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Career transitions and employability
Abstract
How individuals can be employable and make successful career transitions throughout their working life is gaining increased attention from scholars in the field of vocational and organizational psychology for several decades now. Although contemporary career literature implicitly or explicitly assumes a strong connectedness between career transitions and employability, these two concepts have their own historical development in the literature. In this paper we provide a historical account of how the research fields around both have evolved, and we highlight some key insights from seminal work. We then review the literature to explore in more detail how the relationship between career transitions and employability has been empirically studied in the vocational and organizational psychology literature so far. We end with discussing the major observations from this review and formulate pathways for future research.
... First, by relating self-perceived employability to emotional exhaustion and work engagement in the pandemic context, our study furthers the line of study that investigates the positive role of self-perceived employability from a COR perspective. We will show if self-perceived employability's resource role still holds in a special time like the pandemic by enhancing individuals' health and productivity at work [9][10][11]. We are also the first study that examines in the same study the relative impact of self-perceived employability on psychological health and productivity [9]. ...
... Self-perceived employability helps individuals withstand the stress posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and keeps them from emotional exhaustion and to stay engaged with their work. This expanded the existing understanding on employability's role in a regular context to an unusual and challenging time like the pandemic as contributing to employment during career transitions [10]. ...
... This may be due to the contextual nature of the pandemic. The stress caused by a crisis like pandemic is uncontrollable and unpredictable, thus personal resources can only protect individuals from emotional exhaustion to a limited extent [10]. Nevertheless, self-perceived employability can help individuals remain engaged with their work despite emotional exhaustion. ...
The outbreak of COVID-19 added further stress to individuals’ work life, and employability may be especially important to help individuals to pursue sustainable career success in such a context. However, previous studies that examined the impact and the mechanisms of employability on sustainable career success are lacking, especially in the context of pandemic threat. Based on conservation of resource theory (COR), the current study aims to explore whether and how employability, as an important resource, reduced work-related emotional exhaustion and increased work engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. We expected that self-perceived employability would reduce emotional exhaustion and increase work engagement. We further expected that coping strategy mediated the effect of self-perceived employability on emotional exhaustion, and career commitment mediated its effect on work engagement. Data were collected via a national survey in China among a sample of 4990 human resource practitioners from October to December 2020 amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The proposed model was tested with structural equation modelling. Results supported the proposed model. Self-perceived employability reduced emotional exhaustion and to a larger extent, increases work engagement. The two mediating effects were of partial mediation. The implications of the results for theory and practice are discussed.
... The perception of professional development is linked to one of the theoretical models used as a basis (Mourão et al., 2020), and to the understanding that higher education training plays a central role in professional trajectories (Carvalho et al., 2021). The perception of employability, which is also little investigated in these studies of career intervention with college students (Koen et al., 2012), allows the measurement of a relevant impact, given that filling a vacancy in the labor market is one of the central goals of college students (De Vos et al., 2021;Donald et al., 2018). ...
... In addition to the professional skills necessary for the market, college students will need to develop a set of competencies that help them to face the challenges of the world of work. There is a strong link between perceived employability and career transitions (De Vos et al., 2021), self-knowledge, and market exploration (Kleine et al., 2021). Therefore, the perception of professional development in college students may be related to the expectation of getting a job in their field of study (Carvalho & Mourão, 2021b). ...
... Journal of Vocational Behavior xxx (xxxx) 103820 Another conclusion of this study is that the intervention in career planning also positively affected the perception of college students' employability in the transition phase to the job market. When planning a career, the college student can understand and acquire the skills necessary for their insertion into the work context of their area of study (Carvalho & Mourão, 2021a;Carvalho & Mourão, 2021b;De Vos et al., 2021;Donald et al., 2018;Peixoto et al., 2015). ...
There has been a growing demand for evidence-based interventions to help students prepare for the transition between university and the world of work. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a career counseling intervention, in groups and online, on the career adaptability resources and perceptions of professional development and employability of college students in the final stage of their undergraduate courses. The study was based on career construction theory and the theoretical model for professional development of college students. As a preliminary activity, the intervention was performed with a pilot group (n = 20), followed by the actual experiment with an IG (n = 14) and an N-TG (n = 14). Based on a detailed protocol, the intervention was applied for three months, with six weekly sessions and a follow-up session one month after the end of the intervention. Between the sessions, the participants were expected to accomplish directed tasks. Two observers were part of the experiment and elaborated reports of each session. The Linear Mixed Regression Model (LMM) and the Jacobson and Truax (JT) Method were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention, comparing each participant with themself before and after the intervention. The results show that career counseling with graduating college students expands their career adaptability resources, and their perceptions of professional development and employability. The no-treatment group did not present an increase in the score's dimensions over time. Therefore, based on the study, career counseling interventions can be recommended for college students to promote proactive action to anticipate barriers and increase awareness of possibilities and work interests among participants.
... Furthermore, Fleuren and colleagues [6] refer to the importance of conceptualizing and measuring the factor time in research on sustainable employability [6] and criticize earlier research for lacking a temporal perspective in their theory-building, conceptualization and measures of the concept. Besides temporal aspects, scholars also pointed to the multi-dimensional nature of the concept [1, 4,5,[7][8][9][10][11], referring to micro-, meso-and macro-level aspects of sustainable employability and subjective competencebased measures versus more labour market-based measures to conceptualize and measure sustainable employability. ...
... Another (micro-and meso-level) theoretical perspective on sustainable employability builds on Appelbaum's theory of Ability, Motivation and Opportunity [9], which postulates that sustainable employability is the result of the interaction between the workers' abilities, motivation and the opportunities provided for learning and growth within their work environment to extend their working lives [18]. In sum, theories in this research field can focus on micro-, meso-or macro-level based antecedents of the concept of sustainable employability [2] or present more macro-level process-based theories that can be labelled as integrative and multi-layered perspectives of the concept of sustainable employability [7]. ...
To facilitate new knowledge development about temporal perspectives on the topic of sustainable employability from an organizational perspective, in this Special Issue, we present new meaningful results of eight different empirical papers. Of these accepted papers, three studies were based on longitudinal survey data (2-wave panel data, whereas one study included cross-sectional survey data. Two studies included interview data (semi-structured interviews versus life-span retrospective interviews). The other two accepted papers included secondary data analyses (secondary fiscal data versus content bibliographical data). The accepted research included a variety of indicators of
sustainable employability, such as subjective competency-based measures of internal employability versus objective sustained employment and included data from different occupational contexts in Europe (three studies included Dutch data), Egypt, China and Korea. In this editorial, we discussed the lessons learned from these papers in greater detail and presented a research agenda for future research on temporal perspectives on the concept of sustainable employability.
... The concept of employability, as well as human capital, has been extensively studied by scientists in the fields of economics and organizational behavior. For example, while one study examines the relationship between employees' successful career transitions and employability (De Vos et al., 2021), another study examines the relationship between subjective well-being, employability, and intention to leave, which is another organizational behavior-related concept. (Özcelik Bozkurt, 2018). ...
Bu araştırmada ön lisans öğrencilerinin insan sermayesi algıları ile istihdam edilebilirlik algıları arasındaki ilişki incelenmektedir. Araştırma ilişkisel tarama modeli ile desenlenmiştir. Araştırma grubunda ön lisans düzeyinde öğrenim gören 855 üniversite öğrencisi yer almıştır. Araştırmada toplanan veriler Koç, Fidan ve Kurt (2012) tarafından geliştirilen İnsan Sermayesi Algısı Ölçeği ile Gunawan, Creed ve Glendon (2019) tarafından genç yetişkinler için geliştirilen ve Alkın, Korkmaz ve Balcı Çelik (2020) tarafından Türkçeye uyarlanan Algılanan Gelecekteki İstihdam Edilebilirlik Ölçeği aracılığıyla elde edilmiştir. Veriler sıklık analizi, t-testi, tek yönlü varyans analizi ve basit doğrusal regresyon istatistik yöntemleri ile çözümlenmiştir. Araştırma ile öğrencilerinin insan sermayesi algılarının orta düzey ile büyük ölçüde katılmak arasında yer aldığı istihdam edilebilirlik algılarının da ölçek maddelerine verdikleri yanıtlar bağlamında kısmen katılmak ile katılmak arasında yer aldığı sonucuna varılmıştır. Araştırmanın bir diğer sonucu ise öğrencilerin insan sermayesi algısı ile istihdam edilebilirlik algıları arasında pozitif yönde bir ilişkinin olduğu ve istihdam edilebilirlik algısının yordayıcıları arasında insan sermayesi algısının da bulunduğu yönündedir. Araştırmanın sınırlılıklarının azaltılması ve geçerliğinin artırılması adına, diğer ön lisans programları ile lisans ve yüksek lisans programlarındaki öğrenciler ile benzer araştırmaların yapılması önerilmektedir.
