Bryan J Dik

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Colorado State University

Work values—a key aspect of global value systems—play an important role in people’s career and work lives. In this paper, we report on three studies that explored, developed, and established validity evidence for the structure of work values held by Chinese university students. In Study 1, we conducted an open-ended survey ( N = 881) and coded the...

A sense of calling is an established predictor of both career-related and general well-being, but little is known about the mechanisms that link calling’s specific dimensions (i.e., transcendent summons, purposeful work, prosocial orientation) to criterion variables such as life satisfaction. This study investigated hypothesized pathways through wh...

Religion and spirituality strongly influence how most people experience the world, and opportunities to integrate faith and work abound. Yet research on religion, spirituality, and the workplace continues to have somewhat limited impact on mainstream organizational psychology and organizational behavior research. We review the most recent generatio...

Research on the nature, benefits, and facilitators of meaningful work and calling has accelerated dramatically in recent years, with wide-ranging implications for occupational health. This chapter introduces the most important concepts that consider meaningfulness in the context of work and occupational health psychology (OHP): calling and meaningf...

Data for Religious Envy publication.

This study investigated changes in nurses’ sense of calling during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as possible reasons for these changes. A total of 440 nurses in Turkey responded to a single open-ended question about their work attitudes and experiences. Emergent Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) was used to analyze the responses. Results demonst...

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N = 10, 535 participants from 24 countries...

This chapter explores connections between youth career development and mental health assessment, prevention, and intervention for children and adolescents. After a brief historical review, we present a guiding framework—Lapan’s (Career development across the K-16 years: Bridging the present to satisfying and successful futures. American Counseling...

Meta-analytic evidence suggests that experiencing one’s work as meaningful is associated with many psychological benefits. The experience of meaningful work in people with lower socioeconomic status (LSES), however, is underrepresented in the literature. This study examines how LSES individuals describe their experience of meaningful work (MW) in t...

The positive outcomes of calling have been examined in a large and growing number of studies, yet little is known about how calling relates to the work-family interface. In this study, we adopted a person-centered approach using latent profile analysis to explore how living a calling relates to different work-family interface profiles. With a sampl...

Within the last two decades, social science research on work as a calling has rapidly grown. To date, knowledge regarding prevalence and demographic differences of calling in the United States derives from data collected mainly from regionally limited and/or occupationally homogenous samples. The present study used data from the Portraits of Americ...

Most scholars consider the “calling” construct to be multidimensional, yet very little research has examined the dimensions. Of the proposed dimensions, the most unique—and controversial—is a “transcendent summons” toward a particular career. In two studies, we investigated if a transcendent summons uniquely predicts individuals’ endorsement of hav...

Research suggests that workers with unanswered callings have poorer outcomes than those without callings; however, these studies have used small or homogeneous samples (Berg et al., 2010; Gazica & Spector, 2015). We aimed to replicate this finding using a nationally representative sample of 445 full‐time workers. We compared key work and life crite...

Volunteering leads to many positive outcomes, especially when one’s reasons for volunteering are satisfied by one’s volunteer experience. But does this match between motive and experience mitigate against negative outcomes? This study examined whether congruence between reasons for volunteering (i.e., Volunteer Functions) and outcomes of volunteeri...

Research suggests that authenticity plays a positive role in one’s career decision-making process but little is known of how this role unfolds over time. In the present study, we argue that authenticity positively relates to career decision self-efficacy over time, and vice versa. We conducted a study characterized by a three-wave longitudinal desi...

Within the last decade, research on work as a calling—usually defined as an internal or external summons toward purposeful work that contributes to the common good—has exponentially increased. In recent years, it also has become a global phenomenon, with scholars from more than 20 countries now represented in the literature. Research has demonstrat...

Objectives: We explored the role of particular sources of social support (friends, romantic partners, family) as moderators and mediators in the associations between perceived stress and individual well-being (loneliness, depressive symptoms, and self-rated physical health). We also tested the possible moderating effect of gender to ascertain wheth...

With this article, we open a special issue of the Journal of Vocational Behavior on “Calling and Careers: New Insights and Future Directions.” Calling has become an important emerging topic of study in vocational psychology and organizational behavior, as the exponentially increasing volume of published studies on the topic indicates. After summari...

