How Career Anchors Differentiate Managerial Career Trajectories: A Sequence Analysis Perspective

In our study, we used sequence analysis to examine the relationship between career anchors (a concept of value-based career orientations widely used in career counseling and organizational career management), sociodemographic variables, and career trajectories of 377 Swiss managers over 15 years. Particularly, we investigated whether career anchors differentiate career trajectories into different patterns, and, if they do, whether different career anchors vary regarding their discriminative power. Thereby, we addressed an open key question in career anchor research. We found that particularly the Managerial Competence (MC) and Lifestyle (LS) anchors are strong differentiators. That is, individuals with different preferences on these anchors had significantly different career trajectories. Further, our results highlighted that the relationship between career anchors and sociodemographic variables is complex and differs for various job characteristics, such as hierarchical level and company size. We conclude with several directions for future research and implications for Human Resource Management in organizations.