... Career satisfaction/success Career success is the perceived achievement individuals have accumulated as a result of their work experience (De Vos et al., 2021;Akkermans et al., 2020). Career satisfaction is a measure of individuals' contentment of their chosen career whether partially (having affinity for a particular segment of the career) or totally which emanates from the nature of the job/career like monthly income, stress management, leadership style, resource management etc. ...
Purpose
Many youths are out-of-school with few having the basic sustainable skills to earn a living. Some of the engaged ones have interpersonal relationship and other problems that can sustain the successes of their business. Therefore, this study is set to investigate the relationship between affective behaviour, emotional intelligence and success of out-of-school youths in cell phone maintenance enterprise.
Design/methodology/approach
Purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample. Of the total, 350 out-of-school youths who are engaged in cell phone maintenance enterprise in computer village Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria, were used as a sample, but 292 samples with completely filled research instrument were used for the study. Data collected were validated through the principal component analysis and the hypothesis tested through the confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS and SPSS.
Findings
The result of the study showed that affective behaviour and social skills does not necessarily but self-motivation predicts the career success of out-of-school youths in cell phone maintenance enterprise. Self-awareness, emotional regulation, social awareness and emotional receptivity significantly influence affective behaviour towards success in their chosen career.
Practical implications
This study enhances the cell phone maintenance association or group to adopt the participation of on-the-job training of their members to help them build good relationship and self-esteem. The training will improve their emotional intelligence and further enhance the creation of a formidable emotional intelligent workplace team.
Social implications
The study affirms that the constructs of emotional intelligence are predictors of career success among out-of-school cell phone maintenance. It boosts their moral and psychological behaviours towards building good customer relationship which culminates into success in their career area. This study also motivates the out-of-school youths that success is multifaceted that involves building adequate personal and social relationship within the circle of their co-maintenance personnel and customers.
Originality/value
This study showed that success in any chosen career involves adequate training, inter- and intra-personal relationship and building adequate emotional intelligence to overcome the varying challenges that may be encountered. Also it indicated that personal development in a chosen career is essential, career successes can be built around personal goal orientation rather than building it in circle of people around. The study does not totally neglect social relationship because no man can live and succeed in isolation.
... Inquisitive curiosity captures flexibility and risk taking, and optimizes career confidence (Santilli et al., 2017). Careers have been defined as a sequence of work experiences which evolve over a person's lifetime, and as the movement of a person through time and work space (De Vos et al., 2021). Work experiences help individuals to self-evaluate their personvocation fit, which in turn builds their personal career confidence and interest (Glosenberg et al., 2019). ...
... The literature theorises that developing self-confidence, self-esteem and self-efficacy enhances self-perceptions of employability long term, as indicated in the CareerEdge model. This is vital when today's graduates will encounter futures with potentially many different career experiences, including full-time and part-time paid employment, unpaid, self-employment and unemployment, and sabbatical and care-giving periods (De Vos et al., 2021). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact on student work readiness outcomes of collaboration with employers in developing and delivering tailored graduate employability workshops in socio-emotional skills for work (SES4Work).
Design/methodology/approach
Framed by the CareerEDGE model of graduate employability, the authors piloted a five-session module for near graduates in five disciplines. The research included an online employer survey ( n = 128), employer interviews ( n = 21) and tailored workshops for near graduates, culminating in a mock competency-based interview. Using a pre/post-test design, participants ( n = 24) also completed the CareerEDGE Employability Development Profile (EDP) and the Trait Emotional Intelligence questionnaire (TEIque).
Findings
After completing the module, there was a statistically significant improvement in participant scores on the CareerEDGE EDP +12.3%, p < 0.001, effect size (Cohen's d) 0.89, large, and the TEIque +6.4%, p = 0.009, effect size (Cohen's d) 0.61, moderate. Furthermore, 70% ( n = 17) of participants were “hired” based on their mock interviews, with 12% ( n = 4) offered employer connections after graduation.
Originality/value
This is the first academic research in Ireland to develop and evaluate an enterprise-collaborative, discipline-specific module for enhancing graduate employability. Findings suggest that employer collaboration can enhance the efficacy of employability interventions and therefore merits further research.
... Together, these maladaptive strategies contribute to lower levels of well-being, which may result in dropout or major change decisions (Guimarães et al., 2010;Mestan, 2016). In contrast, permanence in higher education will contribute to the human capital building, necessary for one's employability (De Vos et al., 2021;Lo Presti et al., 2020) and to the country human and financial capital (Becker, 1962;Cabrito & Cerdeira, 2018). To this end, Halstead and Lare (2018) recommended higher education professionals develop students' career skills (e.g., self and environmental exploration, planning, role management). ...
This study presents a systematic literature review about career interventions for university students exploring (1) which theoretical framework; (2) structure; (3) evaluation system; and (4) outcomes are reported. Fourteen keywords, five databases, and six eligibility criteria were defined. Among the 596 articles collected, 26 remained for meta-synthesis. Results indicated a predominance of (1) three theoretical frameworks, (2) group intervention modality, (3) pre-and post-test evaluation system, and (4) the positive development of skills in decision-making. Recommendations are presented to guide future research and practice in the field. For example, this study indicates the importance of providing updated information about the world of work within career interventions or educational programs.
... In Career Paths, we grouped categories related to the work experiences, transitions, and events that can impact over an individual's life career [76]. These are: (i) Career Development, which refers to activities performed by individuals and their organizations to enable progression within an organization (e.g., through the organizational hierarchy); it is also concerned with uncovering roadblocks to that progression [77]. ...
In this article, we employed a systematic mapping methodology to examine the existing literature at the intersection of technology, gender and organizations. While much has been written about gender in organizations, the research has not consistently considered that modern organizations are increasingly technology-driven – in technology may lie an underexplored lever that could help expand our understanding of gender issues at the workplace. By analyzing a final sample of 168 research papers, we found that two main forms of conceptualizing technology emerged: technology as culture and technology as tools. Papers in the first category are concerned with environments in which technology drives a large part of what is produced, and, therefore, heavily influences culture; authors employ this framing to study technology companies, roles, and entire economic sectors under a gender perspective. The second approach corresponds to the understanding of technology as tools that individuals can use to perform their tasks. A tool can be physical, based on software, or even combine hardware, software, procedures and people; authors employ this framing to study gendered use, or adoption, of technologies to work. We synthesized all the extracted data to obtain a mapping of the literature and conclude with suggestions for future research at the intersection of technology, gender and organizations.
... Inquisitive curiosity captures flexibility and risk taking, and optimizes career confidence (Santilli et al., 2017). Careers have been defined as a sequence of work experiences which evolve over a person's lifetime, and as the movement of a person through time and work space (De Vos et al., 2021). Work experiences help individuals to self-evaluate their personvocation fit, which in turn builds their personal career confidence and interest (Glosenberg et al., 2019). ...
