Vocational Psychology Research Articles

Interactive effects of sustainable HRM, career adaptability and career sustainability on employee well-being

PurposePast research has well-demonstrated the importance of sustainable human resource management practices in augmenting sustainability in careers of individuals and their overall growth and well-being. In this regard, role of career adaptability as a potential resource in harnessing sustainable HRM and career sustainability relationship requires attention. Considering this, the purpose of the current research is to analyze how sustainable HRM practices influence career sustainability, that eventually predicts employee well-being. Besides this, we also examined the role of career adaptability as a potential moderator in governing the linkage between sustainable HR practices and career sustainability.Design/methodology/approachOur study adopted a cross-sectional research design. Data were collected through administration of survey among 620 working professionals. Analysis was conducted deploying statistical techniques such as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to confirm the factors, and the hypotheses were tested using model 4 and model 7 in PROCESS macro by SPSS 20.0.FindingsResults showed that in the Indian context, career sustainability acts as a potential mediator between the sustainable HRM practices and employee well-being relationship. In addition, we also found the significant moderating role of career adaptability in strengthening the impact of sustainable HRM practices on career sustainability among employees.Practical implicationsThe study offers potential implications for scholars and management practitioners in terms of implementing sustainable HRM practices emphasizing on good values at various levels in organizations. Also, it encourages organizational policymakers and leaders for conducting training programs and workshops on developing career adaptability resources.Originality/valueIt is among one of the few studies that help in advancing the scholarship on sustainable HRM and sustainable careers and their key role in strengthening individuals’ well-being. The findings also extend the application of conservation of resources theory at the intersection of sustainable HRM and vocational psychology literature in the South-east Asian context.

The Impact of Commuting Happiness on Career Calling and Its Mechanism of Action

Career calling is a key focus in the fields of vocational psychology and management psychology. However, current research primarily centers on education, media, and corporate management, with relatively few studies examining the commuting domain. To explore the impact of commuting happiness on career calling and reveal its underlying mechanism, this paper surveyed 370 Chinese employees. The findings indicate that factors such as commuting happiness, job satisfaction, and environmental uncertainty influence the formation of career calling. A positive correlation exists between commuting happiness and career calling. Moreover, job satisfaction mediates the relationship between commuting happiness and career calling, while environmental uncertainty moderates the effect of commuting happiness on job satisfaction. This study highlights the significant influence of commuting happiness on career calling and offers recommendations for society, businesses, and individuals on how to manage and enhance career calling.

Assessing internship learning performance and its predictors: moderation of learning climate

PurposeThis research aims to elucidate the complex relationships among internship learning performance, problem-solving efficacy, and their determinants by simultaneously examining a key variable that may moderate these relationships.Design/methodology/approachThis study carried out its empirical examination by surveying graduate students at a prestigious university in Taiwan. The investigation selected two programs from the College of Management and another two from the College of Engineering within the university through a random sampling approach. The selection of research participants from the domains of management and engineering is well-suited to this study’s objectives, given the pronounced prevalence of internships in these fields. Of the 280 questionnaires, 234 usable questionnaires were finally collected for a response rate of 83.57%.FindingsThe findings of this study show that learning goal orientation and communication skill learning both represent critical motivations that directly dominate the growth of problem-solving efficacy to ultimately boost learning performance. At the same time, the positive moderation of learning climate suggests the learning climate as an accelerator for learning autonomy that boosts interns’ problem-solving efficacy more strongly.Originality/valueThis study presents an expansion of the social learning theory’s conventional focus on general self-efficacy beliefs by delving into the realm of internships as a unique research context to explore problem-solving efficacy as a distinct facet of self-efficacy. Within this context, the study integrates the mediating role of problem-solving efficacy into the learning dynamics of internships, where interns engage in both learning goal orientation and communication skill learning. By concentrating on the internship setting within the workplace, this study effectively bridges the domains of management education and vocational psychology, extending insights beyond the classroom to comprehensively grasp the impact of learning goal orientation and communication skill learning.

Development and validation of the Work Capital Scale.

