may enhance employees’ career satisfaction. Second, employees may enhance their own career satisfaction by participating in career management behaviours. Originality/value – This study integrated the predictions of two models (an extension of SCCT and a model of proactive behaviours) to test the in? uence of environmental (OSCD) and individual difference (proactive personality) variables on career satisfaction. Exploring how organisational and individual variables together in? ence career satisfaction provides a more balanced approach to theoretical development. Keywords Career satisfaction, Human resource management, Employee development, Career management Paper type Research paper Changes in the economic, technological and business environment during the last two decades have signi? cantly impacted people’s career attitudes and experiences (Hall, 2002; Pinnington and Lafferty, 2003). These environmental changes have contributed to the Career Development International Vol. 12 No. 7, 2007 pp. 617-636 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1362-0436 DOI 10. 1108/13620430710834396CDI 12,7 618 establishment of a new psycholog ical contract: the reciprocal obligations held by employees and employers (Hall, 2002). The predominance of organisational restructuring, de-layering and downsizing has contributed to a more ? exible or â€Å"boundaryless† career environment with expectations that individuals will self-manage their careers, rather than rely on organisational direction (Arthur et al. , 2005; Kossek et al. , 1998). Concurrently, tight labour markets in Australia and other developed countries challenge organisations in attracting, motivating and retaining employees.Australia is currently experiencing record low unemployment rates with labour shortages across many industries, including the trades, engineering and knowledge sectors. In this competitive environment, where it is increasingly dif? cult and costly to attract employees with the necessary skills, organisations need to convince employees that their organisation provides more opportunities, challenges and rewards than their competitors. T his aim can be particularly challenging when the traditional rewards offered as part of the old psychological contract, such as structured career paths and job stability, are more dif? ult for organisations to provide due to the more dynamic environment in which many organisations now operate. Therefore, organisations are seeking creative ways to address this attraction, motivation and retention challenge (Erdogan et al. , 2004; Heslin, 2005). One way that organisations may meet this challenge is to support employees to develop their own careers and increase their career satisfaction. This approach is consistent with the recommendation that organisations perform a new supportive, rather than directive, role in enabling their employees’ career success (Baruch, 2006).This study proposes that organisations can adopt strategies to enhance employees’ career satisfaction and so potentially increase the organisations’ ability to attract and retain these employees. Whil e one focus of this study is on the role that organisational support can play in employees’ career satisfaction, it is important to also consider the role that individuals play in their own career success, particularly given the trend towards more individualistic career management in the last few decades (Baruch, 2006).Exploring the impact that organisational and individual difference variables have on career satisfaction will result in a more comprehensive understanding of these relationships and also offers the opportunity to merge the two, often distinct perspectives provided by (worker-focused) vocational psychology and (employer focused) organisational psychology (Lent and Brown, 2006). An extended model of Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) has recently been proposed which predicts how contextual and individual personality, cognitive and behavioural variables predict vocational satisfaction (Lent, 2004, 2005; Lent and Brown, 2006).To date, versions of this extended m odel have only examined the academic satisfaction of college students (Lent et al. , 2005) and there is a strong need for further study with employed workers (Lent and Brown, 2006). Therefore, this study will explore the relationship between an environmental support variable, organisational support for career development (OSCD) and employee career satisfaction.In addition, a mediating relationship proposed by SCCT, via participation in goal directed activities (individual career management behaviours) will be explored. Since this recently extended model of SCCT emphasises an approach to unify personality and environmental perspectives, previous studies of university students tested how extraversion and positive affect ? t the model (Lent et al. , 2005). The current study builds on past research by exploring how another important personality variable (proactive personality) impacts career satisfaction.By incorporating the predictions of the model of proactive behaviours (Crant, 2000) , and the extended SCCT model (Lent and Brown, 2006), this study will also explore whether career management behaviours mediate the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction. Greater understanding about the mediating mechanisms by which environmental and personality variables impact career satisfaction will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of career satisfaction and support the development and testing of the extended SCCT model.Organisational career management is a risk management process (Baruch, 2006). Therefore, examining the relative contribution that OSCD makes to employee career satisfaction can assist organisations in determining whether investment in supporting employee career development will derive adequate bene? ts and enable organisations to better design career development strategies to achieve desired outcomes. From an employee perspective, understanding how personality, behavioural and environmental factors function together ma y offer the opportunity to assist people to become as satis? d with their careers as nature and environmental factors support (Lent and Brown, 2006). Figure 1 presents a social cognitive model aimed at understanding vocational and educational satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006). The model predicts paths by which social cognitive variables (e. g. self-ef? cacy, goals) function jointly with personality and environmental variables to impact work satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006). The model extends upon SCCT, which was originally