The protean career orientation as predictor of career outcomes: Evaluation of incremental validity and mediation effects

A protean career orientation is assumed to be beneficial for career development but researchers have only recently started to empirically evaluate the concept. Conducting two studies based on three independent samples of university students and working professionals in Germany, we address issues of concurrent validity, predictive incremental validity and mechanisms linking the protean orientation to career outcomes. The first study showed that in a sample of 104 German employees different measures of the protean career orientation all correlated highly, but not identically, to a range of work and career attitudes. Using bootstrapping analysis, a second study with a six-month prospective examination among 419 German university students and a cross-sectional analysis among 526 German employees showed that a protean career orientation predicts proactive career behaviors and career satisfaction beyond a proactive disposition and core self-evaluations, respectively. Moreover, the protean career orientation was a significant mediator of these two personality constructs on both career outcomes. Cumulatively, the studies enrich our understanding of how and when a protean career orientation is related to important career outcomes.     

Strategies for coping with career indecision: Concurrent and predictive validity

Recently, Lipshits-Braziler, Gati, and Tatar (2015a) proposed a model of strategies for coping with career indecision (SCCI), comprising three main types of strategies: Productive coping, Support-seeking, and Nonproductive coping. Using a two-wave longitudinal design (30-week time lag), the effects of these strategies on career decision status and career decision-making difficulties were tested among 251 students in a college preparatory program. The results showed that the use of Nonproductive coping strategies at the beginning of the program was associated with and predicted a higher degree of individuals' career decision-making difficulties, and also distinguished between decided and undecided participants at both the beginning and the end of the program, thus partially supporting the concurrent and the predictive validity of the SCCI. Furthermore, a decrease in the use of Nonproductive strategies over time predicted a decrease in individuals' career decision-making difficulties. In addition, a decrease in the use of Nonproductive coping strategies and an increase in the use of Productive ones predicted individuals' advancement toward making a career decision. Theoretical and counseling implications are discussed.     

Future time perspective and career decisions: The moderating effects of affect spin

This study investigated the impact of future time perspective on two career decision-making variables and the role of affect spin as a moderator. 98 Korean undergraduate students completed questionnaires of future time perspective, career decision-making self-efficacy, and career choice anxiety. Using experience sampling method (ESM), we also collected students' affective experiences during 7 consecutive days and computed affect variability, namely affect spin. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that career decision-making self-efficacy and career choice anxiety were positively predicted by future time perspective and that affect spin moderated the relationship between future time perspective and both career decision-making self-efficacy scale and career choice anxiety respectively. We discussed the implications of the moderating role of affect spin, advantages of the ESM method, and practical suggestions for career counseling and supervision.     

Employees' satisfaction with retention factors: Exploring the role of career adaptability

Given the rising concerns about staff retention and the increased importance attached to individuals' career adaptability, the present paper explored how career adaptability relates to employees' satisfaction with factors that organizations regard important for their retention. A canonical correlation analysis was conducted on a sample of 321 employees in a South African automotive industry. The results showed that career adaptability, especially career concern, significantly explained the participants' level of satisfaction with their experiences of the career opportunities, work–life balance, training and development opportunities and characteristics of the jobs offered by the company. The study findings suggest that employees' career concerns, goals and plans and how these relate to retention practices are important for retaining them. Black and white participants also differed significantly regarding the variables. This study extends prior research on career adaptability by adding insights about the usefulness of the construct in the retention context.     

Cognitive–motivational antecedents of career decision-making processes in Portuguese high school students: A longitudinal study

In this study we propose an integrated framework of the antecedents of identity development and well/ill-being for high school students (N = 462) in the transition to higher education/job market. One study was conducted to investigate the effects of basic psychological need-satisfaction/frustration (as proposed within self-determination theory) and career decision-making self-efficacy (posited by social cognitive career theory) on the identity dimensions and experienced well/ill-being. Three longitudinal nested models were tested: a need-satisfaction/self-efficacy main effects model, an identity main effects model and a reciprocal main-effects model. The reciprocal effects between the variables were favored by the data. Basic need-satisfaction and career decision making self-efficacy positively predicted proactive exploration and commitment-making, while basic need-frustration predicted both diminished well-being and ill-being. Reciprocally, proactive exploration investments positively predicted whereas ruminative exploration negatively predicted, need-satisfaction and career decision-making self-efficacy. Implications for the design of career interventions are discussed and suggestions for future research proposed.     

Exploring links between career adaptability,work volition,and well-being among Turkish students

The present study examined how the four components of career adaptability (concern, confidence, control, curiosity; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) related to life satisfaction and the degree to which life meaning and work volition mediated these relations. In Study 1, scores from the Work Volition Scale–Student Version was validated with a sample of Turkish undergraduate students. In Study 2, with a new sample of Turkish students, all four components of career adaptability were found to significantly correlate with life satisfaction. Structural equation modeling revealed that life meaning and work volition each served as significant mediators between concern, control, and life satisfaction. Additionally, in the full mediation model, none of the adaptability components significantly related to life satisfaction. These findings suggest that concern and control over one's career may link with greater life satisfaction due, in part, to an increased sense of control in career decision making and increased life meaning.     

The relation of career adaptability to satisfaction and turnover intentions

The objective of this study is to investigate the linkage between career adaptability (CA), turnover intentions (TI), and career satisfaction (CS). It also examines the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) for low-ranking employees. The findings provide further support for the incremental validity of the CAAS. CA positively predicted CS and negatively predicted TI of low-ranking employees. CS is negatively related to TI, and it mediated the association between CA and TI. CA does not mediate the relation between CS and TI. Overall, a deeper understanding of the linkage between CA and TI can help us to find ways to assist employees to navigate the increasingly complex career path, thereby preventing TI.     

Work values and the transition to work life: A longitudinal study

Research on career development has shown that work values play a key motivational role in job selection and career development. In the context of the current economic crisis, it is of particular relevance to examine the role of work values for employment in the transition from school to work. This longitudinal study examined the role of intrinsic (perceived importance of having a job that is interesting and matches one's own competences), rewards (having a good salary and high chance for promotion), and security (having a stable job) work values on subsequent employment status and person–job fit (how an individual's job matches one's own characteristics such as education and job preferences). Finnish participants reported their work values and background variables via questionnaire at ages 20 and 23 (Ns = 348 and 415 respectively). Intrinsic work values predicted a higher degree of person–job fit two years later. Rewards work values predicted lower chances of being unemployed; and security work values predicted higher chances of being unemployed later on. Family socio-economic status (SES) was not related to employment outcomes in this Finnish sample.     

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.     

Antecedents and consequences to perceived career goal–progress discrepancies

Informed by a goal setting and self-regulation perspective, we tested a model of perceived career goal–progress discrepancies (i.e., perception of progress made towards achieving career goals relative to where one should be if the goals were to be attained), which proposed that negative feedback from significant others predicts career goal–progress discrepancies, which, in turn, predicts levels of career-related distress. The model also proposes that active feedback seeking strengthens the relationship between feedback from significant others and goal–progress discrepancies, and that career self-regulatory behaviours (career exploration and planning) weaken the relationship between career goal–progress discrepancies and career distress. Using a sample of 420 young adults (mean age = 20.3 years, 73% female), we found that feedback from significant others was related to both career goal–progress discrepancies and career distress, career goal–progress discrepancies were related to career distress, and goal–progress discrepancies partially mediated between feedback from significant others and career distress. Supporting the moderated effects, goal–progress discrepancies were higher at higher levels of negative feedback for those more actively seeking feedback, and career distress was lower at lower levels of discrepancy for those more engaged in exploration and planning.