Striving for success: Towards a refined understanding and measurement of ambition
Hirschi, A., & Spurk, D. (2021). Striving for success: Towards a refined understanding and measurement of ambition. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 127, 103577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2021.103577
Abstract
Despite broad interest in the nature of ambition and its effects on career outcomes, scientific research on this issue is limited due to an inconsistent conceptualization and measurement of ambition. Consistent with theoretical views, but in contrast to most existing measurements, we conceptualize ambition as a general personal disposition and developed and evaluated a 5-item measure of ambition consistent with this conceptualization. We report a six-phase process including (1) item generation, (2) item content review by subject matter experts, (3) item reduction and selection based on a university student (N = 1074) and employee (N = 469) sample, (4) examining convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity in relation to existing ambition scales with an employee sample (N = 301), (5) establishing discriminant validity to other personal dispositions in terms of achievement striving, trait competitiveness, and future time perspective with an employee sample (N = 544), and (6) establishing re-test reliability, longitudinal measurement-invariance, and incremental criterion validity regarding objective (i.e., salary, promotions) and subjective career success (i.e., career satisfaction) with a six-month time-lagged study (N = 394). In sum, the newly developed scale should be useful for future research to improve the theoretical and empirical understanding of the nature and effects of ambition.
Profiles of Calling and Their Relation to University-to-Work Transition Outcomes
Zhang, C., Hirschi, A., Li, M., & You, X. (2021). Profiles of calling and their relation to university-to-work transition outcomes. Journal of Career Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072720931010
Abstract
In this study, we adopted a person-centered approach using latent profile analysis to explore whether profiles of calling based on the internal and external sources of a calling are identified and how these profiles relate to successful university-to-work transition outcomes (i.e., higher career satisfaction, higher person-job fit, and lower turnover intentions). We assessed a sample of 684 Chinese university graduates one week before and six months after graduation and found five profiles of calling: Strongly undeveloped calling, moderately undeveloped calling, transcendent calling, highly transcendent calling, and modern calling. We found that a calling which was driven by internal and external sources (i.e., transcendent calling) or predominantly by internal sources (i.e., modern calling) related to more successful university-to-work transition outcomes. Our findings contribute to the literature on calling by showing that the sources of calling are important to conceptualize different types of calling and differentiate the role of different callings.
Keywords: Calling profiles, sources of calling, university to work transition, latent profile analysis, career satisfaction
Trajectories of calling in the transition from university to work: A growth mixture analysis
Zhang, C., & Hirschi, A., & You, X. (2020). Trajectories of calling in the transition from university to work: A growth mixture analysis. Journal of Career Assessment. doi: 10.1177/1069072720931010
Abstract
Research on the development of calling is still in its infancy and rarely focused on how calling changes during a major career transition. The current study examined the developmental trajectories of calling and their relation with personality (i.e., conscientiousness, proactive personality) in the transition from university to work with a three-wave longitudinal study with 340 Chinese graduating university students. Results based on growth mixture modeling indicated three developmental trajectories of calling: high and stable calling (23% of sample), high but decreasing calling (74%), and low and increasing calling (3%). Moreover, higher conscientiousness related to a higher chance of being classified into the high and stable calling trajectory. These findings add notable insights to the literature by exploring the previously neglected developmental trajectories of calling and their association with personality in the transition from university to work.
Reciprocal Relation Between Authenticity and Calling among Chinese University Students: A Latent Change Score Approach
Zhang, C., Hirschi, A., Dik, B. J., Wei, J. & You, X. (2018). Reciprocal relation between authenticity and calling among Chinese university students: a latent change score approach. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 107, 222-232. doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2018.05.005
Abstract
It is common to hear that following one’s “true self” is an important means to find a calling, yet no study has directly examined this possibility. In this study, we investigate the change pattern between authenticity and calling. Specifically, we conducted a three-wave longitudinal study with 459 Chinese university students over one year and examined the reciprocal dynamic relationship between authenticity (i.e., authentic living, self-alienation, and accepting external influence) and calling. Results of a bivariate latent change score model examining within- individual changes over time showed that increases in authentic living were positively correlated with increases in calling, while increases in self-alienation and accepting external influence negatively correlated with increases in calling. We also found that higher levels of calling predicted less decrease in authentic living. However, higher levels of authentic living significantly predicted a decrease in calling over time. Our findings contribute to the literature on calling by suggesting a dynamic change pattern of authenticity and calling among Chinese university students.
Keywords: Calling, authenticity, authentic living, accepting external influence, latent change score model
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
The relationships of vocational interest congruence, differentiation, and elevation to career preparedness among university students
Jaensch, V. K., Hirschi, A., & Spurk, D. (2016). Relationships of Vocational Interest Congruence, Differentiation, and Elevation to Career Preparedness Among University Students. Zeitschrift Fur Arbeits-Und Organisationspsychologie, 60(2), 79-89, doi: 10.1026/0932-4089/a000210.
