Advancement intentions and job attitudes - A study on the career setting of high-tech engineers in Taiwan

Career ladders are built up on the premise of employees' interest in career mobility. The system, however, may not have the desired motivational impact when employees are hesitant or undecided to pursue them. In this paper, career issues in terms of the high-tech environment in Taiwan were explored. The relationships between engineering career choices and job attitudes were quantified. The results confirm that engineers with clear advancement aspirations in either technical or general management careers offered by organizations have better job attitudes than engineers without clear aspirations. The finding appears to be more advancement vs. non-advancement, and less technical vs. managerial. Adjustments for two types of engineers who hesitate to show their advancement aspirations are given. Other contextual implications are also discussed.