measurement of career development dimensions among the staff of shiraz university of medical sciences

introduction: a career development consists of jobs that a person passes in order to reach a professional goal. career development management results in job satisfaction, professional commitment and higher effectiveness. the purpose of this study was to determine different dimensions of career development among the staff of shiraz university of medical sciences.   methods: this study was a cross- sectional study on the staff of shiraz university of medical sciences in 2009. data was collected by ratio random sampling from university vice-chancellors and simple random sampling was used within all vice-chancellors. the sample consisted of 236 employees who completed the 43-item schein's career anchor inventory. analyses were performed using anova, spearman correlation and t-test in spss 11.5 . results: most of the participants were male (49.6%), held a bsc (52.1%), contractual (30.5%), were working in vice-chancellor for development and resource management affairs (49.6%). the highest mean score of career anchors was gained in service port (3.28 ± 0.43) and the lowest mean was achieved in identity port (2.47 ± 0.5). there were significant inverse relationships between innovation port and age and years of services. there were also significant relationships between sex and service port and security port. conclusion: the staff of shiraz university of medical sciences likes to provide service to the society and people. it seems that in their point of view, it is not important to be identified with their organization. hiring well-educated managers in job development and approving educational courses for managers and staff can solve the related problems.