Whether the hands-on experience of creating inventions can promote students’ interest in pursuing a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career has not been extensively studied. In a quantitative study, we drew on the attitude-behavior-outcome framework to explore the correlates between hands-on making attitude, epistemic curiosities, and career interest. This study targeted students who joined the selection competition for participating in the International Exhibition of Young Inventors (IEYI) in Taiwan. The objective of the invention exhibition is to encourage young students to make innovative projects by applying STEM knowledge and collaborative design. We collected 220 valid data from participants in the 2021 Taiwan IEYI selection competition and conducted a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses. Results indicated that: (1) hands-on making attitude was positively related to two types of epistemic curiosity; (2) interest-type epistemic curiosity (IEC) and deprivation-type epistemic curiosity (DEC) were positively associated with STEM career interest; additionally, DEC had a higher coefficient on STEM career interest than IEC; (3) Both types of EC had a mediating role between hands-on making attitude and STEM career interest. It is expected that encouraging students to participate in invention exhibition competitions can raise both types of EC and increase their interest in pursuing STEM careers.
... A sustainable career is dynamic and adaptable, with continual learning, periodic renewal, the security of employability, and a harmonic match with personal abilities, interests, and values (Newman, 2011). Dynamic careers have grown more frequent in recent decades, with people progressing through horizontal moves across various organizations (De Vos et al., 2021). In order to get and keep a job in this changing labor market, individuals need professional competencies to help them manage their careers (Heijde and Van Der Heijden, 2006). ...
Employability is an important indicator of the competency of the employees. Employability model is a useful analytical framework for studying the ever-changing relationship between higher education and the job market. At present, the demand for business English graduates is increasing, however, there is a skill gap between their educational readiness and the recruitment requirements. In order to solve this problem, this study adopted mixed methods research and carried out the research design according to the exploratory sequence design to construct an employability model for business English graduates. A 46-item scale was developed to measure the employability of business English graduates’ employability. After assessment, it was found that the employability of business English graduates was multi-dimensional, with three dimensions—professional knowledge, generic competencies, and career management and 10 sub-dimensions—English language skills, foreign trade competencies, computer and internet application skills, social skills, learning and development, personal traits, thinking ability, work ethics, career identity and planning, and service awareness. This study verified that the employability of business English graduates reached the standard of talent training and met the requirements of employers. There were employability differences in gender, places of origin and educational institutions. From this study, it could be inferred that cultivation of business English majors should be multi-dimensional.
... Les transitions de carrières, pouvant intervenir par exemple dans le cadre d'une altération de la santé au travail, apparaissent alors comme un élément clé des carrières contemporaines. Elles offrent aux personnes des possibilités d'apprentissage, renforcées par un nouveau contexte réglementaire, et de développement de compétences permettant d'améliorer leur employabilité (De Vos et al., 2021). Parallèlement à l'évolution des contrats, on assiste à un renouveau de la relation d'emploi accompagné par une évolution d'un accord relationnel à un accord transactionnel du contrat psychologique (Clarke, 2008). ...
Les personnels se trouvent face à de nouvelles réalités du travail (digitalisation, amplification du travail en mode projet, etc.). Celles-ci se traduisent par de nouveaux modes de travail modifiant le rapport au travail de la personne et permettant l’émergence de nouvelles formes de carrières. Pourtant, la trajectoire professionnelle peut être entravée par une altération de la santé au travail qui fragilise l’employabilité des personnels avec à la clé des enjeux humains, organisationnels mais également sociétaux, nécessitant son management.Aujourd’hui, peu de travaux en sciences de gestion mènent une réflexion relative à cette question. Malgré les apports significatifs des travaux portant sur l’employabilité d’une part, et sur la santé au travail d’autre part, peu de travaux ont établi un lien entre la santé des personnels et leur employabilité. Cette recherche doctorale s’attache donc à apporter des éléments de réponse aux questionnements liés à la sensibilisation des organisations en matière de santé au travail et à l’engagement de leurs parties prenantes pour manager l’employabilité des personnels dont la santé au travail est altérée. Ainsi, elle répond à un appel contemporain des chercheurs en direction d’une logique managériale de la santé au travail.Nous avons mobilisé une démarche qualitative exploratoire. Notre stratégie d’accès au réel, pour décrire et expliquer pour mieux comprendre l’engagement des parties prenantes dans une démarche de management de l’employabilité des personnels dont la santé au travail est altérée, a consisté en une étude de cas multiples au sein d’une collectivité territoriale, la Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur, et au sein d’une entreprise du secteur du nettoyage, l’entreprise GSF Jupiter.Les résultats de ce travail mettent en évidence la nécessité de l’engagement de toutes les parties prenantes d’une organisation dans une démarche de management de l’employabilité des personnels dont la santé au travail est altérée, l’engagement étant déterminé par l’importance de la capacité de mobilisation des parties prenantes dans cette démarche. Ils contribuent à apporter une fine compréhension des mécanismes, que nous avons identifiés à des niveaux institutionnel, organisationnel et individuel, qui expliquent l’engagement des parties prenantes. Enfin, ils mettent en lumière des dynamiques d’engagement des parties prenantes déployées dans une perspective inclusive.
This article reviews the outcomes of five purposely selected group career construction research projects conducted in a developing country context. Thematic data analysis was done on the results of these projects to identify qualitatively the strengths and areas for development (weaknesses) of the approach followed in these projects. The findings demonstrated the value of career constructing in contexts that differed substantially from the context in which the career construction counselling was originally developed. Overall, the quantitative findings in regard to career adaptability revealed that the women benefited more from the intervention than the men. The findings in regard to career decision-making difficulties also uncovered gender differences. The qualitative outcomes revealed that the participants’ psychological self as an autobiographical author benefited more from the intervention than either the social actor or the motivated agent. Future research should focus on the application of group career construction counselling with larger groups, using instruments based on career construction counselling theory developed locally. Moreover, given current developments (including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on employment), special emphasis should be placed on research among the unemployed. Keywords: psychological self, integrative group career construction, Global South, unemployment
As a large accumulation of data is captured and contained, organisations find that the invaluable information can be used to improve company performance, leverage competitive advantages, and create business values. Using business analytics (BA) job advertisements collected from a recruiting website, this study identified knowledge domains and skillsets of BA professionals. Additionally, it examined the relative importance of these BA skills in different industries such as Financial and Information Technology services. The results of Text mining analysis indicate that data modelling, statistical software, visualisation, forecasting, and database are the top ranked BA technical skills. In addition, process skills such as communication, project management, and financial techniques are crucial. The association rules analysis recognises the relative importance of BA skillsets across different industries. The findings contribute to the employability and professional development of new graduates; additionally, they provide insights to BA academic curriculum design and human resources management.
Although frequent role transitions have become a fixture of contemporary careers, the literature does not offer clear evidence on whether and how former career roles continue to be relevant to ongoing careers. We draw on data collected via 41 interviews with former military officers who voluntarily left the military, and we explore how identities informed by past careers impact individuals' future career enactment. We argue that, while identity motives unfulfilled by a certain career role can trigger a transition, a reflexive awareness of the motives it fulfilled can prompt the former identity to linger and influence individuals' career paths. Our study adds theoretical depth to the careers and identity literatures by identifying three career pathways that emerge from this predicament and impact career enactment. We term the occupants of these pathways as settlers, explorers, and shapers. Our study elaborates how identities informed by prior roles influence career enactment, noting that individuals may not jettison identities informed by such roles on making a career transition. Thus, we question the linear relation between career change and identity change that is presupposed by prior studies on career transitions. We also highlight the double-edge of prior career role identities, showing how they continue to inflect ongoing cognition and behavior through a process of imprinting.
