CAREERS WITHIN CAREERS - RECONCEPTUALIZING THE NATURE OF CAREER ANCHORS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES

Schein's seminal work on career anchors suggests that individuals deve lop ''careers within careers'' after their true abilities, needs, and values become crystallized through a variety of real-world work experi ences, Moreover, once formed, these stable career identities (or ''car eer anchors'') have significant consequences for individuals' career s atisfaction and job stability. Despite the contribution of Schein's id eas, his model of career anchors is underspecified theoretically and e mpirical tests have been far from conclusive. In this article, we reco nceptualize the nature of career anchors, reconsider Schein's original typology of career anchors, and present a series of propositions abou t the factors which moderate the relationships between career anchors and career outcomes. In addition, we suggest alternative methodologies for measuring and analyzing career anchor data and explore the implic ations of career anchor research for managing careers in organizations .