Research on work as a calling has proliferated within the last decade, but researchers continue to conceptualize the construct in diverse ways, potentially creating confusion and a lack of coherence as research accumulates. This study applies two typological research strategies to better understand the latent structure of calling, and differences a...

Perceiving work as a calling has been positioned as a key pathway to enhancing work-related well-being. However, no formal theory exists attempting to explain predictors and outcomes of living a calling at work. To address this important gap, this article introduces a theoretical, empirically testable model of work as a calling - the Work as Callin...

With more individuals wanting their work to be meaningful, rather than just a source of income, more organizations recognize that fostering meaningful work is crucial for engaging their employees. Although scholars from diverse disciplines have made valuable efforts to examine how individual, job, organizational, and societal factors contribute to...

It is common to hear that following one's “true self” is an important means to find a calling, yet research has not directly examined this possibility. In this study, we investigate the change pattern between authenticity and calling. Specifically, we conducted a three-wave longitudinal study with 459 Chinese university students over one year and e...

This study examined the roles of relationship-specific social support and gender in the associations between perceived stress and well-being. Three sources of support (family, friends, and romantic partners) and three well-being indicators (loneliness, depressive symptoms, and physical health) were assessed in 628 young adults attending college (Ma...

Research on work as a calling has rapidly increased in recent years, yet the lack of consensus regarding the construct’s definition presents key challenges to researchers, most notably the potential lack of coherence as research on calling accumulates. We begin with a brief overview of current definitions in the literature to illustrate the overlap...

This was a panel discussion about how to assist emerging adults understand themselves and their callings.

Positive psychology’s focus on human strengths, personal growth, and well-being is frequently applied to career development and the workplace. Such applications also fall within the purview of vocational psychology, yet despite its clear historic and contemporary emphases that support positive psychology goals, the impact of vocational psychology t...

This study used a qualitative methodology to examine how a sense of calling is related to the career change process. Interviews were conducted with eight career changers who perceived their career transition as a way to fulfill a calling. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), eight super-ordinate themes were elicited that described...

This study aimed to examine how sources of social support intersect with stress and health by testing two theoretical models. Three relationship-specific sources of social support (family, friends, and romantic partners) and two health indicators (self-rated physical health and depressive symptoms) were investigated. The sample consisted of 636 eme...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare the importance currently placed on meaningful work (MFW), and determine the frequency by which it is experienced in blue-, pink-, and white-collar occupations. Design/methodology/approachs Using the comprehensive meaningful work scale (Lips-Wiersma and Wright, 2012) with 1,683 workers across two stud...

The present studies examined the potential dark side of perceiving and living a calling with diverse samples of employed adults. In Study 1, living a calling and life meaning were found to suppress the relation between perceiving a calling and life satisfaction, resulting in these variables being significantly, negatively related. This suggests tha...

According to Gallup polls, more than 40 percent of Americans report having had a profound religious experience or awakening that changed the direction of their lives. What are the potential mental, spiritual, and even physical benefits of following the call to take a particular path in life? This standout book addresses the full range of calling ex...

In this study, we aimed to extend research on the theory of intergenerational solidarity by examining the associations between solidarity dimensions and individual adjustment among an ethnically diverse sample of college-attending emerging adults (age range: 18-25 years; N = 600). We proposed a multiple mediator model, hypothesizing that normative...

This unique book is an essential resource for interdisciplinary research and scholarship on the phenomenon of feeling called to a life path or vocation at the interface of science and religion. According to Gallup polls, more than 40 percent of Americans report having had a profound religious experience or awakening that changed the direction of th...

Purpose and meaning in career development is a rapidly growing, cross-disciplinary area of research and practice in which counseling and vocational psychology aligns with positive psychology to yield promising applications to career counseling. We provide a brief overview of theory related to purpose and meaning in work, then review six specific ar...

This study explored how the perception of work as a calling, a construct with a long history in Western culture, is experienced within Chinese culture. A qualitative study was conducted with 210 Chinese college students. Using emergent qualitative document analysis, results revealed four dimensions of general calling and career-related calling: Gui...

This study examined the endorsement of three different sources of a calling—external summons, destiny, and perfect fit—and how the endorsement of these sources related to levels of living a calling, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction. With a sample of 200 employed adults, participants were asked to select a source group that best described whe...

