Research background and motivation
Achievement motivation is an intrinsic power, its aim is to obtain
the satisfaction of achievement demand. When individual chooses and
plans its occupation, achievement motivation can result power in driving
individual to move upwardly in order to take more difficulties and
create higher degree of achievement.
"career" is an important issue of life, it has the closed
relationship with individual life, view of value and behavior, however,
it can not be over emphasized in career management of organization or
individual career planning of employee during enterprise's career
development, it is necessary to consider the future development of
employee and organization simultaneously. It makes employees achieve for
success of individual career; also, enterprises achieve goals of
organization operation, and form win-win situation.
Because the degrees of achievement motivation will result in
different choices for individual career planning; this research is to
discuss if achievement motivation will have some influences on
individual career planning.
According to above stated research motivation, our institute hopes
to understand the relations between achievement motivation of high tech
industry employees, individual career planning and then make further
discussion. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to:
1. Discuss if achievement motivation can influence its individual
2. It is hoped the result of study can be provided these enterprise
manager and individual employee for reference.
Achievement is a kind of behavior of work orientated which is
according to some intrinsic and extrinsic standards and including
comparison with others or the existing criteria, to appraise individual
performance (helmreich & spence, 1983). But motivation is one of
intrinsic main causes to urge individual to take part in various
activities, also it may be viewed as a kind of demand performance.
Therefore, motivation is generally defined as: causing individual
activity and maintain it, promoting that activity proceeding intrinsic
intention towards any of goal.
Jerath (1981) thought achievement motivation can be divided into
intrinsic and extrinsic, what the intrinsic achievement motivation
concerned is called as "outstanding" or "perfect",
and what it concerned is about standard of self-intrinsic; but the
extrinsic achievement motivation is individual comparing by standard of
others or social public, what it concerned is the extrinsic standard,
and individual comparing each other by extrinsic standard for judging if
it is successful.
Helmreich & spence (1978) synthesized the related researches
that achievement motivation is the multidimensional combination,
discussed about personality characteristic of sexual role and organized
it as "work and family orientation questionnaire", called as
wofo. Its research pointed out achievement motivation is composed as
mastery, work orientation, competitiveness and personal unconcern. The
meanings are respectively:
(1) Mastery: prefer to take difficulty, challenging work, emphasize
superego, self-challenge, and persist in completion with work which
already been started.
(2) Work orientation: it means enjoy working and hoping to obtain
satisfaction from work and pursuing self-enrichment.
(3) Competitiveness: the desire to surpass other's achievement
and also strive for victory.
(4) personal unconcern: the individual does not care about negative
attitude by others because of its own succeed, it means not be afraid of
being jealous by others for its own success and not be afraid of being
repelled by others because of its own success.
Individual career planning
Individual career planning is taking individual as the core, the
purpose is to recognize and appraise its opportunity and limitation of
possible development truly, and, by the way, to set up individual career
goal and draw up a set of action program which is possible to be
achieved. The research of hochwater, kiewitz, gundlach, & stoner
(2004) viewed individual career planning is a tendency condition of
seeking individual satisfaction, that is the condition for everyone
seeking to be satisfied in individual working and life. It belongs to
individual activity, directing mainly by individual knowledge and
personal intention. But career development is also based on individual
career planning which is the whole process for individual to select
occupation and organization, planning gateway of development, and
engaging in individual development according to own ability, interest,
and possible working opportunity.
Greenhaus, callanan, & godshalk (2000) also pointed out
individual career planning is to make a series of decisions which is a
suitable decision made by individual to its working life, and the
process to rationalize for individual working life.
It will be helpful to have more clear consciousness for
company's overall management goal and strategy, and a
self-assessment and setting a career planning by employees. And if
employee can control its career, it will be helpful for productivity
increasing. (harrington & shepard, 1996).
But hall (1990) divided individual career planning into two great
ideas as career planning and career strategy, its meanings is as
(1) career planning: if individual makes sure what its own career
goal is and understands its own advantage and weakness.
(2) career strategy: the way and strategy for individual to adapt
for achieving a goal.
It is known that individual career planning is to make the proper
arrangement during the setting process of career goal by individual.