developed to explain interest development, choice and performance in career and educational domains (Lent et al. , 1994).Exploration of this recently developed model of SCCT can contribute to the literature by helping to achieve integration on two levels (Lent and Brown, 2006). These levels of contribution will be described next. Support for career development 619 Figure 1. A process model of work satisfaction that highlights theorized interrelations among pe rsonality, cognitive, behavioural and environmental variables CDI 12,7 620 The ? rst way that this model of SCCT can contribute to the literature is to help unify the often disparate perspectives of organisational and vocational psychology (Lent and Brown, 2006).While organisational and vocational psychology researchers focus on work satisfaction, it is often with different perspectives. For example, vocational psychology tends to be clearly focused on the individual and work satisfaction is treated as an end in itself, or as a component of work adjustment (Lent and Brown, 2006; Russell, 1991). Organisational psychology, alternatively, tends to focus more on the organisational consequences of work satisfaction, such as productivity, engagement and turnover (Lent and Brown, 2006).These differing perspectives have led to largely distinct literatures, with concerns that researchers will reinvent areas of inquiry if they do not draw together learning from multiple disciplines (Baruch, 2 006; Lent and Brown, 2006; Russell, 1991) Therefore, exploring this extended SCCT model can contribute to the literature by developing closer links between vocational and organisational psychology perspectives on work satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006).Exploring this SCCT model can also contribute to building a more comprehensive understanding of work satisfaction by considering how cognitive, behavioural, personality and environmental factors jointly impact work satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006). By incorporating frequently studied correlates of work satisfaction into a few, broader conceptual categories, this extended model of SCCT attempts to balance comprehensiveness and simplicity in explaining the multiple in? uences on work satisfaction.While the bivariate relations contained in this model have received study, this extended model of SCCT provides a theoretical logic for predicting how these variables may function together. Since study of the extended SCCT model has focused on student samples to date (Lent et al. , 2005), this current study will also contribute to the literature by exploring how a subset of the relationships proposed by this SCCT model applies to employed workers, as recommended by Lent and Brown (2006).This study also incorporates theoretical predictions from the model of proactive behaviours (Crant, 2000) from the management literature. This model considers the antecedents (individual differences, such as proactive personality, and contextual factors, such as OSCD) and consequences (such as career success) of both general and context-speci? c proactive behaviours (Crant, 2000). The model shares similarities with SCCT, in its perspective that employees take an active role in their careers: they initiate behaviours and create favourable situations to achieve personal goals and career success (Crant, 2000).Similar to the predictions of SCCT (Lent, 2005), the model proposes that people are more likely to take actions to achieve their go als if they have access to environmental (organisational) support and resources relevant to the pursuit of these goals. Integrating the predictions from the psychological and managerial literature also builds on the recommendations of (Baruch, 2006) who urged researchers to analyse careers from a broad, multi-disciplined approach, rather than from a limited, single discipline perspective. The key elements of the model proposed in this study and its predicted pathways will be described next.The model outlined in Figure 2 integrates some of the predictions of the extended SCCT model (Lent and Brown, 2006) and the proactive behaviour model when applied to the career domain (Crant, 2000). The key classes of variables that comprise this model include: career satisfaction; OSCD – organisational support for career development; proactive personality; and career management behaviours. Support for career development 621 Figure 2. Integrated model of proactive behaviours Key model eleme nts Career satisfaction (subjective career success) While traditionally a career was considered to be con? ed to professionals or those who advanced through organisational hierarchies, today the term â€Å"career† is more broadly applied and is commonly considered to be the lifelong sequence of role-related experiences of individuals (Hall, 2002). Building on this de? nition, â€Å"career success† can be de? ned as the â€Å"positive psychological and work-related outcomes accumulated as a result of one’s work experiences† (Seibert and Kraimer, 2001, p. 2). Distinction has been made between objective and subjective indicators of career success.Objective career success refers to the work experience outcomes, such as status, promotions and salary, that are objectively observable (Seibert and Kraimer, 2001). Traditional career research focused predominantly on objective measures of career success (Gattiker and Larwood, 1988). This focus was consistent with t he predominance of hierarchical organisations where employees’ career success was largely de? ned by promotion, rank and retention (Hall and Chandler, 2005). Measuring only objective criteria of career success, however, is de? ient, since people also value subjective outcomes such as development of new skills, work-life balance, challenge and purpose (Gattiker and Larwood, 1988; Heslin, 2005). Also, having achieved objective career success does not necessarily mean that people are satis? ed with their career (Hall, 2002). Lastly, some objective career success measures appear less relevant today, since organisations are more constrained in providing these opportunities (Heslin, 2005). One way to deal with the limitations of de? ning and measuring career success using objective criteria is to supplement these with measures of subjective career success.Subjective career success Subjective career success refers to individuals’ evaluation of their career progress, accomplis hments and anticipated outcomes, relative to their own goals and aspirations (Seibert and Kraimer, 2001). The change in focus to subjective career success, where the criterion for success is internal rather than external, is also consistent with