Occupation has been identified as a risk factor for suicide. Changes in work environments over time suggest occupations at high risk of suicide may also change. Therefore, periodic examination of suicide by occupation is warranted. The purpose of this article is to describe suicide rates by occupation, sex, and means used in Colorado for the period...

The experience of work as meaningful, evoking a positive sense of purpose, is consistently associated with beneficial work-related and general well-being outcomes. This chapter briefly overviews the sources, mechanisms, and correlates of meaningful work before summarizing three theoretical frameworks that may help explain the experience of meaningf...

Research on work as a calling has increased substantially in the last 5 years within vocational psychology and related disciplines. This special issue brings together a diverse group of scholars who address four key needs of empirical research on calling: (a) research on the measurement of calling and closely related constructs, (b) research with p...

Research on work as a calling is limited by measurement concerns. In response, the authors introduce the multidimensional Calling and Vocation Questionnaire (CVQ) and the Brief Calling scale (BCS), instruments assessing presence of, and search for, a calling. Study 1 describes CVQ development using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)...

Interviews were completed with eight counseling psychologists who viewed their careers as a calling. Using the Consensual Qualitative Research guidelines, six domains emerged: definition, process of discerning, content of the calling, professional impact, personal impact, and maintenance. Generally, interviewees viewed the discernment of their call...

Many people desire work that is meaningful. However, research in this area has attracted diverse ideas about meaningful work (MW), accompanied by an equally disparate collection of ways of assessing MW. To further advance study in this area, the authors propose a multidimensional model of work as a subjectively meaningful experience consisting of e...

In career counseling, social justice is typically integrated by helping oppressed groups navigate their way around obstacles of injustice while also working to dislodge the oppressive conditions from society. The authors affirm both of these courses of action while also advocating a third strategy: inviting clients to serve as agents of change by i...

Developing a sense of purpose is both salient and desirable for adolescents, and purpose in people's lives and careers is associated with both general and work-related well-being. However, little is known about whether purpose can be encouraged through school-based interventions. This article reports the results of a quasi-experimental pilot study...

The current study examined the relation between perceiving a calling, living a calling, and job satisfaction among a diverse group of employed adults who completed an online survey (N = 201). Perceiving a calling and living a calling were positively correlated with career commitment, work meaning, and job satisfaction. Living a calling moderated th...

Electronically mediated vocational assessment and guidance tools have become prominent in modern career counseling, leaving many career development professionals with questions about the nature of the computerized tools available and how to effectively apply these technologies in practice. In this article, the authors describe the general character...

The present study examined the relation of calling and academic satisfaction with a diverse sample of 312 undergraduate students. The presence of a calling was moderately correlated with academic satisfaction, and a multiple mediation model was utilized to test three potential mediators to this relation: career decision self-efficacy, work hope, an...

The current study tested the hypothesis that experiencing a calling to a particular career would relate positively to work-related outcomes, and that these relations would be mediated by career commitment. Using a sample of 370 employees representing diverse occupations at a Western research university, results supported these hypotheses as calling...

Research investigating Holland’s congruence hypothesis (e.g., that the degree of fit between persons and work environments predicts outcomes such as job satisfaction) has revealed a mixture of significant and nonsignificant results. The current study tested the possibility that congruence-job satisfaction relations are moderated by work centrality...

Religious traditions are considered to provide their members with a way to integrate their experiences into a coherent, comprehensible whole; functioning as a meaning system. Given that religious traditions vary in certain ways, the meaning systems they provide to their members might also differ from one another. The present study was concerned wit...

This article discusses the various ways religion and spirituality may relate to one’s career development and how religion and spirituality may be incorporated into the workplace, and presents several research and practice directions within this area of inquiry. We propose that religion and spirituality may relate to what individuals value from thei...

This study examined the relationship between Holland type (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional; Holland, 1959, 1997) congruence and incongruence (i.e., lack of fit between an occupation's 3-letter Holland code and a person's lowest 3 Holland interest types) and tested whether incongruence predicts unique varia...

This study examined open-ended responses from 295 college students to questions regarding how they define the construct of calling, how having a calling influences their career development, and the extent to which the term “calling” may apply to areas of life other than work. Results indicated that students perceived a calling as originating from g...

