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 to which somebody is proactively developing her or his career as expressed by diverse career behaviors. The studies provide support 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 career behaviors, career engagement while at university predicts higher job and career satisfaction several months later after beginning work.

Career decision making, stability and actualization of career intentions : the case of entrepreneurial intentions

Career counselors are often concerned with stability and likelihood of implementation of clients' career intentions. It is often assumed that the status in career decision making (CDM) is one likely indicator; yet, empirical support for this assumption is sparse. The present study focused on entrepreneurial career intentions (EI) and showed that German university students (N = 1,221), with high EI can be found in very different empirically derived CDM statuses that range from preconcern to mature decidedness. Longitudinal analyses (n = 561) showed that career choice foreclosure (high decidedness/low exploration) related to more EI stability and that mature decidedness (high decidedness/high exploration) amplified effects of EI on opportunity identification, a form of EI actualization. The results imply that CDM statuses are useful to estimate stability and actualization of career intentions.

Exploring the path through which career adaptability increases job satisfaction and lowers work stress : the role of affect

The construct of career adaptability, or the ability to successfully manage one's career development and challenges, predicts several important outcomes; however, little is known about the mechanisms contributing to its positive effects. The present study investigated the impact of career adaptability on job satisfaction and work stress, as mediated by individuals' affective states. Using a representative sample of 1671 individuals employed in Switzerland we hypothesized that, over time, career adaptability amplifies job satisfaction and attenuates work stress, through higher positive affect and lower negative affect, respectively. The data resulted from the first three waves of a longitudinal project on professional paths conducted in Switzerland. For each wave, participants completed a survey. Results of the 3-wave cross-lagged longitudinal model show that employees with higher career adaptability at Time 1 indeed experienced at Time 3 higher job satisfaction and lower work stress than those with lower career adaptability. The effect of career adaptability on job satisfaction and work stress was accounted for by negative affect: Individuals higher on career adaptability experienced less negative affect, which led to lower levels of stress and higher levels of job satisfaction, beyond previous levels of job satisfaction and work stress. Overall results support the conception of career adaptability as a self-regulatory resource that may promote a virtuous cycle in which individuals' evaluations of their resources to cope with the environment (i.e., career adaptability) shape their affective states, which in turn influence the evaluations of their job.

Hope as a Resource for Career Exploration : Examining Incremental and Cross-Lagged Effects

Hope is believed to be beneficial for vocational pursuits, but the question of how and why hope is related to pivotal career development variables remains largely unaddressed. In a series of three studies,we investigated the relationship between hope and career exploration. Study 1 examined at-risk adolescents (N = 228) in Switzerland and showed that hope explains variance in career exploration beyond the significant effects of generalized self-efficacy beliefs and perceived social support. Study 2 found the same result among a group (N=223) of first-year students at a Swiss university with a measure of state hope. Study 3 applied a one-year cross-lagged design with a diverse group of students (N = 266) at a German university to investigate the mutual effects of dispositional hope and career exploration over time. Although both variables were found to be related within and over time, we could not confirm lagged effects in either direction. The results suggest that hope is significantly correlated with career exploration because both are related to personality and social-contextual variables.

Nuevas perspectivas de la orientación profesional para responder a los cambios y necesidades de la sociedad de hoy = New Perspectives in Career Counseling which Respond to the Changes and Needs of Society Today

In this paper a brief outline of the origin and development of vocational guidance and career development during the 20thcentury is presented We elaborate a summary of the changes society has suffered during the last decades, and which affect career counselling either directly or indirectly, and which imply a need for modifications in the current approach to career counselling. Subsequently, we propose new perspectives that will be needed to face these changes, and which have been suggested by different authors. Also some competencies needed by career counselors while acting at different levels of intervention are suggested

Making Sense of Women Managers’ Identities through the Constructions of Managerial Career and Gender

This doctoral thesis is about gendered managerial identity construction of women managers. Finnish women managers have been researched from the viewpoints of equality and discrimination issues, careers, and women’s overall positions in work life. However, managerial identity has remained as an unexplored territory. The phenomenon is approached discourse analytically; an interview material that is gathered from 13 women managers in the South-Karelian region is in focus. By studying discourses it is possible to open up understandings how meanings are given to experiences. Women managers’ identity construction is examined from the perspectives of managerial career, managerial practices, and gender. Gender is a meta-concept in this research, as it so profoundly affects our sense of being and acting, although the meaning of it often remains undervalued, invisible, or even denied. This research shows that gender becomes highly visible in managerial contexts, when it is used for some specific purpose, that is, treated as a strategy. By studying women managers it is possible to demystify often so abstract managerial ideals, and open up their taken-for-granted masculine subtexts. It is argued that from the point of view of conducting managerial work, the meaning of self-knowledge appears as critical.

