A Technical Career Path as Job Resource and as Predictor of Organizational Commitment

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to show the positive effects of a new developing technical career path for the organization and for employees. Therefore the Job Demands-Resources model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) was used. Specific job resources of the technical career path were investigated and job satisfaction was integrated into the model as a new outcome. The questionnaire data were gathered at a sample of high potentials from T-Systems, a German ICT-company. With Pearson’s correlations and linear multiple regression analyses the data were analyzed. The results supported the general lines of the model. Two processes could clearly be distinguished: the motivational process starting with job resources and the health impairment process beginning at job demands. The new added element job satisfaction seemed to be an outcome of the motivational process, not of the energetic process. Development opportunities were the essential job resource for high potentials and correlated positively with organizational commitment and job satisfaction.