Career Anchors: A Study with Indian Professionals

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to study the topic of Career Anchors from an Indian perspective .The researcher wanted to see that which of the Career Anchors will feature in the priority list and which would be considered as the bottom of the pile. As study of 1630 employees from 4 different sectors i.e B.P.O. , Retail, Software and Telecom was studied . Employees in the age group 23 – 28 years of age with an experience range of 1 – 6 years were a part of the sample. The analysis indicates that General Managerial Competence was the first anchor, followed by lifestyle and the ones that featured last were pure challenge followed by autonomy. The career orientation between the employee’s designation and career anchors could not be done, as there were too many designations in the sample and it did not yield any conclusive results. Lastly, the age gap between completion of one’s education and the commencement of work has not been taken into account. Career anchors function as stabilizing forces in guiding future career directions and decisions and can be thought of as the values and motives that the individual will not give up if forced to make a choice. Hence, career anchors hold significant consequences for individuals job satisfaction and job stability. Suggestions are made on how career anchor distribution data could be used by organisations to determine appropriate career development strategies. The research study has significance and relevance to human resources managers as well as career counselors / industrial psychologists. The originality of the research lies in that it addresses the topic of career anchors in an Indian context among four industries and in a relatively younger age group than the previous studies done in the past,thus striving to fill a gap in existing literature. Key Words : Career Anchors , Careers, Career Development

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