The objective of the study was to examine the perceptions of business students on their employability skills at the point of graduation. The study was partially driven by past research which identified lack of soft skills as one of the main contributing factors in younger workers’ dismissal from work, and the need to understand the level of employability skills younger graduates have at graduation. An exploratory descriptive research methodology was used for the study. A survey was administered to 189 fourth-year business students. In total, 90 students filled-in the questionnaire, representing a 47.6% response rate. Based on a structured survey questionnaire administered to final-year undergraduate business students, the four most important employability skills for recruitment to entry-level positions are communication skills, learning skills, positive attitudes and behaviours, and problem-solving skills. The main prominent result was that ‘learning skills’ were ranked the second most important employability skills. In today’s fast-paced, rapidly changing work environments that are characterised by rapid knowledge obsolescence and an unknown future, willingness to learn and proactive lifelong learning are key to sustaining long-term graduate employability. Students seem to be satisfied with their perceived level of academic, personal management, and teamwork skills they possessed at the point of graduation. However, there are possible areas for further improvement regarding creativity and innovative skills, and ability to ‘resolve and management conflicts’ in teamwork. The study found that students used a combination of traditional and student-centred learning methods and pedagogies to acquire employability skills. As business students approach graduation, it is important to focus on areas they can improve and emphasise self-directed lifelong learning throughout their careers. The study confirms the role of external factors—labour market demand—in influencing perceived employability. The perceptions of students need to be systematically included in HEIs’ employability policy and discourse.
The author reflects on her term as editor of the Journal of Vocational Behavior, articulating questions she continues to have about the field. She reviews the changes in the journal, particularly considering the goals she set out to achieve as editor. She gives some tips for authors from the perspective of reading much of over 5000 submissions in the past 7 years. She discusses the two subfields of research in work and career decisions: vocational psychology and organizational/work psychology and offers some suggestions on reconceptualizing the two “islands” in the field—as Savickas (2001) termed these two areas. Finally, she offers some suggestions for future research in vocational behavior.
Personal Branding in the Knowledge Economy: The Interrelationship between Corporate and Employee Brands aims to contribute to the academic debate about the marketization of individuals' knowledge, creativity, and personal images, alongside a growing interest in the whole area of branding in the networked economy based on knowledge.
Despite a plethora of research on turnover intentions, we know little about the impact of subjective career aspects (e.g., authenticity, recognition, and meaningful work) on turnover intentions. Drawing upon turnover theory, we argue that subjective career success negatively influences organizational and occupational turnover intentions. This negative effect will be stronger in the presence of career competencies and high perceived employability. To test these relationships, we conducted two field studies using a two-wave survey method. Results of both studies indicated that the negative impact of subjective career success on turnover intentions was strongest when the perceived employability and career competencies were high. In Study 1, we found these relationships significant for organizational turnover intentions. Through Study 2, we found significant results for occupational turnover intentions due to their occupational investments in a new profession. We discuss the contributions of findings to the careers and turnover literature.
We all know people who want to make a change in their careers but do not act on this desire. Yet this phenomenon, recently labeled “career inaction” (Verbruggen & De Vos, 2020), has received almost no research attention to date. To address this gap and enrich our understanding of career inaction, this paper explores the lived experiences of 43 individuals characterized by inaction. Employing a qualitative research design and informed by the broader literature on psychodynamics, we find that people's experience of inaction is emotionally tense and situated among the interaction of three psychodynamic “me”-identifications: the “striving me,” the “comfortable me,” and the “uncertain me.” Our study further identifies various tension-easing strategies that help people ease the psychological strain of career inaction, even though their inaction often continued. Altogether, our study enriches and extends extant theorizing on career inaction and calls for a renewed focus on bounded rationality and emotionality in contemporary careers.
This article reviews the outcomes of five purposely selected group career construction research projects conducted in a developing country context. Thematic data analysis was done on the results of these projects to identify qualitatively the strengths and areas for development (weaknesses) of the approach followed in these projects. The findings demonstrated the value of career constructing in contexts that differed substantially from the context in which the career construction counselling was originally developed. Overall, the quantitative findings in regard to career adaptability revealed that the women benefited more from the intervention than the men. The findings in regard to career decision-making difficulties also uncovered gender differences. The qualitative outcomes revealed that the participants’ psychological self as an autobiographical author benefited more from the intervention than either the social actor or the motivated agent. Future research should focus on the application of group career construction counselling with larger groups, using instruments based on career construction counselling theory developed locally. Moreover, given current developments (including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on employment), special emphasis should be placed on research among the unemployed. Keywords: psychological self, integrative group career construction, Global South, unemployment
In the current career landscape and labor market, career transitions have become a critical aspect of career development and are significant for Human Resource Development (HRD) research and practice. Our research examines the type of support used during different career transitions and who can provide that support to women in career transition. We investigated four types of social support—emotional, appraisal, informational, and instrumental—and their roles in five types of career transitions: school-to-work transition, upward mobility transition, transition to a new profession, transition to entrepreneurship, career re-entry transition, and transition to retirement. We analyzed 80 journal articles using directed content analysis, cross-tabulation, and nonparametric statistical tests. Instrumental support appears to be the most commonly documented type of social support in this career transition literature. Appraisal support was consistently documented least for each type of career transition. Our results may highlight the importance of personal connections and internal resources in successful career transitions for women. Based on our findings, we offer a model of women's social support network for career transitions and advocate for expanded networks of social support for women anticipating and during career transitions. The results of our study contain insights for how women can be supported in transitioning to the next career experience. We conclude with suggestions for future research.
Purpose
Careers have come to dominate contemporary discourse on gendered entrepreneurship. This paper aims to explore entrepreneurial careers as recounted by commercially successful female entrepreneurs to examine how they strategize to construct desirable careers in contexts characterized by underdeveloped markets and weak institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a qualitative research design, data for our inquiry come from publicly available life history accounts of 20 female entrepreneurs appearing on an enterprise focus television show in Nigeria. The authors supplemented the television interview data with archival data in the form of publicly available digital footprints of the entrepreneurs collected from their company websites, magazines, online newspapers featuring these entrepreneurs and their social media pages such as LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Facebook and Instagram.
Findings
The careers of female entrepreneurs operating in context of underdeveloped institution and markets, the authors found, are characterized by four heterogeneous ingrained dispositions and actions reflecting how they got in and got on with their entrepreneurial careers: (1) “Observing and playing business,” (2) traipsing the “path less traveled,” (3) a hook to the “Pierian spring” of entrepreneurship and (4) “Grace under pressure” in decision-making.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by providing insight into the lived experiences, agency and careers of commercially successful female entrepreneurs as played out in the form of a contextual practice of “wayfinding” to starting up and managing their own business ventures.
There is a growing demand by employers for graduates to exhibit requisite attributes that are necessary for the effective functioning of their organizations. Therefore, higher education providers are utilizing information and communication technologies (ICTs), through E-learning environments, to help propel the agenda of graduates skill acquisition and development. Thus, the objective of this study is aimed at improving our understanding of the usage of ICTs in higher education delivery and it effect on graduate's employability. Data for the study was obtained through a survey of 319 respondents made up students who have recently graduated from tertiary education institution in Ghana. In testing our research model, a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling technique (PLS-SEM) analysis was done to examine the theoretical relationship between latent constructs, and measurement paths between latent constructs and its indicators. The results revealed that the most significant feature of E-learning environment, in higher education delivery with the tendency to positively impact students career development toward employability is, interactive and collaborative learning. By reviewing fresh graduates' perception in relation to the value that E-learning environments add to their employability in the job market, this is one of the few studies questioning whether these values and benefits are capable of curbing the rising levels of skill-labor mismatch in the context of developing economies. The findings of this study suggests EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH-Vol. IX, Issue 6 / September 2021 3210 that graduates who experienced more interaction during their study have a relatively positive views on their employability skills.
The purpose of this study is to examine Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI) as a predictor of career adaptability assessing the moderating roles of culture (country of origin) and gender. We position our research on Career Construction Theory (Savickas, 2005, 2013), on the theoretical tenets of action theory of career development (Young et al., 1996) and on culture propositions of Hofstede (1980, 2001). The sample in this study, is a convenience one and is made up of 349 undergraduate students from two universities (France and the other in Argentina), the results revealed that all 4 factors of Trait Emotional Intelligence were positively related to Career Adaptability. Our findings contribute to the career theory literature by enhancing the understanding of the predictors of career adaptability of young individuals in two different cultural contexts.
