Career Development Theories Quiz

Career Development

• A career is defined as the evolution of a person's work-related experiences over time.
• It is not a static concept but involves continuous change.
• It extends beyond paid work and includes activities and experiences such as parenting and hobbies.
• Psychological approaches to careers can be categorized into career choice and career development.

Early Career Development Theories

• Early theories focused on individual differences in occupational choices, such as Parsons (1909) and Thorndike (1914).
• Super's theory of vocational development (1957, 1969) proposed five life stages: growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and decline.
• Holland's theory (1959) identified six personality types that align with vocational interests: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional.
• The traditional notion was that individuals would aim for long-term stable employment, requiring preparation for a well-thought-out career choice after education.

Career Development in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries

• Schein's work on career anchors (1996) introduced a dynamic perspective, focusing on the evolution of career-related values and motives.
• He identified eight anchor categories: autonomy, security, functional competence, managerial competence, entrepreneurial creativity, service, challenge, and lifestyle.
• The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw a shift towards more dynamic and individualized career models, reflecting the changing employment landscape.
• New career concepts emerged:
  • The boundaryless career (Arthur, 1994)
  • Protean career (Hall, 1976, 2002)
  • Kaleidoscope career (Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005)
  • Customized career (Valcour et al., 2007)
  • Post-corporate career (Peiperl & Baruch, 1997)
• These concepts emphasize individual agency and adaptability in navigating evolving work landscapes.

Sustainable Careers

• Introduced by De Vos and Van der Heijden, sustainable careers are defined as sequences of career experiences characterized by continuity, individual agency, and meaningfulness.
• Three key indicators are:
  • Happiness (engagement, subjective career success)
  • Health (workability, well-being)
  • Productivity (performance, employability)

Conceptualizing Sustainable Careers

• The concept is grounded in three perspectives:
  • Individual: Places the individual as the central career actor.
  • Systemic: Highlights the influence of contexts and stakeholders.
  • Dynamic: Emphasizes the process perspective across individual life stages.

Dimensions for Analyzing Sustainable Careers

• Person: Focuses on individual agency, creating meaning, and developing career competencies and adaptability.
• Context: Explores the role of various actors and organizational structures in different layers of the career environment.
• Time: Views careers as cyclical self-regulatory processes with dynamic learning and development.

Theories Supporting Sustainable Careers

• Conservation of Resources Theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001):
  • Emphasizes the importance of resource acquisition and loss in career development.
  • Suggests that resource gain is crucial for career success and well-being.
• Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Vansteenkiste, 2004; Ryan & Deci, 2000):
  • Highlights the fulfillment of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which promote intrinsic motivation and well-being.
• Lifespan Theories (SOC, Baltes et al, 1999; SST, Carstensen, 1996; LSTC, Heckhausen et al., 2010):
  • Emphasize the evolution of goals and strategies over the lifespan, including growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss.

Research Focus on Sustainable Careers

• Current research questions:
  • How dynamic are sustainable careers across life stages?
  • What are the individual differences in career sustainability?
  • What theoretical frameworks can further understand the dynamic process of sustainable careers?
  • To what degree is career sustainability determined by individual agency or contextual factors?
  • What contextual factors influence career sustainability across life stages?
  • Are there differences in career sustainability among various occupational groups, countries, and cultures?
  • Can interventions enhance career sustainability?
  • What methodological approaches and designs are suitable for studying career sustainability?

Employability as a Core Element of Sustainable Careers

• Emphasizes one's ability to realize job opportunities over time.
• Represents a dynamic interplay between employees, employers, and the broader economic landscape.
• Employability research incorporates various fields such as labor economics, education, vocational counseling, careers, human resource management, and work and organizational psychology.

Strategic Employability Architecture (SEA) Framework

• An adaptation of the human resource architecture framework (Lepak & Snell, 1999, 2002), developed by Van der Heijden, De Vos, Forrier, & De Cuyper (2021) and Fugate et al. (2021).
• Focuses on the interdependence of employees, employers, and the nature of exchanges between them.
• Provides a foundational framework for evidence-based practices in employability research.

Ageing in the Workplace and Career Sustainability

• Ageing is defined in various ways:
  • Calendar age
  • Lifespan age
  • Functional or performance-based age
  • Organizational age (or seniority)
  • Psychological (or subjective) age

Test your knowledge on the evolution of career development theories and key concepts around individual differences in occupational choices. This quiz explores early theories, including those by Parsons, Thorndike, Super, and Holland. Challenge yourself to understand the psychological approaches to career choice and development.