Career adaptability profiles and their relationship to adaptivity and adapting

Research on career adaptability predominantly uses variable-centered approaches that focus on the average effects in terms of the predictors and outcomes within a given sample. Extending this research, the present paper used a person-centered approach to determine whether subgroups with distinct adaptability profiles in terms of concern, control, curiosity and confidence can be identified. We also explored the relationship between the various adaptability profiles and adapting (career planning, career decision-making difficulties, career exploration, and occupational self-efficacy beliefs) and adaptivity (core self-evaluations and proactivity). Using latent profile analysis, we found distinct adaptability profiles among 350 German university students. Students with different profiles differed significantly in their levels of adapting. This finding was confirmed in a second study of 1226 students selected from the same population. In both samples, the adaptability profiles differed mainly in terms of their adaptability levels but not their shape. Moreover, in both samples, the students whose profiles indicated generally higher adaptability showed more adapting compared with the students whose profiles indicated generally lower adaptability. Study 2 also showed that students with higher-adaptability profiles showed significantly higher adaptivity. The results suggest that level effects dominate adaptability profiles, implying the existence of a general adaptability factor within university students that is meaningfully related to adapting and adaptivity.     

Career adaptivity,adaptability, and adapting: A conceptual and empirical investigation

The literature on career adaptation is vast and based on a range of different measurement approaches. The present paper aims to explore how different operationalizations of career adaptability in terms of concern, control, curiosity, and confidence are related from a conceptual and empirical standpoint. Based on a cross-sectional analysis with 1260 German university students, we established that the adaptability resources of concern, control, curiosity, and confidence are significantly related to, but empirically distinct from, measures representing adapting in terms of career planning, career decision-making difficulties, career exploration, and occupational self-efficacy. In a follow-up survey six months later, we found that the career adaptability dimensions partially mediated the effects of adaptivity (i.e., core self-evaluations and proactivity) on planning, decision-making difficulties, exploration, and self-efficacy. Interestingly, in both analyses, there was no clear match between adaptability resources and theoretically corresponding aspects of career adapting in terms of behaviors, beliefs, and barriers. The results suggest that psychological career resources in terms of concern, control, curiosity, and confidence partially mediate the effects of more context-general, trait-like adaptivity on different career-specific behavioral forms of adapting.     

Career adaptability: A meta-analysis of relationships with measures of adaptivity,adapting responses,and adaptation results

Career adaptability, a psychosocial resource for managing career-related tasks, transitions, and traumas, is a central construct in career construction theory and the field of vocational psychology. Based on the career construction model of adaptation, we conducted a meta-analysis to examine relationships of career adaptability with measures of adaptivity, adapting responses, adaptation results, and demographic covariates. Results based on a total of 90 studies show that career adaptability is significantly associated with measures of adaptivity (i.e., cognitive ability, big five traits, self-esteem, core self-evaluations, proactive personality, future orientation, hope, and optimism), adapting responses (i.e., career planning, career exploration, occupational self-efficacy, and career decision-making self-efficacy), adaptation results (i.e., career identity, calling, career/job/school satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, job stress, employability, promotability, turnover intentions, income, engagement, self-reported work performance, entrepreneurial outcomes, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect), as well as certain demographic characteristics (i.e., age, education). Multiple regression analyses based on meta-analytic correlations demonstrated the incremental predictive validity of career adaptability, above and beyond other individual difference characteristics, for a variety of career, work, and subjective well-being outcomes. Overall, the findings from this meta-analysis support the career construction model of adaptation.     

Validation of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale and an examination of a model of career adaptation in the Philippine context

This paper presents the validation of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) in the Philippine context. The CAAS consists of four subscales, with six items each, measuring self-regulative psychosocial resources (e.g., concern, curiosity, control, and confidence) for coping with occupational tasks and transitions. Filipino university students (N = 289) and working adults (N = 495) participated in the study. Internal consistency estimates for the full scale and subscales ranged from .87 to .97. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the multidimensional and hierarchical model of career adaptability. The factor structure was similar to that obtained from the CAAS international validation from 18 countries. Results also suggested that career adaptability was positively associated with adaptivity in the form of tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment as well as with adaptation outcomes of career satisfaction and promotability. Overall, the findings confirm the utility of CAAS in the Philippine context and support the model that states higher levels of personal adaptivity (willingness) and career adaptability (competence) relate to better adaptation outcomes in terms of career success.     

