Career success of American business leaders : a human, social and cultural capital perspective.

Abstract

This study explores four major antecedents of human, social and cultural capital; as predictors of objective career success for a sample of 247 American business leaders. These antecedents are namely: prestige of education, career mobility, family background (social origin & sociability of father’s occupation) as well as participation in recreational activities (in terms of social company, nature and prestige of activities). This sample, which is derived from the Harvard Business School Leadership Initiative database, consists of successful leaders between the 1970s and 1990s. Descriptive analyses are conducted to examine the distribution of successful leaders across the independent variables, and our results have indicated that the majority of successful leaders attained prestigious graduate education; moved across functional areas more than organizations; came from middle-class social origin; have fathers who worked in very sociable occupations and participate in productive social activities.