How does workplace support promote postdoctoral career growth? A conservation of resources perspective

Background

Postdoctoral researchers are critical to scholarly advancements, and promoting postdoctoral career growth is an endogenous path to help postdocs break through the "encircled city of scientific research". However, further research is needed to fully explore the mechanisms that connect workplace support to postdoctoral career growth.

Methods

Drawing from the Conservation of Resources theory, this study proposes a chain mediation model that demonstrates how workplace support enhances career growth by connecting psychological capital with work-life balance. To understand the motivation and career growth of postdocs in China, we conducted two questionnaires in 2021 and 2023 with the support of relevant stations.

Results

Analyzing 367 questionnaires from Chinese postdocs, our research indicates that workplace support has a positive impact on career growth. Additionally, both psychological capital and work-life balance are key factors that contribute to career growth, serving as separate mediators and as part of a chain of mediators.

Discussion

This study validates the appropriateness of the Conservation of Resources theory in the study of the influence mechanism of postdoctoral career growth and proposes targeted strategies for academic institutions to improve support systems, promoting more effective career development pathways.

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.

Nurses' perceptions of career growth: A qualitative descriptive study

AIMS

To explore nurses' experiences and perceptions of career growth and its influencing factors, as career growth is more closely associated with individual attitudes and behaviours in the new career era.

DESIGN

A qualitative descriptive design was used.

METHODS

Thirty-one nurses from 10 secondary and 8 tertiary hospitals in Sichuan Province of China were purposively selected to participate in this study. The data were collected using individual semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Two researchers independently reviewed the transcripts and emergent coding. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

FINDINGS

The nurses' perceptions of career growth fully described the nurses' experience and occurred in five dimensions: career promotion, career goal progress, professional ability and quality improvement, professional identity development and increase in personal prestige. The factors influencing career growth were identified at the organizational, individual and social levels. Career growth in nursing was complex, changed over time and showed several specific characteristics compared with other careers. The nurse-specific symbol of career growth was professional identity development, which reflected career progression characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS

Career growth is a multi-dimensional concept with varying influencing factors. The meaning of career growth for nurses is distinct from that for employees in other careers.

IMPACT

Nursing managers should guide nurses to comprehensively assess their career growth from multiple perspectives, and professional identity development deserves more attention. Both organizations and individuals should take responsibility for career management to pursue career growth.

Learning goal orientation and promotive voice: A moderated mediation model

Drawing on the broaden-and-build theory and trait-activation theory, this study investigates the mediating effect of thriving at work on the relationship between learning goal orientation (LGO) and promotive voice behavior, as well as the moderating effect of intrinsic career growth (ICG) on the relationship between employees’ LGO and thriving at work. Using the two-wave design with a 4-month time lag involving 279 employees, the results demonstrate that employees’ LGO is positively associated with promotive voice behavior by thriving at work. Furthermore, ICG moderates the relationship between LGO and thriving at work. ICG also moderates the mediating effect of thriving at work on the relationship between LGO and promotive voice behavior, such that the mediating effect is only significant when employees perceive high ICG.

Testing an Extended Social Cognitive Model of Occupational Turnover Intentions

Workforce shortages in the health and social care sectors are a relevant issue worldwide. One measure to mitigate workforce shortages is to improve working conditions and workers’ future prospects in order to encourage worker retention. Although studies have examined factors related to organizational turnover, less is known about the factors that lead to occupational turnover intentions. Drawing upon social cognitive career theory, this study examines the reasons behind health and social care workers’ occupational turnover intentions considering emotional exhaustion as an explanatory variable. The participants were 403 health and social care workers who responded to a questionnaire about 4 years after completing their vocational education and training at the upper-secondary level. Structural equation analyses revealed that affective occupational commitment showed the highest negative correlation with occupational turnover intentions. Furthermore, the results suggest that career-related outcome expectations, wellbeing, and supportive working conditions are crucial for designing effective interventions.

