S u m m a r y

 

Korppi-Tommola, H., Feldt, T. & Hyvönen, K. (2010)

Young managers' career regrets, their appraisals, and associations with optimism

Psykologia 45:4&endash;21. Sastamala ISSN 0355-1067.

This study investigated the contents of young managers' regrets related to career and their appraisals of these regrets. In addition, the association between young managers' optimism and regrets was studied. Of the background factors, age, gender, educational and managerial levels, employment contract (fixed term vs. permanent), and family situation (children vs. no children) were investigated. In 2008, 433 managers participated in the questionnaire survey. The managers were 26&endash;38 years old (M = 33.0) and 361 (83%) of them were male. The young managers' career regrets could be classified into five main categories: 1) the choice of work and career development (16.9%), 2) studying and training (13.4%), 3) work performance (9.5%), 4) well-being and family (3.9%), 5) no regrets (53.6%). Background factors were not related to the career regret categories. Career regrets related to well-being and family emerged as important experiences as evaluated by the participants: These career regrets caused the most unhappiness and hindered the participants' life the most. The results also indicated that optimism was associated with career regrets. Participants who had not reported any career regrets were more optimistic than those who reported regrets.

 

On the basis of these results, it can be concluded that career regrets are fairly common and therefore should be acknowledged in career planning and coaching.

 

Keywords: regrets, career, regret appraisals, optimism, young managers