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An analysis of career advancement among engineers in manufacturing organizations

Ramayah Thurasamy
School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

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May-Chiun Lo
Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Sarawak, Malaysia, and

Adida Yang Amri and Noorhayati Noor

School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malyasia
Abstract
Purpose This research aims to study the effect of gender, supervisors support, and tenure of service on objective and perceived career advancement among engineers employed in Malaysian manufacturing organizations in Northern Peninsular Malaysia. It begins by noting the centrality of inequality in gender and career advancement and also aims at providing a direct picture of tenure of service, which is among the factors least looked at when analyzing career advancement. The study also attempts to analyze the supervisors support in relation to career advancement. Moderating the elements above are the demographic variables such as age, marital status, education level, and the location of the tertiary education institution. Design/methodology/approach By using a judgemental sampling method, a total of 158 engineers from ten multinational manufacturing companies were identied for this study. Findings The ndings suggest that career advancement is very much related to gender, supervisors support, and service tenure. It was also noted that women in male-dominated occupations, which is in this case the engineering eld, tend to be subjected to the problems of performance pressures, social isolation, and stereotyping. Practical implications This studys framework has allowed for a better understanding of how perceptions are formed and the mechanisms linking these variables to the career advancement. This study perhaps is the rst that has systematically attempted to integrate the various constructs as mentioned and employees career advancement in organizations. Originality/value There is a gap in the literature concerning how demographic factors inuence career advancement. This study has revealed that there is no clear distinction between career advancement and marital status for either male or female engineers as the statistical result disclosed no signicant differences in marital status as a moderating element to the independent variables. Keywords Career advancement, Gender, Supervisors support, Service tenure, Demographics, Manufacturing industries Paper type Research paper

Introduction The interest in career advancement could be related to the theory of survival of the ttest. Every career-minded individual is probably focused on wanting to know the recipe, or factors that would allow them to be the ttest, or at least be among the ttest, to compete in the corporate jungle (Farmer, 1997). The thirst for career advancement is unquenchable and thus has led to many researchers spending time and effort analyzing

International Journal of Commerce and Management Vol. 21 No. 2, 2011 pp. 143-157 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1056-9219 DOI 10.1108/10569211111144346

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career advancement factors. As stated by Garavan et al. (2006), research on career advancement has focused on how the shape of traditional career paths has changed due to increasing environmental uncertainty. Issues related to career advancement have been extensively analyzed over the past four decades (Gattiker and Larwood, 1988). Among the areas of studies are the relationship of career advancement with sociology (Wong et al., 1985), psychology (Korman, 1980), socio-economics (Whitely and Dougherty, 1991), and behavioural studies (Turban and Dougherty, 1994). Departing from the previous studies, the study looks at career advancement in terms of human development, which distinguishes the study from the rest. In this research, the general objective is to analyze the effect of gender, supervisors support, and tenure of service on objective and perceived career advancement among engineers in the manufacturing organizations located in Northern Peninsular Malaysia. It also tries to explore the effect of moderating factors, namely, the location of tertiary education, education level, age, and marital status on the relationship between gender, supervisors support and tenure of service with objective and perceived career advancement. Thus, the study attempts to answer the following questions: . Are there any signicant relationships between gender, supervisors support and tenure of service and career advancement? . Do tertiary education location, education level, and demographic elements moderate the relationship between gender, supervisors support and tenure of service and career advancement? Review of literature Career advancement is interpreted differently from one individual to another. Most of the time, upward movement in job level or title and an increase in earnings are used as a scale in quantifying career advancement (Ang, 2000). Past literatures have found that, between the two measurements items mentioned above, increase in earnings is more frequently chosen. This is mainly due to the fact that an increase in monetary amount represents a variable that can be measured fairly objectively (Schneer and Reitman, 1994). However, upward movement in occupational status and an increase in income do not necessarily equate to career advancement. There is another internal element within the individual that determines advancement level (Korman et al., 1981). This can be illustrated by observing how different individuals put different weight on different elements, especially when it comes to measuring career advancement. In addition to that, what a person perceives as advancement may vary from one individual to another. The study refers to this scenario as perceived career advancement which is based on the individuals denition and values (Ang, 2000; Korman et al., 1981). Hence, it is obvious that the meaning of objective and perceived career advancements are independent from one another (Judge and Higgins, 1999; Cox and Harquail, 1991). To have a better understanding of career advancement, both objective and perceived career advancements will be investigated in order to have a balanced measurement tool of career advancement. Gender It has been widely documented that women in general face unique challenges in their quest for success, as women must negotiate within a rigid system, which is based

