The Japanese career progress study: A 7-year follow-up.

A longitudinal study of managerial progress, begun by the present 1st author and colleagues (1978, 1980) in 1972 in a Japanese department store chain, monitored the professional and dyadic development of a cohort group of 80 newly recruited male college graduates (mean age 23.6 yrs) over their 1st 3 yrs with the company. Seven waves of data were collected from Ss, their immediate superiors, and company records. After 7 yrs with the company, Ss were promoted to their 1st management positions. The present study examined the preemployment selection test results and measured quality of vertical dyadic exchanges between S and his immediate superior over the 1st 3 yrs and the interaction of these 2 factors in predicting the speed of promotion, annual salary, and size of bonus after 7 yrs. Results show that the 1st 3 yrs were critically important to Ss; the combined effect of exchange and ability produced significant contributions to all 3 career outcomes assessed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)