Traditional Career Research Articles

Downshifting as postmodernism in action

Downshifting is a phenomenon of the postmodernity. It could not exist in neither pre-industrial nor industrial society. If classical philosophy of postmodernism has debunked the idea of progress in theory, downshifters do this in practice. Downshifting has multiple causes. Resent restructurizations in organizations limited the possibility of the traditional vertical career path for many people. The process of globalization and familiarization with Eastern cultures has shown the arbitrariness of success as a major meaning of the human being’s life. The movement of people from centers of megalopolises to the outskirts and suburban areas enabled to realize the possibility of the life outside the “benefits of civilization”. The spread of freelancing has also become an important factor that allowed people to implement the life strategy of downshifting.Analysis of the Internet space (downshifting communities in social networks, content analysis of posts and comments about downshifting, online publications, etc.) revealed trends related to this strategy of professional and personal development. In particular, interest in downshifting is growing among various age audiences. In recent years, much very young man who have not yet begun their professional career actively discussed this social phenomenon and ideologically supported downshifting. It is also notable, the change in the popularity of different types of downshifting in Russia.Downshifting strategy regardless of the number of people who have use it, demonstrates a real understanding of social space as a multidimensional entity and limitations of the outdated and seemingly axiomatic ideas of the social dynamics.

Career concerns and earnings management

Motivated by the disconnect between survey evidence documenting that executives prioritize implicit contracting (i.e., labor market-based career concerns) when making earnings management decisions (Graham et al., 2005) and the extant literature’s focus on explicit contracting to explain earnings manipulation, we analytically examine the role of managerial career concerns in earnings management. Building on Holmstrom (1982, 1999), we present a career concerns-based earnings management model that incorporates the unique reversing nature of earnings management. A key insight derived from the model is that whether the predictions of a traditional career concerns model prevail, which is to say that managers engage in more income-increasing behavior in their early years, critically depends upon the reversal characteristics of the earnings management vehicle chosen.

Excluded generation: the growing challenges of labor market insertion for Egyptian youth

ABSTRACT Youth in Egypt hold rising aspirations for their adult lives, yet face an increasingly uncertain and protracted transition from school to work and thus into adulthood. This paper investigates how labor market insertion has been evolving over time in Egypt and how the nature of youth transitions relates to gender and social class. The study examines 19,925 respondents from the 2012 wave of the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey. We demonstrate that recent youth cohorts face poorer chances of transitioning into a good job than previous cohorts, despite large increases in educational attainment. Social class is playing an increasing role in determining the success of the transition from school to work in Egypt. Whether youth successfully make transitions to formal jobs, embark on such transitions and fail, or pursue more traditional careers in informal employment or family businesses or farms depends on a complex and changing interaction between their own educational attainment and the resources of their families. In light of these findings, we discuss the policies that can help facilitate more successful transitions for struggling youth in Egypt.

The value of PhD in the changing world of work: Traditional and alternative research careers

The paper considers career patterns of researchers and the ways to assess their career achievements on the academic and non-academic labor markets. Taking into account the approaches developed earlier in the framework of the sociology of science, as well as on the basis of recent empirical studies, the authors propose an original approach to the study of a research career, determine the integral indicator of career achievements and assess the research career rank by means of the transition probabilities. The study is based on the data obtained during a survey among Russian researchers involving 828 respondents employed by organizations in the main prospective science and technology areas (academic and non-academic sectors). We suggest the research career achievement (RCA) indicator as an analytical tool for managing highly qualified research personnel. The use of PageRank method enabled to discern an extremely uneven distribution of the research career achievement value in the surveyed sample of researchers. The analysis revealed the main factors determining academic and non-academic research career patterns. The findings attest that the factors affecting career patterns are closely linked with the recognition that the researcher obtains or expects at three levels: individual – professional community – society as a whole.

Career Paths in Online Labor Markets: Same, Same but Different?

