#Trending topics in careers: a review and future research agenda

Learning in the workplace: evidence on the role of behavioural job crafting on fostering self-perceived employability

Purpose

Given the instability and volatility of the labour market and the global talent scarcity, placing more attention on job employability is fundamental. In this context, the literature has already extensively examined employability as a crucial individual aspect, identifying some significant antecedents, including the applicability of training on the job. The present study aims to examine the impact that teaching employees to craft their job may have on the levels of applicability of training and if, in turn, this improves self-perceived employability.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors involved three private organizations that followed three workshops on job crafting behaviour. To empirically assess the intervention, the authors asked participants of the workshop to complete four quantitative diaries on a weekly basis, i.e. one per week, one before the intervention and three after the intervention. The diaries comprised measures of job crafting behaviours, applicability of training and self-perceived employability.

Findings

Multi-level analysis of data collected provided support to the positive associations between job crafting behaviour and self-perceived employability with the mediating effect of applicability of training. Notably, the applicability of training improves when individuals search for challenges, which indirectly affects perceived employability in terms of organizational sense.

Research limitations/implications

In the present study, no control group was used with which the results of our intervention could be compared. However, this does not affect the overall results, given the amount of intraindividual variability.

Originality/value

The paper proposes initial avenues for promoting employability at work via the use of behavioural job crafting intervention.

Employability Development during Internships: A Three-Wave Study on a Sample of Psychology Graduates in Italy

This study adopts a resource perspective to investigate the development of graduates’ resource-based employability across a 1-year internship. We examined factors referring to agency (job crafting in the form of crafting challenges and crafting resources) and context (organizational social socialization tactics) as mechanisms contributing to employability development during initial work experiences (internships). Data were collected in Italy from 316 master graduates in psychology at three time points. Longitudinal structural equation modeling results showed that baseline employability was positively associated with job crafting. However, job crafting was only significantly associated with employability at the end of the internship among those reporting high crafting resources and medium-to-high organizational social socialization tactics. Hence, beyond a focus on proactivity only, organizational support and opportunities to form social networks are essential to sustain interns’ employability development.

Career Impact of High-Performance Work System: A Kaleidoscope Perspective

High-performance work system (HPWS) is considered a solid predictor of individual outcomes, but there is less evidence about the impact HPWS on subjective career success (SCS). The current study examines the direct impact of HPWS on SCS through the lens of the Kaleidoscope Career Model. In addition, employability orientation is expected to mediate the relationship while employees' HPWS attribution is hypothesized to moderate the HPWS-SCS linkage. A quantitative research design with two-wave survey collected data from 365 employees working in 27 firms in Vietnam. Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to test the hypotheses. Results indicate that HPWS is significantly associated with SCS through the achievements of career parameters. In addition, employability orientation mediates the above relationship while HPWS external attribution moderates the relationship between HPWS and SCS. This research suggests that HPWS may influence employees' outcomes beyond the current employment, such as career success. HPWS fosters employability orientation which may encourage the employees to seek career advancements outside the current employer. Therefore, HPWS-implementing organizations should provide career opportunities to the employees. In addition, attention should be paid to employees' evaluative reports of HPWS implementation.

Work-family enrichment and successful aging at work: The China context

Existing research mainly analyzes the antecedents of successful aging at work from the perspective of the work field, ignoring that in the Chinese context of "familism," the two fields of family and work permeate each other and may have an impact on successful aging at work. Thus, through a multi-time data collection approach, we obtained a sample of 338 older Chinese employees to examine the impact of work-family enrichment on successful aging at work, the mediating role of occupational future time perspective, and the moderating role of age-inclusive human resource practice. Results indicate that work-to-family enrichment was positively associated with successful aging at work through the mediation of occupational future time perspective. Family-to-work enrichment was positively associated with successful aging at work through the mediation of occupational future time perspective. In addition, age-inclusive human resource practice amplified the positive effects of work-to-family enrichment and family-to-work enrichment on occupational future time perspective. This is an exploration of successful aging at work in the Chinese context, broadening the theoretical research on successful aging at work and providing new ideas for managers on motivating older employees to achieve successful aging at work.