Abstract
Vocational interest characteristics—interest congruence, interest differentiation, and general interest level elevation—are useful indicators for career development. (owever, research on these issues has primarily focused on adolescents in the transition from school to work and analyzed a limited set of career-related correlates. This study extends this line of research by exploring the relationships of interest congruence, interest differentiation, and interest elevation with several indicators of career preparedness i.e., career planning, occupational self-efficacy beliefs, career decidedness, and career engagement among a sample of emerging adults during their university studies in Germany. Data from students representing a wide range of majors were collected via an online questionnaire. Controlling for sociodemographic variables, multiple regression analyses revealed that differentiation was positively associated with career decidedness and career engagement and elevation was positively related to occupational self-efficacy beliefs and career engagement. We discuss the findings regarding the importance of differences in vocational interest characteristics for the career preparedness of university students.
Keywords: vocational interests, career preparedness, secondary construct
Career adaptability profiles and their relationship to adaptivity and adapting
Hirschi, A., & Valero, D. (2015). Career adaptability profiles and their relationship to adaptivity and adapting. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 88,220-229, doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2015.03.010
Abstract
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 subgroupswithdistinctadaptability profiles intermsofconcern,control, curiosityandconfidence can beidentified. Wealsoexploredthe relationship between the variousadaptability profiles and adapting (career planning, career decision-making difficulties, career exploration, and occupa tional 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 confirmedinasecondstudyof1226studentsselectedfromthesamepopulation.Inbothsamples, 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 signifi cantly higher adaptivity. The results suggest that level effects dominate adaptability profiles, implyingthe existence of a generaladaptability factor within universitystudents that is meaning fully related to adapting and adaptivity.
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 career exploration: Examining incremental and cross-lagged effects
Hirschi, A., Abessolo, M., & Froidevaux, A. (2015). Hope as a resource for career exploration: Examining incremental and cross-lagged effects. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 86, 38-47. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2014.10.006
Abstract
Hope is believed to be beneficial for vocational pursuits, but the question of how and why hope is related to pivotal career development variables remains largely unaddressed. In a series of three studies, we investigated the relationship between hope and career exploration. Study 1 examined at-risk adolescents (N = 228) in Switzerland and showed that hope explains variance in career exploration beyond the significant effects of generalized self-efficacy beliefs and per ceived social support. Study 2 found the same result among a group (N = 223) of first-year stu dents at a Swiss university with a measure of state hope. Study 3 applied a one-year cross-lagged design with a diverse group of students (N = 266) at a German university to investigate the mu tual effects of dispositional hope and career exploration over time. Although both variables were found to be related within and over time, we could not confirm lagged effects in either direction. The results suggest that hope is significantly correlated with career exploration because both are related to personality and social-contextual variables.
Keywords: hope; career exploration; self-efficacy beliefs; social support
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
Career engagement: Investigating intraindividual predictors of weekly fluctuations in proactive career behaviors
Hirschi, A. & Freund, P. A. (2014). Career engagement: Investigating intraindividual predictors of weekly fluctuations in proactive career behaviors. Career Development Quarterly, 62(1), 5-20. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2014.00066.x
Abstract
This study applied a microlevel perspective on how within-individual differences in motivational and social-cognitive factors affected the weekly fluctuations of engagement in proactive career behaviors among a group of 67 German university students. Career self-efficacy beliefs, perceived career barriers, experienced social career support, positive and negative emotions, and career engagement were assessed weekly for 13 consecutive weeks. Hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that above average levels of career engagement within individuals were predicted by higher than average perceived social support and positive emotions during a given week. Conversely, within-individual differences in self-efficacy, barriers, and negative emotions had no effect. The results suggest that career interventions should provide boosts in social support and positive emotions.
Keywords: career engagement, diary study, university students, self-directed career management
Career decision making, stability and actualization of career intentions: The case of entrepreneurial intentions
Hirschi, A. (2013). Career decision making, stability and actualization of career intentions: The case of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Career Assessment, 21(4), 555-571, doi:10.1177/1069072712475287
Abstract
Career counselors are often concerned with stability and likelihood of implementation of clients’ career intentions. It is often assumed that the status in career decision making (CDM) is one likely indicator, yet empirical support for this assumption is sparse. The present study focused on entrepreneurial career intentions (EI) and showed that German university students (N = 1,221), with high EI can be found in very different empirically derived CDM statuses that range from pre-concern to mature decidedness. Longitudinal analyses (n = 561) showed that career choice foreclosure (high decidedness/low exploration) related to more EI stability and that mature decidedness (high decidedness/high exploration) amplified effects of EI on opportunity identification, a form of EI actualization. The results imply that CDM statuses are useful to estimate stability and actualization of career intentions.