The emergence of online labor markets calls the validity of traditional career models into question. Given the volatility and digital nature of this environment, short-term employment relationships and heterogeneity of workers, employers and tasks in these markets, it is unclear how careers might unfold – whether they are largely random and accidental or whether there are distinct trajectories and patterns in online careers. We document dominant career paths and develop a taxonomy of novel career patterns in OLMs. This addresses recent calls for research to update and refine our theories and understanding of careers (Rahman et al., 2016). We adopt a quantitative-inductive approach to describe workers’ careers in terms of their task and skill specialization. This helps us understand the different types of careers on a continuum between more stable and random, unsystematic careers. Our results provide an innovative way of thinking about career development in OLMs and open up several fruitful areas of future research.

Challenges of the Japanese higher education Amidst population decline and globalization

ABSTRACTThe Japanese higher education system has struggled with a demographic decline of the university-age population since the 1990s. The expected shrinkage of the overall consumer market due to ageing also significantly pressures Japanese enterprises to expand business in the global market outside Japan. Under these conditions, Japanese universities, heavily reliant on the national language and culture, are facing pressure to internationalise their outlook and operations. However, brain drain is a topic lacking in active discussion, partly because of the continuing inward-oriented preferences of Japanese students, which is aimed towards traditional career mobility within Japanese companies.

Career attitudes and employability: analysis of mediation via career strategies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of career attitudes (traditional career vs boundaryless career) on perceived employability (internal vs external employability). In addition, the authors examine whether career self-management strategies act as mediators of these relationships. Due to high unemployment rates in the last two decades, it is important to assess the extent to which young graduates’ career attitudes affect perceived internal and external employability, along with the role of career self-management strategies as an employability enhancement tool.Design/methodology/approachAs part of a cross-sectional research design, the authors administered a survey questionnaire to a sample of 131 graduates (i.e. master’s students) with at least one year of work experience. The empirical data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling, which combines confirmatory factor analysis, multiple linear regression and path analysis.FindingsThe results reveal that there is a positive and significant impact (direct effect) of a traditional career attitude (TCA) on internal employability, while there is no significant negative impact of a TCA on external employability. Additionally, the results show that there is a negative impact (direct effect) of a boundaryless career attitude (BCA) on internal employability, while no significant positive impact is found of a BCA on external employability. This study also confirms the mediation effect (full mediation) of career positioning strategies on the BCA-external employability relationship, and a partial mediation of career influence strategies on the TCA-internal employability relationship.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of this study relate to the sample size and the use of a convenience sampling technique. Hence, some caution is needed regarding results’ generalization. In addition, this research uses a cross-sectional design, thus the authors cannot assess longitudinal causal relationships between variables. Future research should be replicated with different types of respondents and in different cultural contexts.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that organizations would benefit more from employees that hold a TCA than those that hold a BCA, especially if they are interested in fostering the internal employability of their workforce. At the individual level, the results identify optimal career self-management strategies (internal vs external employability) for young graduates.Originality/valueThis study offers new empirical evidence of the predictive value of perceived internal vs external employability and the mediating role of career self-management strategies in explaining employability. Young graduates perceive a TCA as more advantageous than a BCA for both internal and external employability. This is an unexpected but interesting finding, since the bulk of the literature on contemporary career attitudes overemphasizes the advantages of a BCA, while disregarding potential disadvantages for both individuals and organizations.

The melancholic subject: A study of self-blame as a gendered and neoliberal psychic response to loss of the ‘perfect worker’

It has been argued that accountancy and finance have struggled to promote gender equality despite their intentions and efforts to do so. The paper contributes to explanations for this ongoing inequality by theorising the psychic life of women working in these fields, as displayed in their reflections on moments where they have failed to embody an identity that is the discursive and structural ideal within the profession. The ‘perfect worker’ is an idealised subjectivity modelled on the traditional male career and inflected by neoliberalism. Prior critiques of ‘postfeminism’ identify a pattern of self-blaming for inequality among women, but do not explain how and why they readily responsibilize themselves. Drawing on Freud’s theory of melancholia we suggest self-blame is the result of an unconscious confrontation with the loss of the perfect worker ideal: the ego’s response leading to a destructive cycle of self-reproach and atonement. The implication of melancholia is that structural contributors to inequality are reinforced. Furthermore, we develop Freud’s melancholia to theorise a contemporary manifestation that sees neoliberalism acting in concert with the psyche’s predisposition to defense, precipitating an epidemic of individualisation. This implies that neoliberalism employs a form of ‘perfectionist power’ that reinforces oppression at the level of the unconscious. We conclude that the advancement of equality requires a deliberate intervention in the melancholic cycle by moving the psyche into a process of mourning that recognises sociality as a condition of solidaristic resistance.