Career capital, career success, and perceived employability: evidence from medical billing companies in the post-COVID world

BACKGROUND

This paper focuses on the concept of career construction based on the theory of conservation of resources to understand the overall effect of career capital on career success from both a subjective and objective manner through the mediating effect of perceived employability.

OBJECTIVE

This study attempts to explain how different integrated aspects of career capital, including human, social, and psychological (antecedents), influence both subjective career success and objective career success (outcome) through the mediating effect of perceived employability (mediator).

METHODS

Time-lagged data of 331 employees from the telehealth medical billing service companies based in Pakistan were analyzed through a structural equation modeling technique using SmartPLS software.

RESULTS

The main results confirmed that career capital positively affects perceived employability and career success while perceived employability positively mediates the relationship between career capital and career success.

CONCLUSION

This research responded to prior calls by explaining the positive mediating role of perceived employability (as a mediator) in explaining the positive influence of career capital on career success using different various dimensions of career capital and career success. This research included the contextual issues by testing the model in the telehealth sector of Pakistan. The findings suggested that context or occupation matters in the relationship between career capital and career success.

Examining the role of employability as a mediator in the relationship between psychological capital and objective career success amongst occupational psychology professionals

Employability is core to our understanding of career sustainability, and at an individual level, identifying the personal resources that support employability in the achievement of career success is warranted. This study builds on the conservation of resources theory, examining the role of employability as a mediator in the relationship between psychological capital and objective career success. To test our hypotheses, we utilised a context-specific practitioner sample of 135 individuals with UK-accredited occupational psychology qualifications. Employability was conceptualised using the competence-based model, underpinned by occupational expertise. Psychological capital and employability were measured using self-report questionnaires, whilst career success was determined via gross annual salary and practitioner status, ensuring objective measures of this outcome variable. Structural equation modelling identified that the relationship between psychological capital and objective career success was fully mediated by employability. These novel findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the role of psychological capital as a personal resource in achieving career success via its influence on employability.

Career shock of female academics during Covid-19: can the transactional stress model offer coping strategies?

Purpose

Through addressing female academics in four public universities in Egypt, the author of this paper aims to answer the question: How do female academics cope with the career shock resulting from the spread of COVID-19?

Design/methodology/approach

The author used a qualitative research method through semi-structured interviews with 32 female academics from four public universities selected from among 26 public institutions of higher education in Egypt. Thematic analysis was subsequently used to determine the main ideas in the transcripts.

Findings

The findings assert that the following three strategies: heroism, cronyism and temporalism are used by female academics in the Egyptian context to cope with the career shocks they feel during the time of COVID-19. The findings assert that female academics try to reassert their professionalism in their academic duties and familial obligations even after the spread of COVID-19. Moreover, they tend to use forms of cronyism behaviour to alleviate the effect of the career shock, mostly via hypocritical phrases. Furthermore, the thought that COVID-19 is a temporary stage helps female academics to actively accept their challenging new work conditions.

Originality/value

This paper contributes by filling a gap in human resources management and higher education in which empirical studies on the career shock of female academics have been limited so far.

Value-Semantic Preconditions of Professional Success of the Individual: Gender Measure

The study is devoted to the examination of personal factors of professional success, namely the relationship between the components of social-communicative competence and value-semantic priorities of professional self-realisation, such as: professional status, social recognition, and creative self-realisation this is especially relevant in the context of creating the most favourable conditions for the professional development of young people. The purpose of the study is to identify gender features of social-communicative competence and identify how they affect objective and subjective measurements of professional success. The key research methods are a set of surveys, in particular, the author’s questionnaire called “Success” and the method of G.V. Protasova, “Social-communicative competence”. The results obtained demonstrate that for male representatives, the status measurement of professional success substantially correlates with the tolerance of the subjects to frustration, while in women this measurement of professional success is interrelated with the level of development of communicative competence. The study proposes that the desire for recognition as a measurement of professional success in male representatives is substantially interrelated with the orientation to success, and in female representatives, this measurement of success positively correlates with the tolerance of the subjects to frustration. It is proved that the desire for creative self-realisation as a measure of professional success correlates in male representatives with a high degree of personal autonomy, and in women – with high indicators of tolerance to uncertainty. The results of the study allow for determining the genderspecific features of psychological factors of professional success, namely, they represent the priority in this context for men of masculine, and for women of androgynous type of gender identity, which are certain coordinates for creating appropriate programmes for the development and actualisation of the potential of professional success of the individual

