From Adaptivity to Adaptation: Examining the Career Construction Model of Adaptation

The impact of future work self on perceived employability and career distress

Future work self is a promising concept to understand how young people view and plan their careers in the contemporary workplace. In this study, we attempt to investigate its impacts on two career-related outcomes, namely, perceived employability and career distress. Informed by social cognitive career theory, we also explore the mediating role of career decision self-efficacy in the above relationships. Several hypotheses were developed and tested with a sample of 208 final-year undergraduate students (with a mean age of 21.5 and 145 of them are female) in China. The results of structural equation modeling and bootstrapping indicated that future work self has a positive relationship with perceived employability and a negative relationship with career distress, while these relationships are found to be mediated by career decision self-efficacy. Our study has advanced our understanding about how future work self contributes to career-related well-being among Chinese students.

How do individual factors affect career sustainability? An investigation of cascading effects through the career construction model of adaptation

Purpose

Though the recent conceptualization of career sustainability, defining its indicators and dimensions prompted an important field of careers research, empirical research is still in its infancy. The current study empirically investigates how proactive personality, career adaptability and proactive career behaviors promote career sustainability based on the career construction model of adaptation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used a two-wave survey design to collect data from 414 full-time working professionals representing different organizations located in India. The authors tested the proposed hypotheses using structural equation modeling in IBM SPSS AMOS.

Findings

Results supported a serial indirect effect model with career adaptability and proactive career behaviors carrying the effect of proactive personality on career sustainability.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the emerging sustainable careers literature by unveiling the role of individual factors in career sustainability. Furthermore, the authors investigated these relationships through the complete career construction model of adaptation. By doing so, the current study contributes to careers literature by revealing the linkage between the career construction model of adaptation and career sustainability.

University students' career adaptability as a mediator between cognitive emotion regulation and career decision-making self-efficacy

As modern society experiences rapid changes, the unpredictability of the labor market is increasing. University students preparing to join the workforce may experience increased anxiety and stress due to the heightened uncertainty regarding their career plans. Regulating such negative emotions and adjusting to the changing circumstances may influence their career development. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation (CER) - specifically adaptive CER and maladaptive CER - and career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE), with career adaptability (CA) as a mediating factor. The path analysis model consisting of adaptive CER, maladaptive CER, CA, and CDMSE was tested with 357 Korean university students who were facing the school-to-work transition. The results of the study were as follows. First, adaptive CER was positively related to CA and CDMSE, while maladaptive CER was negatively related to CA only. Second, CA and CDMSE were positively related. Third, CA partially mediated the relationship between adaptive CER and CDMSE and fully mediated the relationship between maladaptive CER and CDMSE. Based on these results, theoretical and practical implications are proposed, and the limitations of the study are discussed.

A Multiple Mediational Meta-Analysis of the Influence of Proactive Personality on Subjective Career Success at the Career Exploration Stage

Drawing on the career construction theory model of adaptation, this meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) examines the effects of proactive personality on the subjective career success of adolescents and emerging adults. We identified 46 studies that covered 52 independent samples and 24,092 participants through literature retrieval. Based on these studies, we created an integrative model linking proactive personality with career adaptability, student career construction, and subjective career success. The results of the meta-analysis showed that all bivariate relationships among proactive personality, career adaptability, student career construction, and subjective career success were significantly positive. The results of the MASEM indicated that career adaptability intervened in the relationship between proactive personality and subjective career success, but student career construction, as a suppressor, carried out the negative association between proactive personality, career adaptability and subjective career success in the sequence of adaptation. We also discuss the research implications and provide directions for future research.

Towards Career Satisfaction by Career Adaptation Model Among Individuals With Visual Impairment

The present study aimed to examine the fit of the career adaptation model for individuals with visual impairment. This study was conducted on 319 individuals with visual impairment. The results demonstrated the relationship between adaptivity and adaption was fully mediated by adaptability and adapting. In addition, career adaptability partially mediated the relationship between adaptivity and adapting. However, the results did not confirm the mediating role of adapting in the relationship between adaptability and adaptation. Finally, the results indicated the full mediator role of adaptability in the association between adaptivity and adaptation. The findings highlighted the important role of adaptability in the career adaptation model to explain career satisfaction. Therefore, intervention programs based on career adaptability can empower individuals with visual impairment and promote career satisfaction.

Career agility and career embeddedness as psychological needs of the value-oriented psychological contract

The present study drew from modern person-environment’s needs-supply fit theory and assessed the extent to which career embeddedness acted as a moderator in the link between individuals’ career agility and their perceptions of the value-oriented psychological contract. A sample of ( N = 293; mean age = 38.58 years) employees in the human resources and financial services industry participated in the study. Moderated regression results demonstrated that career embeddedness moderated the link between high levels of career agility (career navigation and agile learning) and positive perceptions of value-oriented obligated employee attitudinal inputs, including organisational obligated outcomes of job characteristics, career development opportunities, relationships, and rewards. The findings of the study inform career development support practices for the career agile employee in organisations who invest in the value-oriented psychological contract.