Vocational psychologists have called for greater attention to different forms of capital, any resource or asset that confers profit and power, to better understand the vocational development process, particularly for those who lack resources and power. However, previous research has had several conceptual and measurement limitations, such as the use of less inclusive frameworks; a focus on more privileged populations; and the overuse of categorical, dummy coded, and objective measures. To address these limitations, the present study aimed to (a) develop an inclusive, subjective, continuous, and multidimensional work capital scale and (b) validate the new scale with representative samples of working adults and job seekers across two studies. We developed a 16-item four-factor Work Capital Scale that consists of Economic Work Capital, Human Work Capital, Social Work Capital, and Cultural Work Capital. Scores from the Work Capital Scale were invariant across household income, social class, gender, race, and employment status. We found that the correlational model fit best to the data and provided evidence for convergent and divergent validity by relating the subscales to subjective social class, objective socioeconomic indicators, and existing measures of capital. The present study advances theory and research in work capital and provides a tool for practitioners to use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A Social Cognitive Career Theory Study of Agricultural Mechanical Trade Workers

Attracting and retaining skilled workers in agriculture is a global problem. Shortages of essential workers disrupt supplies of goods and services from the point of production on farms through manufacturing, transport, to ultimate consumption. The global pandemic’s effect on food supply was a salutary lesson in the effects of a diminished agricultural workforce. Agricultural mechanics are vital to productivity. The present research used the social cognitive career theory to explore agricultural mechanics’ careers. An exploratory qualitative study deployed interviews to collect data from N = 19 mechanical trade workers. Interviews were centered on participants’ descriptions of their work regarding theoretical constructs including self-efficacy, outcome expectations, satisfaction, dispositional traits, and contextual affordances. Reflective thematic analysis of the data produced concordance with key constructs of the social cognitive career theory sufficient to justify its utility for research with this specific agricultural occupation. This research makes an important contribution to the literature of vocational psychology which can and should contribute to solving the complex problem of supporting a workforce needed for agriculture’s ongoing challenge of feeding and clothing the world’s growing population.

A Qualitative Exploration of Chinese Rural College Students’ Career Development: A Psychology of Working Perspective

Rural college youth encounter numerous challenges in securing decent education and work. However, there has been scant research on their career development from a vocational psychology perspective. Drawing from the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT), we examined the contextual and personal factors that shape their work volition and perceptions of future decent work. We conducted semistructural interviews with 12 Chinese rural college students and employed Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) method to analyze the data. Our findings revealed that their vocational barriers included economic constraints, inadequate educational resources, limited access to decent internship opportunities, and lack of study-related electronics. However, their coping stratgies to overcome these constraints included social support, notably from teachers, as well as positive attributes such as critical consciousness and proactive personality. Regarding future employment, participants valued job stability, a balance between work and life, the ability to provide for their families, and displayed prosocial and growth orientations. These findings provided support for the applicability of PWT in understanding the vocational trajectories of rural college students in a non-Western context. The implications of these findings for future research and vocational interventions are discussed.

Unlock your creative potential: A creativity course for cultivating creative self-efficacy among undergraduate students in Pakistan

This four-wave longitudinal study entailed fostering creative self-efficacy among Pakistan's undergraduate students through a creativity course: Unlock Your Creative Potential. To ensure its effectiveness, the course was implemented based on various intervention best practices from educational, positive and vocational psychology. The study comprised 162 participants randomly allocated to an intervention (n = 81) and wait-list control (n = 81) group. Results of the growth curve analysis indicated that creative self-efficacy augmented at a greater rate over each time interval between the pretest and follow-up measurement 2 in the intervention group than in the control group. The analysis provided a comprehensive view of the development of creative self-efficacy in the two groups over time. There were significant variations in students' initial status (intercepts) and growth trajectories (slopes). The effect of students' initial creative self-efficacy scores indicated that those having high initial creative self-efficacy scores had a slower increase in linear growth over time than those having low initial creative self-efficacy. The qualitative component also sheds light on the effectiveness of the creativity course, as it provided insights into how participants practised creativity in their academic and personal lives during the eight months after the posttest and what sustained their belief in their creative abilities during this period. The theoretical contribution and practice implications of the findings are discussed in the paper.