This article is the editor's introduction to a special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Vocational Behavior. The theme of the special issue was integrating vocational and organizational psychology. The Editor-in-Chief reviews how the topics were chosen for the special issue, reviews the 9 articles that were invited, and the 8 essays contributed by the editorial team. The nine invited topics include manuscripts on career transitions, career adaptability, career decision-making, career self-management, lifespan and life stage in careers, precarious work, women at work, work-family integration, and social justice and career development. She then highlights the need for theoretically grounded research and briefly discusses two areas that were highlighted in many of the articles: the need for longitudinal research and the importance of context in vocational research.
This article is part of the 50th anniversary issue of the Journal of Vocational Behavior (JVB), with a focus on person-environment (P-E) fit. P-E fit has been a central research area in vocational and organizational psychology. With a focus on highly influential work in both fields, this article aims to synthesize P-E fit literature and develop theoretical models to guide future research. First, we summarize key perspectives and the state of the art in the general P-E fit literature. Second, based on a succinct review of P-E fit papers published in JVB, we take an interdisciplinary approach to critically discuss the conceptual and methodical ambiguities in this area. Third, we integrate identity and social exchange theories to present an Identity-Capability-Reward (ICR) model to conceptualize P-E fit across job roles and work entities at different levels. Fourth, we draw upon self-regulation and life-span development perspectives to propose a cybernetic development model that theorizes the self-regulated changes of fit experiences across time. We conclude with recommendations for an integrative, dynamic, and developmental approach to advance the P-E fit theories.
This longitudinal study among Registered Nurses has four purposes: (1) to investigate whether emotional, quantitative and physical demands, and family-work conflict have a negative impact on nurses' perceived effort; (2) to investigate whether quality of leadership, developmental opportunities, and social support from supervisors and colleagues have a positive impact on meaning of work; (3) to investigate whether burnout from the combined impact of perceived effort and meaning of work mediates the relationship with occupational turnover intention; and (4) whether the relationships in our overall hypothesized framework are moderated by age (nurses categorized under 40 years versus 40 years old). In line with our expectations, emotional, quantitative, and physical demands, plus family-work conflict appeared to increase levels of perceived effort. Quality of leadership, developmental opportunities, and social support from supervisors and colleagues increased the meaning of work levels. In addition, increased perceived stress resulted in higher burnout levels, while increased meaning of work resulted in decreased burnout levels. Finally, higher burnout levels appeared to lead to a higher occupational turnover intention. Obviously, a nursing workforce that is in good physical and psychological condition is only conceivable when health care managers protect the employability of their nursing staff, and when there is a dual responsibility for a sustainable workforce. Additionally, thorough attention for the character of job demands and job resources according to nurses' age category is necessary in creating meaningful management interventions.
A sustainable career is one in which individuals enjoy at least a moderate degree of productivity, health, and happiness across their lifespan. To elucidate what people might need to learn to enhance their career sustainability, we depict a wide range of typical career- and home-realm challenges. Being in learning mode is proposed as a self-regulatory meta-competency that shapes self-directed learning regarding how to tackle sustainable career challenges. People are in learning mode when they hold a growth mindset as they cycle through relevant approach, action, and reflection experiential learning processes. Given the relative stability yet plasticity of mindsets, we offer a dual-process model of mindsets that highlights how people may be nudged in and out of learning mode, both momentarily and over longer time frames. We outline implications for sustainable careers and mindsets theory and research, as well as practical implications for organizations, management education, vocational counseling and peer coaching, and those striving to forge a more sustainable career.
Ten scholars in vocational psychology identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in a 2001 issue of the Journal of Vocational Behavior. This article reviews the state of the field in 2001 and then identifies to what extent the strengths and concerns have changed in the past two decades. While the field continues to have a strong theoretical and empirical tradition, old concerns about insularity, methods used to examine research questions, gulfs between science and practice, and turf wars remain a serious threat to the field. We outline the nature of these concerns and propose recommendations from the literature to these concerns.
This study investigates the relationship between perceived investments in Human Resource (HR) practices and workplace commitment, from the perspective of social exchange theory. An innovative feature is that we introduce perceived employability as a potential mediator, thus bringing in a career perspective: our argument is that perceived investments in HR practices promote feelings of employability, which then create workplace commitment. Based on a 6-week follow-up sample (N = 437) and a 1-year follow-up sample (N = 127), the results of structural equation modeling analyses mostly provided support for our hypotheses. Participation and communication practices were linked to commitment via employability (in both samples), and training and development only in the short term (6-week sample). Performance feedback and reward practices, however, were unrelated to commitment via employability. Overall, our findings show that employees bring in career considerations, employability concerns in particular, in the exchange with their employer. In addition, we contribute to filling the HRM “black box” by showing that employability might be an explanatory mechanism in the HR practices – outcome relationship.
This study examines when and why turnover cognitions affect stayers’ subsequent career
satisfaction. To develop our hypotheses, we build on and compare two theoretical perspectives, i.e., the insufficient justification perspective and regret theory. Hypotheses were tested using two studies with Belgian employees. The baseline hypothesis that initial turnover cognitions are related with lower subsequent career satisfaction received support in both studies. In Study 1, using two-wave data from 226 employees in four organizations, we tested whether the turnover cognitions-subsequent career satisfaction relationship was moderated by four contextual factors (i.e., internal job transitions, lack of external job opportunities, on-thejob embeddedness and off-the-job embeddedness). We found marginal support for a mitigating role of internal job transitions, support for a mitigating role of lack of external job opportunities and support for an amplifying role of off-the-job embeddedness. We found no moderation effect of on-the-job embeddedness. In Study 2, using three-wave information from 705 employees in seven organizations, we tested and found support for the mediating role of justifiability and regret. Overall, this study shows that turnover cognitions have consequences when people end up staying in their organization, which calls for more theoretical and empirical work on staying despite preceding turnover cognitions in order to improve our understanding of the complexity and dynamic nature of the turnover/retention phenomenon.
This study investigates the joint effects of individual characteristics and the labour market on career mobility. We propose that level of education, openness to experience, and a favourable labour market relate positively to employees crossing organizational, industrial, and occupational boundaries. Management programme alumni (N = 503) provided information through an online survey about their career histories, their level of education, and their openness to experience. Additionally, we used the unemployment rate as an indicator for yearly changes in the labour market. The results of our cross-classified multilevel analysis indicate that both individual characteristics and the labour market are determinants of career mobility. Level of education had a positive effect on organizational and industrial boundary crossing, and changes in the labour market related to organizational boundary crossing. Against our assumptions, openness to experience had no effect on career mobility, and none of the predictors were related to occupational boundary crossing. Our results demonstrate the importance of investigating career mobility from a boundary perspective combined with a focus on both individual and contextual characteristics. The dominance of education compared to personality and the difficulty of explaining occupational mobility open new research avenues and yield practical implications for employees, career counsellors, and organizations.
This chapter intends to contribute to a better understanding of career development over the lifespan by examining individual as well as contextual factors contributing to life-long career development. Considering manifold changes in the work environment as well as throughout the individual’s career, we review classic theories of career development in the beginning of this chapter. We then describe changes in today’s careers and depict modern career theories such as the protean or the boundaryless career. Subsequently, we elaborate on sources of change over the lifespan from an individual perspective: We explain how changes in personality, work values or goal setting influence career development. From an organizational perspective, we describe how changes in the psychological contract or various age norms may influence the career development of employees. In the last part of this chapter, we outline central career developmental issues for individuals over the lifespan and point out recommendations for organizations in order to help promoting a meaningful, fulfilling, and sustainable career development over the lifespan.
Previous research attempted to identify personal resources that promote employability, that is, an individual’s chance to find and maintain employment. This has resulted in a large number of different personal resources, which are not always clearly differentiated from one another and often seem to—at least partially—overlap conceptually and/or empirically. In response, we aim at conceptual clarification and integration of what we coin “employability capital”. Based on a literature review, we developed a conceptual framework that integrates the various facets. Two types of distinctions were found: (a) an employability distinction, which differentiates between job-related, career-related, and development-related employability capital, and (b) a capital distinction, which differentiates between human capital (more specifically knowledge, skills, and attitudes) and social capital. We performed a Q-sorting study in which items of existing measurements were mapped onto the conceptual framework by subject matter experts. Overall, we found support for the conceptual framework.
