Career Development Literature Research Articles

Differentiating Grapes from Wine

There is a growing interest in connecting the literature on graduate employability, career development, and worker employability. However, inconsistent terminology across these fields poses a challenge. This essay focuses on the term ‘school-to-work transition’. In career development and worker employability literature, it often refers to the movement from all stages of schooling into the labour market, while in graduate employability literature it is understood to only refer to the transition from secondary school into the labour market. To illustrate this issue, we use a metaphor comparing grapes to wine. Consequently, we propose ‘education-to-work transition’ as an overarching term, with various subcategories specific to secondary and tertiary education.

Explore, Plan, Succeed!: A Career Development Study

This experiment aligns with the career construction theory, which emphasizes the importance of adaptability in navigating career transitions (Savickas, 2005). Data from 297 students enrolled in introductory psychology courses at Carleton University were assessed using hierarchical regression analyses to explore the effects of demographics (i.e., job number, job status, GPA, year of study), parental career-related behaviors (i.e., support, interference, and non-engagement) and participation in a brief planning intervention on career curiosity, career adaptability, career anxiety, and decision-making self-efficacy. This study further explored the relationship between these career attitudinal outcomes. Results indicated a significant role of specific parental career-related behaviors in developing confidence in decision-making. The development of career adaptability resources also explained variance in students' career decision-making self-efficacy and career anxiety. Our findings contribute to the career development literature and provide insights for academics and career professionals.

Personality, Parents, & Planning: Predicting Career Attitudinal Outcomes in Undergraduate Students

Personality, parental career-related behaviors, and career construction-based interventions have been shown to impact career adaptability. This study examined the influence of these factors on career concern, an understudied but important dimension of career adaptability, and career anxiety. Data from 297 students enrolled in introductory psychology courses were assessed using hierarchical regression analyses to explore the effects of personality factors (i.e., conscientiousness and neuroticism), parental career-related behaviors (i.e., support, interference, and non-engagement), and participation in a brief planning intervention on career concern and career anxiety. This study further explored the relationship between these career attitudinal outcomes and life satisfaction. Results indicated a significant role of personality factors and specific parental career-related behaviors in career concern and career anxiety. Career concern and conscientiousness also played significant predictive roles in life satisfaction. Our findings contribute to the career development literature and provide insights for both academics and career professionals.

Career adaptation in higher education: a study with non-working and working students

The career construction and sociocognitive career theories were considered to test an integrative model of career adaptation in higher education. Participants were 523 Portuguese university students (non-working, n = 335, Mage = 20.64; working, n = 188, Mage = 29.05), who completed measures of social support, protean orientation, adaptability and adapting as adaptation predictors, and career certainty, academic wellbeing, and life satisfaction as adaptation outcomes. Multigroup path analysis results indicated a good fit of the model and invariance across groups after some changes. Although more studies are needed to explore the range and limits of the proposed model validity, our findings allow the career development literature extension while informing the practice. Career counselors might facilitate university students’ adjustment by helping them expand their social network and develop their career attitudes.

Psychology Workforce Literacy: A Gap Worth Minding

The undergraduate psychology major is often one of the most popular choices for bachelor's degree-seeking students. Although national and international organizations are devoted to broad interests, there does not seem to be much coordinated effort—on any level—to comprehend and advocate on behalf of psychology baccalaureates. In this review article, we expand on psychology workforce literacy, focusing on a psychology major's ability to navigate the college-to-career transition. Psychology workforce literacy is more than exploring and knowing the options with a psychology bachelor's degree. It is also about self-confidence to make meaningful decisions about the next steps in one's career path, and many of these ideas emerge from the career development literature. We present ideas about how faculty can prepare undergraduate students with psychological workforce literacy knowledge and skills, curriculum options, and the pedagogical/assessment supports that faculty will need to know that their efforts are effective.

The moderating effect of expatriate acculturation on career sustainability: Evidence from Chinese University alumni from Africa

Purpose: To a large extent, the recent global instability is responsible for the rapid structural mutation of the career landscape, thereby affecting individuals’ career development, especially expatriates who are subjected to an acculturation process. Even though the cultural element exists in the career development literature, the implications of expatriate acculturation (EA) on individual expatriates’ career competence (CC) and career sustainability (CS) remain understudied. Therefore, this study proposes to fill this gap in literature by exploring the intrinsic role EA plays in regulating the CC–CS interactions.Design/methodology/approach: For a more comprehensive analysis, we attempt to identify the effect on each dimension of CC, thus Reflective, Social, and Behavioural competencies (RC, SC, and BC), in the case of Chinese University postgraduate alumni from Africa. We conducted a double-layer analysis with 389 respondents’ data samples.Findings/results: Results reveal that, at the aggregate level, the positive relationship between CC and CS is weakened by EA in the case of African postgraduates who studied at Chinese universities. The detailed analyses reveal that the negative effect of EA significantly undermines the RC–CS mechanism, but significantly strengthens the BC–CS interaction. Besides, the SC–CS mechanism is not significantly moderated by EA despite the negative acculturation tendencies.Practical implications: From the perspective of international interdependence, this research elucidates the magnitude and diversity of expatriates’ contribution to the host country’s career ecosystem.Originality/value: Investigating from the career construction theory (CCT) perspective, this article aims to fill this gap by finding the moderating effect of EA on the CC–CS mechanisms.

Međuorganizacijska mobilnost zaposlenika

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon of interorganizational employee mobility, 55 defined as a movement of employees between the source and destination organizations that goes beyond simple turnover behaviour. We use a bibliometric analysis approach that applies quantitative and statistical methods to bibliographic data to deepen our objective understanding of how research on interorganizational employee mobility has evolved over time and to examine whether interorganizational employee mobility is multilevel in nature. The results of the performance analysis and various science mapping methods (co-authorship analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and co-word analysis) reveal clustered networks of key contributors in the field (i.e., authors, journals, affiliations, countries). Authors from the field of management, mainly from the USA and Western European affiliations, dominate the field. However, few of them have more than one publication on the topic of interorganizational employee mobility, which indicates that the literature in the field is still scattered and not yet mature. Our findings contribute to the career development literature by providing a detailed insight into how career has changed over time and highlighting the main constructs and factors associated with individual decisions to change employers.

The U.S. Workforce From 1960 to 2020: A RIASEC View

This paper analyzes civilian occupations and employment data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau over seven decades (1960–2020) with respect to six kinds of work (Holland’s RIASEC classification). The focus is on (a) occupational titles used, (b) civilian employment, and (c) income. This study is a continuation and extension of eight articles published earlier by 11 different scholars, and it represents a 10th contribution to career development and vocational psychology literature with respect to the environmental aspects of Holland’s theory. In each census period, the Artistic area was the smallest area of employment at 1% or 2%. At the other extreme, the Realistic area was a large area of employment, ranging from 55% in 1960 to 26% in 2020. The principal findings of the current study are examined in terms of three research questions followed by a discussion of the implications for career counseling practice.

Metaphors in Career Development: Using ZMET to Explore How an Employment Initiative Changes NEETs’ Mental Models

Noting the lack of in-depth insights into the role of emotions and the malleability of affective dispositions for career development, the current research adopts a single case study approach, involving an employment initiative, to elicit conscious and unconscious emotions and beliefs of participants who are not in employment, education, or training (NEETs). Using Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET), which involves in-depth, semi-structured interviews and images, the authors determine that comfort emotions represent necessary conditions, acting as filters that alter mental representations of the world, evoke a process of perspective transformation, and ultimately induce new beliefs and individual emancipation. This research contributes to career development literature and redefines career helpers as agents of change who should recognize and harness emotions for assisting NEETs who must navigate complex, unique career environments.

Building Program Structures to Advance Vocational Research on Women

In this paper, we react to the systematic review of the women’s career development literature conducted by Fouad et al. in this issue. We identify a variety of structural barriers that we believe have contributed to the limited advancements of research in this area. In line with recent discussions within the profession, we highlight systemic approaches across the areas of vocational psychology teaching and training, advocacy and practice, and research that are aimed to promote future research on women and work.

Predicting Religious Undergraduates’ Career Development: The Salient Roles of Religious Calling, Life Satisfaction, and Quest Religiosity

Americans, over several decades, have consistently identified themselves as being religious and/or spiritual. Even though religious devotion has been recognized as a relevant diversity facet, therapeutic applications have been problematic. In the career development literature, numerous studies examined the influence of religion/spirituality (R/S) and generally categorized them in three ways. These include R/S as religious calling, as an integral feature of career interests and values, and as a supportive role. Yet, notable gaps exist among the articles. Researchers tended to operationalize R/S in a unidimensional manner, as a stand-alone construct instead of comprising multiple features. Investigations of religious calling in vocational matters were not recent. Further, few authors considered the influence of quest religious orientation on career development. In the present study, the relationships between seven career development and thirteen R/S variables using a sample of religious undergraduates (n = 290) enrolled in a career exploration course at a Christian university in the Midwest region of the United States were investigated. Findings from hierarchical regression analyses of vocational identity, career commitment, and career indecision checking for gender effects revealed three consistent salient predictors – religious calling, life-satisfaction, and quest religiosity. Implications of the results and possible therapeutic applications for career counselors are proposed.

Spatialising careership: towards a spatio-relational model of career development

Career development theory is critical in understanding how individuals make transitions through education and the workplace. However, despite evidence of the importance of geographical place in shaping individual trajectories, limited theoretical work has focused on the topic. In this paper, the potential for the development of a theoretical framework of career development that explicitly addresses the role of place is explored. This paper starts by outlining the limited ways that place has been conceptualised in existing career development literature, and then explores potential developments utilising the theoretical tools from careership theory and the work of Pierre Bourdieu and integrating insights from contemporary spatial theorists. The paper finishes by drawing together a spatio-relational framework for career development which both encompasses insights from the existing literature and extends this work arguing that place is a salient dimension in career development to a much more significant extent than has been previously recognised.

Moving forward: Diverse conceptual and theoretical perspectives to advance career proactivity research

Research interests have surged recently to unpack the different elements or forms of career proactivity, which is presumed to carry important implications for one’s career (Klehe et al., 2021). However, as revealed in our bibliometric review (Jiang et al., 2022), career proactivity remains a complex domain which resides in various research themes in vocational and organizational psychology. While these insights emerging from the bibliographic analyses echo well-established perspectives in the wider career development literature, they do suggest broad directions future research may follow to move this field forward, such as clearing up the conceptualization of career proactivity, taking contextualized views, bridging historical traditions across domains, and developing new theories. That being said, since most existing career studies do not directly address “proactivity” due to constrained or ambiguous knowledge about the nature of being vocationally or occupationally proactive, the themes and clusters were largely hidden behind the literature that indirectly attends to individuals’ actions or behavioral tendencies (or indicators reflecting/fostering these actions or tendencies). What seems challenging for career proactivity research in the future, is still the complexity of identifying a clearer and more precisely defined thread that can bind these themes in a coherent, meaningful manner.

Conceptualizing a Proposed Model for Re-Orienting Career Centers for Immigrant College Students

Immigrant college students often encounter daunting tasks and obstacles when exploring career paths, seeking employment and experiential learning opportunities aligned with their interests within the dominant US higher education structure. Considering that there is a career services and development literature gap on immigrant students (who comprise a large swath of the college-going population), it is critical to develop meaningful frameworks that support research and practice in this emerging, needed space. This conceptual paper bridges a critical theory of love with funds of knowledge to re-orient the ways in which immigrant students are served at college career centers. Four guiding principles (rooted in the frameworks) are outlined that can support a more collaborative and inclusive experience for immigrant students toward gaining meaningful support at college career centers.

Understanding transgender persons' careers to advance sustainable development: The case of Trans for Career Thailand

AbstractCareers are fundamental in progressing gender and income equality as key objectives of sustainable development. However, transgender persons often face unique challenges that prevent them from advancing in the world of work. This article elaborates upon the case of “Trans for Career Thailand,” an advocacy group established during the COVID‐19 pandemic with the purpose of offering career and employment opportunities to all transgender persons. Through primary and secondary data, the findings elucidate how “Trans for Career Thailand” uses its social media presence to build career knowledge, a community of career professionals and, finally, a trans career movement. This article shines a spotlight on the careers of transgender persons as a point of departure for advancing gender and income equality. Hence, it contributes to career development literature while offering important recommendations for sustainable development, employment policies, and advocacy groups.

The ecological approach to construct entrepreneurship education: a systematic literature review

PurposeThe research effort on entrepreneurship education has been mainly for the higher education settings and on the individual level of analysis. On the contrary, this research urges scholars to expedite attention to the secondary education settings, especially in the emerging economies in Asia and Africa. This paper aims to reveal the existing landscape of literature development on the topic and promote ecological approaches of constructing entrepreneurship education programs in schools. It advocates the “incubator” role of schools for students and the necessity of establishing socially embedded entrepreneurship education as the playground for future entrepreneurs.Design/methodology/approachThis study followed the systematic literature review as its research design. It obtained 1,555 publications from six academic databases and 60 more publications from expert consulting and backward snowballing technique. Data screening resulted in a total of 101 relevant publications with the upper secondary education as their research context. The qualitative integrative synthesis method was then applied to integrate research evidence to the five circles of systems according to Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory.FindingsThis study contributes to the entrepreneurship education and youth career development literature, especially in the developing countries. Results discovered that entrepreneurship education programs, when interacting with ecological systems, resulted in training success. The most frequently studied systems were microsystems; here, there was a dominant focus on program-level reporting and analyzing. There was less focus on other systems such as mesosystems, exosystems or macrosystems. Moreover, only one study was associated with chronosystems, suggesting a significant research gap regarding the longitudinal studies. However, this review validated the different approaches to delivering entrepreneurship education in emerging and developed economies.Research limitations/implicationsOne limitation of this research lies in the methodology. The inclusion criteria limited the studies to the context of upper secondary education and excluded those of secondary education in general. The sampling method limited the power of this research to analyze and discuss policy-level studies because policies most likely embrace the whole secondary education level as its target. Another limitation is associated with the lack of experimental studies in assessing the comparative advantages of following the ecological approach when constructing entrepreneurship education. It, therefore, remains an undiscussed matter within this study regarding whether following the ecological approach means empirically a better educational choice or not.Practical implicationsThis study discusses the implications for policymakers, especially in emerging economies, and suggests that awareness, attention and funding are needed to empower youth entrepreneurship education from an ecological systems view.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of few studies that use the ecological systems theory in the context of entrepreneurship education with the purpose of focusing on environment-level analysis instead of individual-level analysis. Through the systematic literature review, this study proposes an ecological approach to comprehend, guide, evaluate and improve the design and implementation of entrepreneurship education programs in schools based on well-articulated research evidence. The research can inform both researchers and educators by offering a holistic perspective to observe and evaluate entrepreneurship education programs and their levels of social connectedness.