Under this arrangement, everyone can recognize its own ability,
interest, nature, characteristic and potential through individual career
planning. Simultaneously, thinking of various career opportunities, and
utilize resources from surrounding environment to achieve career goal of
each stage as well, finally, individual can achieve and carry out its
ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION AND INDIVIDUAL CAREER PLANNING
Combining with the definition from arkoff (1968), webber (1975),
mcclelland (1985) etc. Scholars on achievement motivation: achievement
motivation is including individual achievement demand, forecast of
success and causes of attraction and so on, it will decide individual
aspiration standard, level of effort and performance of will; it is a
kind of intrinsic power, and it has influence power on individual career
planning. Souerwine (1978) found from his research that the person who
likes to make career planning, it will have the similar characteristic
as the one who has high achievement motivation.
From research of weiner & kukla (1970), when individual makes
an occupation choice, the one who has high achievement motivation is
preferred to take medium difficulty work; but the one who has low
achievement motivation is preferred to take the easiest and the most
difficult one. Research was found by lokan & briggs (1982), the
higher degree of achievement motivation, the higher score will be gotten
in career planning and occupation exploration.
From research of locke, shaw, saari, & latham (1981),
achievement motivation is possibly the most worthy individual variation
for study, and also it is found in the research that the degree of
achievement motivation will influence behavior performance and attitude,
furthermore, it can't be neglected regarding to working performance
or career planning; the one who has high achievement motivation will be
sure about itself ability, and complete a certain goal positively, even
though the actual performance may not be better than the one who has low
achievement motivation, but if it is not under the overloading
situation, achievement motivation and working performance will have
positive correlation. Therefore, the one who has higher achievement
motivation, the more successful chances of achieving its goal of career
planning will have.
According to the goal of this research, after discussing for the
related literature as "achievement motivation" and
"individual career planning", and then set up the framework of
this research as figure 3 to discuss its correlation.
Establishing a hypothesis based on the research goal and research
structure for this study and discussing the relationship between
achievement motivation of high tech industry employee and individual
career planning, its research hypothesis are as following statements.
H-1: achievement motivation has the influence on individual career
H-1.1: mastery has the influence on individual career planning.
H-1.2: work orientation has the influence on individual career
H-1.3: competitiveness has the influence on individual career
OBJECT OF STUDY
The selected object of this research for questionnaire is employee
from high tech industry companies in taiwan, collecting earlier testing
sample by internet questionnaire. And then the institute will do the
convenient sampling by mailing questionnaire to high tech industry
1. Achievement motivation criteria table
Achievement motivation of this research is using achievement
motivation structure side from "work and family orientation
questionnaire" which was revised by helmreich & spence in 1983,
there was 19 items of question in total from this survey, it is found by
earlier testing from the institute it is with good reliability and
2. Individual career planning criteria table
This research is using psychological achievement model to develop
items of question from hall in 1990, there is total 11 items of question
in this survey and it is used the design of likert's five criteria
table, it is found by earlier testing from the institute, it is with
good reliability and validity.
According to the purpose of this research and establishment of
related hypothesis, this research is done by questionnaire data analysis
by using statistical analysis package software of spss 12.0 edition and
lisrel 8.52 edition software. Its analytical methods are as following.
(1) analysis of reliability
(2) analysis of validity
(3) analysis of correlation
(4) structure equation models
This research is taking all high tech industry in taiwan as the
object, by the way of mailing questionnaire, the total number for
sending questionnaire is 500 and returned number is 373, its returned
rate of questionnaire is 74.6%; so the total effective questionnaire is
345 and the effective questionnaire return-ratio is 69% except for the
number of invalid questionnaire which filling unreasonable answers or
missing items of question not to answer is 28.
ANALYSIS OF RELIABILITY
This research uses two criteria tables to exam the internal
consistency by cronbach's alpha coefficient method which is used by
this institute, as shown in table 1.
It is found from both of above used two criteria tables whose
cronbach's alpha coefficient of achievement motivation and
individual career planning are both above 0.8; it shows our institute is
using two criteria tables with quite good reliability as a tool to
measure on high tech industry employee.