on criteria weighted on men (Ang, 2000). Cutler and Jackson (2002) revealed that partners careers have different impact on the advancement plans of men and women given the fact that most married women generally have working partners, but many men do not. This statement clearly reects that gender-role stereotyping does affect womens career aspirations; women have to constantly compete against men in proving their abilities in almost any eld. It is even tougher for women working in a male-dominated eld such as engineering. A study done by Mcllwee and Robinson (1992) on engineers working in manufacturing industries in the USA highlighted that the aspects of engineering cultures act to retard womens career advancement compared to mens. One of the cultural elements noted is that women are often given insignicant tasks or projects compared to their male colleagues. This is further supported by Kanter (1997), who stated that women are shunned and excluded from informal and formal work groups when they enter male-dominated elds. There is evidence that women are seen as experiencing more complexity in making career choices as they are more likely to concentrate on personal interests such as childcare and housing (Carter et al., 2003). Therefore, based on the literature mentioned above, it is vital to pay more attention and create awareness of the female role, particularly in the engineering eld. Studies on masculinity and engineering have long been associated with male domination because the eld is said to demand essentially masculine traits or simply because technology is where the power is (Jorunn-Berg, 1997). This phenomenon leads to women in engineering elds being perceived as trying to invade and share the traditionally male-dominated area. In addition to that, achieving control and domination over nature has remained a powerful problem of technology within engineering (Easlea, 1981). According to Wajman (1991), technology is understood as a masculine culture and male domination is recognized as one of the principal items responsible for shaping the current gender association with engineers. The whole issue about gender being associated with the engineering eld as mentioned earlier places women at the least advantaged stage throughout their career stages. Many previous studies have suggested that women in a manufacturing environment do not get the same amount of support as men do (Brett and Stroh, 1999). A study done by Schneer and Reitman (1994) revealed that based on the perception of career satisfaction in the mid-career stage, women at the early stage of their careers have a lower career satisfaction level as compared to men. As they move towards the middle career stage, the satisfaction declines even further, while for men, it remains the same. These ndings support the notion that women face barriers in their career advancement, thus leading to a decline in their work satisfaction. The study also reported that although one quarter of women respondents are satised with their present positions, they still emphasize the existence of subtle discriminatory behaviors and practices in the organizations. Often, the favor is more towards men (Schneer and Reitman, 1994). In a nutshell, there are different sets of treatment for men and women. These treatments are the ones that color the perceptions and chances of career advancement for both men and women. Generally, women in male-dominated occupations will be subjected to problems such as performance pressures, social isolation, and stereotyping (Kanter, 1997). In an environment that appears to acknowledge women workers, male co-workers will signal to women that their presence is unwelcome (Jacobs, 1999). The male dominant

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group may continue to regard women as different and unacceptable, perhaps tolerated but not assimilated. Therefore, most of the time women engineers, especially those at the higher level, very often will require the supervisors support in order to avoid being viewed as inferior in a male-dominated eld. Supervisors support Supervisors support is one of the key factors that help to enhance individuals career growth. Good supervisors help the subordinates feel stronger and more responsible, they reward subordinates for good performances, and delegate workload accordingly. It is important in all work elds to have a good supervisor as the inuence of the supervisor can determine ones growth or failure in work. According to Steer (1994), the extent to which the supervisor demonstrates consideration for and interest in employees is important in fostering employees beliefs in the supervisors support towards the person. Subordinates need supervisors support in relation to career advancement (Brett and Stroh, 1999). This is mainly due to supervisors having the mandate in his or her subordinates career growth. Support from supervisors can come in many ways. They include: (1) nominating the subordinate for promotions; (2) providing opportunities for the subordinate to demonstrate his or her competencies; (3) suggesting useful strategies for the subordinate to achieve work and career objectives; (4) protect the subordinate from the repercussions of errors and help them to avoid situations that may threaten the subordinates career; and (5) nally, but most importantly, expose the subordinate to top managements attention (Ang, 2000). Often female employees are given roles which support others roles, therefore, leaving them to work behind the curtains, while others go on stage and perform (Farmer, 2000). Therefore, having a supportive supervisor is very important in career advancement especially for women engineers. This is important as female engineers are already competing with other male colleagues in a eld that is dominated by men and they would be further oppressed if they were to have supervisors who are biased in terms of professional gender preferences. In addition, gender-biased technical exposure opportunities will affect career development opportunities. This is because, most of the time, important technology transfer involves a long-term assignment to another location where the new technology is available. Supervisors would have to assign the most-qualied person to handle the assignment. Most of the time, women are not chosen (Brett and Stroh, 1999). This situation worsens if the criteria for the choice are clouded by the supervisors gender preferences. On top of that, relocation provides opportunities for exposure to the latest technology. Indirectly, when a promotion opportunity comes along, those who have more technological exposure will be at a higher advantage as compared to those without. In this situation, having a supportive supervisor is important, as then only will the technical exposure be given equally to the team, regardless of any favoritism.

