The influence of family circumstances on the career goals of managers

Abstract

As there are now more dual income earners in the workforce, people are facing greater pressure from both their families and their place of work to commit more of their time and energy. Unfortunately, time and energy are limited resources so either their family or careers may have to endure some form of compromise. Clearly family situations can have an impact on one’s career yet little has been done to measure how much people do in fact consider their families with respect to their careers. The purpose of this report then is to bridge this gap in the literature and provide meaningful recommendations for businesses. This research report explores the difference in attitudes that male and female managers have towards compromising their career goals for their family. It then examines if aging and having children have any influence on these attitudes. In order to measure these attitudes a quantitative analysis using primary data from a questionnaire was conducted. The findings indicate that compromising one’s career for family is not only a feminine problem and that when people do compromise their career goals they are more willing to compromise on extrinsic career goals rather than intrinsic career goals