Arguments for and against a career in surgery: a qualitative analysis

To evaluate arguments given by board-certified surgeons in Switzerland for and against a career in surgery.

Swiss residents' speciality choices--impact of gender, personality traits, career motivation and life goals

BACKGROUND: The medical specialties chosen by doctors for their careers play an important part in the development of health-care services. This study aimed to investigate the influence of gender, personality traits, career motivation and life goal aspirations on the choice of medical specialty. METHODS: As part of a prospective cohort study of Swiss medical school graduates on career development, 522 fourth-year residents were asked in what specialty they wanted to qualify. They also assessed their career motivation and life goal aspirations. Data concerning personality traits such as sense of coherence, self-esteem, and gender role orientation were collected at the first assessment, four years earlier, in their final year of medical school. Data analyses were conducted by univariate and multivariate analyses of variance and covariance. RESULTS: In their fourth year of residency 439 (84.1%) participants had made their specialty choice. Of these, 45 (8.6%) subjects aspired to primary care, 126 (24.1%) to internal medicine, 68 (13.0%) to surgical specialties, 31 (5.9%) to gynaecology & obstetrics (G&O), 40 (7.7%) to anaesthesiology/intensive care, 44 (8.4%) to paediatrics, 25 (4.8%) to psychiatry and 60 (11.5%) to other specialties. Female residents tended to choose G&O, paediatrics, and anaesthesiology, males more often surgical specialties; the other specialties did not show gender-relevant differences of frequency distribution. Gender had the strongest significant influence on specialty choice, followed by career motivation, personality traits, and life goals. Multivariate analyses of covariance indicated that career motivation and life goals mediated the influence of personality on career choice. Personality traits were no longer significant after controlling for career motivation and life goals as covariates. The effect of gender remained significant after controlling for personality traits, career motivation and life goals. CONCLUSION: Gender had the greatest impact on specialty and career choice, but there were also two other relevant influencing factors, namely career motivation and life goals. Senior physicians mentoring junior physicians should pay special attention to these aspects. Motivational guidance throughout medical training should not only focus on the professional career but also consider the personal life goals of those being mentored.

Psychological, Educational and Sociological Perspectives on Success and Well-Being in Career Development

Back Cover Text This collection covers how success and well-being relate to each other in early career development in the domains of employment and education. It gives a conceptual overview of success and well-being as established in the psychological research tradition, complemented by educational and sociological approaches. The volume presents articles on success and well-being in applied contexts, such as well-being as an individual resource during school-to-work transition, or well-being and success at the workplace. Work psychologists, social psychologists, educational researchers, and sociologists will find this book valuable, as it provides unique insights into social and psychological processes afforded by the combination of disciplines, concepts, and a diversity of approaches. Table of Contents Acknowledgements 1. Introduction Robin Samuel, Manfred Max Bergman, Anita C. Keller and Norbert K. Semmer 2. The Influence of Career Success on Subjective Well-Being Andrea E. Abele-Brehm 3. Upper-Secondary Educational Trajectories and Young Men’s and Women’s Self-Esteem Development in Switzerland Sybille Bayard, Monika Staffelbach, Phillip Fischer and Marlies Buchmann. 4. Young People’s Progress after Dropout from Vocational Edu-cation and Training: Transitions and Occupational Integration at Stake. Longitudinal Qualitative Perspective Barbara Duc and Nadia Lamamra 5. Success, Well-Being and Social Recognition: An Interactional Perspective on Vocational Training Practices Stefano A. Losa, Barbara Duc and Laurent Filliettaz. 6. Agentic Pathways toward Fulfillment in Work Jeylan T. Mortimer, Mike Vuolo and Jeremy Staff 7. The How and Why of the Relationship between Job Insecuri-ty, Subjective Career Success, and Turnover Intention Cécile Tschopp and Gudela Grote 8. Work Experiences and Well-Being in the First Years of Professional Work in Switzerland: A Ten-Year Follow-up Study Wolfgang Kälin, Anita C. Keller, Franziska Tschan, Achim Elfering and Norbert K. Semmer 9. The Meaning and Measurement of Well-Being as an Indicator of Success Anita C. Keller, Norbert K. Semmer, Robin Samuel and Manfred Max Bergman