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In line with the above, Liu (2000), in her research on career mobility among Chinese employees, noted that the presence of supervisors support in an organization affects career advancement and employees mobility. Having optimum supervisor support is viewed as having better chances for promotion and conversely will lead to high employees turnover (Liu, 2000). Service tenure Service tenure refers to the length of period that a person is employed in a permanent job. As noted by Carbery et al. (2003), even though evidences have indicated of declining job tenure, managers are still likely to stay in organizations which provide career advancement and learning opportunities. There are two measurements of particular interest in this study. First, the total number of working years which covers the length of period from rst permanent employment dates to the current permanent employment date. Second, the average duration time spent in each of the permanent positions. These measurements are in line with the measurement items used by Liu (2000) in her research on career mobility in China. In that research, it is noted that differences in perception on frequency of mobility in relation to gender is a reality. Service tenure is highly related to occupational mobility. In fact, according to Liu (2000), the two are part of the characteristics of industrialization since the rate of economic development is directly proportional to occupational mobility in a society. As noted, when an individuals social status depends mainly on occupational position, the rate and direction of occupational mobility are major indicators of a social groups status and thus changes as people tend to move in pursuit of higher status, position, and salary (Brett and Stroh, 1997). This then implies that short mobility is the key to higher pay for employees. Generally, greater benets and remunerations are associated with greater job mobility. Therefore, employees change jobs to bring their current level of rewards in line with their career potential. According to Brett and Stroh (1997), the rate for changing jobs will slow down when employees receive rewards which they feel commensurate with their expertise. Mobility or job change is lesser among those who have reached more than three years of employment in a particular organization (Stroh et al., 1995). The most crucial years of employment are the rst two years, as during this period an employee will assesses the organization for potential and suitability for long-term employment (Stroh et al., 1992). According to Sonnenfeld and Peiperl (1988), the average number of years that are considered as reasonable for a person to move on from one organization to another is 2.8 years, as any movement that is , 2.8 years and in regular intervals would lead to a negative perception on the individuals. Potential employers would view such individuals as job hoppers and unreliable workers (Stroh et al., 1992). Finnis Conner, Service Award Presentation, May 1996, the founder of the Conner Peripherals Company, during a service award presentation to long servicing employees in his company, was quoted as saying:
If an employee stays in an organization after three years, there is a big possibility that the employee will last till ve years. If an employee stays after ve years, there is a possibility of the employee to stay on till the eighth years and if he stays after the eighth years he will sure to stay on till the tenth.

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This is mainly because those who have worked for more than three years in an organization will often nd that the existing jobs rewards and the increased

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accumulated benets (such as annual leave, stock options) are more attractive than the cost involved in switching jobs and having to start afresh in a new organization (Stroh et al., 1992). In a job mobility comparison between, men and women, it is found that men are more active in changing employment as compared to women (Liu, 2000). There are two major kinds of occupational mobility: (1) Vertical ow that is, moving from one occupation to another of a higher or lower social status. (2) Lateral ow that is, mobility between occupations of the same level. Most of the time, women move based on lateral transfer partly due to family commitments, whereas men choose to move vertically (Liu, 2000; Farmer, 1997). Liu (2000) revealed that the percentage of men moving upward is clearly higher than that of women. This shows that men change jobs more frequently than women and with every job change, the gap between the womens and the mens earning becomes bigger, thus leaving the women further behind in terms of objective career advancement as compared to men. Research model and hypotheses Figure 1 shows the research model for this study. Gender Based on the fact that men have dominated the engineering eld, it is obvious that women nd it difcult to penetrate the eld. As such, it is witnessed that even the most successful women in the engineering eld opt to leave the organizations where they work in order to pursue their own personal desired career growth. One of the reasons is because women value equality more than men, and men tend to value family security more than women (Carter et al., 2003). Therefore, it can be said that: H1a. There is a signicant difference between male and female engineers with regards to their objective career advancement. H1b. There is a signicant difference between male and female engineers with regards to their perceived career advancement.
Independent variables Gender Supervisors support Service tenure Dependent variables Career advancement