Job exhaustion among assigned and self-initiated expatriates – the role of effort and reward

Purpose

This study explores whether expatriation type (assigned expatriates (AEs) versus self-initiated expatriates (SIEs)) is linked to job exhaustion via possible differences in required efforts for their jobs and the rewards they gain from them, and/or the balance between efforts and rewards. Adopting effort–reward imbalance (ERI) and job demands/resources (JD-R) theories, the authors study the possible role of ERI as a mediator between expatriation type and job exhaustion.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey was carried out in co-operation with two Finnish trade unions, providing representative data from 484 assigned and SIEs. The authors test this study’s hypotheses through latent structural equation modelling, and the analysis was conducted with Stata 17.0 software.

Findings

The results show that ERI between them are correlated with the job exhaustion of expatriates in general and there are no direct links between expatriation type and job exhaustion. The required effort from AEs was higher than that from SIEs though no difference was found for rewards, and the match between effort demands and rewards is less favourable for AEs than SIEs. AEs experienced higher job exhaustion than SIEs because of the higher effort demands and greater imbalance between efforts and rewards.

Originality/value

The study examines the work well-being of two types of expatriates and explores the underlying mechanisms that may explain why they may differ from each other.

Maintaining job crafting over time: joint effect of autonomy and career support from family and friends

Purpose

The study focuses on intraindividual trajectory of job crafting change over time. Integrating the self-regulation and demands-resources perspectives, this study examines how career support from family and friends interacts with job autonomy to influence the change pattern of job crafting.

Design/methodology/approach

Four waves of self-report survey data were collected in a semester from 324 university professors and instructors in China. Latent growth curve modeling was used to examine intraindividual change of job crafting and conducted latent interaction analysis to test the joint effect of autonomy and career support from family and friends on job crafting change.

Findings

There was a general declining trend in job crafting over the course of a semester. Career support from family and friends moderated the association between job autonomy and job crafting maintenance. Specifically, when career support was low, job autonomy was negatively associated with job crafting maintenance.

Research limitations/implications

The study showed that job crafting maintenance over time is distinct from the typical between-person conceptualization. Further, job crafting maintenance was predicted from a self-regulatory perspective. However, the unique context of college faculty from China may limit generalization of the findings.

Practical implications

Managers should recognize the challenges in maintaining job crafting over time. In addition to providing autonomy at work, organizations may benefit from establishing channels for employees to receive career support from non-work domains.

Originality/value

The authors adopt a self-regulation perspective to understand intraindividual change in job crafting over time and situate the current investigation in the cyclical nature of university faculty’s job.

The role of perceived employability in the relationship between protean career attitude and career success

This research sought to investigate how academics with a protean career attitude perceived success in their academic career. The role of perceived employability was examined by distinguishing between external and internal employability perceptions. Data from 288 academics working in Malaysian universities were collected and analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that a protean career attitude had no significant direct relationship with career success; rather, it had an indirect effect on success via perceived employability. Both external and internal perceived employability fully mediated the relationship between protean career attitude and career success, with perceived external employability having a stronger direct and mediating effect on academic career success. This study suggests that academic staff depend upon external employment opportunities to pursue success in academia. The implications of study findings are discussed, along with limitations and future research directions.

A Holistic Career Framework: Integrating Bourdieu and career theory

This study sets out to argue for the interplay between structure and agency to create a deeper understanding of careers. Using Bourdieu's Theory of Practice as an integrative framework for career theory, this study sets out to answer two questions: (1) does the concept of a Holistic Career Framework add value to the career debate by placing emphasis on both agency and structure? (2) does a Holistic Career Framework help link theory with practice? One hundred and thirty-nine career stories from university professional staff were analysed using a narrative approach, coded and thematically analysed for overarching patterns. The Holistic Career Framework was used as a lens to further understand individual career needs and decisions. By analysing the career stories of university professional staff, and understanding the context in which they operate, a deeper understanding of career behaviour and decision-making is provided.