the change in the career context where individuals are expected to self-manage their own careers rather than rely on organisational direction (Hall and Chandler, 2005; Hall and Mirvis, 1995). CDI 12,7 622Subjective career success has most often been operationalised as job satisfaction or career satisfaction (Erdogan et al. , 2004; Heslin, 2003; Ng et al. , 2005; Seibert and Kraimer, 2001). For example, in a recent review of career success studies, 20 out of a total of 49 studies operationalising subjective career success included measures of career satisfaction and 11 studies included measures for job satisfaction (Arthur et al. , 2005). Alternatively, a recent meta-analysis included only studies measuring career satisfaction to operationali se subjective career success (Ng et al. 2005). While there appears little general consensus about the relative merits of both measures, one perspective considers job satisfaction as an inadequate measure of career success, since subjective career success indicates satisfaction over a longer time frame and wider range of outcomes, such as sense of purpose and work-life balance, than job satisfaction (Heslin, 2005). We will use career satisfaction in this study. Career satisfaction measures the extent to which individuals believe their career progress is consistent with their own goals, values and preferences (Erdogan et al. 2004; Heslin, 2003; Seibert and Kraimer, 2001). Career satisfaction is often measured using the career satisfaction scale developed by Greenhaus et al. (1990). The vast majority of studies measuring career satisfaction use this scale. For example, of the 20 studies measuring career satisfaction in the review article referred to above, 14 studies used the career sa tisfaction scale (Arthur et al. , 2005) as we will do in the current research. Organisational support for career development Organisational support for areer development (OSCD) is also called â€Å"organisational career management† or â€Å"organisational sponsorship† and refers to the programs, processes and assistance provided by organisations to support and enhance their employees’ career success (Ng et al. , 2005; Orpen, 1994). The variable has been so named in this study to be consistent with the new supportive and enabling role proposed for organisations, rather than the traditional â€Å"command and control† approach taken in the past (Baruch, 2006).Referring to the extended SCCT model (Lent and Brown, 2006), OSCD belongs to a class of environmental support and resources variables that are speci? cally relevant to the pursuit of an individual’s career goals. OSCD comprises formal strategies (including career planning, training and assessment centres) and informal support such as providing mentoring, coaching and networking opportunities (Hall, 2002; London, 1988; Sturges, Guest, Conway, and Davey, 2002).Proactive personality Proactive personality or disposition is a stable individual difference construct that differentiates individuals based on the extent to which they take action to in? uence their environment. People with a proactive disposition tend to identify opportunities and act on them, persevering until meaningful change occurs in their environment (Crant, 2000). Proactive personality has demonstrated signi? cant positive relationships with career satisfaction and career management behaviours (Chiaburu et al. , 2006; Seibert et al. , 2001).Career management behaviours Career management behaviours are the actions that individuals take to achieve their career goals. These behaviours occur when individuals choose to initiate and intervene in their career situation in such a way that the individual acts in a desir ed direction, rather than responding passively to an imposed change (Crant, 2000). These behaviours are referred to alternatively as â€Å"career enhancing strategies† (Nabi, 2003), â€Å"context-speci? c proactive behaviours† (Crant, 2000) and â€Å"career goal-directed activities† (Lent, 2004).These behaviours include career exploration and planning, skills development, networking and promoting one’s achievements (Claes and Ruiz-Quintamilla, 1998; Kossek et al. , 1998; Nabi, 2000, 2003; Noe, 1996; Orpen, 1994). Pathways to career satisfaction The model outlined in Figure 2 proposes that contextual or environmental factors (such as OSCD) can in? uence the career satisfaction of employees by enhancing employees’ participation in career management behaviours. The model also proposes that stable individual differences, such as proactive personality, also in? ences career satisfaction via career management behaviours: people with a proactive dispositi on are more likely to engage in career management behaviours and be more satis? ed with their careers. Each of the paths proposed in the model will now be discussed. OSCD and career satisfaction A goal-speci? c environmental support and resource, such as OSCD, which provides social and material support for one’s personal goals, is likely to be a signi? cant predictor of career satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006).Conversely, the absence of such supports, or presence of contextual obstacles, is likely to impede goal progress and reduce satisfaction. This direct link to career satisfaction is predicted in the extended model of SCCT (Lent and Brown, 2006), and in this study’s model. To date, the evidence about the amount of variance in career satisfaction explained by OSCD is mixed (Ng et al. , 2005). This variability could partly be explained by the lack of empirical research testing theoretical models that uniquely predict subjective career success (Ng et al. 2005; Seibe rt et al. , 2001; Wayne et al. , 1999). For example, many studies examining the in? uence of OSCD on career success make similar predictions for both objective and subjective career success and control for variables that have a greater relationship with objective than with subjective career success. Lack of research which makes this distinction is of particular concern, since recent meta-analytic results suggest that there is a signi? cant difference between the predictors of objective and subjective career success (Ng et al. , 2005). Speci? ally, OSCD (including career sponsorship, supervisor support and training and development opportunities) and stable individual differences (such as proactive personality) were more strongly related to career satisfaction than to salary and promotion, measures of objective career success (Ng et al. , 2005). Support for the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction was provided in two recent meta-analyses (Allen et al. , 2004; Ng et al. , 2005). Signi? cant positive relationships were found between mentoring and employee career satisfaction, with effect sizes ranging from 0. 