Advancement along a career path: the influence of human capital and performance

• Author: Gary C. McMahan,Christopher M. Harris,Marshall W. Pattie
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12047
• Date: 01 January 2015
• Published date: 01 January 2015

Advancement along a career path: the influence of

human capital and performance

Christopher M. Harris, School of Management, Texas Woman’s University

Marshall W. Pattie, College of Business, Department of Management, James

Madison University

Gary C. McMahan, Department of Management, University of Texas-Arlington

Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 25, no 1, 2015, pages 102–115

Following the path metaphor of careers along with signalling and human capital theories, we examine

important factors that predict individuals’ advancement in a career. With a unique sample of American

football players, we tested the influence of individuals’ human capital on their performance, value and

advancement along a career path. Our findings indicate that individuals’ human capital assessed in the

first stage of the career path is positively related to individuals’ performance in the second stage of the

career path and the value placed on individuals in the third stage of the career path. We also found that

performance in the second stage mediated the relationship between human capital assessed in the first

stage and the value placed on individuals in the third stage of the career path.

Contact: Dr Christopher M. Harris, School of Management, Texas Woman’s University, PO

Box 425738, Denton, TX 76204, USA. Email: charris17@twu.edu

Keywords: human capital; career path; performance

INTRODUCTION

One of the most important questions that career researchers ask is ‘how do workers

progress through careers?’ (cf. Iellatchitch et al., 2003; Ng et al., 2005; Judge et al., 2010).

A career is defined as the sequence of a person’s work experiences over his/her

working life (Arthur et al., 1989). This definition implies that a career follows a path (Inkson,

2004). The path metaphor of a career indicates that within a career, there is a series of moves

and an evolution over time (Cappellen and Janssens, 2005). In this series of moves within a

career, people can move from organisation to organisation in order to advance their career

(DeFillipi and Arthur, 1994). The path metaphor also implies that a career has a direction or

purpose that links successive positions (Adamson et al., 1998). Therefore, there is a progression

through which individuals go through as they advance along different stages of a career path.

Each individual engaged in a profession has a career of some kind, and the struggle is about

what type of career an individual will have and reaching a more favourable position in the

career (Iellatchitch et al., 2003). With this study, it is our purpose to examine the different factors

that can influence individuals’ advancement in a career.

Each career is unique and places value on human capital that is unique to the specific career

(Iellatchitch et al., 2003; Mayrhofer et al., 2004). Human capital includes an individual’s

knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics that enable a person to perform at a high

level (Wright et al., 1994; Ployhart and Moliterno, 2011; Wright and McMahan, 2011). Human

capital theory indicates that individuals with the human capital necessary for a specific career

should perform at a high level and garner more value as they advance within the career. Along

with human capital, individuals’ record of high performance should allow them to gain

increased value as they advance in the specific career.

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doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12047

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL 25 NO 1, 2015102

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Please cite this article in press as: Harris, C.M., Pattie, M.W. and McMahan, G.C. (2015) ‘Advancement along a career path: the influence of human

capital and performance’. Human Resource Management Journal 25: 1, 102–115.