Determinants of Career Success: Teachers in Government Schools in Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka

Determinants of Career Success: Teachers in Government Schools in Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka

Jawad, M. M & Rebecca, E.

Department of Human Resource Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.803269S

Received: 20 June 2024; Revised: 10 July 2024; Accepted: 17 July 2024; Published: 18 September 2024

ABSTRACT

The degree of career success that different people perceive varies substantially. Along with variations in objective achievements, this variety reflects various viewpoints on what constitutes a “successful” career. Teachers who continually develop themselves become better equipped to inspire and guide their students to achieve their full potential. Hence, the career success of teachers is important to not only teachers but also students. This has led to expanding research into the determinants of career success of teachers. This study aims to identify the determinants of career success of teachers in Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka. Using self-administered structured questionnaire surveys, determinants of career success were measured. The research used a single data source and cross-sectional design. The data from 365 valid surveys were collected using a simple random sampling technique. The hypotheses were tested using the Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression analysis. Findings revealed that emotional intelligence, career adaptability, career commitment, work-life balance, and person-job fit impact the career success of teachers in Government Schools in Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka. Further, it was revealed that emotional intelligence, career adaptability, career commitment, work-life balance, and person-job fit have a positive relationship with career success, confirming the previous research findings. Thus, all hypotheses were accepted. According to the findings, person-job fit has the highest correlation with career success. Hence, the researcher recommended that uplifting person-job fit would have a greater impact on increasing the career success of teachers.

Key Words: Career Adaptability, Career Commitment, Career Success, Emotional Intelligence, Work-Life Balance.

INTRODUCTION

The quality of a child’s education largely relies on the quality of the teacher (Nye et al, 2004; Sanders & Horn 1998). Career success can contribute to the effectiveness of teachers by providing continuous individual and collective upgrade that is necessary to adequately mark the heightened expectations for improving student learning (Elmore, 2007; Fullan, 2007). Research has shown that career success is helpful to encourage the innovative behavior of teachers, and it can improve the quality of service and stabilize the teaching teams (Wang et al, 2019). Thus, teachers’ career success helps students also. There are so many factors that impact to career success of teachers. Among the several factors that affect to career success of teachers, emotional intelligence, career adaptability, career commitment, work-life balance, and person-job fit take a huge place. Thus, there seems to be a gap in the empirical knowledge, especially in Sri Lanka regarding the factors affecting career success. In the context of Sri Lanka, the determinants of career success are an area of research that is barely examined. Nevertheless, previous Western research has examined the factors that affect career success. The new trend of the present decade is to pay more attention to career success. Consequently, the current study focusses to examine the determinants of career success of teachers. Therefore, the study question is formulated as; What are the determinants of career success of teachers in Government Schools in Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka?

LITERATURE REVIEW

The definition of career has developed through time, impacted by many factors that are external and internal to the individual and the organization. Irrespective of time, its definitions twist together the principal themes of job/work, time, and hierarchy, reflecting a moving perspective in an individual’s profession, which connotes an individual’s career success. Accordingly, the career literature has also seen the evolution of the definition of career success. It has evolved from the traditional definition, which is based on an individual’s hierarchical progression, to contemporary definitions incorporating the psychological elements of how one views career success. According to Judge et al. (1995), Seibert et al. (2001), Heslin (2003), Ng et al. (2005), and Breland et al. (2007), career success is described as the positive psychological or work-related results or personal and professional achievements one has gained from their working experience. Career success was further described as having both objective and subjective components (Gattiker and Larwood, 1988; Judge et al., 1995; Nabi, 2003; Baruch, 2004; Breland et al., 2007). Objective career success refers to the external categories in a profession, which are defined by society, one’s peers, or culture, and illustrates the typical moves towards success. The movement may be horizontal (increased job security, longer vacations) or hierarchical (promotion, different job titles) (Nabi, 2003). In contrast, subjective career success reflects an individual’s perception of career experience, which is influenced by a person’s preferences for development, needs, and values (Gattiker and Larwood, 1986 as cied in Heslin, 2003).

Emotions are closely connected to people’s purpose, goals, plans, and requirements (Brown et al, 2003), so emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability to be aware of own and others’ emotions and feelings and to manage the emotions in self and others (Goleman, 1995). Emotional intelligence is also stated as a subset of “social intelligence” which involves the ability to consider one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions to guide one’s thinking and actions (Salovey & Mayer, 1989). Then they defined it again as “the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate them to assist thoughts, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to regulate them to promote emotional and intellectual growth (Mayer & Salovey, 1997). Bar-On (2002) states that people with higher EI are more capable of handling their work patterns and demands. It is also supported by Duran et al (2004) which can be supportive to lower the level of negative career outcomes and boost employees’ well-being. Hence, the first hypothesis is developed as follows,

H1: There is an impact of emotional intelligence on career success.