Demographics variables (Age, marital status, education level)

Figure 1. Research Model

Location of the tertiary education institution (Malaysia or outside Malaysia) Moderating variables

Supervisors support This variable is selected mainly because the study believes that supervisors have a signicant inuence in a persons career advancement. This is in line with past studies (Filer, 1990; England, 1982) which note that a supervisors role is an important item in a persons career growth. This leads to the hypotheses below: H2a. A supervisors support has a positive impact on objective career advancement. H2b. A supervisors support has a positive impact on perceived career advancement. Service tenure The longer a person stays in a place, the more knowledge is supposed to be gained. Service tenure is signicant especially as a quick measuring tool in quantifying work expertise. This is seen with many interview sheets that provide columns for potential candidates to complete their experiences and service tenure. This is mainly done to provide a quick picture of the candidates strength and work experience. Therefore, the study wishes to analyze the impact of service years on career advancement, especially in this era where there seems to be plenty of opportunities in engineering elds. Thus, we hypothesize that: H3a. Tenure of service has a positive impact on objective career advancement. H3b. Tenure of service has a positive impact on perceived career advancement. Moderating variables (age, marital status, education level, location of tertiary education) Is it true that supervisors prefer to have younger subordinates compared to those who are elder than the supervisors themselves? With this question in mind, the analysis looks at how age affects individuals career advancement. Research by Helyar and Cherry (2005) has postulated that employers choose to terminate older employees as part of business necessity in view of the fact that these employees earned high compensation due to their longevity on the job. Does increase in age parallel career advancement or does career advancement progress downwards with age? This study hopes to be able to have an answer to this question. Mohamed Khan (1996) noted that marital status has a signicant effect in womens career advancement. Therefore, this study wishes to analyze the effect of marital status as a moderating variable and see whether there exists any signicant moderating effect in relation to career advancement in the engineering eld. Education level is suspected to moderate the relationship between the independent variables and career advancement. This is based on Rosenbaums (1979) analysis that employment promotion in times of high economic growth is highly related to education level and that, in times of low economic growth, gender biases that emphasize male employees exist. Besides, according to Gjerberg (2003), based on human capital theories, womens employment patterns are reected by their investments in education and career. In relation to present economic slow down, this study wishes to analyze the impact of education level in moderating the other independent variables in relation to career advancement.

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Location of tertiary education institution is identied as one of the moderating variables, mainly due to the exposure element that is attached with being away from home and also the value that is attached to having an overseas degree compared to a local university degree. The study suspected that there could be differences in terms of perception and work culture between those who are locally graduated versus those who have been exposed to a different culture while studying overseas. The differences in perception and exposure could lead to differences in the way a person portrays himself which thus could contribute positively or negatively towards career advancement: H4a. Age will moderate the relationship between gender, supervisors support, and tenure of service with objective career advancement. H4b. Age will moderate the relationship between gender, supervisors support, and tenure of service with perceived career advancement. H5a. Marital status will moderate the relationship between gender, supervisors support, and tenure of service with objective career advancement. H5b. Marital status will moderate the relationship between gender, supervisors support, and tenure of service with perceived career advancement. H6a. Education level will moderate the relationship between gender, supervisors support, and tenure of service with objective career advancement. H6b. Education level will moderate the relationship between gender, supervisors support, and tenure of service with perceived career advancement. H7a. Tertiary education location will moderate the relationship between gender, supervisors support, and tenure of service with objective career advancement. H7b. Tertiary education location will moderate the relationship between gender, supervisors support, and tenure of service with perceived career advancement. Methodology Population and sample The population analyzed for this study is specically limited to engineers working in manufacturing organizations in Northern Peninsular Malaysia. These areas are chosen because these are among the developed industrial areas in Northern Malaysia. Second, this is because the industries in these areas are heavily dependent on advanced technology, and nally, due to the fact that industries in these areas are highly dependent on a women workforce (Tiun and Marsitah, 1994). The role of women and technology overlaps in these areas, therefore, it would be very enlightening for companies that operate within this area to know the factors that affect womens career advancement so that better steps can be taken in retaining and attracting female professionals, especially engineers. By using a judgemental sampling method, a total of ten multinational manufacturing companies were identied for this study. They are of similar categories with an average of eight operation years in Northern Malaysia. The organizations taken have been

