Career Adaptability as a Strategy to Improve Sustainable Employment: A Proactive Personality Perspective

Abstract

Reaching full employment and reducing the unemployment rate is one of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) issued by the United Nations to face COVID-19 and the complex global economic situation. Although governments, society, and organizations have made efforts towards SDGs, how employees exert their subjective initiative and enhance their career adaptability is fundamental to solve the employment issue. How to enhance employees’ career adaptability to strengthen their psychological ability to face career changes is the guarantee of sustainable employment. In the light of the main force role and the unique characteristics of the new generation of employees in the workplace, this study aims to explore the relation between a proactive personality and career adaptability. According to the career construction theory, this study constructed a moderated mediation model to test the effect of a proactive personality on career adaptability through career identity and thriving at work, and the moderating role of task interdependence. Surveying 285 new-generation employees in China, this research found that a proactive personality had a significant positive impact on career adaptability, and that career identity and thriving at work mediate the relation. Task interdependence moderated this relation. Our findings extend the research of career construction theory on individual factors and contextual factors, and offer insights into enhancing the sustainability of human resource management and supporting sustainable economic development.

Academic Self-concept and Academic Achievement: An Empirical Evidence from Kumbhakar Community Students at Secondary Level

“…The findings of the study also suggest that academic self-concept can be improved through a better understanding of the indicators of academic performance (Valero-Valenzuela et al, 2021). This can help students identify the Kumbhakar Community's weaknesses and take corrective measures to improve their learning outcomes (Zhao et al, 2022). This, in turn, can help students become more confident and motivated, leading to improved academic performance (Almulla & Al-Rahmi, 2023).…”

Examining Career-Orientation Determinants of Managerial Roles in Nepal

“…Graduates who take charge of their career management also get greater support from their company. The findings indicated that proactive personality and career adaptability have a significant relationship (Ghimire et al, 2021;Wen et al, 2022;Zhao et al, 2022). In other words, individuals with higher proactive personality scores were likelier to display interest in and curiosity about their future careers | 59 and show more confidence and a sense of control in their career orientation.…”

Action-oriented entrepreneurial training and career resilience: a serial mediation model

“…Career adaptability is defined as, "a psychosocial construct that denotes an individual's resources for coping with current and anticipated tasks, transitions, traumas in their occupational roles" (Savickas and Porfeli, 2012, p. 662). Proactive individuals have the propensity to foresee changes, identify opportunities and influence the environment to seize opportunities or counter threats which is linked to career adaptability (Zhao et al, 2022). Innovative individuals are equipped with skills that help them create and identify new ideas and novel ways of problem-solving, coordinating and dealing with (Teng et al, 2019) and creativity is also deemed as a precursor of career adaptability (Khalid and Ahmed, 2021).…”