Based on career construction theory, this study examined the relationships between career adaptability, organizational success, and individual career success with the moderating effect of career identity. Using a time-lagged survey design, we tested the proposed model on a sample of 1,652 employees from 20 Chinese companies. The results showed that career adaptability was negatively related to turnover intention but positively associated with supervisor-rated job performance, career satisfaction, and yearly income. In addition, the relationship between career adaptability and turnover intention was significantly positive for employees with low levels of career identity. Moreover, the positive relationship between career adaptability and career satisfaction was stronger for employees with high levels of career identity, and the relationship between career adaptability and yearly income was significantly positive for employees with high levels of career identity. We discuss the research implications for the development of career adaptability and career counseling.
The antecedents of voluntary employee turnover are well studied but little is known about the
consequences or outcomes of this voluntary job mobility. We address this gap through a
survey study of 121 banking employees who have changed their employer in the last three
years. We hypothesized that job change, whether self-initiated or imposed, may improve
organizational commitment, work engagement, and well-being. These positive effects are
expected when the job change is perceived as professionally and personally beneficial.
Regression analyses revealed that employer change that is perceived as successful, whether
voluntary or not, predicts an increase in general well-being, work engagement and, to a lesser
extent, affective organizational commitment. These results suggest that employer change may
help employees to be more mobilized in their new work. Misconceptions about highly mobile
employees and advantages of job change for both employees and organizations are discussed.
This article surveys 100 years of research on career management and retirement, with a primary focus on work published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Research on career management took off in the 1920s, with most attention devoted to the development and validation of career interest inventories. Over time, research expanded to attend to broader issues such as the predictors and outcomes of career interests and choice; the nature of career success and who achieves it; career transitions and adaptability to change; retirement decision making and adjustment; and bridge employment. In this article, we provide a timeline for the evolution of the career management and retirement literature, review major theoretical perspectives and findings on career management and retirement, and discuss important future research directions.
We review seminal publications on employee turnover during the 100-year existence of the Journal of Applied Psychology. Along with classic articles from this journal, we expand our review to include other publications that yielded key theoretical and methodological contributions to the turnover literature. We first describe how the earliest papers examined practical methods for turnover reduction or control and then explain how theory development and testing began in the mid-20th century and dominated the academic literature until the turn of the century. We then track 21st century interest in the psychology of staying (rather than leaving) and attitudinal trajectories in predicting turnover. Finally, we discuss the rising scholarship on collective turnover given the centrality of human capital flight to practitioners and to the field of human resource management strategy.
In this study, being "locked-in" at the workplace is conceptualized as being in a non-preferred workplace while at the same time perceiving low employability. The aim of the study was to investigate how being locked-in or at risk of becoming locked-in (being in a non-preferred workplace yet currently satisfied, combined with perceiving low employability) relates to well-being (subjective health and depressive symptoms). The hypotheses were tested in a Swedish longitudinal sample (T1 in 2010 and T2 in 2012) of permanent employees (N = 3491). The results showed that stability with regard to locked-in-related status (being non-locked-in, at risk of becoming locked-in, or locked-in at both T1 and T2) was related to significant and stable differences in well-being. The non-locked-in status was associated with better well-being than being at risk of becoming locked-in. Moreover, those at risk of becoming locked-in showed better well-being than those with stable locked-in status. Changes towards non-locked-in were accompanied by significant improvements in well-being, and changes towards locked-in were associated with impairments in well-being. The relationships that were found could not be attributed to differences in demographic variables and occupational preference. The findings indicate that being locked-in is detrimental to well-being. This has implications for preventative interventions.
The relationship between perceived employability and turnover intentions seems much more complicated than what the common sense would suggest. Based on the reviewed literature, it was expected that job satisfaction, affective commitment, and perceived job security would moderate this relationship. Using a sample of working individuals from different occupations and sectors (N = 721), it was found that employees who perceived themselves as highly employable were more likely to have turnover intentions when their affective commitment was low and perceived job security was high; and the relationship was negative for employees with shorter tenures. Understanding the conditions under which perceived employability is associated with turnover intentions may help organizations design human resource policies that allow them to retain an educated and competent workforce.
Boundaries in the study of career Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out In a world imagined by apostles of self-help such as Horatio Alger, Samuel Smiles (Smiles, 1958), or Hollywood, anyone can do anything; there are no limits to the life that can be led. Yet casual empiricism shows that if there is any truth in this assertion, it applies to a remarkable few. We watch the careers of those who start from humble beginnings and rise to dizzy heights with a mixture of awe and suspicion, perhaps animated by a tinge of jealousy. Awe, because the achievements are so remarkable; suspicion, just because the achievements are so remarkable. It might be that if we can attribute these paragons' rise to anything other than ability and hard work—for example, to a wise choice of parent or good social of ...
The vulnerable situation of temporary agency workers is manifested in previous research that evidences the job insecurity of this group. However, research shows that this insecurity is due to the temporary nature of employment contracts for this group of workers. In Sweden, where temporary agency workers have the same type of employment contracts (i.e., temporary or permanent contracts) and are entitled to the same employment protection as other groups of employees, one might expect a different picture. This article examines the situation of temporary agency workers who have the same working conditions as client organization employees. These workers have permanent contracts and are treated like client organization employees. We have chosen to examine this case because we anticipate it to be very likely to contradict statements regarding temporary agency workers’ affiliation with the precariat. This article aims to empirically elucidate the precariousness of temporary agency workers who are highly integrated with client organization employees and who share the same work tasks. Our analysis shows that competence development is crucial to perceptions of job security. However, temporary agency workers lack competence development, both on the part of the employer (the temporary work agency) and on the part of the client organization. The client organization has no incentive to invest more than the required competencies, since temporary agency workers only constitute a buffer in case of a downturn. We argue that it is the agency workers’ connection with a buffer that results in a lack of job security. Our results also show that temporary agency workers’ job security could be increased if temporary agencies were to invest in competence development for the agency workers, thus overcoming these workers’ vulnerability in constituting a buffer.
The Chaos Theory of Careers outlines the application of chaos theory to the field of career development. It draws together and extends the work that the authors have been doing over the last 8 to 10 years.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to reflect on a broad body of work that responds to the boundaryless career concept, first introduced in 1993, and to anticipate new theory-building and research. Design/methodology/approach - Covers the origination of the concept, its meaning and definition, the underlying influence of an earlier group of careers scholars from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the importance of an interdisciplinary perspective. Findings - Identifies three categories of activity - involving internal debates, fresh theoretical contributions, and new collaborative opportunities - that have occurred citing boundaryless career scholarship. Research limitations/implications - Suggests how scholars can build on the legacy of both organizational and boundaryless careers research in their future work. Originality/value - Links between foundational MIT work on careers, boundaryless careers and current debates to suggests future research directions.
This article investigates how ethnicity, gender and other characteristics affect low-paid workers’ perceptions of their employability in London’s labour market, examining self-efficacy, ethnic and dual labour market theories. The authors find that perceptions vary considerably, both between genders and ethnicities and in the extent to which they are ‘justified’ by human capital attributes. Optimism varies between genders and ethnic groups but individuals’ perceptions vary to an even greater extent within genders and ethnic groups. Hence, individual-level ‘self-determination’ explanations of these perceptions appear to have greatest explanatory power in this specific context, although ethnic theories also have utility.