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.

Why Work Matters: A Personal, Contextual, and Forward-Looking Exploration of Psychology of Working

This article explores the question of why work matters via a biographical, contextual, and forward-looking examination of the psychology of working. The development of the psychology of working as a perspective, theory, and movement is described via a biographical exploration of the author’s life history in conjunction with critical analyses of the existing theory, and the promise of an inclusive theory encompassing everyone who works and wants and/or needs to work. The article identifies the differential nature of why work matters in relation to core tenets of the psychology of working, highlighting the prevailing role of macro-level barriers such as economic constraints and marginalization in determining access to decent and dignified work. As a means of advancing considerations of why work matters, the article concludes with ideas about the next steps in psychology of working theory (PWT) and recommendations about the current and future state of vocational psychology within counseling psychology.

Integrative review on career interventions with unemployed people: Nature, outcomes, and recommendations

AbstractThe study of career development among unemployed people is vital for effective institutional responses. This integrative review based on Torraco's protocol fills a literature gap by synthesizing research on interventions for this population. Seven keywords, five databases, and six eligibility criteria were defined. Among 324 articles, 36 were reviewed. Findings highlight diverse counseling modalities, emphasizing group interventions and remote delivery. Tailored approaches, including length, frequency, and social‐emotional and career dimensions, are crucial. Practical recommendations emphasize comprehensive, psychological support, goal‐oriented counseling, and postintervention assistance. These insights underscore vocational psychology's importance in addressing unemployment, impacting government policies, career services, and psychologists.

Effects of career adaptability and career optimism on career intention of tourism and hospitality students

Diseño/metodología/enfoqueSe realizó una encuesta online en China continental para estudiar las interrelaciones entre la adaptabilidad laboral, optimismo laboral y la intención vocacional futura. Se recogieron 492 respuestas válidas de estudiantes de turismo y hostelería.ObjetivoEn los últimos años, las carreras de turismo y hostelería han resultado menos atractivas para los estudiantes. Atraer y retener a los jóvenes talentos es cada vez más difícil para la industria del turismo y la hostelería en la era postpandemia. Con el fin de contribuir a resolver el problema de la escasez de talentos, es crucial comprender cómo perciben los estudiantes las carreras profesionales y qué influye en su planificación profesional. La Teoría de la Construcción de la Carrera indica una integración entre las necesidades personales y las expectativas relacionadas con la carrera. Proporciona un marco teórico para el presente estudio con el fin de comprender qué motiva a los estudiantes a iniciar su carrera profesional en el sector del turismo y la hostelería. Se examina empíricamente la relación entre la adaptabilidad profesional y el optimismo de los estudiantes y su efecto en la intención vocacional futura.ConclusionesLos resultados revelan que el optimismo profesional influye positivamente en la adaptabilidad profesional y en la intención profesional futura, respectivamente. Por el contrario, la adaptabilidad profesional influye negativamente en la intención vocacional futura. Además, el optimismo profesional tiene un efecto mediador en la relación entre la adaptabilidad profesional y la intención vocacional futura. Los resultados podrían beneficiar a los educadores en la orientación profesional de los estudiantes y a los profesionales de la industria en el desarrollo de estrategias eficaces de gestión de la carrera profesional de los jóvenes talentos en sus respectivas organizaciones.Originalidad/valorLa aplicación de la Teoría de la Construcción de la Carrera extraída de la psicología vocacional es adecuada para aportar conocimientos y perspectivas al desarrollo de la investigación sobre carreras profesionales en turismo y hostelería. Este estudio contribuye a llenar el vacío de conocimientos sobre la adaptación de la carrera profesional, el optimismo profesional y la intención de carrera futura.