Human Machine Interaction: Virtual Podium for Enhanced Job Search

A career fair is an event that provides employees and employers a simultaneous to meet one another, set up professional contacts, and chat potential job and/or placement openings. Many companies from a mixture of industries attend, and there are both general and specialized career fair events. There are many progressive reasons to take the time to prepare for and attend a career fair. Networking with employers is eminent while organizing a job fair. Career fairs are a free resource for you to realize which employers are hiring and interested in your skill set in a cost-effective, efficient manner. Jobs Fairs aim to give people the chance to explore employment opportunities in their local community. A virtual career fair is an online proceeding where employers and job seekers meet each other in a virtual environment, using chat rooms, teleconferencing, webcasts, webinars and/or email to exchange information about job opportunities. In today's digital world, it's only natural that the solution would also be a digital one. CV Capture apps are the recruiters' grievances solved. With this new technology, recruiters can digitally capture and store candidate resumes in a matter of seconds. Relatively new trends are the so-called online job fairs or virtual career fairs. The concept is the same as with traditional career fairs, but all interaction occurs on an online platform specifically designed for the purpose.

Women in accounting: Revolution, where art thou?

Goldin hypothesised women’s transition from evolution to revolution, where they claimed increasing dominion over their careers. Such change is salient for the professions such as accounting, where gender inequality persists. This qualitative study reports on how a group of 36 male and female accounting professionals employed by Big Four firms and in academia in New Zealand decided to redefine, disassemble and reconstruct their careers. Gender and role expectations strongly influenced their career pathways. Despite spousal and organisational support, most females in the study retained a flexible focus on career. These decisions were mainly influenced by how they thought about life, work, and career, and relationships with significant others. These results re-confirm traditional career patterns and to an extent, broader traditional gender role expectations in the profession. Acknowledging that inequality in the accounting profession appears entrenched makes it clear that the changes Goldin hypothesised have not yet been fully fulfilled.

Restaging Feminism: The Activist Retrospective

Abstract In the context of retrospective exhibitions, feminist restaging signifies a performative 'redoing' in a circuit of repetition that re-envisions, reinvents and remakes the discriminatory absences in history. In this article, the activism of restaging will be explored through the curatorial methods employed to memorialize Ana Mendieta's artistic legacy. Feminist strategies differ from the norms of canonical practices used in traditional career retrospectives, such as those for Mendieta's husband, Carl Andre. In another example of restaging, the 2011 re-presentation of Judy Chicago's works in Setting the Table created the opportunity to exhibit simultaneously Margarita Cabrera's sewing project in collaboration with Mexican artists. Restaging inaugurates the past and present of feminist collectivities, establishing a transnational activist model for repeat exhibitions.

Choice for an Entrepreneurial Career: Do Cognitive Styles Matter?

AbstractUpon graduation, students make the decision to either become an entrepreneur or an employee. Numerous studies have thus investigated personal and environmental factors that impact this decision. As cognitive styles have become more and more important in determining individual and organisational behaviour, and as they are presumed to provide new valuable insights over and above other personal factors, they provide the ideal focus to further explore this career choice. In this article, we aim to explore how creating, planning, and knowing cognitive style relate to entrepreneurial attitudes, intentions, and career choices. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour, in a first sample, we investigate the direct and indirect impact that cognitive styles have on entrepreneurial intention through attitudes. In our second sample, we look at how career preferences for entrepreneurship or a more traditional career as an employee are affected by cognitive styles. Using structural equation modelling analysis, this study finds evidence for the importance of creating cognitive style on entrepreneurial outcomes. Additionally, we find evidence for the relationship between planning cognitive style and wanting to be an employee. Knowing style does not lead to either preference. This paper extends the current knowledge on cognitive styles and entrepreneurship by analysing the impact of other cognitive styles than the predominantly used innovative styles and by also exploring its impact on important antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions, such as entrepreneurial attitude and career preferences.

Working on Stories to Enhance Career Decision Makings Self-Efficacy

This article considers the potential complementarity of traditional career assessment and more recent narrative approaches -in particular narrative career counseling and story telling approach- to career counseling in terms of theory and practice. It describes an Integrated Qualitative Structured Interview to construct stories about the four sources of career decision making self-efficacy information: mastery experiences, vicarious learning, social persuasion and emotions regulations techniques. The model facilitates and enables narrative exploration to supplement clients’ knowledge and understanding of the role of past and present influences concerning career decision making self-efficacy. The Narrative career counselling and the story telling approach and Social Cognitive Career Theory are the foundation of the qualitative structured interview based on story crafting questions.

‘It’s the Glittering Prize’: Emotions Careers, Pride and Aspirational Control in Professional Work

Why do traditional career forms persist in the professions? Despite research suggesting that the professions are changing, there is a burgeoning interest in the dynamics that contribute to the main...

Research on the impact of career management fit on career success

Individuals who hold protean and boundaryless career attitudes tend to manage their careers by themselves, which brings new challenges to traditional organizational career management (OCM). Combined with the lag and reform requirements of OCM, we put forward the concept and structure of career management fit (CMF) based on person–organization fit theory and career management theory. Through interviews, questionnaire surveys, exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses, this research establishes a scale with four dimensions and 15 items to measure CMF and proves its reliability and validity. Moreover, we validate that CMF is positively and significantly correlated with career success. Overall, this study expands person–organization fit theory, provides theoretical guidance for career management and highlights a good employment relationship in the new context.

Career customization: Putting an organizational practice to facilitate sustainable careers to the test

Career customization has been suggested as a sustainable solution to the mismatch between traditional career models and the needs of today's workforce. We examine career consequences of Mass Career Customization (MCC) in a Professional Service Firm (PSF). This customization allows employees to tailor their career development up or down on four dimensions (pace, workload, location/schedule, responsibility). Using a multiple wave research design in a firm setting, we explore the impact of customizing up or down on objective and subjective career outcomes by gender and parental status over time. While MCC has some positive outcomes (e.g. no loss in career satisfaction for fathers customizing down; increased performance evaluations for mothers customizing down), MCC also has negative career consequences that can be explained by flexibility stigma, especially for fathers who deviate from the ideal worker norm inherent in PSFs. Our findings inform the debate around the impact of organizational practices generally considered to facilitate sustainable careers. We give practical recommendations for the conditions under which career customization can flourish in a PSF context as well as lessons for promoting sustainable careers in other organizational settings.

PLANIFICACIÓN DEL DESARROLLO A LARGO PLAZO BAJO LA TEORÍA DEL DESARROLLO PROFESIONAL EN TAIWÁN

Athletes receive countless applause in the competitive arena, but the life test just begins after retirement (Kerr & Dacyshyn, 2000; Lally, 2007). Career track transfer is a compulsory course for every athlete. In digital age, development of science and technology already change our daily life, and the labour market has also changed. Diversified career management has become a new challenge and opportunity for the development of athletes' career and capacity. More and more athletes escape from traditional career choices such as coaches and teachers, and instead to devote themselves to business, media, technology and other industries, including starting a business. Good job transfer coaches enable athletes to re-recognize themselves and pursue self-growth, giving athletes a higher mission, thus becoming a benchmark and model for society.In the spectrum of human resources, athletes are a most special group, and the wonderful but short-term athletic career makes transition inevitable (Huang, 2002). In Taiwan traditional thinking and government systems, sports training or academics can only choose one, which is the biggest obstacle to the entry of sports talents into the long-term sports career period. This study will focus on Taiwanese athletes' long-term career planning and policy content in practice oriented, emphasizing the diversification of athletes' skill in the workplace in order to prepare for their future work environment. At the same time, athletes should break away from traditional framework by cultivating second expertise and self-improvement.

DEVELOPMENT AND CAREER MANAGEMENT

We, as individuals, continually through our lives, learn and acquire the knowledge, skill, and skill we expect to help us employ or apply appropriately in order to gain a living and secure our survival. Everyone wants to build a successful career with which he can be proud of his life. However, this is not always so easy and simple, it requires a lot of sacrifices, concessions, compromises with our partners, the family, close social relationships, and finally with ourselves. In this paper, the subject of the research is the determination of career development, career stages, career factors, then expert opinions, the difference between traditional and modern career views, goals pursued by individuals in the career, and so on, Career development can be seen as an experience of individuals (an internal career) and this is not related to an organization. Although the responsibility for career management is in the hands of individuals, individuals, however, organizations can play a key role in shaping and developing careers by providing help and providing support. Career development can not be pursued individually or separately from the personality as a whole, meaning it reflects on the context of life and the development of the person as a whole, not just personality as work. The main goal in career development is to realize the current and future needs and goals of the organization and individuals, which has to do more with developing employment opportunities and improving the skills needed for employment. Career success is reflected in the eyes of the individual and can be defined as a career pleasure through achieving personal goals related to the work, while at the same time enhancing the success and efficiency of the organization.

Traditional Gender Role Beliefs and Career Attainment in STEM: A Gendered Story?

Gender role beliefs (i.e., beliefs about gender-specific responsibilities) predict one’s educational and occupational aspirations and choices (Eccles et al., 1983; Schoon and Parsons, 2002). Focusing on STEM careers, we aim to examine the extent to which traditional work/family related gender role beliefs (TGRB) in adolescence predict within and across gender differences in subsequent educational and STEM occupational attainment in adulthood. Using longitudinal data from the Michigan Study of Adolescent and Adult Life Transitions (N = 744; 58% female), participants’ educational attainment and their occupations were assessed at age 42. Their occupations were then categorized into three categories: traditional STEM-related careers in the physical sciences, mathematics, engineering, and technology (PMET); life sciences (e.g., health sciences, LS); and non-STEM. For females, TGRB at age 16/18 significantly predicted lower educational attainment as well as a lower likelihood to be in PMET-related occupations in comparison to non-STEM occupations – controlling for their own educational attainment. TGRB also predicted a higher likelihood to be in LS-related in comparison to PMET-related occupations. No significant associations were found for males. However, patterns of findings for males were similar to those of females. TGRB also mediated across gender differences in educational and PMET-related occupational attainment. Findings reveal TGRB to be one underlying psychological factor influencing gender disparity in educational and STEM occupational attainment.

Toward out-of-organization from in-organization: A Qualitative Case Study on the Competencies required in the Freelance Transition of Former Company HR Personnels

기존의 조직내 경력을 넘어 개인의 경력주도성과 책임이 강조되면서, 최근에는 개인 역량을 기반으로 조직 밖에서 자신만의 자유로운 경력활동을 수행하는 직업인들이 증가하고 있다. 이 연구는 조직에서 HR업무를 수행했던 경력주체들이 자발적인 선택에 의해 HR 프리랜서로 경력을 전환하는 과정에서 어떤 역량을 필요하다고 인식하는지 그들의 경험 사례를 통해 확인하고자 하였다. 연구를 위해 기업 HR업무 경험을 가지고, 현재 유관분야의 프리랜서로 활동 중인 6명과 개인별 심층 면담을 진행하며 이들의 경험과 각각의 사례를 통해 프리랜서 경력활동에서 필요한 여러 역량을 도출하여 유형화하였다. 분석 결과, HR 프리랜서 경력전환과정에서는 1)비교우위의 차별적 경쟁력, 2)통찰력과 창의력, 3)고객을 설득하는 소통역량, 4)자기관리역량, 5)네트워크역량, 6)명확한 고객목표설정역량의 6가지 역량이 필요한 것으로 범주화되었다. 이러한 결과는 기존의 조직내 직업인의 성공요인 연구와 구별되는 프리랜서 경력활동의 필요역량을 확인하게 하였으며, 향후 연구를 위한 제언들을 함께 제시하였다.In accordance with increasing individual’s initiative and responsibility in career development beyond traditional organizational career, the number of workers pursuing freelancer career is increasing. This study aimed to identify which competencies are required in the process of transition from in-organization HR personnel to freelancer HR experts, based on their experiences of transition to free agents. In-depth interviews with six participants who had HR experiences were analyzed and categorized. Results are shown as six competencies as 1)comparative advantage, 2)insight and creativity, 3)communication competencies with clients, 4)self-management, 5)networking, and 6)clear customer goal setting. This result implies that differential approaches to traditional career success are required for freelancer competencies, and suggestions for following study are provided.