Adaptability is a quality that can change, without great difficulty, to adapt to new or changed objectives (Savickas, 2007). Career adaptability is one psychosocial constellation that shows individual resources to address current tasks and anticipate the evolution, transition of work, and job traumas, which to some degree is large or small, and alter the social integration of individuals (Savickas, 2007). Career adaptability can be explored in various forms depending on the domain. In the career development domain, career adaptability is highly pertinent. It shows psychosocial constructs that consider individual resources to overcome challenges, such as developmental tasks and work transitions, which are an inevitable part of life (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). Spurk et al., 2013 found that there are also significant relationship between career adaptability and career success. Hence, the second hypothesis is developed as:

H2: There is an impact of career adaptability on career success.

As cited in Hall, 2002; Hall (1976) stated a career as an identification with and involvement in one’s profession. Career commitment is defined as “the strength of one’s motivation to work in a chosen career role” (Hall, 1971). Blau (1988) described a career commitment as ‘one’s attitude towards one’s profession or vocation’. Career commitment requires the development of personal career goals and identification with and involvement in those goals (Collarelli & Bishop, 1990). Career commitment refers to recognition with and involvement in one’s occupation (Mueller et al, 1992). To sum up, career commitment involves the development of personal career goals and identification with and participation in those goals (Collarelli & Bishop, 1990). Hence, the third hypothesis is developed as:

H3: There is an impact of career commitment on career success.

Work-life balance is defined by Kirchmeyer (2000) as “achieving satisfying experiences in all the life domains and to do so requires personal resources such as energy, time, and commitment to be well distributed across domains”. Work-life balance is a much wider concept compared to work-family balance in that it encompasses numerous roles outside family life e.g., community, leisure, and religious roles, that an individual engages in (Frone, 2003). Previous studies propose that Work-Life balance is a immense supporter of how representatives see their occupations (Negrey,1984; Milkie & Peltola 1999). Hence, the fourth hypothesis is developed as:

H4: There is an impact of work-life balance on career success.

The concept of person-job fit is the traditional foundation for employee selection (Werbel & Gilliland, 1999). The primary concern in employee selection has been with finding those candidates who have the skills and abilities require to do the job. Traditionally, P-J fit is assessed by determining the demand of the job through a job analysis, which identifies the essential job tasks that an incumbent performs, and the necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities to perform the job tasks. From its simple foundation evolving out of scientific management (Taylor, 1911 as cited in Tomoki, 2004), determining P-J fit increasingly gained sophistication by identifying both statistically reliable and valid processes that can be used to determine P-J fit. It is proven that person-job fit plays a vital role in increasing an individual’s level of job satisfaction and commitment toward the organization. As a result, it will impact the individual’s subjective career success and lower the turnover intention and it will encourage the individual to perform good behavior (Hoffman, 2006). Hence, the fifth hypothesis is developed as:

H5: There is an impact from person-job fit on career success.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Overview of Sample and Procedures.

The teachers of Government Schools in Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka, have been chosen as the study’s target population. The population consists of all levels of teachers. In Trincomalee District, government schools have 4509 teachers (Annual report, 2021). The researcher utilized the Morgan table (95% CI) to select 357 teachers as the study sample.

This descriptive research was done among the teachers of government schools in Trincomalee District of Sri Lanka. The data was collected by delivering self-reporting questionnaires to sample, respondents who were chosen using a simple random sampling technique.  Those respondents who were challenging to contact were also sent a printed paper questionnaire. The distribution of 500 questionnaires resulted in the collection of 365 valid replies for final data analysis.

Conceptual Framework

Figure 3.1: Conceptual Framework of the study

Source: Salahudin et al, 2021

Measures

The dependent variable: Career success was assessed using the measurement scale developed by Greenhaus et al, (1990), which includes 5 items. All the items are anchored on a five-point Likert scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. No reverse-coded items are included in the scale. Sample items include: ‘I am satisfied with the success I have achieved in my career’.

The independent variable: emotional intelligence was assessed using the measurement scale developed by Wong & Law, (2002), which includes 16 items. All the items are anchored on a seven-point Likert scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. No reverse-coded items are included in the scale. Sample items include: ‘I have a good understanding of my own emotions’’

The independent variable: career adaptability was assessed using the measurement scale developed by Maggiori et al, (2017), which includes 12 items. All the items are anchored on a five-point Likert scale where 1 = not strong and 5 = strongest. No reverse-coded items are included in the scale. Sample items include: ‘Becoming aware of the educational and vocational choices that I must make’.

The independent variable: career commitment was assessed using the measurement scale developed by Porter et al, (1974), which includes 17 items. All the items are anchored on a seven-point Likert scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. There are 6 reverse-coded items are included in the scale. Sample items include: ‘What I am doing now is helping develop competence in the career I am interested in’.

The independent variable: work-life balance was assessed using the measurement scale developed by Brough et al, (2009), which includes 4 items. All the items are anchored on a five-point Likert scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. No reverse-coded items are included in the scale. Sample items include: ‘I am able to balance between time at work and time at other activities.’

