This review examines competing perspectives relating to (a) the range and prevalence of different theoretical approaches to the study of career success and (b) the need for a theoretically differentiated understanding of the antecedents of objective (OCS) versus subjective (SCS) career success. Furthermore, the review complements the assumption that OCS and SCS are only ultimate outcomes of careers, proposing instead that career success also acts as an antecedent to other career and life outcomes. Against the backdrop of an organizing resource management framework, we present and critically evaluate the results of a systematic analysis of the theoretical approaches used to empirically study the antecedents of OCS and SCS. Furthermore, we develop a taxonomy of outcomes of career success. Our review findings show a theoretical heterogeneity with some dominant theoretical approaches within research of antecedents of career success. Moreover, past research started to adopt different theoretical approaches when predicting OCS (e.g., approaches focusing on personal resources, such as human capital or [competitive] performance) versus SCS (e.g., approaches focusing on personal key resources, such as stable traits). Several types of career success outcomes were identified: withdrawal, career attitudes, health and well-being, reactions from the (work) environment, and self-concept. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations for how future research can make sense of the theoretical heterogeneity in career success research, how research on antecedents and outcomes can better account for the OCS/SCS distinction, and how future research can more rigorously integrate research on antecedents and outcomes of career success.
This is an unedited manuscript published in the
Journal of Counseling PsychologyPlease note that the published underwent minor additional editing in style and content.Cite as: Hirschi, A. (2012) The funding source had no involvement in study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication.
CALLING AND WORK ENGAGMENT
Callings and Work Engagement: Moderated Mediation Model of WorkMeaningfulness, Occupational Identity, and Occupational Self-Efficacy ABSTRACT Scholarly interest in callings is growing, but our understanding of how and when callings relate to career outcomes is incomplete. The present study investigated the possibility that the relationship of calling to work engagement is mediated by work meaningfulness, occupational identity, and occupational self-efficacy -and that this mediation depends on the degree of perceived person-job fit. I examined a highly educated sample of German employees (N=529) in diverse occupations and found support for two of the three hypothesized mediators -work meaningfulness and occupational identity -after controlling for the relation of core self-evaluations to work engagement. Contrary to expectations, the mediated relations of callings to work engagement were not conditional upon the degree of person-job fit. The findings are considered in terms of the pathways through which callings may relate to work engagement and other career development outcomes.
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