Relationships of age and seniority with career variables of engineers and scientists

Abstract

Studied changing career experiences of professional engineers and scientists in 1967 (n = 290) and 1969 (n = 90). Both age and seniority were related to (a) amount of various needs, (b) aspirations for needs, (c) importance of needs, (d) satisfaction with needs, (e) self-image, (f) organizational climate, (g) job challenge, (h) job involvement, (i) intrinsic motivation, (j) perceived performance, and (k) perceived effort. Ss completed objective measures of these variables, including the Porter Need Satisfaction Questionnaire. On the basis of these correlations, 1-way analyses of variance between each variable and the different age groups, and rank orders for different age groups, it is concluded that career stages (early, middle, and late) did exist with different variables characterizing different stages. (26 ref) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)