1 to 0. 29 across up to ten studies (Allen et al. , 2004). Signi? cant effect sizes ranging from 0. 38 to 0. 46 were also found between OSCD (career sponsorship, supervisor support and training and development opportunities) and career satisfaction across up to 18 studies (Ng et al. , 2005). Analyses showed however, that the meta-analytic correlations between self-report measures were signi? cantly higher than correlations between self-report and objective measures, suggesting that percept-percept bias may be in? ating these correlations (Ng et al. 2005). Support for career development 623 CDI 12,7 624 Moderate support for a positive relationship between OSCD and employee career satisfaction was also found in two cross-sectional studies, comprising employees from private and public sector organisations in the United Kingdom and Israel (Orpen, 199 4; Pazy, 1988). In both studies, the items developed to represent characteristics of an effective organisational career management system loaded on three factors: career management policies, employee career development and career information.Together, theoretical predictions and empirical ? ndings lead to the study’s ? rst hypothesis: H1. OSCD will be positively related to career satisfaction. Career management behaviours and career satisfaction Participating in career management behaviours that are directed at achieving personally valued goals in the career domain are also expected to promote an individual’s career satisfaction and success (Crant, 2000; Lent and Brown, 2006).Pursuing personally relevant goals is a key way that people can contribute to their own wellbeing and enables the exercise of personal agency in career satisfaction. To the extent that an individual can set and work towards their own goals and perceive that they are making progress, they are capab le of promoting their own career satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006). Meta-analytic support also exists for the positive relationship between individual career management behaviours and career satisfaction (Ng et al. , 2005). Signi? cant effect sizes of 0. 33 and 0. 8 were found respectively for career planning and employee networking behaviour on career satisfaction across up to eight studies (Ng et al. , 2005). While most studies exploring these relationships are cross-sectional, there is also support for the positive impact of career management behaviours on subjective career success three years later (Wiese et al. , 2002). Wiese et al. (2002) surveyed 82 young German adults (age range 28 to 39 years) employed in a range of professions including physicians, lawyers, scientists, bank employees, hotel managers and police of? ers The study measured participants’ career management behaviours and their subjective success in the work domain (career satisfaction) at Time 1 and th ree years later. Participants’ career management behaviours at Time 1 predicted 14 per cent of the variance in participants’ career satisfaction three years later, after controlling for career satisfaction at Time 1. Career management behaviours at Time 1 however, did not predict signi? cant additional variance in career satisfaction when career management behaviours at Time 2 were also considered.The predictions of SCCT and the model of proactive behaviours, supported by these meta-analytic and longitudinal results, lead to the study’s second hypothesis: H2. Career management behaviours will be positively related to career satisfaction. Mediating role of career management behaviours between OSCD and career satisfaction The extended model of SCCT predicts that in addition to a direct relationship between OSCD (goal speci? c environmental resources) and career satisfaction, OSCD may also indirectly impact satisfaction via goal pursuit (career management behaviour s) (Lent and Brown, 2006).The model of proactive behaviours also predicts that the presence of contextual factors, such as organisational support and resources, will facilitate an individual’s proactive career behaviours and career success (Crant, 2000). While there is indirect support for the impact of OSCD on individual career management behaviours (Kossek et al. , 1998; Noe, 1996), empirical evidence for the mediating role of career management behaviours between OSCD and career satisfaction is limited (Nabi, 2003). For example, in two recent studies of university students conducted by the same research team (Lent et al. 2005), one study found support for this mediating relationship, while the second study did not. In the ? rst study of 177 students, signi? cant relationships were found between environmental resources and academic goal progress and between goal progress and domain satisfaction for both the academic and social domain. In the second study of 299 students a st rong predictive relationship was found between goal progress and satisfaction, but not between environmental support and goal progress (Lent et al. , 2005).Nevertheless, based on the predictions of SCCT and the integrated model of proactive behaviour, it is expected that individuals will be more likely to take actions to achieve their career goals and career satisfaction if they have access to organisational (environmental) support and resources to pursue these goals (Crant, 2000; Lent, 2005). This leads to the third hypothesis: H3. Career management behaviours will mediate the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction. Proactive personality and career satisfaction According to the model of proactive behaviour (Crant, 2000), an individual’s disposition or personality will also in? ence the extent to which they take the initiative to engage in career management behaviours and achieve career satisfaction. Therefore, this suggests that individuals with proactive disposit ions are more likely to engage in career management behaviours and experience greater career satisfaction than individuals with lower proactive tendencies. A recent meta-analysis found that proactive personality was strongly related to career satisfaction with an effect size of 0. 