The role of career management between human capital and interim leadership

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of employees’ career management processes and the relationship between human capital and interim leadership role importance. Design/methodology/approach - Responses of 413 Indian manufacturing employees with middle or top‐level management positions and who have worked as interim leaders in their organizations, were used in this study. Findings - The results of a series of hierarchical regression analyses showed that involvement in career management activities plays a mediator role in the relationship between human capital and interim leadership. More specifically, human capital variable age is a deciding factor to accept an interim leadership position in the Indian manufacturing industry. Research limitations/implications - This study focuses on the impact of employees’ career management process on choosing interim leadership positions. In other words, employees considerably invest on interim leadership positions to achieve career success through exploring the career, focusing on career goals, and implementing career strategy. Originality/value - It is the first time that the nexus of interim leadership is empirically studied with both human capital and career management concepts. This study adds value to leadership literature since assessing interim leadership performance is one of the criteria for succession planning and has great potential to change organizational hierarchical structure.