Narrowing ideal self-discrepancy: the roles of organizational career management and protean career orientation

Purpose

This study investigated the joint impact of organizational and individual career management on employees' ideal self-discrepancy. Drawing on the identity literature, the authors aimed to uncover the mechanism and boundary condition of this impact, focusing on how organizations influence ideal and actual selves of employees with different protean career orientation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a four-wave time-lagged study over eight months, with a sample of 331 employees from various organizations.

Findings

Perceived organizational career management negatively influenced ideal self-discrepancy via organizational identification, and such relationship was strengthened by protean career orientation. Employees with stronger protean career orientation saw a stronger moderating effect of individual career management on the relationship between organizational identification and ideal self-discrepancy, whereas their counterparts saw an opposite effect.

Practical implications

This study highlighted the essential role of organization in narrowing employees' ideal self-discrepancy in the protean career era. It suggested that organizations should set differentiated career practices depending on employees' protean career orientation levels.

Originality/value

By integrating vocational psychology and organizational scholarship, this study extended the ideal self-discrepancy literature by offering a nuanced understanding of the mechanism and boundary condition of the role of organizational career management in narrowing ideal self-discrepancy in the protean career era. It identified the joint efforts of organization and employee as a fascinating avenue for future studies.

Meanings of career success for students and psychology professionals

Abstract: There are several definitions of career success. The objective was to analyze the meaning of career success for students and Psychology professionals. Participants were 656 Brazilians from all regions, who answered an online survey containing a sociodemographic questionnaire and a word association task to define career success. The results were submitted to the Descending Hierarchical Classification, through IRAMUTEQ software. Analysis indicated six lexical classes, grouped into two thematic blocks. Students referred words associated to the theme “Realization of professional activities”. Professionals, on the other hand, evocated more words related to the “Characteristics and Work Relations”. As contributions, we highlight the presentation of how career success is understood by a specific group of professionals, and the need to consider, in career counseling processes, the contextual and life cycle influences on career success.

Strangers in the Dark: Navigating opacity and transparency in open online career-related knowledge sharing

Given repeated upheavals in jobs and organizations, people increasingly share career-related knowledge in open online platforms. Dealing with career-related knowledge in an open online setting, though, is challenging. It requires people to balance between exchanging too much and too little career-related knowledge, e.g., to disclose and share the right knowledge without jeopardizing themselves. This study examines how participants achieve such delicate balance in open online processes. It investigates discussions in a career advice-focused online platform. Findings reveal how open online career-related exchanges include sequences of knowledge sharing, knowledge evaluating, and of diverting. They also include sequences of regulating openness that involve securing opacity for the people participating while also ensuring the transparency of the process. The study unpacks how participants in an open online setting navigate the dynamic balance between individual opacity and processual transparency. Findings hold implications for scholarship on open organizing, careers, and advice networks, as well as for practice.

What do we know about career and development? Insights from Career Development International at age 25

Purpose

Career Development International (CDI) is an established source of scientific research on careers and development. The journal reached its 25-years milestone in 2021. To commemorate the occasion, the article aims to provide a retrospective of the major trends, research constituents, thematic structure and key factors explaining the citation impact of CDI articles between 1996 and 2020.

Design/methodology/approach

The article extracts bibliographic data of CDI from Scopus and uses that data in (1) a series of bibliometric analyses to explain the major trends, research constituents and thematic structure and (2) a negative binomial regression analysis to explain the key factors affecting the citation impact of CDI.

Findings

The article finds that CDI has progressed and contributed substantially to the scientific community since its inception 25 years ago. The contributions in CDI are mainly from America and Europe and can be organized around five major clusters, namely career development, work engagement, entrepreneurship career, career outcomes and career mentoring.

Research limitations/implications

The article provides a rich overview of CDI, but the findings are limited to the accuracy and availability of bibliographic data of CDI from Scopus.

Originality/value

The article extends Akkermans and Kubasch's (2017) 5-years retrospection of major journals on career and development through a 25-years retrospection of CDI, and in doing so, the article provides a longer and more accurate representation of CDI's contributions to the extant literature on career and development.