38 found across three studies with over 1,000 participants (Ng et al. 2005). Signi? cant relationships between proactive personality, career management behaviours and career satisfaction were also demonstrated in a longitudinal study, which will be outlined next. A study investigating the career behaviours and strategies of 496 full-time employees found that proactive personality explained additional variance in career satisfaction, after controlling for several demographic, human capital, organisational, motivational and industry variables (Seibert et al. , 1999).Two years later, the researchers found that the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction was mediated by innovation, p olitical knowledge and career management behaviours (de? ned as career initiative) (Seibert et al. , 2001a). While the recently extended SCCT model does not refer to proactive personality speci? cally, it does predict that personality and affective traits will impact satisfaction directly as well as via cognitive appraisals of self-ef? cacy and environmental supports (Lent and Brown, 2006).An additional theoretical pathway suggested is that certain personality traits may affect satisfaction through behavioural means: the example given suggests that highly conscientious workers may be more likely to set, pursue and make progress towards personal goals (Lent and Brown, 2006). Similarly, it follows that highly proactive workers may be more likely to engage in career management behaviours to achieve career goals and satisfaction. The similar Support for career development 625 CDI 12,7 predictions of SCCT and the proactive behaviour model, supported by meta-analytic and longitudinal resu lts, lead to the following hypotheses: H4.Proactive personality will be positively related to career satisfaction H5. Career management behaviours will mediate the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction. 626 Control variables To more appropriately determine the unique in? uence of OSCD and proactive personality on career satisfaction, the study will also control for human capital variables (organisational tenure and education level), which have been found to be related to career satisfaction (Ng et al. , 2005; Seibert and Kraimer, 2001; Wayne et al. 1999). The study will explore the in? uence that environmental and individual variables (OSCD, proactive personality and career management behaviours) can provide to employee career satisfaction and examine the mechanisms by which these relationships operate. This study therefore builds on recommendations to contribute a more balanced, integrative perspective to the study of careers (Baruch, 2006; Lent and Bro wn, 2006). Method Sample The participants were 90 employees from a range of private and public sector organisations.A questionnaire was completed by 77 public sector employees and 21 postgraduate business students. Eight of the postgraduate students reported that they were currently unemployed, so they were removed from the analysis, leaving a total of 90 respondents. Of the remaining respondents, 64 per cent were female. The majority of respondents were aged between 31 and 50 years (72 per cent), with 17 per cent under 30 years and 11 per cent aged over 51 years. Most of the respondents (53 per cent) were employed with their current organisation less than ? e years, with 14 per cent having organisational tenure of six to ten years and 33 per cent over 11 years. Most of the respondents (93 per cent) were employed full-time, with 56 per cent employed in administrative and professional roles, and 40 per cent in a managerial capacity. Educational level was high, with 86 per cent of res pondents having completed either undergraduate or postgraduate tertiary study. Measures All the study variable scales were measured on a ? ve-point scale which ranged from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5).Scores were reversed such that higher scores re? ected higher standing on the construct measure. All the scores for each of the items were averaged to obtain an overall measure for each of the variables. Organisational support for career development Respondents rated a ten-item organisational career management scale (Sturges et al. , 2002), indicating the extent to which they perceived OSCD. Five of the items were modi? ed slightly to re? ect a more supportive, rather than directive organisational relationship with employees. In a previous study (Sturges et al. 2002), six of the ten items loaded on â€Å"formal† OSCD (e. g. â€Å"I have been given work which has developed my skills for the future†) and four items loaded on â€Å"informal† OSCD (e. g. â€Å"I have been encouraged to obtain a mentor to help my career development†). In the previous longitudinal study, the â€Å"formal† OSCD subscale achieved an internal consistency reliability of 0. 77 at both time 1 and time 2, one year apart and the â€Å"informal† OSCD subscale achieved an internal consistency reliability of 0. 80 at time 1 and 0. 81 at time 2 (Sturges et al. , 2002).Refer to Table I for the internal consistency reliabilities for all the current study variables. Proactive personality Proactive personality was assessed with a ten-item shortened version of Bateman and Crant’s (1993) 17-item Proactive Personality scale. Seibert et al. (1999) presented evidence of the validity and reliability of the shortened scale, with the scale having demonstrated an internal consistency reliability of 0. 85 (Seibert et al. , 2001a). Respondents indicated their level of agreement with each of the statements (e. g. â€Å"I am constantly on the lookout for new ways to improve my life†).Career management behaviours Since the authors’ research did not identify one scale that examined as comprehensive a range of career management behaviours as desired, items from two scales were used. The ? rst scale measured career planning using six items developed by Gould (1979). This scale has demonstrated internal consistency reliability above 0. 7 in previous studies (Gould, 1979; Wayne et al. , 1999). Participants reported the extent to which they had career goals and plans (e. g. â€Å"I have a strategy for achieving my career goals†). Three items were stated in the opposite direction and were reverse scored.The second scale measured career self-management behaviours using 16 items (Sturges et al. , 2002). Respondents indicated the extent to which they engaged in networking (e. g. â€Å"I have arranged to be introduced to people who can in? uence my career†), visibility behaviour (e. g. â€Å"I have made my direc t supervisor aware of my accomplishments†), skills development (e. g. â€Å"I have read work-related publications in my spare time†) and mobility-oriented behaviour (e. g. â€Å"I have made plans to leave this organisation if it cannot offer me a rewarding career†). Internal consistency correlations above 0. were achieved for all of these subscales in a previous study (networking (0. 74), visibility (0. 69-0. 8) and mobility (0. 76-0. 78)), except for skills development (0. 56-0. 