The independent variable: person-job fit was assessed using the measurement scale developed by Brkich et al, 2002, which includes 9 items. All the items are anchored on a five-point Likert scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. No reverse-coded items are included in the scale. Sample items include: ‘All things considered; this job suits me.’

FINDINGS

Validity Statistics

Table 01: Validity Statistics

Source: Author, 2023

According to the KMO coefficients and the particular sig. Values for both composite variables are given in Table 1, the study sample seems statistically adequate to perform an EFA to assess the construct validity.

Moreover, as Table 1. represents, ESSL Cum% for both composite variables and independent variables are greater than 50%, and the FL values of individual items in the scales used were adequate. Hence, it could be concluded that the multi-item scales are valid, and the data set seems statistically free from bias.

Descriptive Statistics

Table 02: Descriptive Statistics

Source: Author, 2023

As depicted in table 2, the mean value of career success is 3.8 indicating a high level of career success among the respondents in the sample. Also, as the SD lies between +2 and -2, the mean value could be statistically accepted.

Hypotheses Testing

Table 03: Correlation Statistics

Source: Author, 2023

Table 04: Regression Analysis

Source: Author, 2023

Table 05: Coefficients

Source: Analyzed data, 2023

According to the table 3, the correlation value for emotional intelligence is 0.728, career adaptability 0.453, career commitment is 0.634, work-life balance is 0.578, and person-job fit is 0.842 which is statistically significant as Sig. 2-tailed (0.000) is less than the level of significance (0.01). The results also manifested that emotional intelligence and person-job fit (0.728 & 0.842) have a strong positive association with career success while career commitment and work-life balance (0.634 & 0.578) have a moderate level of positive association with career success. Career commitment has a weaker association (0.453) with career success.

Thus, according to the regression results, H1, H2, H3, H4 & H5 are accepted statistically, claiming that there is a significant impact of emotional intelligence, career adaptability, career commitment, work-life balance, and person-job fit on the career success of teachers.

DISCUSSION

Emotional intelligence is the amalgamation of behaviors, personal beliefs, attitudes, and motivation. Thus, the recognition of social conditions tends to be implemented by the people who have high EI and they realize how to react and adapt to the different situations that are being faced where this ability can lead to positive career outcomes. This study found that the relationship between emotional intelligence and career success is observed quite strong with the results of many previous studies which verifies that emotional intelligence has a significant relationship with career success (Druskat et al, 2005; Saeedi et al, 2012; Salahudin et al, 2020). That means people with higher degrees of emotional intelligence tend to perform well in their careers and are most likely to succeed in their careers.

Career adaptability shows how an individual interacts with the working environment and their capability in handling tasks and challenges faced in their working environment and it helps the individuals in forecasting the positive outcomes in their career orientation. In this study, results show that career adaptability has a significant relationship with career commitment. The results are also in line with the results gathered from previous studies (Zacher, 2014; Ieva, 2014; Salahudin et al., 2020). Hence, it says that people who are well-adapted in their careers are more likely to gain success in their careers.

Career commitment refers to recognition with and involvement in one’s profession and it is characterized by the growth of and commitment to career goals (Colarelli & Bishop, 1990). People who are committed to their careers should gain more career success (have more positive feelings about their careers) than those who are less committed. This study found that the relationship among career commitment and career success is considered with the results of many previous studies also confirms that career commitment has a significant relationship with career success (Salahudin et al, 2020; Carson et al, 1999).

Equality between skills in work and family roles, adding that positive balance requires an equally high level of satisfaction with work and family roles, with negative balance proposes an equally low level of satisfaction with each role. This study found that, positive association between work-life balance and career success. Previous studies further stated that the two variables are related (Greenhaus et al, 2003; Salahudin et al, 2020). This implicit that people with a good sense of work-life balance will be more likely to achieve success in their careers in contrast with people who do not have favorable work-life balance.

It is proven that person-job fit plays a vital role in expanding an individual’s level of job satisfaction and commitment toward the organization. There is considerable evidence that a top level of P-J fit has some positive outcomes. The results gathered in the study are consistent with numerous previous studies whereby person-job fit relates to career success (Lauver & Kristof-Brown, 2001; Salahudin et al, 2020). It implies that the person-job fit is one of the important determinants of one’s career success. It says that people who are better fitted in their jobs are most likely to attain career success.

CONCLUSION

This study empirically reviewed the determinants of career success of teachers in the government schools in Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka. For research, the theoretical model was established around career success, emotional intelligence, career adaptability, career commitment, work-life balance, and person-job fit. These findings demonstrate are not only valuable for the teachers’ career success, but also for employers to make their strategies to retain employees and increase their performance. All in the current study presented that the hypotheses which are derived based on the extant literature on there is a significant impact from emotional intelligence, career adaptability, career commitment, work-life balance, and person-job fit on teachers’ career success. In line with result of the study, emotional intelligence, career adaptability, career commitment, work-life balance, and person-job fit determine career success.

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