Recommendations for Conceptualizing and Measuring Constructs Within Psychology of Working Theory

Psychology of Working Theory (PWT) has been increasingly adopted by counseling and vocational psychologists since its inception in 2016, and approximately 100 quantitative studies to date have tested various propositions of the Theory. As a relatively new theory, there has been lack of consistency in how the main constructs are conceptualized and measured by scholars, thus limiting further application of PWT. The following paper is aimed at addressing this inconsistency by providing a guide for researchers interested in using PWT as a theoretical framework in their studies. First, we provide an overview of PWT and the definitions of its core constructs: economic constraints, marginalization, work volition, career adaptability, decent work, and need satisfaction. Then, we review quantitative studies conducted to date to show how each of the constructs have been conceptualized and measured. Finally, we provide specific recommendations that researchers can follow in their future studies based on this review. It is hoped that the recommendations can provide a more streamlined way of measuring the constructs as well as ideas for researchers to expand the psychology of working literature.

Why Aren’t We There Yet? The Status of Research in Women’s Career Development

The career development of women has been a longstanding topic of inquiry in vocational psychology. Two previous major reviews in this area consistently identified that women tend to experience more career barriers than men. This major contribution sought to extend this work by providing a third systematic review of the literature on women’s career development. We focused our review explicitly on the experiences of women rather than women compared to men. We seek to answer the question that has been asked for 50 years: Do we need a separate theory of women’s career development? Our findings suggest that women experience several barriers at various stages during the trajectory of their careers. We make the case that perceptions of career barriers are an integral construct to women’s career experiences and theoretical prepositions in vocational psychology should explicitly capture this construct in future investigations. We discuss implications for practice, training, and education.

Career flexibility and its relation to time perspective: a study with college students in the Portuguese context.

The volatility of the labor market resulting from globalization, rapid technology changes, economic competition, and the impact of events such as the Covid-2019 Pandemic, demand from vocational psychology a more refined understanding of the processes individuals face while dealing with those new challenges and opportunities, especially in uncertain contexts. Theories such as Planned Happenstance address constructs such as career flexibility, an essential skill to recognize, create and use chance events as career opportunities. Furthermore, when fortuitous events and uncertain contexts are considered for career development, it becomes relevant to understand how subjective time perspective evolves, that is how the life events and career goals are projected, accessed, valued, and organized. Given this context, the objectives of the present study are to adapt and validate a Portuguese version of the Career Flexibility Inventory and to explore the possible relationships between career flexibility, time perspective, and variables inherent to the educational context. The Portuguese version of the Career Flexibility Inventory, the Time Perspective Inventory and a sociodemographic form were answered by 1,380 students from Portuguese higher education institutions. The results indicated that the Portuguese version of the CFI has an adequate three-factor structure with good reliability indices. Some limitations regarding psychometric validity show the importance of further research to improve the measure. However, the findings contribute to theoretically and operationally deepening discussions on the multidimensionality of Career Flexibility. The results regarding the relationships between time perspective and career flexibility seem to be in line with the theoretical indicators of the variables and support the formulated hypotheses, specifically, that future orientation presents a positive correlation with active adaptation; a negative correlation with wavering, and wavering presents a positive correlation with the negative future orientation. The results partially support the hypothesis of differences on time perspective and career flexibility among students with different academic grade averages and from diverse scientific areas of study. Finally, the study advances a theoretical reflection on the different nature of career flexibility dimensions and contributes to broadening and promoting theoretical and operational discussions on the relationships between time perspective and career flexibility, which are still incipient.

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.

Working-class gay dads: Queer stories about family and work

Existing research with gay dads has focused almost exclusively on those in the upper middle-class. Given the financial barriers to gay fatherhood and that parenting and work experiences often differ based on class, research at the work-family interface with working-class gay dads holds promise for advancing the field of vocational psychology. Using the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT) as a framework, the present study explored work and family experiences with working-class gay dads living on the West Coast of the United States. We collected and analyzed data using a narrative inquiry methodology, which involved a three-stage interview process, co-construction of narratives with participants, and generation of seven themes (e.g., Importance of Both Structural Economic Support and Structural LGBTQ+ Support, Many Valid Ways to Form Families). Situating these findings within the PWT model, we demonstrate how economic constraints and marginalization shaped these dads' experiences of decent paid (and unpaid) work, and how their adaptability and volition buffered these impacts and offered pathways to meaningful roles as workers and fathers. The stories of working-class gay dads and related themes counter the grand career narrative and provide helpful guidance for structural recommendations that attend to LGBTQ+ inclusion and more equitable access to decent work.

