Determinants of success in a job career at National Iranian Oil Company

A career path is defined as a set of jobs taken by an individual over his/her career. The success of a career path is measured by subjective and objective satisfaction. Although the success of a career path is important by itself, it is more important for organizations to know what factors influence career paths so that they can improve human productivity and develop a satisfied human resource. This paper reports the results of a content analysis on 40 interviews with executive experts in the petroleum industry aimed at identifying these variables using the NVIVO software package. The reliability of the data was estimated at 0.92 using William Scot’s method. Finally, 36 variables underpinning career paths were classified into three categories of behavioral, contextual, and structural. This research contributes a paradigm for executive research. In addition, the variables identified here can be used to define new relations when designing career paths and career path models in the human resource system at the National Iranian Oil Company.