Journal of Vocational Behavior 18, 138-144 (1981) Changing Correlates of Job Involvement in Three Career Stages SAMUEL RABINOWITZ New York University AND DOUGLAS T. HALL Boston University The nature of correlates ofjob involvement over three career stages (i.e., early, mid, and late career) was explored in order to account for the lack of consistency of past empirical work in the job involvement area. Data relating to perceptions of job involvement, job characteristics, job satisfaction, rewards, and individual differences were collected from 332 Canadian transportation ministry employees. Utilizing correlational analysis, support was found for the hypothesis that career stage moderated the relationship of job involvement and various situational, individual difference, and outcome measures. These results are discussed in light of the current literature. Job involvement (i.e., “the degree to which a person is identified psychologically with his work or the importance of work in his total self-image”; Lodahl & Kejner, 1965, p. 24) has been discussed as one of the central measures by which we can assess one’s quality of work life. While there has been a fair amount of recent empirical work performed related to job involvement (cf. Rabinowitz, & Hall, 1977), there has been a lack of consistency with regard to results. In part, this may be due to subjects being in different career and life stages in the different studies reported in the literature. There has been a growing interest in issues related to organizational careers in general, and career stages in particular (Gould, 1978; Gould & Hawkins, 1978; Hall, 1976; Levinson, Dar-row, Klein, Levinson & McKee, 1978; Schein, 1978). Much of the theory of career stages has been This research was supported by the Earl Dean Howard Chair, Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. Requests for reprints should be sent to Samuel Rabinowitz, Department of Management, 600 Tisch Hall, New York University, New York, NY 10003. 138 OOOl-8791/81/020138-07$02.00/O Copyright @ 1981 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.