Careers in context: An international study of career goals as mesostructure between societies' career‐related human potential and proactive career behaviour

Abstract

Careers exist in a societal context that offers both constraints and opportunities for career actors. Whereas most studies focus on proximal individual and/or organisational‐level variables, we provide insights into how career goals and behaviours are understood and embedded in the more distal societal context. More specifically, we operationalise societal context using the career‐related human potential composite and aim to understand if and why career goals and behaviours vary between countries. Drawing on a model of career structuration and using multilevel mediation modelling, we draw on a survey of 17,986 employees from 27 countries, covering nine of GLOBE's 10 cultural clusters, and national statistical data to examine the relationship between societal context (macrostructure building the career‐opportunity structure) and actors' career goals (career mesostructure) and career behaviour (actions). We show that societal context in terms of societies' career‐related human potential composite is negatively associated with the importance given to financial achievements as a specific career mesostructure in a society that is positively related to individuals' proactive career behaviour. Our career mesostructure fully mediates the relationship between societal context and individuals' proactive career behaviour. In this way, we expand career theory's scope beyond occupation‐ and organisation‐related factors.

Human capital development practices and career success: The moderating role of country development and income inequality

“…Institutional factors deserve more attention as they are unlikely to be equally salient for different forms of CS, and the relevance of the same factor will likely vary for objective and subjective CS (Heslin, 2005;Kaše et al, 2020). Our results build on other empirical studies showing HDI as a powerful explanatory factor of career success (Andresen et al, 2020;Kaše et al, 2020).…”

“…Because our research is cross-cultural, we used a recent culturally invariant scale of subjective CS (Briscoe et al, 2014) validated in cross-cultural studies (Andresen et al, 2020;Smale et al, 2019). The scale is multidimensional and captures the achievement and importance aspects of different dimensions of subjective CS (see Greenhaus et al, 1990;Gunz & Heslin, 2005).…”

“…In addition, Riain (2011) asserts that when analyzing human capital accumulation, the individual and institutional dimensions should be treated as interdependent, and calls for an examination of interactions between these dimensions. Career studies that draw on human capital theory have been placing increased attention on the role of country-level institutional factors in CS perceptions (Andresen et al, 2020;Kaše et al, 2020;Mayrhofer, Meyer, & Steyrer, 2007).…”

What's next? Career narratives of women university graduates in times of precarity

“…Recent research on career development has brought to light the situated and dynamic understanding of career‐related narratives, aspirations, and behaviors (Bresnen et al, 2019; Chudzikowski et al, 2020). However, going beyond the proximal social context commonly examined (Andresen et al, 2020), our study calls attention to the role macro societal context plays in career‐related experiences and decisions. This distal context motivates a fresh look at career‐related phenomena including a revised conceptualization of career success (sustained vs upward, flexible vs static) and adaptation (Kaše et al, 2020).…”

“…New career paradigms, intelligent, protean and kaleidoscopic (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996) portray workers as responsible for their own careers with a presumption of diverse job opportunities and flexible career pathways. With a focus on individual activities, this self‐management focus often downplays societal conditions and employment constraints (Akkermans & Kubasch, 2017; Andresen et al, 2020). The present study is motivated by the need for more in‐depth attention to the context of career behavior (Baruch & Rousseau, 2019).…”