Middle managers’ career success
and business strategy in the
Canadian aerospace industry
A configurational analysis in the context
of innovation and costs leadership
Jacqueline Dahan and Yvon Dufour
Department of Management and Human Resources, University of Sherbrooke,
Sherbrooke, Canada
Abstract
Purpose – The main aim of this paper is to investigate the way middle managers picture their career
success and the business strategy of their firm with the following key question in mind: “Is there a
relationship between the two?”.
Design/methodology/approach – This research is based on a “polar sample” of two companies of
the Canadian aerospace industry that use generic business strategies which differ considerably along
the continuum of strategic approaches from one another. A list of 50 people was made in collaboration
with the executives of the companies investigated. A total of 74 percent (37) of the middle managers
invited to be interviewed accepted the invitation. The interviews lasted on average 90 minutes. They
were analyzed using NVivo software.
Findings – The analysis yielded a set of four empirical configurations of career success. The idea of
central orchestrating theme has been at the core of configuration theory since its inception but few
researchers have set the task to investigate them let alone in studying career success. Four core
unifying themes were found: “just watch me”, “one for all and all for one”, “eureka”, and “thanks but no
thanks”. Each of the company strategies provides a receptive context for no more than two coexisting
configurations of career success, one leading to a rapid ascent and the other to a slower one.
Originality/value – Few studies have looked into how middle managers portray career success for
themselves. Furthermore, the literature is wanting in another crucial respect: the researchers do not
take into consideration the particular strategic context of the firm. This paper argues that the paths
toward career success must be understood in the context of the business strategy of the firms that give
them form, meaning, and substance.
Keywords Career success, Middle managers, Business strategy, Management strategy,
Configurational approach, Aerospace industry, Canada
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The traditional idea of what a successful career is has arguably changed quite a lot in
the past two decades or so with the significant changes that happened in organizations.
According to the traditional model a successful career is described as linear ascendant
and it happens almost entirely within the walls of a single organization. However, in
more recent years a wide span of new ideas has found its way in the literature and a
successful career has further been depicted as either “boundaryless” (Arthur et al.,
2005, p. 177) or “nomadic” (Bouffartigue, 2001, p. 88). Furthermore, it has been argued
that from now work experience would be more often than not acquired in several
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1757-4323.htm
APJBA
4,1
82
Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
Administration
Vol. 4 No. 1, 2012
pp. 82-94
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1757-4323
DOI 10.1108/17574321211207980