Exploring careers through a qualitative lens: an investigation and invitation

Purpose

In this paper, the authors investigate and celebrate the contributions that qualitative research has made to Career Development International (CDI) and careers scholarship over the past 25 years. The authors highlight the positive impact of understanding the “lived/emic experiences” of individual career actors using qualitative research designs and identify areas for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors employ multiple approaches in their investigation. The authors’ enquiry is part conceptual, part critical analysis and part bibliometric visualisation of qualitative papers published in CDI.

Findings

The authors identify the underlying ontological and epistemological assumptions of qualitative research, and the key tenets and contributions of qualitative research published in CDI. Their bibliometric analysis shows the interrelatedness and frequency of topics addressed by qualitative research and published in CDI, revealing areas for further research. While identifying some of the key criteria for rigor in qualitative research, the authors also engage with emerging calls to avoid rigid templates in how qualitative research is designed and implemented. In this regard, authors echo calls for “methodological bricolage” as an approach to qualitative research in the study of careers.

Originality/value

This is the first bibliographic and visual analysis of qualitative research published in a single journal. The authors offer this investigation as a way of looking back and as an invitation looking forward, encouraging further qualitative research in anticipation of future theoretical developments in career scholarship.

The role of career shocks in contemporary career development: key challenges and ways forward

Purpose

This article aims to introduce the special issue entitled “the role of career shocks in contemporary career development,” synthesize key contributions and formulate a future research agenda.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors provide an introduction of the current state-of-the-art in career shocks research, offer an overview of the key lessons learned from the special issue and present several important avenues for future research.

Findings

The authors discuss how the special issue articles contribute to a better understanding of career shocks' role in contemporary career development, focusing on (1) conceptual clarity of the notion of career shocks, (2) career outcomes of career shocks, (3) mechanisms that can explain the impact of career shocks and (4) interdisciplinary connectivity.

Originality/value

This article offers a synthesis of the critical contributions made within this special issue, thereby formulating key ways to bring the field of career shocks research forward. It also provides new avenues for research.

A critical perspective on career shocks in a volatile environment: Red Cross staff and volunteers aiding migrants on their way to Europe in 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the career shocks of Red Cross (RC) of Serbia staff and volunteers providing aid during the 2016 migrants’ influx. Specifically, the authors explore what the volatile environment in which RC staff and volunteers work can teach us about career shocks, and what makes a career shock for people whose everyday work entails stressful events.

Design/methodology/approach

This study examined a number of anecdotes that reflect the career shock construct to a greater or lesser extent. These anecdotes were developed by RC staff and volunteers as part of a communications training storytelling exercise.

Findings

The authors analyzed these events from the perspective of recent developments in career shocks research and examined whether the anecdotes contained elements that would enable us to differentiate between career shocks and stressors. Those anecdotes found to be the most prototypical of career shocks, as opposed to stressors, were found to instigate in-depth reflection about the career, were identity related, and had a tangible career impact. Shocking events in the eyes of RC people entailed work demands that go beyond expectations, excessive media scrutiny, and conflicting values. The authors discuss how organizational values, fostering person–organization fit, providing organizational and collegial support, and deploying “weathered” staff, could comprise the “vaccine” that makes the organization immune to career shocks.

Originality/value

By taking a data before theory approach to the study of career shocks, this paper provides a novel perspective on the lived experiences of RC people, and how such experiences may be classified into career shocks or stressors.

The Dynamics of Subjective Career Success: A Qualitative Inquiry

Current perspectives on career success have yet to show whether and how subjective career success evaluations may change over time and across career phases. By adopting a retrospective life-span approach to careers, our qualitative inquiry into the career experiences of 63 professionals contributes to the temporal understanding of subjective career success by exploring patterns in how subjective career success perceptions and priorities may change over time. The temporal development of subjective career success was explored among early-career, mid-career, and late-career workers by piecing together retrospective evaluations of career success perceptions. Our findings point to common patterns in career success perceptions across the lifespan. Specifically, we found five shift components of career success perceptions during people’s careers: (1) quitting striving for financial success and recognition; (2) an increased focus on personal development across the career; (3) a stronger emphasis on work–life balance across the career; (4) a shift toward being of service to others; and (5) no change in subjective career success components across the career. These patterns reflect ways in which workers engage in motivational self-regulation and the corresponding career goal-setting across the lifespan. The theoretical implications are discussed.