63) (Sturges et al. , 2002). Career satisfaction Career satisfaction was measured using the ? ve-item career satisfaction scale, which has demonstrated an internal consistency correlation of 0. 86 (Greenhaus et al. , 1990). Respondents indicated their level of agreement with each of the statements (e. g. â€Å"I am satis? ed with the progress I have made toward meeting my overall career goals†).Control variables Respondents’ demographic and human capital information was col lected with single item questions for gender, age, highest level of education completed, organisational tenure, work type (e. g. technical, professional, managerial) and employment status (full-time, part-time, casual). Support for career development 627 CDI 12,7 628 Variables – – – – 3. 65 3. 31 3. 52 3. 50 – 0. 08 0. 42 0. 22 20. 02 0. 16 20. 08 – 2 0. 28 0. 27 2 0. 08 0. 35 0. 15 – 0. 07 0. 02 2 0. 22 2 0. 17 – – – – 0. 49 0. 77 0. 54 0. 72 Table I. Correlations between variables of interest M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 – 0. 5 2 0. 19 2 0. 18 2 0. 32 2 0. 22 2 0. 17 2 0. 03 (0. 86) 0. 04 0. 55 0. 23 (0. 90) 0. 16 0. 27 (0. 88) 0. 35 (0. 87) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Gender# Age group# Education level# Tenure# Proactive personality OSCD Career management behaviours Career satisfaction Notes: correlations greater than | 0. 28 | are signi? cant at p , 0. 01; those greater than | 0. 21 | are signi? cant at p , 0. 05; internal consistency reliability for variables shown in brackets (); # nominal or ordinal scales used to measure variable, therefore mean and standard deviation not reportProcedure Public sector employees participating in internal and cross-agency career development programs were invited to complete the questionnaire during workshops, while the postgraduate business students were invited to complete the questionnaire during university classes. (The authors approached these organisations and their respective employees/students because it was expected that they would be more interested in the study’s variables of interest and subsequent results, and therefore, be more likely to participate in the study. Respondents were told that the aim of the survey was to research their career attitudes and perceptions about organisational career development. A cover letter provided background information regarding the purpose and nature of the study and emphasised con? dentiality, an onymity and voluntary participation. Participants either returned the questionnaire in an envelope at the end of the session or returned it in a reply-paid envelope addressed to the authors’ university address. To ensure anonymity, respondents were not asked to provide their names or any other identifying information.Participants were encouraged to participate by receiving a small incentive (such as a chocolate bar and/or being eligible to win a movie/meal voucher). The vouchers were awarded at the end of workshops, during which participants were given time to complete the questionnaire. Respondents who returned a completed questionnaire at the end of the workshop received a raf? e ticket. A winning ticket was then drawn from the collection of ticket butts, and the respondent with the matching ticket was given the voucher.These small incentives and the strategy used for approaching participating organisations may have resulted in the relatively high response rate of approxima tely 50 per cent. Results Means, standard deviations and internal reliability for the variables of interest are shown in Table I. An exploratory factor analysis showed that the formal and informal OSCD items loaded on one factor, accounting for 53 per cent of the variance in the factor structure. All the OSCD items were therefore averaged to form a composite OSCD score, with an internal consistency reliability of 0. 90.An exploratory factor analysis of the career management behaviours found that all items (except for the two mobility-oriented items and one networking item) loaded above 0. 30 on the ? rst factor, accounting for 30 per cent of the variance in the factor structure. A composite career management behaviour score was calculated by averaging all the items loading above 0. 30 on the ? rst factor, with an internal consistency reliability of 0. 88. The networking item and two mobility-oriented items were removed from further analyses. All the remaining scales obtained interna l consistency reliability above 0. 5 (refer Table I). The public sector and postgraduate business student samples were analysed to determine differences on demographic variables. The only signi? cant differences were that the university respondents were less likely to be female (x 2 ? 1? ? 7:52, p , 0:01) and tended to be younger (x 2 ? 3? ? 13:86, p , 0:01) than the public sector respondents. Due to there being only minor differences, the two cohorts were combined into one sample. Support for career development 629 CDI 12,7 630 Hypothesis testing H1 to H5 were analysed by conducting hierarchical egression analyses on career satisfaction. The data were checked for missing data and outliers. One multivariate outlier was identi? ed and removed from the analysis. The number of control variables used in the regression analyses was contained to meet the recommended ratio of respondents to predictor variables (Tabachnick and Fidell, 1989). H1 and H2 proposed that OSCD and career managemen t behaviours would both be positively related to career satisfaction. After controlling for education level and tenure, OSCD predicted an additional 8 per cent variance in career satisfaction (? 0:28, p , 0:01), F? 1; 85? ? 7:57. Therefore, H1 was supported. H2 was also supported. Career management behaviours predicted an additional 9 per cent variance in career satisfaction, after controlling for education level and tenure (? ? 0:33, p , 0:01), F? 1; 85? ? 8:97. H3 proposed that career management behaviours would mediate the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction (refer Table II). The ? rst condition of mediation (as described by Baron and Kenny, 1986) requires that the independent variable, OSCD, relate to the mediating variable, career management behaviours.In the ? rst equation (refer equation 1, Table II), OSCD was not signi? cantly related to career management behaviours (? ? 0:19, p ?. 0:05, ns). H1 represented the second condition, which was met (refer equation 2, Table II), In the third equation, (refer equation 3, Table II), career satisfaction was regressed on the mediating variable (career management behaviours) along with the independent variable (OSCD). The effect of OSCD on career satisfaction remained signi? cant (? ? 0:23, p , 0:05) and career management behaviour was also signi? cantly related to career satisfaction (? 