In this contribution, we provide a critical analysis of the current status of vocational psychology and present an expansive vision for the future. We begin with an overview of the importance of vocational psychology in the history of The Counseling Psychologist, followed by a critical review of contemporary theory, research, practice, and training. We aim to expand the traditional purview of career choice and development and broaden the impact of the field to meet the needs of all who work and who want to work. We propose a new mission for vocational psychology characterized by innovative theoretical advancements, renewed interdisciplinary and international collaborations, and the inclusion of macrolevel factors in research, practice, and policy. Lastly, we conclude with a vision of vocational psychology in 20 years, which optimally will be reflected in a broadened scope of mission, integrative theoretical frameworks, and an expanded training and policy agenda.
This qualitative study offers empirically-based explanations of the dynamics of career mobility trajectories to self-employment, a popular phenomenon in real life but less so in the literature. Embedded in the career ecosystem of an emerging-economy country, we investigate the mobility dynamics of people in different stages of their self-employment career. We conducted in-depth interviews with 35 individuals who opted for entrepreneurship or self-employed careers, and deploy the interpretive phenomenology to explore the dynamics of career mobility of self-employment. The results demonstrate different patterns of mobility between self- and paid employment during individuals’ career sequences. The different push and pull forces that influence mobility are identified and explained. The study advances the theories of career and entrepreneurship literature by not only illustrating the mobility dynamics of self-employment as a stage of one’s career but by also exploring the dynamic mechanisms of the mobility, drawing on the career ecosystem framework.
Most, if not all, workplace phenomena are dynamic, meaning that they emerge, evolve, and dissolve over time. Yet, the role of time is commonly overlooked in OB literature. This special issue showcases how a temporal process-oriented lens can be used to study dynamics of workplace phenomena. In this editorial, we define the term dynamics, arguing that research on workplace dynamics focuses on how within-person (or more broadly, within-unit) processes unfold over time. Moreover , we zoom in on the diverse roles of time, illustrating the rich diversity in research on workplace dynamics, and we highlight three specific challenges for scholars wanting to pursue this line of research. We conclude that the time has come to move from a differential to a temporal and process-oriented perspective, allowing us to understand what happens, how things happen, and why things happen at the workplace.
In this paper, we provoke the strong focus on personal agency in employability research. We counter three dominant assumptions in the literature, namely, (a) that employability is an individual asset, (b) that employability is owned by the individual, and (c) that employability leads to positive outcomes. A key observation is that the three dominant theories that are being used in employability studies, namely, human capital theory, conservation of resources theory, and social exchange theory, also question these core agency assumptions that form the basis of those studies. Based on these theories, we identify three blind spots in employability research: Employability is (a) contextual, (b) relational, and (3) polarising. Taken together, we make the case that the agency perspective overlooks a potential dark side of employability: The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall. We outline a future research agenda on this potential dark side of employability.
This article uses bibliometric analysis to review the Journal of Vocational Behavior (JVB) over 23 years. To conduct this review, we systematically analyzed 1490 JVB articles published from 1994 to 2016. We draw on this analysis to answer the questions: a) What key works did JVB articles build on during this period? and b) What key topics, articles, and trends appeared in the journal? We then provide empirically grounded reviews of major topic areas in JVB, and discuss recommendations for future research. This review is accompanied by two analytic science maps: 1) a co-citation map that reveals 466 key works referenced by JVB articles (http://bit.ly/JVBFoundationsMap), and 2) a topic map that reveals 353 JVB article topics, topic relations, topic trends, and citation rates associated with each topic (http://bit.ly/JVBTopicMap). These maps provide an overview of key vocational behavior topics and scholarship that readers can download and interactively explore to help guide their future research.
Purpose: Employability has been suggested as an alternative to job security in response to more flexible work arrangements, arguing that the important question for employees is no longer the security of their current job, but their employment security in the labour market. The purpose of this paper is to test two core assumptions of this argument: first, is employability associated with a lower preference for job security? And second, are individuals with lower job security in fact compensated with higher employability? Both assumptions have received criticism in recent literature. The focus is on employees’ perceived basic and aspiring employability. The former refers to employees’ expectations of remaining in employment and the latter to expectations of upward mobility.
Design/methodology/approach: The data used in the analysis were nationally representative Norwegian survey data from 12,945 employees (2009–2013).
Findings: Employees with higher aspiring employability and education levels have a significantly lower preference for job security, but this is not the case for employees with higher basic employability. Additionally, while employees with lower job security have higher aspiring employability, they have lower basic employability and receive less employer-supported training.
Originality/value: The current paper is the first to investigate how employability relates to the employees’ own preference for job security. In line with critics of the employability argument, the results support that job security continues to be an important protection mechanism. Moreover, employees with low job security lose out twice as employers also invest less in their training and future employability.
The concept of boundaryless careers characterizes emerging career patterns that are less dependent on traditional organizational career management. Based on an evidence-based review of literature on the relationship between career boundarylessness and career success published from 1994 to 2018, we found that boundaryless careers have mixed effects on the various indictors of career success, and these effects depend on the operationalization of career boundarylessness, the motives (voluntary vs. involuntary), career competencies, adaptive capabilities and career resources held by individuals, as well as the structural constraints and institutional support for boundary-crossing behaviors. In addition, career success was also found to predict subsequent career mobility. Based on these findings, we develop an integrative model to understand the complicated and dynamic relationship between boundaryless careers and career success. This review serves as an important step to integrate theories and research on boundaryless careers and career success, and more interdisciplinary work should be done in the future to examine this question.
[Accepted for publication] Recent economic and organizational changes have fostered an increasing diversification of the workforce, among whom freelancers are an underrepresented population in the literature. This study aimed at examining the role of protean and boundaryless career, professional commitment, and employability activities in fostering freelancers’ subjective career success. Data were collected via an online survey among a sample of 425 Italian freelancers, and analysed through structural equation modeling. Results partially confirmed several hypotheses: higher self-directed career management and boundaryless mindset predicted higher employability activities and professional commitment; moreover, employability and professional commitment acted as mediators between career attitudes and subjective career success. The study provides support for the importance of such variables to freelancers’ career success, as well as for the significance of protean and boundaryless careers among non-traditional occupational groups. Interventions aimed at fostering such attitudes could support freelancers in improving their attainment of professional progress and perception of career success.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine selection practices of school districts by capturing the
promotion of teachers to assistant principal positions to determine if: there is a relationship between
employability and assistant principal promotion (within-school, within-district, and external); and if the
state-specific educational leadership policy directly impacts the employability of assistant principal candidates.
Design/methodology/approach
Principals in the state of Georgia were the unit of analysis, and data
collected included personal characteristics of each participant when entering their first assistant principal
position, school characteristics of the place of promotion, and type of promotion (internally within-school,
internally within-district, and externally). Both descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were
utilized to examine the impact of type of promotion as well as the state-specific educational leadership policy
on participant employability at the time of promotion.
Findings
This study found a significant positive relationship between internal promotion (within-school)
and employability as well as a negative association between participant employability and Georgia
state-specific policy. Additional findings indicate a positive relationship between combination schools
(i.e. grades K-8; 6-12) and participant employability.
Originality/value
This study advances the HRM literature concerning employee selection by expanding
the scope of hiring practices outside of the private sector and provides focus on the public sector, specifically,
the public school environment. In addition, the focal position (public school administrators in the state of
Georgia) has yet to be utilized in employee selection research in the areas of internal and external promotion.
Previous researchers have studied the probability of internal and external promotion based on demographic
factors such as race and gender, however, this specific study uses distinctive predictor variables backed by
literature to evaluate applicant employability
The progression of occupational careers can be conceptualized as a path-dependent process, in which former decisions affect the range of occupational alternatives. The impending losses of human capital increasingly dissuade individuals from changing their occupation. We suggest that path dependence will lead to a decrease in mobility in occupational careers over time, and that occupational turbulence in the earlier career stages will be linked to turbulence in the later stages of an occupational career. Our sample comprises the first 15 years after entry to the labor force in the occupational histories of 456 individuals from Germany. To test our assumptions, we introduce a method that allows us to examine the turbulence – that is, the number of occupational transitions and/or distinct occupations and/or the variation in the duration and timing of events – in occupational career trajectories. In support of our hypotheses, turbulence in occupational careers is linked to the turbulence of the further occupational career path and decreases over time. Gender also has a considerable effect on occupational turbulence. We discuss our findings and elaborate on theoretical implications for career research.