Role of organizational commitment in career growth and turnover intention in public sector of Oman

INTRODUCTION

Creating a proper career program is the best way to enhance employees' organizational commitment; it motivates and retains them. This research aims to measure career growth's influence on turnover intention, mediated by employees' commitment through self-reported employees' perceptions. This study identifies the key dimensions of organizational commitment (affective, continuance and normative commitment) that mediate the relationship between career growth and employee turnover intention exploring the indirect effects between career growth and turnover intention. The relationship is examined among the public sector employees in the Sultanate of Oman, a sector currently facing high turnover rates and losing key skilled talent pool.

METHODOLOGY

Data collection was executed through an adopted questionnaire distributed among 500 employees of 38 government units within the Sultanate of Oman. A total of 351 questionnaires were returned, and after the initial screening process, 329 were found to be valid for further analysis. CFA analysis was conducted to identify the factors falling under the three primary constructs of the study. Assessment of the models was explained through Goodness-of-fit Indices. Structural equation modeling, which is most recommended to study the effect of latent variables, was performed using AMOS to evaluate the mediating role of organizational commitment between career growth and employee turnover intention.

FINDINGS

The results indicated that the potential for career growth is an essential motivating element for public sector employees in the Sultanate of Oman to encourage retention and reduce intention to leave. The findings also confirm that effective and continuous commitment significantly mediates the relationship between career growth and employees' turnover intention.

CONTRIBUTION AND ORIGINALITY VALUE

The results generated could help both researchers and those involved in public sector policy-making to understand how employee turnover intention is influenced by career growth and organizational commitment in the public sector in the Sultanate of Oman.

Twenty-five years of career growth literature: a review and research agenda

Purpose

The dynamic career scenario and the significant change from traditionally placing careers in employers’ hands to self-managing one’s careers have sparked profound scholarly interest in career growth. This paper aims to analyze quadricentennial literature on career growth published during the years 1995 through 2020. In this paper, through bibliometric and integrative reviews, the authors address the two critical questions, “what do we know?” and “where should we go?” While the bibliometric review examines the evolution and trends, the integrative review examines the dynamics of conceptual frameworks, primary research foci, research context and quality in research designs and methods.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines to identify the papers for this review. The data set comprised 102 papers and 60 papers for bibliometric and integrative review, respectively. “CiteSpace” is used for the bibliometric analysis and the template designed by the authors is used for the integrative review.

Findings

The results present conceptual clarification for career growth and its related constructs. The bibliometric analysis findings highlight the extensive research on career growth followed by organizational career growth and career growth opportunities. The findings also show that seven of the top 10 productive authors are from China. This study also identifies theoretical, conceptual and methodological opportunities and provides recommendations intended to further research engagements across the different aspects of career growth.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to introduce bibliometric analysis into career growth literature. This research adopts an integrative review approach and offers insights into career growth literature.

Promoting career growth potential: political skill, the acquisition of social resources and ingratiation

Informed by social resources theory, we provide an explanation for how political skill enables employees' access to social resources, notably expressive network resources and developmental feedback granted by supervisors, thereby enhancing their potential for career growth. Employees can further leverage the attained resources to maximize their chances for career growth by exercising ingratiation toward their supervisors. Data from 399 independently matched subordinate-supervisor dyads in Japan partially support our predictions. While supervisor-focused expressive network resources and supervisor developmental feedback account for mediating mechanisms through which political skill could predict career growth potential, the use of ingratiation to further leverage these social resources is rather deemed insignificant. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Passion for Work and Well-Being of Working Adults

The purpose of the present study was to extend a study by Yukhymenko-Lescroart and Sharma (2019,“The Relationship Between Faculty Members’ Passion for Work and Well-Being”) to test the relationship between passion for work and well-being using a completely independent and much more heterogeneous sample of full-time working adults representing a wide variety of professions. Participants, who were recruited through the Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website, completed several scales ( N = 297, 55.2% female, median age = 34 years), and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. In line with our hypotheses, results showed that harmonious passion for work contributed positively to life satisfaction, subjective happiness, awareness of purpose, altruistic purpose, and awakening to the purpose. Additionally, obsessive passion for work contributed positively to altruistic purpose and awakening to the purpose. However, the results did not support the hypothesis that obsessive passion for work contributed to the awareness of purpose.