Career Orientations of MIS Employees: An Empirical Analysis

The career orientations of employees can have important implications for their job satisfaction, commitment, and retention within organizations. However, there is little empirical research on the correlates of career orientations held by managers and professionals in the MIS field. This study sought to address this gap in the literature and assessed the career orientations of 464 MIS employees, as well as their relationship with selected demographic characteristics, job type, and career outcomes. The most prevalent career orientations of MIS employees were found to be technical and managerial. Autonomy and lifestyle orientations were also found to be moderately represented in the sample. Women were more lifestyle oriented and less technically oriented than men. In addition, systems programmers, applications programmers, and software engineers tended to be technically oriented, whereas systems analysts, project leaders, and computer managers tended to be managerially oriented. The most significant finding was that employees whose career orientations were compatible with their job setting reported high job satisfaction, high career satisfaction, strong commitment to their organization, and low intentions to leave their organization. Firms need to recognize the diversity of career orientations so that appropriate reward systems and career paths can be developed. Research on this topic should continue to examine characteristics unique to MIS employees, as well as how these interrelationships change over time at different career stages.