Personal agency and organisational attachment: A career capital perspective

Despite role transitions occurring frequently within organisations, career theories have often overlooked such transitions. Here we explore the role of personal agency and organisational attachment in shaping career capital enactment within intra-organisational role transitions. We propose a new career capital usage typology. Using an interpretivist approach, the research is based within a UK construction business and explores the role transition experiences of 36 business leaders. Through an analysis of workers’ career capital use we identify a new typology and groups workers as follows: Passive Worker, Company Worker, Political Worker and Career Worker. We argue that type varies in accordance with levels of personal agency and organisational attachment and that this variation in type is particularly important during intra-organisational role transitions.