Inclusive Leadership and Career Sustainability: Mediating Roles of Supervisor Developmental Feedback and Thriving at Work

Career sustainability is a well-researched issue in academics and other sectors. Technology advancements and COVID-19 have jeopardized career sustainability. Numerous studies have explored the influence of individual characteristics on career sustainability, but few have focused on leadership. In addition, cultural factors must be considered because leadership is rooted in culture. In particular, inclusive leadership reflects traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, based on self-determination social exchange theories, we analyzed the effects of inclusive leadership on career sustainability as well as the roles of thriving at work and supervisor developmental feedback (SDF) in career sustainability. In total, 363 samples were collected from China. The results revealed that inclusive leadership improves career sustainability through SDF and thriving at work. Theoretically, our study fills the research gap and establishes a mechanism and theoretical framework for inclusive leadership and career sustainability. Practically, we offer guidance for enterprises to cultivate inclusive leadership and improve career sustainability.

Determining factors of labour market outcomes for recently graduated, underrepresented college students

This study examined the factors that determined labour market outcomes for recently graduated, underrepresented college students. Chile’s largest higher education institution, which has a significant number of first-generation students from more deprived social sectors, was considered. A quantitative methodology was applied using logistic and multinomial regression models. Occupational status and income level were chosen as the dependent variables and five dimensions of independent variables were considered: sociodemographic attributes, human capital, academic characteristics, personality traits, and work environment. The results indicated that males, graduates who worked during their studies, heads of households, graduates from technical-professional high schools, those who completed their higher education studies in a timely manner, those who worked for larger private companies, and those who worked in a different geographical region to the one in which they studied had better labour market outcomes. Suggestions for institutional practices to help underrepresented students have successful career transitions are discussed.

Advancing employability: applying training evaluation to employability development programs

Purpose

This paper aims to apply training evaluation to employability development, providing a systematic process to assess employability development programs' effectiveness under the framework of employability capital resources (Peeters et al., 2019).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors demonstrate the training evaluation process within an employability development program for US secondary school students. This process included providing validation evidence for measures of evaluation criteria across multiple samples of secondary school students and testing the effectiveness of the program utilizing a quasi-experimental design.

Findings

The authors systematically found support for the intervention's effects on training criteria (i.e. reactions, learning, behavior, results) and demonstrated the utility for training evaluation's application to employability development. The findings illustrate how a training evaluation approach can provide holistic evidence that an employability development program achieved its intended outcomes.

Originality/value

Employability is a new and burgeoning topic – however, employability development varies in how it is conceptualized, evaluated and assessed. By applying training evaluation approaches, employability development can be assessed within a unifying framework and better integrated within the Human Resource Management literature.

Evaluating the Scholarly Impact of Vocational Research With Diverse Racial/Ethnic Groups: 1969–2017

Using citation analysis, this study evaluates the scholarly impact of 482 career-related articles on diverse racial/ethnic groups (DREGs) in the United States from a pool of 6,453 journal articles published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior ( JVB), Career Development Quarterly ( CDQ), Journal of Career Development ( JCD), and Journal of Career Assessment ( JCA) from 1969 to 2017. DREG career articles from JVB had the highest average citations, followed by CDQ, JCA, and JCD. DREG career articles on cross-cultural validation and cultural specificity received the most total citations, followed by articles on practice/interventions and racial/ethnic disparities. DREG career articles had a growing impact over time, with articles in cultural specificity having more impact in recent years than articles in other content areas. We discuss various citation trends that emerged for DREG articles by journal and content, address factors that may have driven these citation trends, and make suggestions for improving the scholarly impact of future career research with DREGs.

