over to Ford's marketing decision –- thus largely throwing away, it seemed, his investment in a technical education. He has never since used his engineer's training, though he implies that the insights into automotive technology he gained stood him in good stead in his later career.
This dramatic change of course at the beginning of his actual career indicates that Iacocca had what Young (1988) would call an "enabling" rather than an "empowered" view of his opportunities. He was not fixed into a set of assumptions, but was ready to change his immediate career path entirely to achieve the longer-range goal of being "in the heart" of the auto business. This change would also indicate that Iacocca chose what Zunker (n.d.), following Ann Roe, calls a person rather than nonperson-oriented career path. This would be consistent with Roe's theory, since Iacocca had a
...