Mind the Overlap: A Qualitative Exploration of the Vocational Lives of Veterans Living With Mental Health and Substance Use Conditions

Veterans with mental health and substance use conditions have poor employment outcomes and would likely benefit from integrated career, mental health, and substance use related interventions. However, vocational psychology has overlooked this vulnerable population, and vocational interventions are often relegated as less important than other psychotherapeutic interventions that target substance use or symptom reduction. Drawing upon Social Cognitive Career Theory and Psychology of Working Theory, this qualitative study examined how external and internal factors influenced the vocational trajectories of eight veterans with mental health and substance use conditions. Additionally, this study examined participants’ perspective on the usefulness of improving career outcomes in supporting their lives and recoveries. Using Consensual Qualitative Research methodology, this study uncovered how personal, environmental, relational, mental health, and substance use factors impacted the vocational trajectories of veterans living with mental health and substance use conditions. Findings also highlight that veterans want fulfilling employment and more clarity in their vocational lives to support their mental well-being and prevent substance use. Implications for vocational psychology theory and integrative practice are discussed.

Achieving Workplace Wellbeing Among Indian IT Engineers

The predictors of millennials’ wellbeing at work keep on changing in lieu with their changing career and work orientation. This quantitative research paper focuses on Indian Information Technology employees and aims to identify how their changing career orientation impacts work wellbeing, psychological capital and perceived employability. The proposed conceptual model of protean career orientation is empirically tested among 411 Information Technology engineers working at private companies in India. Findings indicate that the changing career orientation has a positive impact on work wellbeing, psychological capital and perceived employability. The study contributes to vocational psychology literature on enhancing our knowledge on the importance of protean attitude among millennials. The paper indicates further research areas and implications for employers.

A meta-analysis of the relations between parental support and children's career self-efficacy in South Korea and the US

South Korean vocational psychologists have studied the impact of parental support on children's career self-efficacy using theories validated in the US. However, there is little research examining whether theories developed in the US can be applied to South Korean population. As the cultural context is a critical factor that can shape the associations between parental support and children's career self-efficacy, we address this limitation through meta-analytic review. We located 2615 effect sizes from 147 South Korean studies, and 388 effect sizes from 54 US studies. By synthesizing and comparing these results, we found general support for our hypotheses. The relations between parental support and career self-efficacy were significant in both nations, from elementary through post-secondary students. In particular, the relations were stronger in South Korea for high school and post-secondary participants. Next, specific parental support behavior of emotional support and communicational support were found to have particularly strong impacts for South Korean participants. Financial support also showed a strong impact on career self-efficacy for South Korean participants, contrasting with the US participants. Finally, the relations between parental support and career self-efficacy declined across grade levels in both nations. This decline began during post-secondary education for South Korean sample, whereas it began during high school for the US sample. These findings suggest that there are culturally specific details necessary for understanding parental support and career self-efficacy in South Korea.

Career proactivity: Conceptual and theoretical reflections

AbstractThis article adds several conceptual and theoretical reflections to the article “Career proactivity: A bibliometric literature review and a future research agenda” by Jiang et al. The authors conducted a timely and relevant study by analyzing and integrating literature on career proactivity from the domains of organizational and vocational behavior. Prior research has clearly demonstrated that these areas are still largely operating as separate “islands,” both conceptually and methodologically. As such, systematically analyzing the literature and synthesizing the many existing proactivity‐related constructs are important steps forward in taking research on career proactivity to the next level. Though their bibliometric analysis confirms the gap between vocational psychology and OB research, there is also a hopeful message in the article, as several clusters showed considerable connections. Thus, it seems that scholars are starting to build bridges between the islands. Building on their analysis and future research suggestions, in this article, we further explore three specific considerations related to (1) conceptual issues, (2) theoretical issues, and (3) additions to their future research agenda.