Adapting to a looming career transition: How age and core individual differences interact

Abstract

Today's workers often need to adapt their careers in the face of looming career transitions, i.e., they need to be concerned about and to have a sense of control over the progress of their careers, be confident that they are able to master the career-related challenges ahead, and remain curious about alternative career options. This can become an issue particularly for older workers – and thus, for a growing percentage of workers in the workforce. A possible remedy lies in certain individual difference variables that may facilitate adaptive responses to a looming career transition in general, and that may also buffer against any possible age-related effects. In this study, we examined the importance of locus of control, generalized self-efficacy and trait curiosity for workers' adaptive responses (i.e., showing concern, control, confidence and curiosity) in the face of a looming career transition. We hypothesized age to have a negative and the individual difference variables to have positive associations with workers' adaptive responses, besides buffering the effect of age on specific career adaptive responses. Data were collected among 3413 workers facing an imminent career transition, usually the loss of their jobs. Results largely supported the hypotheses, indeed highlighting the importance of individual differences for ensuring adaptive career responses and for buffering against the impact of age in the face of a looming career transition.