Career adaptation: The relation of adaptability to goal orientation,proactive personality,and career optimism

This study examines the psychometric properties of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) and its relation to adaptivity (i.e., learning goal orientation, proactive personality, and career optimism) among Australian university students (N = 555). Results demonstrated adequate levels of test–retest reliability (r = .61 to .76) and internal consistency (α = .83 to .94) for the CAAS full scale and subscales over a 4-week interval between measurements. Confirmatory factor analysis also supported the multidimensional and hierarchical model of career adaptability resources. The factor structure generally corresponded with that obtained from other CAAS international validation, thus, expanding its cross-national measurement equivalence. In addition, correlation results supported the predicted positive association between career adaptability and adaptivity in the form of learning goal orientation, proactive personality, and career optimism. Taken together, the present findings confirm the psychometric utility of CAAS in the Australian context and substantiate the proposition that higher personal adaptive readiness relates to better career adaptability among young people.     

Two sides of the career resources coin: Career adaptability resources and the impostor phenomenon

Considering the impostor phenomenon (IP) as an important psychological construct in the context of career development requires a theoretical grounding. Using the career construction model of adaptation as a guiding framework, we investigated how the IP is related to adaptive readiness (represented by core self-evaluations), career adaptability resources, and adapting responses, namely, career planning, career decision-making difficulties, career exploration, and occupational self-efficacy. We used parallel multiple mediation modeling to investigate specific indirect effects through concern, control, curiosity, confidence, and the IP. We conducted an online study with 289 university students. Results indicated a positive effect of core self-evaluations on career planning, career exploration, and occupational self-efficacy and a negative effect on career decision-making difficulties through adaptability resources. The IP emerged as a “maladaptability” resource: That is, it might be a hindrance to adaptive coping and behavior and consequently promote maladaptive coping and behavior by decreasing career planning and occupational self-efficacy and increasing career decision-making difficulties. Supplementary negative effects of the IP on adaptability resources are discussed.     

Ingratiation as an adapting strategy: Its relationship with career adaptability,career sponsorship,and promotability

Guided by the Career Construction Theory (Savickas, 2013), our research model posits that individuals rely on their adaptability resources and implement adapting responses, in the form of ingratiation, to increase their promotability at work. In addition, the indirect relationship between career adaptability and promotability via ingratiation is further strengthened by high career sponsorship. The research model was tested and the translated Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) Thailand form was validated using a cross-sectional survey of 265 subordinate–supervisor dyads. Results demonstrate adequate levels of internal consistency (ɑ = .96) and the factor structure corresponded with prior CAAS international validation. The moderated mediation model was supported and as expected: (a) ingratiation, as an adapting response, mediated the positive relationship between career adaptability and promotability, and (b) the mediated relationship between career adaptability and promotability via ingratiation was stronger for individuals with higher career sponsorship. Taken together, the findings support the cross-national measurement equivalence and utility of CAAS in non-Western and developing countries. More importantly, our study offers the groundwork for understanding adapting responses and the augmenting role of career-specific contextual support.     

Career adaptability as a mediator between personality and career engagement

The current study examined the role of career adaptability as a mediator between personality dimensions and career engagement. This investigation was conducted using a sample of university students (N = 201) who completed the Zuckerman–Kuhlman–Aluja Personality Questionnaire, the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Persian Form, and the Career Engagement Scale. Career adaptability dimensions related positively with activity, negatively with neuroticism, and positively with career engagement. The results indicated that career adaptability dimensions partially mediated the relationships between activity (work compulsion, general activity, restlessness, and work energy) and career engagement, whereas they were a full mediator between neuroticism (anxiety, depression, dependency, and low self-esteem) and career engagement. Among career adaptability dimensions, curiosity fully mediated the effect of sensation seeking on career engagement. These findings suggest that career adaptability is a dynamic mechanism that helps to regulate the relationship between specific dispositional traits and career adapting behaviors.     

Career adaptability and career entrenchment

Career adaptability constitutes a resource that can help employees to effectively manage career changes and challenges. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between the two higher-order constructs of career adaptability and career entrenchment (i.e., the perceived inability and/or unwillingness to pursue new career opportunities), as well as relationships among the dimensions of career adaptability and career entrenchment. We hypothesized a negative relationship between overall career adaptability and career entrenchment, and more differentiated associations among their dimensions. Data for this study came from 404 employees in Brazil. Results of structural equation modeling showed that overall career adaptability weakly negatively predicted overall career entrenchment (standardized effect = − .13), after controlling for age, gender, education, and job tenure. More differentiated findings emerged at the dimension level. Future research should examine the mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship between career adaptability and career entrenchment.     

