Exploring Protean Career Attitudes and Career Success in U.S. Women

Research on protean careers and career success has generally used unidimensional measures of career satisfaction, which ignore the complex ways individuals conceptualize career success. This study explored the multivariate relationship between the dimensions of protean career ( self-directed and values-driven ) and the dimensions of career success ( recognition , quality work , meaningful work , influence , authenticity , personal life , growth & development , and satisfaction ). A time-separated survey was used to collect data from a sample of U.S. women ( n = 377), and canonical correlation analysis was employed. Authenticity was removed due to lack of discriminant validity. The results revealed a statistically significant multivariate relationship between the protean career and career success dimensions, indicating which career success dimensions are most salient to each protean dimension. Overall, growth and development had the strongest shared variance, and recognition the weakest. For self-directed, growth and development and satisfaction had the strongest shared variance, whereas personal life was the strongest for values-driven. These findings demonstrate that the two protean dimensions are distinct and differentially related to specific domains of career success, providing support for use of multidimensional measures. Collapsing protean career or career success into a higher-order factor masks the distinct and meaningful relationships revealed when separately examining each dimension.