carefully selected to ensure that all have similar qualities in terms of size, status, technology, and ranking. This is done to provide a general control over the respondents work exposure and experience, which could color the way the questionnaires are answered. Variables and measurement The research instrument is constructed from various relevant past studies. The summary of the dimension studied, list of instruments, and item used are presented in Table I. The analysis proceeded with hypothesis testing using t-test, regression, and multiple regressions. Findings Table II shows the demographic prole of the respondents. Table III presents the result of the regression analysis. As shown in the table, gender, supervisors support and service tenure can explain 39 percent ( p , 0.01)
Dimension studied 1 2 3 4 5 Perceived career advancement Supervisors support Personal background Service tenure Objective career advancement Total Instrument used Greenhaus et al. (1990) Turban and Dougherty (1994) Porter et al. (1979) Porter et al. (1979) Greenhaus et al. (1990) Self report Self report Ansari (1982) Item No. 1-5 6-9 10-12 13-18 19-25 26-34 35-36 37-40 Total 5 4 3 6 7 9 2 4 40

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Table I. Dimension studied, instrument used and distribution of questionnaire items

Demographics Gender Race Male Female Malay Chinese Indian Others Single Married Divorced Degree Masters Malaysia Outside Malaysia Low Middle Upper Manager Director General manager VP/CEO

Frequency 90 64 76 44 32 2 49 104 1 126 28 69 85 69 65 20 56 40 35 23

Percentage 58.4 41.6 49.4 28.6 20.8 1.3 31.8 67.5 0.6 81.8 18.2 44.8 55.2 44.8 42.2 13 36.4 26 22.7 14.9

Marital status Highest educational qualication Education location Job level Report to

Table II. Demographic characteristics of respondents

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Gender (male 0; female 1) Supervisors support Service tenure R2 Adjusted R 2 F-value Durbin Watson

Perceived career advancement 20.06 0.59 * * 0.12 * 0.39 0.38 31.72 * * 1.62

Objective career advancement -0.29 * * 0.21 * * 0.19 * * 0.19 0.17 11.42 * * 1.94

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Table III. Regression analysis results

Note: Signicance at: p , *0.05 and p , * *0.01 levels

of the variation in perceived career advancement, whereas it can only explain about 19 percent ( p , 0.01) of the variation in objective career advancement. A closer look at the individual variables shows that only supervisors support (b 0.59, p , 0.01) and service tenure (b 0.12, p , 0.05) is positively related to perceived career advancement, whereas for objective career advancement all three variables are signicant, supervisors support (b 0.21, p , 0.01), service tenure (b 0.19, p , 0.01) and gender (b 2 0.29, p , 0.01) with the negative sign indicating that females feel that in terms of monetary awards they are much lower as compared to their male counterparts. Thus, H1a, H1c, H2a, H2b and H2c are supported whereas, H1b is not supported. The moderating effects of age, marital status, education level, and education location Table IV suggests that education level does moderate the effect of gender on objective career advancement. Age was found to moderate the effect of service on objective career advancement. The table also indicates that there is a signicant relationship between supervisors support and age on objective advancement. On perceived career advancement, there is no signicant effect from all the variables.
Objective Moderating variable Age*gender Marital status*gender Education level*gender Education location*gender Age*support Marital status*support Education level*support Education location*support Age*tenure Marital status*tenure Education level*Tenure Education location*service tenure Note: Signicance at: p , *0.05 and p , * *0.01 levels Perceived

Table IV. Summary of hierarchical regression analysis with objective career advancement and perceived career advancement

b 0.101 2 0.346 2 0.293 * * 2 0.323 1.232 * 0.359 0.522 0.337 2 1.289 * 0.465 2 0.030 0.327

