THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAREER-ENHANCING STRATEGIES AND CONTENT INNOVATION - A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF NEW WORKERS

This study tests a longitudinal model of the processes of development of career-enhancing strategies and job content innovation during the first 18 months of transition from school to work. We conducted the analysis of the model using LISREL-7 (Joreskog & Sorborn, 1988) and double cross-validated the results on random samples (N = 859) of young workers from eight countries. Modifications made to the initial model were also cross-validated on both samples. The results indicate that several mutual influence processes operating between newcomers and social others (supervisors, co-workers) account for the development of career-enhancing strategies and job content innovation attempts. The results of this study support a number of previous research findings and are consistent with several theories of this initial encounter period. We discuss several potential directions for future research on this initial work entry period. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.