Hammaslääkärin ura. Odotukset ja kokemukset. [Career Expectations and Experiences of Dentists]

Tutkimuksella selvitettiin eri tekijöiden merkitystä hammaslääkärien tehdessä uraansa koskevia valintoja lähtien ammatinvalinnasta. Tutkimuksessa verrattiin erilaisissa työpaikoissa toimivien hammaslääkärien sekä hammaslääketieteen opiskelijoiden odotuksia ja kokemuksia. Tutkimus tehtiin kyselynä postitse lähetetyin lomakkein. Kyselyyn osallistui 350 hammaslääkäriä ja 115 opiskelijaa. Kiinnostus lääketieteeseen ja työn konkreettisuus olivat keskeisimmät syyt lähteä hammaslääketiedettä opiskelemaan. Suurin osa sekä hammaslääkäreistä että opiskelijoista valitsisi vähintään todennäköisesti saman ammatin uudelleen, hammaslääkäreistä yksityishammaslääkärit useimmin. 69 % hammaslääkäreistä oli aloittanut työuransa terveyskeskuksessa, opiskelijoista 46 % toivoi työpaikkaa yksityissektorilta ja 37 % terveyskeskuksesta. Hammaslääkärit kokivat työn mielekkyyden, positiivisen kaiun, työn ja elämän reunaehtojen sekä taloudellisen turvallisuuden vaikuttaneen ensimmäiseen työpaikkaan menoon vähemmän kuin opiskelijat arvioivat niiden vaikuttavan. Työssä tärkeänä sekä hammaslääkärit että opiskelijat pitivät hyviä työolosuhteita ja mielekästä työn sisältöä. Toimiva yhteistyö työparin kanssa oli myös erittäin tärkeää. Hammaslääkärit pitivät hyviä työoloja ja autonomiaa tärkeämpinä kuin opiskelijat, joille puolestaan uralla eteneminen ja työajan joustot olivat tärkeämpiä. Hammaslääkärit arvostivat työtä ja työssä suoriutumista sekä hyvää työpaikkaa enemmän kuin opiskelijat. Parhaiten työssään toteutuvana suhteessa asian merkitykseen hammaslääkärit kokivat autonomian ja huonoiten ilmapiirin. Naiset kokivat asioiden toteutumisessa enemmän puutteita kuin miehet. Työpaikkaansa heikosti sitoutuneita oli 8 %, joista valtaosa terveyskeskushammaslääkäreitä. Heikosti sitoutuneet kokivat sitoutuneita huonompina varsinkin työilmapiirin, työolosuhteet ja mahdollisuuden uralla etenemiseen. Hammaslääkärit olivat halukkaampia jatkokoulutukseen kuin kokivat siihen olevanmahdollisuuksia; 25 % oli harkinnut erikoistumista, mutta luopunut ajatuksesta, ja20 % halusi erikoistua, mutta koki siihen käytännön esteitä. Jatkossa tulisi tarkemmin analysoida ja toistettavin tutkimuksin seurata hammaslääkärien urakokemuksia ja valintoja sekä koetun työssä vallitsevan tilanteen ja asioiden merkityksen välistä suhdetta. Myös opiskelijoiden urasuunnitelmia ja arvostuksia tulisi tutkia säännöllisin väliajoin.

Career satisfaction among medical school professors: a case study in Brazil

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the career satisfaction of medical school professors in relation to initial motivation, satisfaction factors, and the desire to remain in the profession. METHODOLOGY: A qualitative methodology was used, based on questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with faculty members at a federal institution of higher education in Brazil. RESULTS: For 42.86% of the sample, teaching began while they were medical students; 80% had chosen teaching either as a vocation or due to influence from families or professors; 20% chose teaching as a professional opportunity. The majority, 57.14%, stated they were happy with teaching, and 51.42% did not plan to leave the career. Factors involved in satisfaction with teaching were: the possibility of remaining up-to-date in the medical profession, the feeling of doing their duty, their contribution to training future doctors, and contact with young people and the university setting. Factors leading to dissatisfaction were pedagogical (33.33%), economic (30.95%), institutional (14.28%), and relational (14.28%). CONCLUSIONS: Subjects expressed a positive attitude towards teaching, and because of their great personal satisfaction with the career, they did not plan to leave it. These findings should shed light on factors that interfere with career satisfaction and help increase those that promote satisfaction, thus improving the productivity and well-being of medical professors.

Nursing students and older people nursing. Towards a future career

The purpose of this two-phased study is to examine the interest of nursing students in choosing a career in older people nursing. First, the scoping phase explores the different premises for choosing older people nursing as a career. Second, the evaluation phase investigates the outcomes of the developed educational intervention involving older people as promoters of choosing a career in older people nursing, factors related to these outcomes, and experiences with educational intervention. The ultimate goal is to encourage more nursing students to choose older people nursing as their career. The scoping phase applies an exploratory design and centres around a descriptive, cross-sectional survey, documentary research and a scoping literature review. The information sources for this phase include 183 nursing students, 101 newspaper articles and 66 research articles. The evaluation phase applies a quasi-experimental design and a pre-post-test design with a non-equivalent comparison group and a post-intervention survey. The information sources for this phase include 87 nursing students and 43 older people. In both phases, statistical and narrative methods are applied in the data analysis. Nursing students neutrally regarded the idea of a career in older people nursing. The most consistent factors related to the nursing students’ career plans in older people nursing were found to be nursing work experience and various educational preparations in the field. Nursing students in the intervention group (n=40) were more interested in older people nursing and had more positive attitudes towards older people than did students in the comparison group (n=36). However, in both groups, the interest that students had at the baseline was associated with the interest at the one-month follow-up. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of the students’ knowledge levels about ageing. The nursing students and older people alike highly appreciated participating in the educational intervention. It seems possible to positively impact nursing students and their choices to pursue careers in older people nursing, at least in the short-term. The involvement of older people as promoters of this career choice provides one encouraging alternative for impacting students’ career choices, but additional research is needed.