0:28, p , 0:05). For the third condition to be met, the effect of OSCD on career satisfaction would need to decrease signi? cantly. The ? rst and third conditions of mediation were not met, suggesting that career management behaviours do not mediate the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction. Therefore H3 was not supported. H4 proposed that proactive personality would be positively related to career satisfaction. After entering the control variables (education level and tenure), proactive personality predicted 4 per cent additional variance in career satisfaction (? 0:21, p ? 0:05) F? 1; 85? ? 3:83 (refer equation 2, Table III). Therefore, H4 was supported. Dependent variable First equation CMB Second equation CSat Third equation CSat b b b 0. 31 * * 20. 13 0. 11 * * 0. 19 – 0. 14 * * 0. 04 0. 10 20. 15 0. 05 0. 28 * * – 0. 09 * * 0. 08 * * 0. 10 20. 15 0. 02 0. 23 * 0. 28 * 0. 14 * * 0. 14 * * Variable Step 1 Education level Tenure Adjusted R 2 Step 2 OSCD Career management behaviours Adjusted R 2 DR 2 Table II. Mediating role of career management behaviours between OSCD and career satisfaction Notes: *p , 0. 05; * *p , 0. 01; * * *p , 0. 01 Variable Step 1 Education level Tenure Adjusted R2 Step 2 Proactive personality Career management behaviours Adjusted R2 DR 2 Dependent variable First equation CMB Second equation CSat Third equation CSat b b b 0. 31 * * 20. 13 0. 11 * * 0. 53 * * * – 0. 36 * * * 0. 25 * * * 0. 10 20. 15 0. 02 0. 21^ – 0. 05^ 0. 04^ 0. 10 20. 15 0. 02 0. 06 0. 29 * 0. 09 * 0. 09 * Support for career development 631 Table III. Mediatin g role of career management behaviours between proactive personality and career satisfaction Notes: ^p=0. 05; *p , 0. 05; * *p , 0. 01; * * *p , 0. 001H5 predicted that career management behaviours would mediate between proactive personality and career satisfaction. In the ? rst equation, proactive personality was a signi? cant predictor of career management behaviours (? ? 0:53, p , 0:001) F? 1; 85? ? 34:98 (refer equation 1, Table III), meeting the ? rst condition. H4 represented the second condition of mediation which was also met. Both proactive personality and career management behaviours were entered in the third equation (refer equation 3, Table III). While career management behaviour was positively related to career satisfaction (? ? 0:29, p , 0:05) F? 2; 84? 4:55, proactive personality was no longer statistically signi? cant (? ? 0:06, p . 0:05, ns), meeting the third condition, Moreover, the indirect path linking proactive personality and career satisfaction through career management behaviours was signi? cant (Sobel test, z ? 2:11, p , 0:05). This suggests that career management behaviours fully mediated the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction, providing support for H5. Discussion This study explored the contribution that organisations and employees can make to their career satisfaction and the mechanisms by which these relationships occur.This was achieved by testing a subset of the relationships proposed by an extended model of SCCT (Lent and Brown, 2006) and an integrative model of proactive career behaviours (Crant, 2000). The study explored how proactive personality, OSCD and individual career management behaviours relate to career satisfaction. Consistent with previous research (Ng et al. , 2005; Seibert et al. , 2001a), this study found that proactive personality was signi? cantly positively related to career satisfaction. The study also found that career management behaviours mediated the relationship between p roactive personality and career satisfaction.These results support the model of proactive behaviours, which suggests that highly proactive individuals are more likely to achieve greater career satisfaction than less proactively inclined individuals, by engaging in proactive career behaviours (Crant, 2000). The results also support the theoretical proposition by Lent and Brown (2006) that speci? c personality traits (proactive personality) impact satisfaction via behavioural means (career management behaviours). CDI 12,7 632 After controlling for education level and tenure, OSCD explained a moderate 8 per cent variance in career satisfaction.This result supports the premise made by the extended SCCT model that access to goal-relevant environmental resources will be directly related to satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006). This ? nding also supports this study’s proposal that organisations can in? uence their employees’ experience of career success by supporting their emp loyees’ career development. Individual career management behaviour (comprising career planning, networking, skills development and visibility) was also positively related to career satisfaction.After controlling for education level and tenure, individual career management behaviour explained 9 per cent additional variance in career satisfaction. This ? nding is consistent with SCCT and the model of proactive career behaviours, since it supports the proposal that individuals taking proactive actions to achieve their career goals (engaging in career management behaviours) are more likely to experience career satisfaction (Crant, 2000; Lent, 2005). The proposal that individual career management behaviours mediated the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction received no support, due to a non-signi? ant relationship between OSCD and career management behaviours. This ? nding is inconsistent with the extended SCCT model, which predicts that environmental resources may imp act satisfaction indirectly via their impact on goal-directed activities. The relationship between contextual factors, such as OSCD, and individual career management behaviours has received mixed empirical support. For example, Lent et al. (2005) found two different outcomes from their two different studies. The ? rst study of 177 students found a signi? ant relationship between environmental supports and resources and student progress towards their academic goals. The second study of 299 students found no direct relationship between these variables. A possible explanation for this study’s results is that individual difference variables, such as proactive personality, moderate the relationship between OSCD and career management behaviours. Given that individuals with a proactive disposition are relatively unconstrained by situational forces (Crant, 2000) it is likely that highly proactive people will engage in career management behaviours independent of the OSCD they perceive .This study possibly suffered from a restriction of range in this independent variable, since the study’s respondents (employees participating in career development programs and/or further study) are more likely to have highly proactive dispositions, and therefore engage in career management behaviours independent of their perceived OSCD. This explanation is supported somewhat by the relatively high mean score for proactive personality (3. 