b 0.473 20.585 20.097 0.116 0.540 0.135 0.481 0.202 2 0.278 0.129 0.103 20.129

Discussion The path towards career advancement differs from one individual to another (Astin, 1984). Being women in male-dominated elds raises some issues in career advancement. This paper adds to the understanding of factors supporting managers and professionals career advancement and the benets of these practices for women. Women seem to be treated unfairly in terms of objective career advancement. The difference in treatment is not visibly perceived, however, it is highly signicant in terms of monetary gains. This is in line with a study conducted by Easlea (1981) in the USA on a group of medical representatives. She noted that women in medical elds in the USA receive lesser career advancement opportunities and monetary gains as compared to their male counterparts. This is further supported by the research of Koyuncu et al. (2006) which found signicant gender differences in professional occupations. In other words, difference in objective career advancement is not an isolated case, as it happens in almost all elds and especially so in male-dominated elds (Farmer, 2000). The study has also found that education levels moderate the effect of gender on objective career advancement. The difference in objective career advancement is only signicant to the lower education group and that signicance becomes lesser when education level increases. The results are also congruent with the ndings of Garavan et al. (2006) which revealed that respondents have better salary increments corresponding with their level of education. Some people would attribute advancement to being at the right place at the right time, but the probability of having the luck is indeed very rare. The next closest element to having good luck is to have a supportive supervisor (Farmer, 2000). A supervisor can either help to prosper or kill a subordinates career (Steer, 1994). The ndings of the study suggested that supervisors support have signicant effect on individuals perceived and objective career advancements. This factor is not moderated by any of the moderating elements except for age. This result is further supported in a study conducted among accounting professionals by Moyes et al. (2006) that age is equally important in perceptions of job attributes. This implies that supervisors will provide more support to the younger generation as compared to the older group of employees. This indirectly shows that the supervisors support is critical to a persons advancement, especially at the early stages of ones career. Finally, the study concluded that service tenure has signicant impact on perceived and objective career advancements. This is congruent with the currently popular recruitment analysis which shows that frequent mobility which occurs in , 2.8 years of service would make an individual appear unreliable particularly for higher level position (Farmer, 2000). Job hoppers are often viewed as after monetary gains, as every time a person moves from one position to another they receive a certain percentage increase in salary. However, according to Jacob (1999), job hoppers lose out in terms of accumulated working experiences, which could have higher future value. This study has revealed that there is no clear distinction between career advancement and marital status for either male or female engineers as the statistical result disclosed no signicant differences in marital status as a moderating element to the independent variables. This result contradicted the ndings of Metz (2005), which stated that married women were more likely to report stereotypes and perceptions as barriers to advancement. Besides, Swerdlow (1989) has also posited that,

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among senior managers, female managers were much more likely to be single, divorced, or separated than male managers. Access to male-dominated jobs is necessary for womens career success, but such access does not guarantee womens continued success. In addition, the analysis has also shown that education has signicant moderating effects on gender in relation to career advancement. Perhaps, knowledge and expertise represent the best tools that can be used by women to compete with their male counterparts in the engineering eld. Implications Despite the fact that elements such as gender, supervisors support, and service tenure are important factors as a basic requirement for an employees career advancement, there have been very few empirical researches on these independent variables, the presence of demographic variables as well as the location of tertiary education institution, aligned with career advancement in the manufacturing industry. Thus, this studys framework has allowed for a better understanding of how perceptions are formed and the mechanisms linking these variables to the career advancement. This study is perhaps the rst that has systematically attempted to integrate the various constructs as mentioned and employees career advancement in organizations. In addition, this study provides a basis for researchers who are interested in this eld to further test the relationships among these constructs, especially in the manufacturing industry. Hence, by drawing upon the diverse literatures, this study has inevitably and successfully developed some guidelines for scholars as well as leaders on factors affecting career advancement. Limitations As with any research, this study has several limitations. The results of this research have underscored the importance of solving the issue of formal and informal networking and their relationship with career advancement. This is a subtle but potentially intriguing difference. Perhaps, future research should examine the power of networking in order to supplement and complement the ndings of the current research. Besides, factors such as situation and organizational climate would probably have an impact on career advancement. Therefore, perhaps future research could investigate the impact of peers, characteristics of the situations, the organizational climate, and the characteristics of the followers and leaders on the more effective way of career advancement. In addition to that, this study has relied primarily on samples drawn specically from the workers in the manufacturing sectors. Thus, it is not certain whether the results obtained can be generalized to professional level jobs in other industries such as education, medicine, tourism, or hospitality and service sectors. Conclusion The results of this study conrm results of previous studies that demographic variables do play an instrumental role in the eventual use of inuence tactics. Inevitably, this study provides a conceptual foundation for career advancement. It has also enhanced understanding about the antecedent of career advancement, which subsequently results in better knowledge of the career advancement factors

fundamental to employees work-related attitudes and behaviors. This study also extends extant research on the various factors which contribute to career advancement and hopefully stimulates the need for more research incorporating the perspectives of both parties.
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