Career Success and Work Attitudes: Insights from Top Leadership

Abstract

Recognized by their performance and behaviors, and influenced by the micro and macro cultures they came into contact with, leaders are expected to deliver appropriate results regardless of environment. This paper is aimed at uncovering the way top leadership sees careers and career success, explore their attitude toward work (through Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions model), and if these have been transformed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The investigation is based on 86 interviews with top leaders (C-level, entrepreneurs and board members from Romania). The findings are compared with opinions regarding the five cultural dimensions at national level. Furthermore, the research inquires about the way they perceived the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with other events in their lives. The results were analyzed as a whole, as well as by putting into contrast different positions (i.e. executives, entrepreneurs, board members), career stages (i.e. early, mid, blossom, late) and genders (i.e. men, women).

Keywords

• career success
• culture
• covid-19
• hofstede
• leader
• executive
• entrepreneur
• manage