A Career Crafting Training Program: Results of an Intervention Study

This intervention study examined the effects of a career crafting training on physicians' perceptions of their job crafting behaviors, career self-management, and employability. A total of 154 physicians working in two hospitals in a large Dutch city were randomly assigned to a waitlist control group or an intervention group. Physicians in the intervention group received an accredited training on career crafting, including a mix of theory, self-reflection, and exercises. Participants developed four career crafting goals during the training, to work on in the subsequent weeks, after which a coaching conversation took place over the phone. Physicians in the control group received no intervention. A pre- and post-test 8 weeks later measured changes in job crafting and career self-management (primary outcomes) and employability (secondary outcome) of 103 physicians that completed the pre- and post-test. RM ANOVAs showed that the intervention enhanced perceptions of career self-management and job crafting behavior to decrease hindering job demands. No support was found for the effect of the intervention on other types of job crafting and employability. This study offers novel insights into how career crafting can be enhanced through training, as this is the first empirical study to examine a career crafting intervention. HR managers can use the outcomes to develop tailored career policies and career development practices.

Age-inclusive HR practices and the thriving of older workers: the mediating role of occupational future time perspective

Purpose

Drawing on social exchange theory and socio-emotional selectivity theory, this paper examines the role of occupational future time perspective (OFTP) in the relationship between age-inclusive HR practices (AIHRP) and the thriving of older workers.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-wave cross-sectional design was adopted with bootstrapped parallel multiple mediation analyses. In addition, polynomial regression with response surface analysis was used to examine the extent to which combinations of focus on opportunities and remaining time relate to thriving at work. Data were collected from 310 older workers working in 13 companies located in Portugal.

Findings

AIHRP have direct effects on OFTP dimensions (i.e. focus on opportunities and remaining time), and indirect effects on the two thriving dimensions (i.e. learning and vitality) via focus on opportunities. The positive relationship between AIHRP and learning was mediated by remaining time, while no significant mediating effect on vitality through remaining time was found. Additionally, surface analysis showed that overall thriving and learning increase more sharply when focus on opportunities is higher than remaining time, rather than vice versa.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature by showing the importance of personal resources like OFTP in the relationship between AIHRP and the thriving of older workers. It also provides further support for the distinctiveness of the two OFTP dimensions as remaining time was not linked to vitality, whereas focus on opportunities was linked to both thriving dimensions.

Focused for Some, Exploratory for Others: Job Search Strategies and Successful University-to-Work Transitions in the Context of Labor Market Ambiguity

This article examines the role of student job search strategies that differ in goal-directedness (focused, exploratory, and haphazard) in achieving successful university-to-work transitions (i.e., employment in jobs with high skill use/development and qualification–job match). The relationship between job search and employment outcomes is considered in two labor market contexts—high or low ambiguity—which are represented by the comparison between arts, humanities, and social sciences (AHSS) and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates, respectively. Using two-wave survey data, we find that job search strategies during university do not explain, yet differentially impact, successful outcomes one year after graduation. Fully exploring opportunities was particularly beneficial for STEM graduates (low ambiguity context) and more focused job search was beneficial for AHSS graduates (high ambiguity context). Paradoxically, findings both question and reinforce the efficacy of career agency for overcoming barriers to labor market entry, depending on the job search context. The study contributes to the agency and context debates relevant for school-to-work transitions.

Motivational profiles and proactive career behaviors among the solo self-employed

Purpose

As the current “one size fits all” research approach is likely to be ineffective in identifying the conditions that promote the entrepreneurial career of the solo self-employed, this paper advances the current understanding of the heterogeneity among the solo self-employed.

Design/methodology/approach

A person-centered approach is used to identify groups among the solo self-employed based on their starting motives and to examine their engagement in proactive career behaviors.

Findings

Using Latent Class Analysis (LCA), six groups displaying distinct motivational profiles are identified: (1) the pushed by necessity, (2) entrepreneurs by heart, (3) control-seekers, (4) occupationally-driven, (5) challenge-seekers and (6) the family business-driven. In line with the argument that starting motives affect behavior because they reflect the future work selves that individuals aim for, results show that solo self-employed with distinct motivational profiles differ in their engagement in proactive career behaviors. For future research, it is recommended to examine the role of demographic characteristics in the engagement in proactive career behaviors.

Originality/value

Although starting motives among self-employed people have been studied frequently, this research applies an innovative methodological approach by using LCA. Hereby, a potentially more advanced configuration of starting motives is explored. Additionally, this study applies a career perspective towards the domain of solo self-employment by exploring how solo self-employed with distinct motivational profiles differ in terms of managing their entrepreneurial careers.