Recent scholarship indicates that people who view their work as a calling are more satisfied with their work and their lives. Historically, calling has been regarded as a religious experience, although modern researchers frequently have adopted a more expansive and secular conceptualization of calling, emphasizing meaning and personal fulfillment i...

Clients presenting with career-related concerns often desire a greater sense of meaning in their work. Therefore, incorporating the constructs of calling and vocation into the career counseling process may have utility. An overview of conceptual and empirical work on these constructs is provided. Drawing from recent integrated definitions of callin...

People experience well-being at both global (life) and domain (e.g. careers) levels, and presumably people experience meaning on both levels as well. Two studies assessed whether finding meaning on one level “satisfies” people's search for meaning at the other level. Study 1 assessed this question by analysing survey responses from 231 undergraduat...

The purpose of this article is to explore the wide spectrum of external influences that affect career decision making across the life span and, in particular, how these factors may directly or indirectly alter one's career trajectory and the extent of one's work volition. Career development practitioners are encouraged to respect externally oriente...

Work-related injuries or disabilities result in significant negative consequences to physical, economic, social, and psychological well-being. Depression has been shown to increase post-injury and to contribute to poor return to work outcomes. The primary goals of the study were to test known correlates of depression in a sample of injured workers...

Evaluations and Conclusions References

We review the literature on work as meaning and propose a theoretical model of factors that support engagement in meaningful work. We argue that meaningful work arises when people have a clear sense of self, an accurate understanding of the nature and expectations of their work environment, and understand how to transact with their organizations to...

A randomized controlled trial was used to test (1) the efficacy of a two-session career development workshop for college student participants; (2) the effect of counselor self-disclosure on outcomes; and (3) the effect of infusing calling and vocation concepts on outcomes. Both standard (person–environment fit) and calling/vocation-infused interven...

This article describes and demonstrates a novel approach to assessing goals and motives among individuals engaged in the career decision-making and planning process. Participants generated five career development strivings, rated each striving along several dimensions (self-efficacy, outcome expectations, sense of calling, spiritual significance, a...

Frank J. Vattano is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Emeritus University Distinguished Teaching Scholar at Colorado State University (CSU), his undergraduate alma mater. He earned his PhD in experimental psychology from The Ohio State University and served as Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the Uni...

Researchers have called for an examination of the roles that alternatives to traditional mentoring play in individuals’ career success. This study tests how important, but less examined factors, such as employees’ direct leader, personal and work factors such as ability and the formality of the organization, and employees’ engagement in career mana...

In this study, the authors investigated the extent to which factor and spatial structures of leisure interests (a) are similar to or distinct from the structure of vocational interests and (b) differ across 3 cohorts: college students (Mage = 19.6 years, SD = 1.23), working-age adults (Mage = 29.7, SD = 1.18), and retirees (Mage = 72.3 years, SD =...

This article describes the relationship between interests and well-being by conceptualizing interest as both an emotional state and a stable disposition. First, interest is explored as a distinct emotion or affective state, itself a form of well-being that also leads to other forms of well-being by facilitating the development of diverse life exper...

The purpose of this article is to initiate an effort to establish the constructs calling and vocation within counseling psychology. First, updated definitions of calling and vocation, developed with an eye toward stimulating research and providing useful practice applications, are proposed. Next, the authors explain how the constructs apply to the...

The present study investigated new approaches for assessing Holland's congruence hypothesis by (a) developing and applying four sets of decision rules for assigning Holland codes of varying lengths for purposes of computing Eggerth and Andrew's modified C index; (b) testing the modified C index computed using these four approaches against Brown and...

This longitudinal study assessed the power of the Occupational Scales (OSs) of the Strong Interest Inventory to predict the participants’ occupations 12 years after Time 1 testing, 8 years after Time 2 testing, and concurrently at Time 3. Results indicated that OS scores predicted occupational membership at a level substantially higher than chance...

This study compared the relative accuracy of (a) single Occupational Scale (OS) scores on the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) and (b) multiple-predictor scoring functions for discriminating members of nine occupations from people-in-general. The functions were constructed using discriminant function analysis with 4797 adults drawn from criterion sa...