The 3rd edition of this classic book offers practitioners, researchers and students a comprehensive introduction to, and overview of, career theory; introduces the Systems Theory Framework of career development; and demonstrates its considerable contemporary and innovative application to practice. A number of authors have identified the framework as one of a small number of significant innovations in the career development literature. The Systems Theory Framework of career development was developed to provide coherence to the career development field by providing a comprehensive conceptualisation of the many existing theories and concepts relevant to understanding career development. It is not designed to be a theory of career development; rather systems theory is introduced as the basis for an overarching, or metatheoretical, framework within which all concepts of career development, described in the plethora of career theories, can be usefully positioned and utilised in both theory and practice. It has been applied to the career development of children, adolescents and women. Since its first publication, the Systems Theory Framework has been the basis of numerous publications focusing on theoretical application and integration, practice and research, with a growing number of these by authors other than the framework developers. Its application across cultures also has been emphasised. The theoretical and practical unity of the Systems Theory Framework makes this book a worthy addition to the professional libraries of practitioners, researchers and students, new to, or experienced in, the field of career development.
In today's rapidly changing and increasingly competitive labour market individuals need to take control over their own career more actively. However, some employees feel that they lack psychological suppositions to get another job, even though they wish to, and as a result feel stuck in a non-preferred workplace (being locked-in). The aim of this study was to investigate how helplessness are related to being locked-in at the workplace over time, since it can be argued that helplessness precedes, is reciprocally related to, or a consequence of being locked-in at the workplace. The sample consisted of 978 Swedish employees with permanent contracts and the data were collected at two time points (2012 and 2016). Results from a cross-lagged SEM analysis showed best fit statistics for a model of reciprocal relationships over time; helplessness associated with subsequent perceptions of being locked-in at the workplace and an association, although less substantial, was found in the reversed direction from locked-in status to helplessness. Results remained unchanged when job change, reorganization, gender, age and education were controlled for, which lends further credibility to the finding. Implications for future research and theory development are outlined in the discussion.
Purpose
In the current war for talent employers are concerned about the idea that the best employees are more likely to leave the organization for another employer (i.e. the management paradox). This study tests this management paradox. It This study aims to advance our understandings of how employees’ occupational expertise is associated with job search intensity, through its assumed relationships with perceived internal and external employability onin the internal and the external labor market. We , thereby testeding our research model across three different age groups (young, middle-aged and senior employees).
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted a survey among 2,137 professional workers and applied multi-group structural equation modeling.
Findings
Perceived internal employability negatively mediated the relationship between occupational expertise and job search intensity, whilst there was a positive mediational effect of perceived external employability. Age had a moderating effect on the association between perceived internal employability and job search intensity.
Research limitations/implications
Our findings contribute to the scholarly literature on the management paradox, and the empirical work on employability and age.
Practical implications
Organizations can recoup their investments in expert workers' employability and enhance their retention by providing opportunities for internal career development.
Originality/value
This study is original by including both internal and external employability. By doing so, we, thereby shedding new light on how occupational expertise might explain job search and how this relationship differs depending on employee age, thereby using a large sample of respondents.
The employability paradox is a concern among employers. It states that development activities enhancing employees' employability also increase the risk for employee turnover. This study examined this paradox and probed the relationship between six development activities and voluntary turnover mediated by perceived employability. We tested both a turnover-stimulating path via perceived external employability (i.e. perceived job alternatives with other employers) and a retention path via perceived internal employability (i.e. perceived job alternatives with the current employer) by using two-wave longitudinal data from 588 employees. The results put the turnover risk into perspective: only upward job transition positively influenced turnover via perceived external employability. Also, the retention path via perceived internal employability was not supported: several development activities were positively related with perceived internal employability, but perceived internal employability did not influence turnover. We did, however, find a direct retention effect of skill utilisation. Overall, the results downplay the employability paradox.
Although turnover intentions are considered the most proximal antecedent of organizational exit, there is often temporal separation between thinking about leaving and actual exit. Using field data from 2 diverse samples of working adults, we explore a causal model of the effects of turnover intentions on employee behavior while they remain with the organization, focusing specifically on organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and deviance behaviors (DBs). Utilizing expectancy theory as an explanatory framework, we argue that turnover intentions result in high levels of transactional contract orientation and low levels of relational contract orientation, which in turn lead to a decrease in the incidence of OCBs and an increase in the incidence of DBs. We first used a pilot study to investigate the direction of causality between turnover intentions and psychological contract orientations. Then, in Study 1, we tested our mediated model using a sample of employees from a large drug retailing chain. In Study 2, we expanded our model by arguing that the mediated effects mediated effects are much stronger when the organization is deemed responsible for potential exit. We then tested our full model using a sample of employees from a large state-owned telecommunications corporation in China. Across both studies, results were generally consistent and supportive of our hypotheses. We discuss the implications of our findings for future theory, research, and practice regarding the management of both the turnover process and discretionary behaviors at work. (PsycINFO Database Record
Recent effort in organizational psychology and organizational behavior (OPOB) research has placed increasing emphasis on understanding dynamic phenomena and processes. This calls for more and better use of dynamic modeling in OPOB research than before. The goals of this review are to provide an overview of the general forms of dynamic modeling in OPOB research, discuss three longitudinal data analytic techniques for conducting dynamic modeling with empirical data [i.e., time-series-based modeling, latent-change-scores-based modeling, and functional data analysis (FDA)], and introduce various dynamic modeling approaches for building theories about dynamic phenomena and processes (i.e., agent-based modeling, system dynamics modeling, and hybrid modeling). This review also highlights several OPOB research areas to which dynamic modeling has been applied and discusses future research directions for better utilizing dynamic modeling in those areas.Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior Volume 3 is March 21, 2016. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employer’s investments (through job characteristics and managerial support) and employees’ employment opportunities, with employability, conceptualized as perceived up-to-date expertise and willingness to change, as a mediating variable.
Design/methodology/approach
– Hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling on survey data collected from 1,626 employees of three Dutch hospitals.
Findings
– Consistent with the hypotheses, the results indicate that job characteristics and managerial support are indirectly related to employees’ beliefs on employment opportunities, with the relationship mediated by up-to-date expertise and willingness to change. Further, managerial support is directly related to employees’ employment opportunities.
Practical implications
– This paper shows that employers, by providing an attractive and challenging job in combination with adequate supervisory support, can enhance their employees’ employability and employment opportunities.
Originality/value
– This paper contributes to the literature by elaborating a consistent conceptualization and measurement of employability, by incorporating as antecedents both job characteristics and managerial support, and by examining to what extent employability mediates between these antecedents and employment opportunities. Previous studies refer to the same definition of employability but conceptualize this in different ways, and focus on either job characteristics or managerial support, and so fail to provide a systematic and comprehensive examination.
The shift from circumscribed careers to boundarylessness confronts us with a problem outside our previous experience. No norms and few models exist to tell how to evaluate, plan, review, analyze, promote, or otherwise live out a boundaryless career. Change dominates over stability. But of all changes, the most fundamental are changes in assumptions about the way the world works, and what we mean by the terms we use.
Based on career construction theory, the predictors of human resource managers' strategic competence in the Chinese context were examined. Results from a survey administered to Chinese HR managers (N= 220) showed that professional identification, career variety and organizational support for strategic human resource management positively predicted Chinese human resource managers' strategic competence. In addition, career adaptability served as a significant mediator for the above relations. The results further showed that the effect of professional identification on career adaptability was stronger among employees who perceived a higher (vs. lower) level of organizational support for strategic human resource management. The corresponding moderated mediation model was also supported such that the indirect effect of professional identification on strategic competence was stronger among employees who perceived a higher (vs. lower) level of organizational support for strategic human resource management. These findings carry implications for career construction theory and human resource managers' career development in China.