Volume 29, Number 1 (Winter) 1994
Biddle, Jeff, and Karen Roberts. 1994. "Private Sector Scientists
and Engineers and the Transition to
Management." Journal of Human Resources 29(1):82-107.
The authors present and empirically test a self-selection/job matching model of a common transition in the careers of scientists and engineers-the move from technical to managerial jobs. Technical and managerial ability are assumed to be positively but not perfectly correlated, so that technical job performance provides information about both technical and managerial ability upon which to base the decision to become a manager. NSF panel data provides evidence that managerial and technical productivity are positively correlated, and that information received while on the job does influence the worker's selection of a managerial or a technical career path.
Jeff Biddle is an Associate Professor of Economics and Karen Roberts is an Assistant Professor of Labor and Industrial Relations and Research Associate at the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, both at Michigan State University. The authors thank Daniel Hamermesh, Daniel Rubenson, Jeffrey Steagall, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. The authors also thank IPPSR for computer support. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning in August 1994 through August 1997 from Jeff Biddle. Complete results of all statistical procedures described in this paper are also available from Jeff Biddle at the Department of Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824.
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