Development idiosyncratic deals and career success

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to rely on the sponsored-mobility perspective of career success (Turner, 1960) to explore the antecedents and consequences of development idiosyncratic deals (i-deals). The authors position career planning as an antecedent of development i-deals, and subjective and objective measures of career success as an outcome.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors led a two-wave study among a sample of 325 engineers to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

Results support the hypotheses. Development i-deals are positively related to three objective measures of career success (e.g. promotions, hierarchical level, and salary) and one subjective measure of career success (e.g. career satisfaction).

Practical implications

The results offer new perspectives to practitioners who want to better manage the careers of their talented employees by highlighting the positive effects of development i-deals on career success.

Originality/value

This paper relates i-deals to the field of careers.

Citation

Guerrero, S., Jeanblanc, H. and Veilleux, M. (2016), "Development idiosyncratic deals and career success", Career Development International, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 19-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-08-2015-0115