Contemporary Career Orientations and Career Self-Management: A Review and Integration
Hirschi, A. & Koen J. (2021). Contemporary Career Orientations and Career Self-Management: A Review and Integration. Journal of Vocational Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103505
Abstract
Successful career development requires increased career self-management and contemporary career orientations accordingly stress the importance of being self-directed, values-driven, and flexible. This paper provides an overview of key perspectives on contemporary career orientations in relation to career self-management (CSM), as well as a systematic review of these two streams of literatures. With a focus on highly influential classic and recent papers as well as on all papers published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior on these topics, we aim to integrate the literatures on career orientations and CSM and advance future research. To this purpose, we present an integrative framework of career self-regulation which views CSM as a dynamic process consisting of goal setting and development, information seeking, planning and execution of behaviors, and monitoring and feedback processing. This process is influenced by, and subsequently affects, individual career orientations. We finish the paper by providing several directions for future research in terms of examining more dynamic and self-regulatory processes, unpacking the role of context, integrating the larger proactivity literature, applying a work-nonwork perspective, and developing and testing interventions.
Keywords: career orientations; career self-management; self-regulation; protean career; boundaryless career; proactive career behavior
Networking as predictor of work-nonwork enrichment: Mechanisms on the within- and between-person level
Baumeler, F., Johnston, C. S., Hirschi, A., & Spurk, D. (2018). Networking as predictor of work-nonwork enrichment: Mechanisms on the within- and between-person level. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 109, 166-177. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2018.10.015
Abstract
A positive work–nonwork interface is an important aspect of successful career development because it is associated with satisfaction, positive health, and positive work outcomes. However, the role of proactive behaviors at work for work–nonwork enrichment mechanisms has thus far not received much attention. Based on the conservation of resource theory (Hobfoll, 1989) and work–family enrichment theory (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006), we investigated the instrumental (i.e., coworker support) and affective (i.e., positive affect at work) enrichment mechanisms facilitated by networking. We conducted a diary study for within-person effects and a longitudinal panel study for between-person effects. Results supported the notion that networking is positively related to coworker support and positive affect at work on both the within- and between-person level. Furthermore, the mediating effect of coworker support for the relation between networking and work–nonwork enrichment on the within-person level was supported. On the between-person level, the mediating effect through positive affect at work was supported. Implications for research and practice concerning the resources gained by networking and the different work–nonwork enrichment mechanisms on the within- and between-person levels are discussed.
Achieving work-family balance: An action regulation model
Hirschi, A., Shockley, K. M., & Zacher, H. (2019). Achieving work-family balance: An action regulation model. Academy of Management Review, 44(1), 150-171. doi:10.5465/amr.2016.0409
Abstract
Work and family are highly intertwined for many individuals. Despite this, individual-level strategies for achieving effectiveness and satisfaction across work and family roles have not received sufficient attention. We address this issue by conceptualizing work-family balance from an action regulation perspective as the successful joint pursuit of work and family goals. Building on insights from the work-family literature, action regulation theory, and multiple goals research, we propose a theoretical model that explains how people can jointly attain work and family goals by using four action strategies (i.e., allocating resources, changing resources and barriers, sequencing goals, and revising goals). We address the conditions under which each strategy is used, depending on the malleability of resources and barriers for goal attainment, time to deadline of goals, as well as feedback and monitoring of progress across work and family goals. Our model offers new insights and research implications regarding work-family balance and helps develop practical interventions that result in improved management of the work-family interface.
Keywords: action regulation; multiple goals; work-family balance
The protean career orientation as predictor of career outcomes: Evaluation of incremental validity and mediation effects
Herrmann, A., Hirschi, A., & Baruch, Y. (2015). The protean career orientation as predictor of career outcomes: Evaluation of incremental validity and mediation effects. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 88,205-214, doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2015.03.008
Abstract
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 Ger man 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.
Career adaptivity, adaptability, and adapting: A conceptual and empirical investigation
Hirschi, A., Herrmann, A., & Keller, A. (2015). Career adaptivity, adaptability, and adapting: A conceptual and empirical investigation. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 87, 1-10. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2014.11.008
Abstract
The literature on career adaptation is vast and based on a range of different measurement approaches. The present paper aimsto explore how different operationalizations of career adapt ability 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, weestablished 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 mediatedtheeffectsof adaptivity (i.e.,coreself-evaluations andproactivity)onplanning, 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-specificbehavioral forms of adapting.
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
The Career Engagement Scale: Development and validation of a measure of proactive career behaviors
Hirschi, A., Freund, P. A., & Herrmann, A. (2014). The Career Engagement Scale: Development and validation of a measure of proactive career behaviors. Journal of Career Assessment, 22(4), 575-594. doi:10.1177/1069072713514813
Abstract
Careers today increasingly require engagement in proactive career behaviors;however, there is a lack of validated measures assessing the general degree to which somebody is engaged in such career behaviors. We describe the results of six studies with six independent samples of German university students (total N ¼ 2,854), working professionals (total N ¼ 561), and university graduates (N ¼ 141) that report the development and validation of the Career Engagement scale—a measure of the degree to which somebody is proactively developing his or her career, expressed by diverse career behaviors. The studies provide support for measurement invariance across gender and time. In support of convergent and discriminant validity, we find that career engagement is more prevalent among working professionals than among university students and that this scale has incremental validity above several specific career behaviors regarding its relation to vocational identity clarity and career self-efficacy beliefs among students and to job and career satisfaction among employees. In support of incremental predictive validity, beyond the effects of several more specific career behaviors, career engagement while at university predicts higher job and career satisfaction several months later after beginning work.
Keywords: career development, proactivity, career behaviors, career counseling
Proactive motivation and engagement in career behaviors: Investigating direct, mediated, and moderated effects
Hirschi, A., Lee, B., Porfeli, E. J., & Vondracek, F. W. (2013). Proactive motivation and engagement in career behaviors: Investigating direct, mediated, and moderated effects. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(1), 31-40. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2013.02.003
Abstract
Proactive career behaviors become increasingly important in today’s career environment, but little is known about how and when motivational patterns affect individual differences. In a six month longitudinal study among German university students (Study 1; N=289) it was demonstrated that motivation in terms of “can do” (self-efficacy and context beliefs), “reason to” (autonomous career goals), and “energized to” (positive affect) significantly predicted career behaviors. Contrary to expectation, negative context beliefs had a positive effect when combined with other motivational states. Study 2 replicated and extended those results by investigating whether “can do” motivation mediates the effect of proactive personality and whether those effects are conditional upon the degree of career choice decidedness. We tested a moderated multiple mediation model with a unique sample of 134 German students, assessed three times, each interval being 6 weeks apart. The results showed that effects of proactivity were partially carried through higher self-efficacy beliefs but not context beliefs. Supporting a moderation model, indirect effects through self-efficacy beliefs were not present for students with very low decidedness.
Keywords: career management; proactivity; motivation; career counseling; career engagement