2. Motivation
• Recruiting and retaining quality personnel are primary
objectives of accounting organizations
• Critical for a firm to recruit and retain professionals
who “fit” with the organization
• This paper deals with identification of career anchors
to determine “fit”
3. Why are career anchors
important?
• Without knowledge of a potential employee’s
career anchor, employers may be more likely to
hire accounting professionals whose career
anchors are not aligned with the organization’s
culture, practices, and objectives.
4. Career defined…
• How any individual’s work life develops
over time and how it is perceived by that
person.
• Only you can judge the success in your
own career. Different people use different
criteria to make this judgment.
5. 8 Career Anchors
• Technical/Functional Competence
• General Managerial Competence
• Autonomy/Independence
• Security/Stability
• Entrepreneurial Creativity
• Service/Dedication to a Cause
• Pure Challenge
• Lifestyle
6. Career Anchors
• Each person may be influenced to some
extent by all 8 issues
• However, to be an “anchor,” it must be so
important that you would not give it up
• The person then begins to define
him/herself in terms of this issue and it
becomes an overriding concern at each
stage in the person’s career.
7. 1. Technical/Functional
Competence
• Motivated by exercise of talent/skill
• Want work to be challenging, and to test abilities
& skills
• Want autonomy in performing tasks
• Prefer specialization, not drawn to general
management work
• Prefer recognition for their work from peers
8. 2. General Managerial
Competence
• View specialization as a trap, in sharp contrast
to T/Fs.
• Ambition to rise to levels responsible for general
policy decisions
• Motives include advancement to higher levels of
responsibility, opportunities for leadership,
contributions to success of organization, and
high income.
9. GM Pay and Rewards
• Measure themselves by their income
• Expect to be highly paid
• Oriented toward internal equity (want to be
paid much more than those below them)
• Want promotions to more responsibility,
bigger budgets, more subordinates, etc.
• Recognition from superiors important
10. 3. Autonomy/Independence
• Need to do things their own way at their own
pace, against their own standards
• Can’t stand to be bound by others’ rules,
procedures, standards.
• Most people want some level of autonomy, but
for a person with this anchor, autonomy is
overriding concern
11. A/I Pay and Rewards
• Prefers merit pay for performance
• Wants immediate rewards, bonuses
• Promotion means more freedom hopefully
• Prefers recognition that is portable; letters
of commendation, awards
12. 4. Security/Stability
• Overriding need to feel safe/secure
• Want future to be predictable
• Seek jobs that have tenure, history of no
layoffs, good retirement plans
• In exchange for security, willing to be told
what to do, where to live, etc.
– May be unfairly viewed as lacking ambition
13. Security/Stability Pay
and Rewards
• Prefer pay in steadily predictable increments
• Prefer pay based on length of service
• Prefer seniority based promotions
• Wants to be recognized for loyalty and steady
performance
• Hopes loyalty makes a contribution to
organization
14. 5. Entrepreneurial Creativity
• Need to create new businesses, products and/or
services
• Or reshaping existing businesses
• Making money is a measure of success
• Often start entrepreneurial activity early in life
(high school)
• Obsession to prove they can create businesses
(different than autonomy/independence)
15. Entrepreneurism Pay
and Rewards
• Ownership is most important issue
• Want to accumulate wealth through owning
business or patents, but more as a means of
showing accomplishment
• Benefits probably not meaningful
• Building fortunes and large enterprises most
important form of recognition
16. 6. Sense of Service/Dedication
to a Cause
• Oriented toward values (values of organization
match their personal values)
• Career decisions based on desire to help the
world/society (medicine, nursing, social work,
teaching often have this anchor)
• Dedication to a cause, example: HRM who
works on affirmative action
17. Service/Cause Pay
and Rewards
• Want fair pay for their contributions
• Money not central to them
• Want portable benefits; have no strong
organizational loyalty
• Want recognition from professional peers and
from managers which shows their values are
shared by management
18. 7. Pure Challenge
• Success defined as overcoming impossible
obstacles, solving unsolvable problems, winning
over tough opponents
• As they progress, seek tougher challenges
• Type of work or functional area not as important
as the challenge
19. 8. Lifestyle
• Career must be integrated with total lifestyle
• Wants flexibility more than anything else
• Look more for organizational culture than a
specific program; culture which reflects respect
for personal and family concerns, allows
flexibility when family needs change
20. Career Anchors Summary
• A career anchor is something you will not
give up, thus, most people have one
anchor that dominates.
• Anchors appear to be relatively stable over
time.
