Effect of Organizational Sponsorship, Career Management Behaviour and Proactive Personality in Predicting Managers’ Subjective Career Success

The main aim of the study was to examine the role of organizational sponsorship, career management behaviour and proactive personality in predicting subjective career success of managerial staff in large scale manufacturing firms in Kenya. Primary data was collected using a sample of 255 managers from large scale manufacturing firms in Kenya based on descriptive survey. Hypothesis was tested using hierarchical regression model. The findings indicate that the joint effect of the predictor variables was greater than their individual effect on subjective career success. The study recommends that large manufacturing firms should facilitate their staff’s career success by providing them with organizational sponsorship programmes. The findings also point out the need for the staff to be proactive and to adopt suitable career management behaviour that can enhance their achievement of career success. Future researchers may benefit from the already established conceptual and methodological reference in their pursuit for further studies with regards to this area in different contexts.

Self-initiated Expatriates: Taiwanese Migrant Professionals in China’s Global Cities

This paper explores the migration of Taiwanese skilled professionals to China through interviews taken of expatriates in three large Chinese cities. In recent years, there has been an increase in cases of Taiwanese skilled professionals migrating to China. Nevertheless, this increase originated with less organizational sponsorship than in previous trends. This migration pattern originated mainly by decisions of the expatriates themselves—so-called self-initiated expatriation.Our research shows that Taiwanese skilled professionals who migrated through self-initiated expatriation did not build themselves into a homogeneous group in China’s global cities. Results show also that there have been various patterns of self-directed expatriation. Most such migrants have been categorized as young adventurers, job-seekers, localized professionals, international professionals, and dual-career couples. Through this research, we conclude that as globalization deepens and regional cross-border mobility becomes more commonplace, self-initiated expatriation might gain more influence in the future of skilled migrations.