Pursuing Money and Power, Prosocial Contributions, or Personal Growth: Measurement and Nomological Net of Different Career Strivings

Hirschi. A. & Pang, D. (2023). Pursuing Money and Power, Prosocial Contributions, or Personal Growth: Measurement and Nomological Net of Different Career Strivings. Journal of Career Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/089484532311829

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Abstract

There is considerable agreement that individuals need an “inner compass” to manage their careers as self-directed and values-driven. However, how different career strivings (i.e., long-term, values-related career goals) affect career development remains largely unaddressed. To tackle this issue, we conducted a study to develop and validate new scales to assess self-enhancement, self-transcendence, and personal growth career strivings, representing key self-focused and other-focused extrinsic and intrinsic career goals. The validation of the scales among 389 U.S. and 490 German workers confirmed that career strivings are differentially related to existing measures of intrinsic and extrinsic career goals, work values, and motivational work strivings. Moreover, we confirmed with a time-lagged study among 354 German workers that career strivings (especially personal growth strivings) relate positively to career commitment, career satisfaction, and life meaningfulness. The studies support the utility of examining different career strivings as critical motivational factors in self-directed career management in future research.

Keywords: career strivings; career motivation; career goals; career self-management

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The future work self and calling: The mediational role of life meaning

Zhang, C., Hirschi, A., Herrmann, A., Wei, J., & Zhang, J. (in press). The future work self and calling: The mediational role of life meaning. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1-15, doi:10.1007/s10902-016-9760-y

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Abstract

Research on calling prevailingly focuses on the positive effects on well-being and career development. However, explorations of the predictors and emergence of callings are sparse. We tested a model in which clarity about the future work self promotes one’s sense of calling through increased life meaning. We sampled 473 Chinese college students with a three-wave panel design over 1 year. Using time-lagged analysis, we found that the future work self at T1 significantly predicted increased life meaning at T2, which, in turn, significantly predicted increased calling at T3. This indirect effect was significant and supported the hypothesized longitudinal mediation model. The reverse effects of one’s calling as a predictor of self-clarity about one’s future work life or life meaning were not confirmed. Our findings suggest that among Chinese college students, self-clarity about one’s future work life and understanding one’s life meaning are two important steps in the development of one’s calling.

Managing the transition to retirement: From meaningful work to meaning in life at retirement

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Froidevaux, A., & Hirschi, A. (2015). Managing the Transition to Retirement: From Meaningful Work to Meaning in Life at Retirement. In A. De Vos, & B. van der Heijden (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Sustainable Careers (pp. 350-363). Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing.