Career Security Research Articles

Unraveling the AI enigma: how perceptions of artificial intelligence forge career adaptability through the crucible of career insecurity and skill development

PurposeArtificial intelligence (AI) integration in the workplace yields positive outcomes, yet its impact on employees remains incompletely understood. This study aims to examine employee viewpoints regarding AI and its influence on employee career attitudes, behaviors and skill enhancement. The author examines how employees perceive AI and its impact on their career adaptability within the context of career self-management.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers conducted hypothesis testing using AMOS; data was collected from 255 software house employees working in Pakistan. This study is time-lagged in nature. Data on AI perception was collected at time 1. After three weeks, data was collected for hypotheses related to mediation, and employees filled out a questionnaire related to career adaptability at time 3 with the interval of three weeks.FindingsThis study indicates a strong correlation between beliefs about AI dominance in the job market and increased career adaptability. The researchers discovered that career insecurity and skill development are pathways that elucidate employees’ perceptions of AI dominating their decisions regarding career adaptability.Originality/valueThis study demonstrates that AI perception has the potential to influence employees, motivating them to enhance their abilities and pursue adaptable career trajectories. The study indicates that employees’ unfavorable perceptions of AI can result in behaviors associated with career adaptability.

The glass is half empty: the pessimistic mood in (post)COVID-19 pandemic neoliberal academia

ABSTRACT The immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academics have garnered substantial attention within the literature. Although it is still not possible to precisely detail the pandemic's long-term effects, many scholars feel very bleak about their academic career prospects. This article focuses on precariously employed academics. It addresses how the performative culture of neoliberal academia has produced a pessimistic mood among them, curbing their hopes of secure careers. I draw evidence from in-depth interviews with non-tenured academics based in Portugal during the first wave of the pandemic and explore how they evaluate their academic futures. Embracing Pereira's ideas on ‘mood,' Berlant's concept of the ‘cruel optimism,' and Ahmed's notion of pessimism, I argue that pessimism and hopelessness reflect increasingly prevalent characteristics of post-pandemic neoliberal academia and disclose the potential for such a ‘mood' to undermine the scope for the social transformation of neoliberal academia. The paper contributes to the literature on the COVID-19 pandemic's impacts on neoliberal academia by unveiling how, given the impossibility of keeping up with demands of performativity due to the disruptions brought about by the global health crisis, the future of precarious academics already encapsulates the loss of any real opportunity for an academic ‘good life.’

Enhancing the sustainability of careers in disruptive times

Our current world is putting to the test the resilience of many workers when dealing with uncertainty and adjusting to changing ways of working, rapid digitization, combined with a pressure to perform and stay employable. In these uncertain times, it has become even more clear that careers cannot be seen as a linear sequence of predictable work experiences one has full control over, and that individuals cannot just rely on others to take care of their career security. At the same time, it provokes questions regarding the role of different stakeholders involved. This article summarizes the key elements of sustainable careers theory and discusses the relevance of this framework for understanding and addressing contemporary career challenges and implications for career counseling. It is a summary of my keynote address at the NICEC conference in Birmingham, July 2024.

Consequences of career progression barriers experienced by doctors in GP training: an interpretative phenomenological study

ABSTRACT Background Despite commitment across national medical education and training bodies to tackle differential attainment (DA), alongside a wealth of research into contributing factors and solutions, progression in narrowing the gap has lagged. This study explores the lived experiences of doctors facing DA, career progression barriers and their wider consequences. Methods Interpretative phenomenological analysis was chosen as the methodological framework. The six doctors interviewed were released from General Practice training before enrolling in a ‘targeted’ intervention scheme designed to support them with training completion. Results The cohort included four international medical graduates and two graduates from the United Kingdom. Three participants were neurodiverse. Three inter-related themes were identified. 1) ‘Career insecurity’ is defined as uncertainty about career prospects and attainment of career goals. At varying points along their journey navigating through progression barriers, participants frequently questioned their futures and the decision to persist in the arduous pursuit of training completion. 2) ‘Psychological injury’ featured prominently in the experiences of the ‘targeted trainees’. Feelings of worthlessness, helplessness, low energy and mood, and ‘traumatic’ experiences were described. 3) ‘Social injury’ illustrates consequences to doctors’ familial and social contexts (including relationships), as well as wider societal consequences (such as attrition). Conclusion Our research evidences the consequences of DA and career progression barriers. We highlight the urgent need for escalated efforts in addressing the challenges faced by different groups of doctors and narrowing the attainment gap. Recommendations for interventions are included in our study.

Career Insecurity Scale Short Form (CI-S): Construction and Validation

To facilitate research on career insecurity, we develop and validate an eight-item short form of the 32-item original scale across three studies, namely the CI-S. In all studies, CI-S consistently showed high internal reliabilities and correlations with the full scale. Specifically, Study 1 finishes the preliminary item selection and makes an initial validation. Study 2 demonstrates that CI-S has a comparable criterion-related validity with the full scale. Study 3 examines a moderated mediation model of the relationship between career insecurity and workplace deviance and shows that using CI-S or the full scale does not change the results. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that CI-S is a psychometrically satisfying and practically useful measure of career insecurity that can be used with confidence in research and practice.

Exploring University Students’ Career Resources Profiles to Cope with Career Insecurity and Promote Employability

Exploring University Students’ Career Resources Profiles to Cope with Career Insecurity and Promote Employability

Not Only a “Foe”: Examining the Opposing Effects of Career Insecurity on Proactive Career Behavior

Not Only a “Foe”: Examining the Opposing Effects of Career Insecurity on Proactive Career Behavior

Examining Career Insecurity: The Role of Workplace Characteristics in Remote Work

Examining Career Insecurity: The Role of Workplace Characteristics in Remote Work

The future of pharmacy work: How pharmacists are adapting to and preparing for technology infusion

BackgroundThe pharmacy sector is rapidly evolving due to technological advancements, presenting challenges and opportunities for pharmacists. However, limited literature exists on the future of pharmacy work, especially concerning technology adoption. ObjectiveThis exploratory study investigates pharmacists' perspectives on the impact of technologies on the profession - including career security, role evolution, adjustments to changes - and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on technology implementation and the broader future of work in pharmacy. MethodA cross-sectional survey design was used, targeting all registered pharmacists in New Zealand. A questionnaire, adapted from Future of Work literature, was piloted and distributed to 3037 pharmacists. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, two-step hierarchical analysis, and content and thematic analysis. Ethics approval was obtained. Results177 responses met the inclusion criteria, yielding a 5.82% response rate. Respondent demographics included a lower proportion of community pharmacists and individuals of Asian ethnicity, but a higher proportion of males and hospital pharmacists compared to the national workforce. Most respondents were aged between 30 and 59 years, representing all District Health Board locations.Qualitative analysis identified two themes: 1) Factors affecting technology adoption across macro, meso and micro levels, including COVID-19's impact on work efficiency, regulatory gaps, fragmented IT and organizational infrastructures, patient safety, and attitudes at workforce and individual levels; 2) Career impacts, highlighting role expansion, job replacement fears, and the need for adaptation and upskilling. Quantitative findings indicate that early technology adopters are more prepared to learn new skills and plan their careers. Technology impact positively correlates with career planning, while job loss concerns negatively affect skill development readiness. ConclusionThe study underscores the importance of early technological adoption for readiness to acquire new skills and career planning in pharmacy. Embracing technological change, supported by regulatory and policy frameworks, is crucial for advancing the profession.

Identifying Factors Influencing Employee Turnover Rate (A Case Study in Private Schools and Institutions, Alahsa)

Purpose: In the present organizational scenario, retaining talented employees becomes a significant motive for every organization. The present study explores the factors that affect employee turnover intention among employees of private schools in Al AHSA. Design/Methodology/ Approach: The researchers applied quantitative methods to assess the proposed aim of the study. Using cross-sectional data, the study concluded based on 322 samples. Findings: The study demonstrates a negative effect of training and development, job satisfaction and promotion on employees’ turnover intention. Moreover, the impact of job insecurity is positive on employees’ turnover intention. Research, practical and social implications: The study's findings support policymakers and planners in controlling turnover intention by providing practical financial benefits and developing their minds towards staying in the organizations through training and development, satisfaction and secure careers. Originality/ value: This study overcomes the gaps in the empirical investigation of the factors that affect turnover intention among the private schools of Al AHSA, Saudi Arabia.

Paradoxical career sensemaking among emerging adults

ABSTRACT Emerging adults, who are late millennials and Gen Z members, question the worth of higher education, especially in preparation for volatile labor markets, careers, and other precarities. We analyzed emerging adults’ sensemaking about this education–career–precarity mix through the constitutive lens of paradox using the applied tensional approach. We identified two main paradoxes centering around feelings of education and career security and vulnerability: (a) students’ beliefs about educational attainment as leading directly to career success (golden ticket) that coexist with understandings that there are no guarantees; and (b) feelings of isolation in the self-managed career (“it’s all up to me”) that share space with desires for social networks but as educational products established by others and consistent with student-as-consumer and neoliberal ideologies. In demystifying these paradoxes, we advocate more-than approaches that position tensions as opportunities, incorporate both career development and critical communication pedagogy, and transcend through quality control interventions.

A cross‐lagged study investigating the relationship between burnout and subjective career success from a lifespan developmental perspective

AbstractThis study draws on the conservation of resources theory to investigate the relationship between burnout (disengagement and emotional exhaustion) and subjective career success (SCS) through career insecurity over time. It also aims to shed light on the role of the occupational future time perspective (i.e., remaining opportunities and remaining time) as a personal resource that may moderate the direct and indirect relationship between burnout and SCS through career insecurity. A total of 362 full‐time working individuals participated in the survey, which was administered at two time points, 9 months apart. The results from the cross‐lagged analysis suggested a bidirectional relationship between disengagement and SCS; however, emotional exhaustion did not predict SCS across time. Career insecurity mediated the cross‐lagged relationship between burnout and SCS. Finally, the findings showed that the negative cross‐lagged relationship between disengagement and SCS was moderated by remaining opportunities, such that the relationship was stronger for individuals low on remaining opportunities. The negative cross‐lagged relationship between emotional exhaustion and SCS was moderated by remaining time, such that the relationship was stronger for individuals low on the remaining time. Implications for practice and future research directions are discussed.

Theorizing Decision-Making in International Bureaucracies: UN Peacekeeping Operations and Responses to Norm Violations

Abstract Many international organizations (IOs) provide assistance to governments through country offices or peacekeeping operations. Sometimes, government authorities in countries receiving IO services violate norms that underpin the IO’s engagement. IO officials must then choose between confrontational and conciliatory responses. These responses are located on a spectrum that ranges from a firm and public response to silence and downplaying. How do IO officials decide on their response? Based on over 200 interviews with UN peacekeeping officials, we argue that the factors that shape their decision-making are found across three categories: individual, departmental, and positional. In terms of individual characteristics, previous experience, career security, and the length of service at a particular duty station matter. Regarding departmental factors, politicization of work, professional composition, and the type of interlocutors predispose departments to be supporters or critics of authorities in recipient countries. In terms of positional considerations, the place of a post or department in the IO hierarchy, relations with other IO entities, and the distance from the field play a role. While important in its own right, decision-making by civilian UN peacekeeping officials is informative about similar processes in other complex international bureaucracies that employ individuals from diverse backgrounds.

MEDIATING ROLE OF COGNITIVE RUMINATION AND CAREER INSECURITY ON RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NURSES’ JOB SATISFACTION & TURNOVER INTENTION

This study aims to investigate the mediating effect of invasive rumination and career insecurity on relationship between nurses’ job satisfaction and turnover intention. Cross-sectional data were collected from nurses in the Qassim region working in primary healthcare centers and hospitals. Non-probability convenience sampling technique was utilized to obtain 372 participants who completed questionnaire, and SPSS was used to analyze the data. To test the hypotheses, correction and multiple regressions were used. Results revealed that all factors of job satisfaction were significantly related to turnover intention. Also, except for interpersonal relationships, all factors had a significant impact on turnover intention of nurses. Besides, invasive rumination and career insecurity has mediated the relationship amid predictor job satisfaction and criterion turnover intention. Hospitals management must pay attention and support SV nurses to reduce turnover intention. In current crisis, no healthcare organizations afford the turnover intention. For this drive, management must discourage invasive rumination and career insecurity and inspire active rumination, career development, skills, learning environment and perceived organizational support to retain the nurses for longer term.

Voicing Is Not Icing! The Role of Career Empowerment in Fostering Voice Behavior Through Career Security: A Time-Lagged Three-Wave Study

This study investigates how career empowerment predicts promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors and how career security intervenes in this relationship. The moderating role of bystanders’ direct and indirect intervention behavior is also tested between career security and voice behavior. Three-wave time-lagged data were collected from 267 non-managerial front-line banking employees to test the proposed model. The structural equation modeling (SEM) statistical technique was used for data analysis. The results showed that career empowerment significantly predicts promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors, both directly and indirectly. Furthermore, the direct intervention behavior of bystanders significantly moderates the relationship between career security and both types of voice behavior (promotive and prohibitive). Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

Profiles of early career insecurity and its outcomes in adolescence: A four-wave longitudinal study.

This study investigated the developmental profiles of perceived early career insecurity (ECI) and their outcomes among adolescents (n = 1416) during a critical educational transition from basic education to upper secondary education. We found three distinct latent profiles with varying amounts of ECI: Profile 1: Moderate and decreasing ECI before the transition (57%); Profile 2: Low-decreasing ECI before the transition but increasing ECI after the transition (31%); and Profile 3: High and stable ECI during the transition (12%). Moreover, the ECI profiles related to school and life satisfaction as well as to school stress and dropout intentions in a meaningful way consistent with the stressor hypothesis. Chronically high and increasing ECI was related to negative outcomes.

Swan Lake to cyber [skills - arts

Remember that controversial campaign featuring a ballerina encouraged to take up a career in cyber security? It appears the current climate has nudged a fair few people previously in arts and humanities toward the tech sector. We spoke to a handful of people who have made this leap. Coding, says a former National Trust professional, is a little like knitting. “It's like magic - you write some code, click a button and results just appear. It's more creative than I realised,” explains Jen Openshaw, a history graduate who's retrained to become a software engineer. Her career, while unusual, follows a pattern familiar to many who've leapfrogged into engineering and technology from an arts and humanities background.

Conceptualization and Validation of the Occupation Insecurity Scale (OCIS): Measuring Employees' Occupation Insecurity Due to Automation.

Increased use and implementation of automation, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, gives rise to a new phenomenon: occupation insecurity. In this paper, we conceptualize and define occupation insecurity, as well as develop an Occupation Insecurity Scale (OCIS) to measure it. From focus groups, subject-matter expert interviews, and a quantitative pilot study, two dimensions emerged: global occupation insecurity, which refers to employees' fear that their occupations might disappear, and content occupation insecurity, which addresses employees' concern that (the tasks of) their occupations might significantly change due to automation. In a survey-study sampling 1373 UK employees, psychometric properties of OCIS were examined in terms of reliability, construct validity, measurement invariance (across gender, age, and occupational position), convergent and divergent validity (with job and career insecurity), external discriminant validity (with organizational future time perspective), external validity (by comparing theoretically secure vs. insecure groups), and external and incremental validity (by examining burnout and work engagement as potential outcomes of occupation insecurity). Overall, OCIS shows good results in terms of reliability and validity. Therefore, OCIS offers an avenue to measure and address occupation insecurity before it can impact employee wellbeing and organizational performance.

Katie Moussouris: Vulnerability Disclosure and Security Workforce Development

Bob Blakley: Welcome everyone to episode four of the IEEE Over the Rainbow podcast. I’m Bob Blakley, and I’m here with my cohost Lorrie Cranor. Our guest today is Katie Moussouris. Katie is the CEO of Luta Security, a company that helps organizations design and operate bug bounty and vulnerability reporting programs. Katie has a background in molecular biology and worked on the Human Genome Project at MIT. While she was at MIT, she became a system administrator, which led her in time to a career in information security. She was a penetration tester for @Stake; after Symantec acquired @Stake, she established the Symantec Vulnerability Research Program. From Symantec, she moved to Microsoft, where she created Microsoft’s Vulnerability Research Program in 2008; in 2014, Katie moved to HackerOne, where she served as chief policy officer. In 2016, she left HackerOne to found Luta Security. Katie has done both academic and policy work in vulnerability research and disclosure; she was a driving force in ensuring that the 2013 revision of the Wassenaar Arrangement would exempt software tools used for defense from export controls, and she served as editor of both major ISO/IEC vulnerability standards (ISO/IEC 29147 and ISO/IEC 30111).

COVID-related stressors on career insecurity: The moderating effects of family support and openness

We examined the relationship between COVID-19 stressors and individuals’ career insecurity and the moderating effect of family support and openness to experience on that relationship. Participants were 207 young Chinese employees (female = 52.2%; mean age = 25.5 years, SD = 4.673 years). They completed the COVID-related stressors, Family Support, Career Insecurity, and Openness Questionnaires. Regression analysis results showed that COVID-related stressors were associated with higher career insecurity. Openness to experience buffered such a link between the COVID-related stressors and career insecurity so that when openness was high, career insecurity from COVID-related stressors was lower. Family support did not moderate the relationship between COVID-related stressors and career insecurity. These findings suggest the importance of personality traits in the relationship between COVID-19 pandemic stressors and work participation for resilient careers.