Career adaptability in Lithuania: A test of psychometric properties and a theoretical model

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Lithuanian Form consists of four six-item subscales measuring concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. These are thought to be the main dimensions of career adaptability reflecting individual psychosocial resources to cope with occupational transitions, developmental tasks, and work traumas. Two studies were administered in a sample (N  =  767) of Lithuanian high school students. The results showed factor structure to be identical to that of the CAAS-International Form. Moreover, good to excellent scale internal consistency coefficients were obtained. With a slight exception, MIMIC model analysis revealed no major effects of demographic variables upon the CAAS factor or factor indicator scores. Concurrent validity analysis showed career adaptability, as measured by the CAAS-Lithuanian Form, to be significantly related to career aspirations, to the frequency of career exploration behaviors and to career decidedness. Finally, as hypothesized by the career construction model of adaptation, career exploration behaviors mediated the link between career adaptability and decidedness.     

Job performance ratings: The relative importance of mental ability,conscientiousness, and career adaptability

According to career construction theory, continuous adaptation to the work environment is crucial to achieve work and career success. In this study, we examined the relative importance of career adaptability for job performance ratings using an experimental policy-capturing design. Employees (N = 135) from different vocational backgrounds rated the overall job performance of fictitious employees in 40 scenarios based on information about their career adaptability, mental ability, conscientiousness, and job complexity. We used multilevel modeling to investigate the relative importance of each factor. Consistent with expectations, career adaptability positively predicted job performance ratings, and this effect was relatively smaller than the effects of conscientiousness and mental ability. Job complexity did not moderate the effect of career adaptability on job performance ratings, suggesting that career adaptability predicts job performance ratings in high-, medium-, and low-complexity jobs. Consistent with previous research, the effect of mental ability on job performance ratings was stronger in high- compared to low-complexity jobs. Overall, our findings provide initial evidence for the predictive validity of employees' career adaptability with regard to other people's ratings of job performance.     

Career-specific parental behaviors,career exploration and career adaptability: A three-wave investigation among Chinese undergraduates

The current research examined the effects of career-specific parental behaviors (reported by parents at time 1) on Chinese university students' career exploration (reported by students at time 2) and career adaptability (reported by students at time 3). A survey study was conducted among Chinese university graduates (N = 244) and their parents (N = 244). The results supported a mediation model such that a high level of parental support and a low level of parental interference had beneficial effects on Chinese undergraduates' career exploration, which in turn positively predicted their career adaptability. Lack of parental career engagement had a direct negative effect on career adaptability. Significant interaction effects were also found among these three types of parental behaviors such that at a lower level of lack of parental career engagement, the positive effects of parental support, as well as the negative effects of interference on career exploration were stronger. The corresponding moderated mediation models were also supported. These findings carry implications for research on career construction theory and career counseling practices.     

Comparing two career adaptability measures for career construction theory: Relations with boundaryless mindset and protean career attitudes

We examined the constructs underlying the Career Maturity Inventory-Adaptability Form (CMI-C) and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS). Data from 852 university students indicated that the second-order factors for both scales correlate .43, suggesting that they measure different yet related constructs. All three subscales of the CMI-C correlate most with the “concern” subscale of the CAAS rather than with the corresponding subscale. It appears that the CMI-C is a measure of particular career adaptability for choosing a career whereas the CAAS is a global measure of career adaptability for dealing with all of the tasks of vocational development across the life span. Regression analyses show that the CMI-C does not add to the prediction of boundaryless mindset and protean career attitudes over the CAAS. Relationships between the CMI-C and CAAS with entrepreneurial, professional, and leadership career motivation profiles showed that the CAAS is more strongly related to boundaryless mindset and protean career attitudes, while the CMI-C appears to relate to more traditional (professional and leadership) career motivations.     

The relationship between spirituality, religiousness, and career adaptability

The present study examined the relationship between spirituality, religiousness, and career adaptability using a sample of undergraduate students (N = 144). We proposed that higher levels of religiousness and spirituality would predict higher levels of career adaptability, defined in this study by career decision self-efficacy and career choice commitment. Results partially confirmed the hypothesis as intrinsic religiousness and spiritual awareness served as significant predictors of career decision self-efficacy. In addition, extrinsic religiousness-personal served as a significant predictor for tendency to foreclose on career choices. The results indicate that individuals who have a strong spiritual relationship with a higher power and are religious due to intrinsic motivation tend to be more confident in their ability to make career decisions and are open to exploring a variety of career options. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed and future research directions are proposed.     

