All in the name of work? Nonwork orientations as predictors of salary, career satisfaction, and life satisfaction
Hirschi, A., Herrmann, A., Nagy, N., & Spurk, D. (2016). All in the name of work? Nonwork orientations as predictors of salary, career satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 95–96, 45-57, doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2016.07.006.
Abstract
Career development increasingly demands a successful integration of work and nonwork domains. Based on work-nonwork conflict and enrichment theories, this study explored the relationship between nonwork orientations (i.e., family, personal life, and community) and both objective (i.e., salary) and subjective (i.e., career satisfaction) career success and life satisfaction over a period of six months among a sample of 548 employees from Germany. The results generally support the enrichment perspective. Family orientation showed a positive relationship with career satisfaction. All three nonwork orientations, especially family orientation, were positively related to life satisfaction. We also explored gender and age effects but found no differences in nonwork orientations between young employees aged 25–34 years and older workers aged 50–59 years. Men showed lower levels of personal life orientation than women, but no differences in family or community orientation based on gender were found. We also did not observe gender x age interaction effects. We discuss the study's implications for a whole-life perspective on career development, career success, and well-being.
Persistent career indecision over time: Links with personality, barriers, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction
Jaensch, V. K., Hirschi, A., & Freund, P. A. (2015). Persistent career indecision over time: Links with personality, barriers, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 91, 122-133, doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2015.09.010
Abstract
Taking control over one’s career requires the ability to make career decisions; thus, remaining in a state of career indecision is problematic. However, the stability of career indecision has not yet been investigated using advanced statistical modeling approaches. We present two studies of German university students applying three-wave, longitudinal designs. Study 1 investigated the stability of career indecision by means of latent state-trait analysis within two samples with different time lags (Sample 1: N = 363, 7 weeks; Sample 2: N = 591, 6 months). The results indicated that career indecision was determined by a stable component (i.e., trait career indecisiveness) that was associated with lower core self-evaluations, lower occupational self-efficacy, and higher perceived career barriers. Study 2 (N = 469) examined career indecision over one year. We found that the stable career indecision component explained 5% of the variance in student life satisfaction beyond self-evaluated generalized indecisiveness.
Keywords: career indecision, career indecisiveness, latent state-trait analysis
Self-directed career attitude as predictor of career and life satisfaction in Chinese employees: Calling as mediator and job insecurity as moderator
Zhang, C., Hirschi, A., Herrmann, A., Wei, J., & Zhang, J. (2015). Self-directed career attitude as predictor of career and life satisfaction in Chinese employees: Calling as mediator and job insecurity as moderator. Career Development International, 20(7), 703-716. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-06-2015-0090
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test if the effects of a self-directed career attitude on career and life satisfaction are mediated by a person’s sense of calling and moderated by job insecurity in a sample of Chinese employees.
Design/methodology/approach – Among a sample of Chinese employees (n = 263), in this paper, a moderated mediation analysis with bootstrapping was applied to test the hypotheses.
Findings – The results showed that calling mediates the effects of a self-directed career attitude on career satisfaction and life satisfaction. Job insecurity moderated the effect on life satisfaction but not on career satisfaction. The effect on life satisfaction were stronger under higher levels of job insecurity.
Research limitations/implications – These results suggest that a self-directed career attitude may help people develop a calling, which in turn relates to increased subjective career success and well-being. In addition, the notion of a calling may be especially important for well-being in unstable job circumstances.
Originality/value – This study is the first to explore a calling and a self-directed career attitude in a sample of Chinese employees. Corresponding to contemporary China’s rapidly changing context of economy and career development, a self-directed career orientation plays an important role in Chinese employees’ calling and subjective career success.
Keywords: Calling, Job insecurity, Life satisfaction, Self-directed career attitude, Subjective career success
Hope as a resource for self-directed career management: Investigating mediating effects on proactive career behaviors, life and job satisfaction
Hirschi, A. (2014). Hope as a resource for self-directed career management: Investigating mediating effects on proactive career behaviors, life and job satisfaction. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15(6), 1495-1512. doi:10.1007/s10902-013-9488-x
Abstract
Hope is increasingly recognized as an important psychological resource for career development, yet the empirical research on its functioning in this domain is sparse. This paper describes an investigation of how dispositional hope is related to career decidedness, career planning, and career self-efficacy beliefs and whether these more proximal career attitudes mediate the effects of hope on proactive career behaviors, life satisfaction, and job satisfaction. This investigation was conducted using two independent samples of university students (N=1,334) and working professionals (N=233). The results showed that in both samples, hope was significantly related but empirically distinct from career variables. In both samples, hope had a direct effect on proactive career behaviors, partially mediated by more career planning. Hope had significant direct and indirect effects on life satisfaction among students, mediated by three career development attitudes. Although hope was significantly correlated with job satisfaction among employees, no direct effect of hope was found in the mediation model, but an indirect effect through career decidedness was found. The results suggest that hope is an important resource for proactive career development at different career stages and that the positive relation of hope to life and job satisfaction can partially be attributed to the positive relation between hope and favorable career development attitudes.
Keywords: hope; career development; proactivity; life satisfaction; job satisfaction
Vocational identity as a mediator of the relationship between core self-evaluations and life and job satisfaction.
Hirschi, A. (2011). Vocational identity as a mediator of the relationship between core self-evaluations and life and job satisfaction. Applied Psychology: An International Revieview, 60(4), 622–644. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-0597.2011.00450.x
Abstract
This study investigated whether vocational identity achievement mediates the relation between basic personality dispositions (i.e. core self-evaluations) and career and well-being outcomes in terms of job and life satisfaction. Two studies with Swiss adolescents were conducted. Study 1 (N = 310) investigated students in eighth grade, prior to making the transition to vocational education and training (VET); it showed that vocational identity related positively to life satisfaction but that this relationship disappeared once core self-evaluations were controlled. Study 2 (N = 150) investigated students in their second year of VET; it showed that job satisfaction was unrelated to identity and self evaluations. However, identity fully mediated the relation between self evaluations and life satisfaction.