ANALYSIS OF VALIDITY
1. Achievement motivation
The analysis of validity for achievement motivation, analysis
results and expected results are consistent. From the criteria table,
the kmo index is 0.809 and the accumulation explanation amount of
variation is 60.415%, it indicates this criteria table is quite matched
with achievement motivation.
2. Individual career planning
The analysis of validity for individual career planning, its
analysis results and expected results are consistent. From the criteria
table, the kmo index is 0.892 and the accumulation explanation amount of
variation is 63.594%, it indicates this criteria table is quite matched
with individual career planning.
Analysis of correlation
The result of analysis shows the correlation coefficient between
achievement motivation and individual career planning is 0.617 and it
presents perfect positive correlation. And the three sub-structure sides
of achievement motivation also presents individually perfect positive
correlation with individual career planning, respectively, the
correlation coefficient is 0.427 between "mastery" and
individual career planning; the correlation coefficient is 0.378 between
"work orientation" and individual career planning; the
correlation coefficient is 0.443 between "competitiveness" and
individual career planning.
However, the correlation coefficient shows on table 2 between
sub-structure side of achievement motivation and individual career
By the result of the correlation analysis, it is found that
achievement motivation of individual intrinsic power will affect
individual behavior, and then plan its own career goal and strategy.
Furthermore, since both of achievement motivation and individual career
planning are with perfect positive correlation, therefore, it is known
individual with higher achievement motivation, it will tend to draw up a
future direction, strategy and goal for itself, and meet its achievement
demand by achieving the goal. The result of the correlation analysis is
(1) achievement motivation has perfect correlation with individual
(2) mastery has perfect correlation with individual career
(3) work orientation has perfect correlation with individual career
(4) competitiveness has perfect correlation with individual career
Result of this research by the model is shown in Table 3 on next
From the above table, all of index are showing good on the
acceptance for model, therefore, the model from this research are with
In order to confirm the accuracy of hypothesis in this research, it
uses the structure equation to make data analysis method, the relation
between all variances as shown in figure 1.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
According to the analysis result of structure of equation from this
research, as shown in figure 1, it is found that path coefficient is
1.21 between achievement motivation of high tech industry employee and
individual career planning, also it achieves the perfect standard, it
means achievement motivation of high tech industry employee has positive
perfect influence on individual career planning, it has been approved
the higher degree of achievement motivation from high tech industry
employee, the better they will draw up for their own career planning and
goal, therefore, hypothesis h-1 is accepted in this research.
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Our institute proposed the research hypothesis to get together, and
tested research hypothesis by correlation analysis and the structure
equation, its result as shown in table 5. It is found the result of each
hypothesis is accepted, it indicated the research hypothesis is correct
from this study.
According to result of data analysis, it is found that there is
perfect influence on achievement motivation and individual career
planning, therefore, research hypothesis h-1 is accepted. This result is
closed with study result from several overseas scholars. (weiner &
kukla in 1970; souerwine in 1978; lokan & briggs in 1982; shaw in
This research is to understand the relation between three
sub-structure side(s) of achievement motivation and individual career
planning, and then explore its influence separately. The result shows
sub-structure side of "mastery", sub-structure side of
"work orientation" and sub-structure side of
"competitiveness" have perfect influence on individual career
planning, therefore, research hypothesis h-1.1, h-1.2 and h-1.3 are
It is known from the above accepted research hypothesis if high
tech industry employees are keen on their work, and expect to get
satisfaction from it, enjoy taking self-challenge and prefer to take
difficulty and challenging work, and expect to surpass others'
achievement so that they will tend to choose the direction of
challenging and clear goal to work hard, therefore, they especially like
to set up future goals by making career planning, and work hard to
achieve career goals and satisfy their achievement demand.
The enterprise's manager must understand what employee's
working purpose and what the goal he (or she) wants to achieve so that
you can promote their working satisfaction and organization
identification by the suitable inspiring measurement.
