Predictors of job pursuit intention across career stages: a multi-phase investigation

Abstract

The continuing war for talent requires business leaders to stay focused on the quality and mix of their applicant pool(s) at different levels of their organizations. As psychological needs, relational responsibilities, and key motivators differ across career stages, differentiated employee value proposition is critical, in order to attract the right talent to the organization. However, studies exploring predictors of job pursuit intention have typically investigated this topic with populations of on-campus students or early career-stage applicants. The present study was designed to better understand factors that influence job pursuit intentions of individuals at different career stages. In this multi-phase study, we supplemented the first phase of the study (a sample of 1127 professionals in the IT/ITeS industry at various stages of their careers) with interviews with 32 IT professionals and 15 HR leaders in Phase II. We find that the predictors of job pursuit intention differ for applicants at different career stages. We discuss theoretical contributions, practical implications and offer suggestions for future research.

Keywords:

• job pursuit intention
• type of work
• P-O fit
• mixed methods

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.