The Dynamics of Career Sustainability: A Latent Transition Analysis

Abstract

As individuals are facing more and more uncertainties and challenges in their career development, building up sustainable careers with balanced health, happiness, and productivity is important for both employers and employees. In the field of career management, however, there are few empirical investigations on career sustainability and its dynamics. Integrating the theoretical framework of sustainable career and person-environment fit theory, the current study uses two-wave longitudinal data (N = 529) to empirically identify the profiles of employees’ career sustainability and further examine the effect of person-environment fit on profile transitions. For each wave of data, Latent Profile Analyses (LPAs) consistently revealed four latent profile classes of employee career sustainability: highly sustainable, health-oriented, performance-oriented, and unsustainable. Moreover, a Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) model indicated that employees with higher person-environment fit were more likely to go through positive transitions in career sustainability; on the contrary, employees with lower person-environment fit were more likely to go through negative transitions in career sustainability. This study enriches the literature on employees’ sustainable careers and further deepens the understanding of career dynamics and sustainability transitions from the perspective of person-environment fit. Also, this study provides practical implications for career management.