Career management.

Abstract

D efined as "the combination and sequence of roles played by a person during the course of a lifetime" (Super, 1980, p. 282), career is generally viewed as the evolution of work experience over the life course, which inherently involves one's role transitions at different stages of life (Greenhaus, 1987;Hartung, 2013;Nagy et al., 2019). Thus, career management is "an umbrella term that encompasses various individual activities that shape people's career transitions and experience" (M. Wang & Wanberg, 2017, p. 546). In this chapter, we integrate the lifespan perspective (Super, 1953(Super, , 1980(Super, , 1990) and a dual-process (i.e., assimilative and accommodative) model (Brandtstädter & Renner, 1990;Brandtstädter & Rothermund, 2002) to introduce a theoretical framework that explains how individuals exert agency and adjust to constraints or changes in managing their careers.Although traditional career management research mainly focuses on behavioral strategies that benefit early-career or middle-career progression (e.g., Greenhaus, 1987;Gould, 1979;Gould & Penley, 1984), some emerging characteristics of the contemporary workforce emphasize the importance of understanding career management from a lifespan perspective. Specifically, the rising number of older workers and the increased age diversity in the workplace warrant a deeper understanding of career management strategies that are specific to the needs of different age groups (Shultz & Adams, 2007;M. Wang & Fang, 2020;Zacher et al., 2016). Another noteworthy change is the increasing years of schooling. For example, in the United States, the average total years of schooling for the adult population was 12.70 years in 2000, and this number