Can you manage shocks? An investigation of career shocks on proactive career behavior: a COR theory perspective

PurposeConsiderable research has been done to link career-development strategies to career-management success, but little is known about how career shocks (CSs) relate to proactive career behavior (PCB). Furthermore, the study investigates the mediation mechanism of personal resources (i.e. perceived self-efficacy (PSE) and perceived employability (PEMP)) in the linkage between CSs and PCB using the tenets of conservation of resources (COR) theory.Design/methodology/approachUsing the survey approach, the authors recruited 322 banking professionals and validated the proposed model and hypotheses in AMOS.FindingsThe outcome shows that CSs are significantly related to PSE and PEMP (personal resources), subsequently linked to PCB. Moreover, personal resources mediate the linkage between CSs and PCB. Thus, CSs cannot be ignored but can be minimized through proactive efforts.Practical implicationsThe findings support the banks' management to protect their personnel career by not giving CSs and build their PCB through personal resources. The employees should strive for enhancing personal resources through organizational development opportunities (i.e. training and development) to rescue themselves from sudden CSs.Originality/valueShocks cannot be ignored but can be managed through PCB. This research is the first that successfully adds to the career-development literature by empirically establishing the direct and indirect association between CSs and PCB through personal resources.

Examining the Career Construction Model of Adaptation Among Filipino Senior High School Students

Career development literature that tested the career construction model of adaptation has, thus far, examined adaptability resource as a mediator in the relationship between adaptive readiness and adaptation results; however, there remains a need to elaborate the links between adaptive resources, adapting response, and adaptation results. This research tested a path model among 331 Filipino senior high school students using hope, career adaptability, career engagement, and life satisfaction as measures of adaptive readiness, adaptability resources, adaptive response, and adaptation results, respectively. Analyses revealed a significant serial relationship from hope to life satisfaction through career adaptability and career engagement. Findings suggest that having career-related abilities may not be enough to promote well-being; rather proactive career behaviors may be taken as a route to a satisfying life. Implications on theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Working College Students' Time Pressure and Work-School Conflict: Do Boundary Permeability and Dispositional Mindfulness Matter?

Although working college students are experiencing increasing demands on their time, the influence of time pressure on students' work-school experience has been under-studied in the extant career development literature. Drawing on boundary theory and conservation of resources theory, the present research investigates the degree to which work or school time pressure is associated with working college students' work-school conflict through work-school boundary permeability. Moreover, this study considers dispositional mindfulness as an individual resource that buffers the relationships above. Using a sample of 222 working college students in a large and diverse public university in the United States, we find support that work and school time pressures predict higher work-school conflict through work-school boundary permeability. Results also suggest that dispositional mindfulness moderates the indirect relationship among school time pressure, school-to-work boundary permeability, and school-to-work conflict. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Careers Roundtable: An Exercise for Student Career Exploration and Future Development

This paper describes a classroom exercise related to career development that helps students explore career paths found in their major. While we primarily focus on the Human Resource Management (HRM) major, we provide guidance for adapting the exercise to different majors as well as first year business students. First, we summarize career development literature focusing on college students. We next provide background for the development of the exercise. Our major is required to assess the curriculum as part of university-wide curricular assessment, and we will describe how this exercise grew out of that assessment. We then describe the exercise and the positive outcomes for students. In the Appendices to this paper we provide: a template illustrating how our curriculum builds across years which can be adapted to help orient students in the context of their major, complete directions for the HRM version of the exercise, and instructor teaching notes which include suggestions on how this exercise can be adapted for other majors within business schools. The exercise supports our students’ concerns and university’s interest in assessment and assists students as they make the transition from student life to their professional careers.