Language as a barrier and facilitator for women's career progress

Purpose When applying for leadership positions or acting as leaders, women are still perceived with a ‘lack of fit’, thus hired less likely and evaluated less favorably than their male counterparts. In many languages, different language forms can be used to refer to both women and men: masculine forms (e.g., CEO in German: ‘Geschäftsführer’) and alternative forms (e.g., feminine‐masculine word pairs, CEO in German ‘Geschäftsführerin/Geschäftsführer’). We assumed that the use of masculine forms endorses the ‘lack of fit’ for women in leadership, whereas alternative forms reduce it. Design/Methodology Two studies tested the hypotheses by manipulating language forms (masculine forms vs. alternative forms) and gender of the target to hire/evaluate (female vs. male). Results The results indicated as predicted that masculine forms lead to the ‘lack of fit’ for women in the leadership context, whereas alternative forms reduce it. Women were less likely to be employed for leadership positions (Study 1) and evaluated less favorably as leaders (Study 2) than their male counterparts with masculine forms. However, with alternative forms no differences in employment decisions and evaluations of women and men were found. Limitations These two studies were conducted with student‐samples. Further research is needed to replicate effects with relevant samples as HRmanagers and to investigate underlying mechanisms. Research/Practical Implications Organizations may use alternative forms instead of masculine forms in job advertisements for leadership positions to overcome barriers for women in leadership. Originality/Value These are the first studies in testing the effects of language forms in the leader selection and evaluation.

Hope as a resource for self-directed career management: Investigatiing mediating effects on proactive career behaviors, life and job satisfaction

ABSTRACT Hope is increasingly recognized as an important psychological resource for career development, yet the empirical research on its functioning in this domain is sparse. This paper describes an investigation of how dispositional hope is related to career decidedness, career planning, and career self-efficacy beliefs and whether these more proximal career attitudes mediate the effects of hope on proactive career behaviors, life satisfaction, and job satisfaction. This investigation was conducted using two independent samples of university students (N = 1,334) and working professionals (N = 233). The results showed that in both samples, hope was significantly related but empirically distinct from career variables. In both samples, hope had a direct effect on proactive career behaviors, partially mediated by more career planning. Hope had significant direct and indirect effects on life satisfaction among students, mediated by the three career development attitudes. Although hope was significantly correlated with job satisfaction among employees, no direct effect of hope was found in the mediation model, but an indirect effect through career decidedness was found. The results suggest that hope is an important resource for proactive career development at different career stages and that the positive relation of hope to life and job satisfaction can partially be attributed to the positive relation between hope and favorable career development attitudes.

The Career Engagement Scale: Development and validation of a measure of proactive career behaviors

Careers today increasingly require engagement in proactive career behaviors; however, there is a lack of validated measures assessing the general degree to which somebody is engaged in such career behaviors. We describe the results of six studies with six independent samples of German university students (total N = 2,854), working professionals (total N = 561), and university graduates (N = 141) that report the development and validation of the Career Engagement Scale - a measure of the degree of which somebody is proactively developing her or his career as expressed by diverse career behaviors. The studies provide supprt for measurement invariance across gender and time. In support of convergent and discriminant validity, we find that career engagement is more prevalent among working professionals than among university students and that this scale has incremental validity above several specific career behaviors regarding its relation to vocational identity clarity and career self-efficacy beliefs among students and to job and career satisfaction among employees. In support of incremental predictive validity, beyond the effects of several more specific careeer behaviors, career engagement while at university predicts higher job and career satisfaction several months later after beginning work.