Keywords: entrepreneurial intention; career decision making; vocational identity; career exploration; career intentions
Work values as predictors of entrepreneurial career intentions: A longitudinal analysis of gender effects
Hirschi, A. & Fischer, S. (2013). Work values as predictors of entrepreneurial career intentions: A longitudinal analysis of gender effects. Career Development International, 18(3), 216-231. doi:10.1108/CDI-04-2012-0047
Abstract
Purpose
Work values are an important characteristic to understand gender differences in career intentions, but how gender affects the relationship between values and career intentions is not well established. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether gender moderates the effects of work values on level and change of entrepreneurial intentions (EI).
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 218 German university students were sampled regarding work values and with EI assessed three times over the course of 12 months. Data were analysed with latent growth modelling.
Findings
Self‐enhancement and openness to change values predicted higher levels and conservation values lower levels of EI. Gender moderated the effects of enhancement and conservation values on change in EI.
Research limitations/implications
The authors relied on self‐reported measures and the sample was restricted to university students. Future research needs to verify to what extent these results generalize to other samples and different career fields, such as science or nursing.
Practical implications
The results imply that men and women are interested in an entrepreneurial career based on the same work values but that values have different effects for men and women regarding individual changes in EI. The results suggest that the prototypical work values of a career domain seem important regarding increasing the career intent for the gender that is underrepresented in that domain.
Originality/value
The results enhance understanding of how gender affects the relation of work values and a specific career intention, such as entrepreneurship.
Calling and career preparation: Investigating developmental patterns and temporal precedence
Hirschi, A., & Herrmann, A. (2013). Calling and career preparation: Investigating developmental patterns and temporal precedence. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(1), 51-60. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2013.02.008
Abstract
The presence of a calling and career development are assumed to be closely related. However, the nature of and reason for this relationship have not been thoroughly investigated. We hypothesized the existence of reciprocal effects between calling and three dimensions of career preparation and assessed the change of the presence of a calling, career planning, decidedness, and self-efficacy with three waves of a diverse sample of German university students (N = 846) over one year. Latent growth analyses revealed that the intercepts of calling showed a significant positive correlation with the intercepts of all career preparation measures. The slope of calling was positively related to those of decidedness and self-efficacy but not to planning. Cross-lagged analyses showed that calling predicted a subsequent increase in planning and self-efficacy. Planning and decidedness predicted an increase in the presence of a calling. The results suggest that calling and career preparation are related due to mutual effects but that effects differ for different career preparation dimensions.
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
Vocational identity achievement as a mediator of presence of calling and life satisfaction
Hirschi, A. & Herrmann, A. (2012). Vocational identity achievement as a mediator of presence of calling and life satisfaction. Journal of Career Assessment, 20(3), 309-321. doi:10.1177/1069072711436158
Abstract
The present study explores what mechanism might be responsible for the reported link between presence of a calling in one’s career and life satisfaction. It is proposed that vocational identity achievement acts as one important mediator of this relation and that the effects can be observed even when controlling for core self-evaluations (CSEs). The study used a short-term longitudinal design based on a sample of 269 German college students from different majors. The results con firmed the mediation model, with calling predicting vocational identity achievement 6 months later and identity serving as a stronger predictor of life satisfaction, all controlling for CSEs. However, contrary to previous research, presence of calling was not directly related to life satisfaction and even showed a negative relation when vocational identity achievement was controlled. The results are interpreted to suggest a multifaceted relation between calling and life satisfaction.
Keywords: calling, vocational identity, core self-evaluations, career development
Callings in career: A typological approach to essential and optional components
Hirschi, A. (2011). Callings in career: A typological approach to essential and optional components. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79(1), 60-73. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2010.11.002
Abstract
A sense of calling in career is supposed to have positive implications for individuals and organizations but current theoretical development is plagued with incongruent conceptualiza tions of what does or does not constitute a calling. The present study used cluster analysis to identify essential and optional components of a presence of calling among 407 German undergraduate students from different majors. Three types of calling merged: “negative career self-centered”, “pro-social religious”, and “positive varied work orientation”. All types could be described as vocational identity achieved (high commitment/high self-exploration), high in career confidence and career engagement. Not defining characteristics were centrality of work or religion, endorsement of specific work values, or positivity of core self-evaluations. The results suggest that callings entail intense self-exploration and might be beneficial because they correspond with identity achievement and promote career confidence and engagement while not necessarily having pro-social orientations. Suggestions for future research, theory and practice are suggested.
Generation Y: Wie tickt sie wirklich?
Uhe, M., & Hirschi, A. (2014). Generation Y: Wie tickt sie wirklich? [Generation Y: How are they really?]. Wirtschaftspsychologie aktuell, 2, 16-18.