65 on a ? ve-point scale).Another possible reason for career management behaviours not mediating between OSCD and career satisfaction is that there are additional environmental supports and resources (such as those outside the organisation), individual difference or social cognitive variables impacting individuals’ career management behaviours which were not explored in this study. Theoretical implications This study contributes to the existing literature by exploring how environmental aspects (OSCD) and an individual difference vari able (proactive personality) together impact career management behaviours and career satisfaction.Few studies have simultaneously investigated the impacts of these variables on career satisfaction before, and doing so responds to recommendations to balance both organisational and individual perspectives in theoretical development and facilitate integration of the organisational and vocational psychology perspectives (Baruch, 2006; Lent and Brown, 2006). This study builds on previous research which tested the extended SCCT model with university students (Lent et al. , 2005), by exploring the application of a subset of its proposed relationships with employed workers.This study also incorporated conceptual predictions and empirical ? ndings from the management literature (Seibert et al. , 2001a) to test the applicability of another personality variable, proactive personality, in the extended SCCT model. Previously, positive affect and extraversion have been tested in the SCCT model (L ent et al. , 2005). The ? nding that career management behaviours mediated the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction provides support for the extended SCCT model’s prediction that personality traits may affect satisfaction via behavioural means (Lent and Brown, 2006).Together with the signi? cant positive relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction, this study provides support for the application of some of the extended model’s proposed relationships to employed workers. The study also has practical implications, which will be reviewed next. Practical implications While causation can not be proven, this study suggests that employees’ proactive personality, via their career management behaviours, and OSCD are signi? cantly related to employee career satisfaction. This suggests two different strategies for organisations to facilitate employees’ career satisfaction.The ? rst strategy involves recruiting employees with proac tive dispositions. While this may be more dif? cult given the tight labour market experienced currently in Australia, and many other countries, it may be possible in some countries or in some industries. The second strategy involves enhancing employees’ perceptions of OSCD by providing both formal programs and informal support for employee career development. The signi? cant positive relationship between career management behaviours and career satisfaction suggests that individuals bene? personally from engaging in these behaviours. Therefore, this ? nding suggests that OSCD initiatives that promote the individual bene? ts associated with career management behaviours and encourage employees to engage in these behaviours, may experience most success in facilitating employee career satisfaction. Study limitations As with all cross-sectional studies, causality between OSCD and career satisfaction can not be proven. Questionnaires were completed at one point in time by respondent s, so the results are also subject to common method and common source bias.As discussed above, the sample surveyed (employees participating in career development activities) is likely to be more proactively inclined than the general population, which may have restricted the range of study and limit the generalisability of the results. A large proportion of the study respondents were educated to tertiary level and employed full-time, which may also limit the generalisability of the ? ndings, particularly given the increasing participation in part-time and casual employment in Australia. The use of the career satisfaction scale to measure subjective career success may be another limitation of the study.While this standardised scale is used widely and obtains acceptable levels of internal consistency (Greenhaus et al. , 1990), it may be a de? cient measure of the subjective career success construct. The career satisfaction Support for career development 633 CDI 12,7 scale includes item s (such as satisfaction with income and advancement goals) which may not be the most important criteria used by individuals to assess their career success (Heslin, 2005). Future research Future research could be conducted with a greater representation of part-time and casual employees, and with greater variability in individual differences, such as roactive personality. Exploration of the broader relationships proposed by SCCT on a longitudinal basis could build our understanding of the nature of the relationships between individual differences, environmental, social cognitive and behavioural predictors of subjective career success. Future research could also explore the types of career management behaviours that are most valuable for. achieving important career outcomes for employees. Greater understanding of these relationships could lead to the design of interventions that better facilitate employees’ experience of career success.Conclusion This study proposed that organis ations may potentially attract, motivate and retain employees by supporting their employees’ career development. The results indicated that OSCD and employee participation in career management behaviours are positively related to employee career satisfaction. These results suggest that OSCD initiatives promoting the bene? ts associated with career management behaviours and supporting employees to participate in these behaviours may experience the most success in facilitating employee career satisfaction. References Allen, T. D. , Eby, L.T. , Poteet, M. L. , Lentz, E. and Lima, L. (2004), â€Å"Career bene? ts associated with mentoring for proteges: a meta-analysis†, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 89, pp. 127-35. Arthur, M. B. , Khapova, S. N. and Wilderom, C. P. M. 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