Effect of professional environment on the representations of professional success

Abstract

This paper examines the transformations in the representations of professional success according to the professional trajectory. The representations of future executives and of executives from the private and public sectors are analyzed in a sequence of three studies, aiming at (1) gathering information relative to the representations of professional success, (2) bringing out the structure of the representations and possible differences between the three groups, and (3) examine the effect of an intergroup comparison of these representations, Results reveal that the representations of professional success reflects the cultural standards of each institution: the executives from the public sector consider effort as a less important component of professional success, the executives from the private sector place higher value in the role of the group for being successful, whereas the future executives hold an intermediate position. They also suggest that the representations of professional success of the executives from the private and the public sectors may efficiently be used to differentiate the two groups in a situation of social comparison.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v18i1.411