From Shock to Shift-A Qualitative Analysis of Accounts in Mid-Career About Changes in the Career Path

Career shocks are the norm, not the exception. Yet, much of research and counseling on career-development holds unrealistic assumptions of a makeable career. Little is understood about the role of shocks on the career path and how the interplay of individual reactions to shocks shapes careers. The purpose of this study is to provide understanding of responses to different attributes of career shocks and career shocks as antecedents to career and job change. A qualitative approach was chosen and data were obtained from 25 semi-structured interviews with a sample of mid-career individuals who had experienced shocks in their work lives. The analysis was 2-fold and aimed at unearthing of individual responses to shocks and the question of the role of shocks on changes in the career path. Firstly, the analysis of career shocks revealed a pattern of distinct agentic responses in relation to shocks of different attributes. Secondly, from the analysis of shock attributes and corresponding responses over time career changer profiles emerged which differ in regard to career change behavior and magnitude of changes in the career (e.g., major career changes into another field). A process model which depicts how post-shock careers are shaped distinctively in relation to different shock attributes and corresponding responses is presented. This study underlines the importance of understanding the unplannable in career development and shows a variety of options for individuals to develop their careers despite shocks. Limitation stems from the investigation of a sample limited to mid-career individuals. The findings provide a new conceptual lens to theorize and conduct research on career shocks and career changes and facilitate the development of coping strategies for career shocks. The originality lies in the investigation of the momentum of career shocks on career paths with detail to different attributes of career shocks and how they impact the career path.

Career Competencies and Career Success: On the Roles of Employability Activities and Academic Satisfaction During the School-to-Work Transition

Building on the integrative career competencies framework, we examined the indirect association between career competencies, assessed at graduation, and subjective career success (SCS) via employability activities, both assessed six months after graduation, among a sample of 613 Italian graduates. We also examined the moderating role of three facets of academic satisfaction (i.e., vocational choice, educational goals, and occupational prospects). Our findings showed an indirect relation between career competencies and SCS through employability activities. Furthermore, academic satisfaction acted as a moderator. The results of this time-lagged study, that tapped into the actual transition into work process, have implications for (1) school-to-work transitions, providing insights into graduates’ transition into the labor market, (2) employability, focusing on employability activities and providing additional knowledge on their antecedents and outcomes, and (3) career competencies, providing further empirical evidence that career competencies are an important resource that graduates can mobilize to during and after their school-to-work transition.

Career optimism of culturally and linguistically diverse hotel workers in the pandemic age

The impact of COVID-19 on workers in accommodation and food services-which account for a large proportion of the hospitality sector-is severe, with more than one third of these workers losing their jobs. Against this backdrop, there is heightened interest in the concept of career optimism, yet a dearth of empirical research. Our study addresses this gap by investigating the factors that influence the career optimism of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) hotel workers. Using a qualitative study, we found a temporal facet of career optimism for CALD workers, and developed a model to show the individual and contextual factors that enabled and inhibited the career optimism of this group. We thus advance hospitality literature on the careers of CALD workers in hotels and offer practical implications to help CALD hospitality workers stay vocationally optimistic during crisis events such as COVID-19.

Career success is not always an outcome: its mediating role between competence employability model and perceived employability

Purpose

Career success has been understood as an outcome of career goals, achievement and employability resources. Recent research has enlightened its potential effect on career decisions and perceived employability. This paper aims to test the role of career success in the relationship between competence employability and perceived employability.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey was answered by 1,087 graduates from a large nonselective higher education institution that enrolls a significant number of first generation and lower socioeconomic background students. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the mediating role of career success, as was proposed.

Findings

Subjective career success partially mediates the relationship between competence employability model and perceived employability. However, objective career success was not related to perceived employability.

Research limitations/implications

The study made use of a cross-sectional design, which hinders the identification of causal direction.

Practical implications

For training and education, both employability competences and subjective career success are resources to enhance in order to promote employee's personal beliefs about obtaining and maintaining employment.

Originality/value

This study combines different employability approaches, and their relationship with career success, considering subjective and objective career success as relevant personal resources that could impact self-perceptions and foster career behaviors. Testing the utility of these theoretical models on a group that has been underrepresented in career development studies is also relevant, particularly, the use of gain spiral concept from Conservation of Resources theory.