Personalizing digital career management in academia: modelling the impact of career stage on perceptions of DOCMS

Digitalization of academic career progression by Digitalized Organizational Career Management Systems (DOCMS) is in the center of attention of talent management in higher education today. There is limited knowledge of academics’ attitudes toward and use of such systems at different levels of their career. By employing Herzberg’s two-factor theory, the present study investigates how early-, mid-, and late-career academics perceive formal and informal DOCMS practices. Based on structural equation modelling of questionnaire responses from 218 Indian university faculty, we find that perceptions of formal DOCMS practices decline strongly with career progression, but perceptions of informal practices are consistent. Results show that tailoring DOCMS features to career levels can enhance system use and effectiveness of career development. The study offers theoretical and practical implications for individually adapted design and implementation of digital career management tools for academicians.