Testing a calling model of psychological career success in Australian young adults: A longitudinal study

Theory-based longitudinal research on career calling is sparse. In a two-wave, cross-lagged panel design we assessed Hall and Chandler's (2005) calling model of psychological career success using 216 young adults (M age = 20.44 years, SD = 2.54). We tested if changes in career calling over time were associated with changes in goal-directed effort (work effort and career strategies) and psychological career success (life meaning and career adaptability) over time, and if goal-directed effort mediated between career calling and psychological career success over time. The standard causal model showed a better fit over the base, reverse, and reciprocal causation models. T1 career calling predicted T2 work effort, career strategies, life meaning, and career adaptability. Only career strategies mediated between T1 career calling and T2 life meaning and T2 career adaptability. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Daily manifestations of career adaptability: Relationships with job and career outcomes

Most research on career adaptability has examined the construct as an individual differences variable and neglected that it may vary within an individual over a short period of time. In two daily diary studies, the author investigated the relationships of career adaptability and its four dimensions (concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) to their daily manifestations as well as daily job and career outcomes. Both Study 1 (N = 53) and Study 2 (N = 234) demonstrated substantial within-person variability in employees' behavioral expressions of career adaptability across five work days. Results further showed that daily career adaptability and daily confidence positively predicted daily task and career performance, as well as daily job and career satisfaction. Daily control positively predicted daily task performance, as well as daily job and career satisfaction. Daily concern positively predicted daily career performance and satisfaction, and daily curiosity positively predicted daily career satisfaction.     

Career success criteria and locus of control as indicators of adaptive readiness in the career adaptation model

The present research had two goals. The first goal was to identify additional individual characteristics that may contribute to adaptive readiness. The second goal was to test if these characteristics fit the career adaptation model of readiness to resources to responses. We examined whether career success criteria (measured at Time 1) and career locus of control (measured at Time 1) would contribute to adaptivity and predict university students’ career decision-making self-efficacy (measured at Time 2) through the mediation of career adaptability (measured at Time 1). Results based on a two-wave survey among a sample of 437 Chinese university students showed that the criteria of intrinsic fulfillment and work-life balance, as well as internal career locus of control positively predicted Chinese university students' career adaptability, which in turn predicted career decision-making self-efficacy. These findings support the career adaption model and carry implications for career construction theory and university students' career development.     

Career decision-making profiles and career decision-making difficulties: A cross-cultural comparison among US,Israeli, and Chinese samples

Assessing individuals' career decision-making difficulties and career decision-making profile (style) allows counselors to help them make better career decisions. The present study focused on the associations between the Career Decision-Making Profiles (CDMP) questionnaire and the Career Decision-making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ) in four large samples: American adults (N = 601), Israeli young adults (N = 623), American students (N = 915), and Chinese students (N = 929). The pattern of associations between the 12 CDMP dimensions and the 10 CDDQ scales was generally replicated across the four samples, and indicated that certain CDMP dimensions were associated with career decision-making difficulties. Additionally, in all four samples, the higher an individual's career decision-making adaptability, as derived from the CDMP, the fewer difficulties he or she encountered prior to and during the career decision-making process. However, a few unique patterns of associations between the CDMP and the CDDQ emerged in some samples.     

Beyond conscientiousness: Career optimism and satisfaction with academic major

The study focuses on psychological predictors of academic major satisfaction. According to the career construction theory (Savickas, 2005), vocational personality and career adaptability should generate career satisfaction. In this study, vocational personality was operationalised as Big Five conscientiousness, and career adaptability was operationalised as generalised self-efficacy and career optimism. A sample (N = 529) of university students completed an online survey. The resultant data were used to construct a structural model of the hypothesised relationships among variables. A good fitting model [χ² = 10.454 (7) p = .164; GFI = .993; CFI = .999; RMSEA < .031 (< .001–.066)] indicated that career optimism fully mediated the relationship between conscientiousness and academic major satisfaction. Results were consistent with previous research into personality and academic performance. Moreover, the results highlight the significant role of optimism in satisfaction with career generally, and studies, specifically. Suggestions are made for future research into modelling the relationships according to different academic disciplines and for the potential role of optimism as a learning objective for career education and counseling.     

Career adaptability predicts subjective career success above and beyond personality traits and core self-evaluations

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) measures career adaptability as a higher-order construct that integrates four psychosocial resources of employees for managing their career development: concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. The goal of the present study was to investigate the validity of the CAAS with regard to its effects on two indicators of subjective career success (career satisfaction and self-rated career performance) above and beyond the effects of employees' Big Five personality traits and core self-evaluations. Data came from a large and heterogeneous sample of employees in Australia (N = 1723). Results showed that overall career adaptability positively predicted career satisfaction and self-rated career performance above and beyond the Big Five personality traits and core self-evaluations. In addition, concern and confidence positively predicted the two indicators of subjective career success. The findings provide further support for the incremental validity of the CAAS.