To get understanding for employees by criteria table of achievement
motivation and criteria table of individual career planning, and find
out what employees expecting to continue to expert in the familiar
field. To these employees, enterprise's manager must encourage
their employees by other inspiring measurement than promotion position
to drive them; those employees are expected to be satisfied with
achievement demand by challenging work. To these employees, managers
must give challenging task like a program to inspire their employees,
thus, they will have better performance and make contribution to the
But managers also must get understanding for employees' career
planning, and respect for what they hope and which ways they hope to
achieve for the goal. The enterprise will make employees to have higher
degree of satisfaction by making some measurement to match with their
career planning, and it will approve this company is helpful for its
future development career planning.
Because of career competition is quite intense, employees must
understand style and culture from different enterprise when they start
to seek for jobs, and choose an enterprise by its own career planning
and degree of achievement motivation. To find a suitable enterprise is
quite important, but it is also quite important to seek a suitable
position according to your own achievement motivation and career
planning, it may prevent finding enterprise has given for direction of
development is actually not matched with ideal after working hard, or it
is not helpful for development of career goal, or it may have
possibility to block achievement of career goal.
In conclusion, the employee doesn't not only understand his
(or her) own strength and weakness and plan a suitable career goal for
himself (or herself), but also be brave to take self-challenge, draw up
challenging goal, carry out the career strategy gradually, and not to
reject for any possible task of experience for growth and opportunity of
promotion. Be glad to accept it and aggressive to make progress in order
to create values for company and yourself.
Arkoff, a. (1968), adjustment and mental health, new york:
Greenhaus, j. H., callanan, g. A. & godshalk, v. M. (2000),
career management, the dryden press harcourt college publishers,
Hall, d. T. (1990), careers in organizations, goodyears, santa
Harrington, l. & shepard, m (1996), career strategies for
turbulent time, internal auditor, 53(3), pp.45-52.
Helmreich, r. L. & spence, j. T. (1978), the work and family
orientation questionnaire: an objective instrument to assess components
of achievement motivation and attitudes toward family and career, jsas
catalog of selected documents in psychology, 8, pp.355.
Helmreich, r. L. & spence, j. T. (1983), achievement-related
motives and behaviors, san francisco: freeman.
Hochwater, w. A., kiewitz, c., gundlach, m. J. & stoner, j.
(2004), the impact of vocational and social efficacy on job performance
and satisfaction, journal of leadership and organizational studies,
Jerath, j. M. (1981), the intrinsic and extrinsic components of
motivation, personality study and group behavior, 1(1), pp.74-81.
Locke, e. A., shaw, k. N., saari, l. M., & latham, g. P.
(1981), goal setting and task performance: 1969-1980, psychological
bulletin, 90, pp.125-152.
Lokan, j. J, & briggs j. B. (1982), student characteristics and
motivational and process factors in relation to styles of career
development, journal of vocational behavior, 21, pp.1-16.
Mcclelland, d. C. (1985), human motivation, new york: scott,
foresman and company.
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organization, homewood, il: richard d. Irwin.
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Ching-Hsiang Liu, National Formosa, Taiwan
Hung-Wen Lee' National Chia-Yi Univeristy, Taiwan
Table 1 reliability analytical table
Structure side [alpha]
Achievement Mastery 0.836 0.851
Working orientation 0.830
Individual Career planning 0.864 0.878
Table correlation (** = p < 0.01 * = p < 0.05 (two tails))
Mastery Work Competitiveness
Achievement Mastery 1
motivation Work orientation 0.135 * 1
Competitiveness 0.186 ** 0.200 ** 1
Individual Career planning 0.347 ** 0.345 ** 0.332 **
career Career strategy 0.394 ** 0.310 ** 0.436 **
motivation Work orientation
Individual Career planning 1
career Career strategy 0.506 ** 1
Table 3 the model of fit index analysis table
Overall gfi Results Model
gfi 0.99 Good
Agfi 0.98 Good
Cfi 1.00 Good
Mean (rmr) 0.007 Good
srmr 0.020 Good
Nfi 0.99 Good
Nnfi 1.00 Good
Rmsea 0.018 Good
Table 5 results of research hypothesis
Research hypothesis Results
H-1: achievement motivation has Accepted
influence on individual career planning.
H-1.1: mastery has influence on Accepted
individual career planning.
H-1.2: work orientation has influence on Accepted
individual career planning.
H-1.3: competitiveness has influence on Accepted
individual career planning.