Journal of Vocational Behavior最新文献

In the literature on the antecedents and mediators of employee well-being, there is little or no acknowledgement of sudden changes in the social and environmental context in which perceptions of well-being are formed. Contextual influences are rarely so impactful and unexpected as those associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. To continue operating within lockdown restrictions, many organizations, apart from those unable or unwilling to initiate such changes, abruptly adopted a work from home (WFH) or hybrid working pattern. These circumstances raise novel questions about the influence of impactful, unanticipated contextual factors on employee well-being outcomes. To address these questions in the context of a shift to WFH, we tested a model adapted from aspects of Event Systems Theory (EST) and the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT). Central to our theoretical adaptation was a unique perspective on PWT “decent work” perceptions based on principles of empowerment. In a study of 337 employees during the lockdown period, we applied a Bayesian multilevel model to investigate the contrast between in-lockdown perceptions relative to current pre-lockdown perceptions. Results suggested the contextual shift to WFH related negatively to relative perceptions of well-being, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Empowerment significantly mediated all well-being outcomes. Organizational support, neuroticism, and home readiness related directly to empowerment and indirectly to well-being outcomes via empowerment. We discuss how sudden contextual changes interacted with relationships observed in our model, and how our findings progress a context-responsive adaptation of EST and PWT in the new world of WFH.

This study draws on contributions from Social Cognitive Career Theory and Conservation of Resources theory to investigate how configurations of career barriers associated with gender and ethnicity influence the development of perceived employability. Our study with graduates surveyed before and two years after completing their degrees, shows that groups of graduates perceiving higher career barriers experience a significant decline in perceived employability during the early stage of their careers. In contrast, those perceiving fewer career hurdles report a more stable employability trajectory and have higher perceived employability two years after graduating. Our study contributes to the literature by showing that perceived employability does not necessarily increase with labor market experience but can instead remain stable or even decline depending on perceived career hindrances.

Acknowledging the evolving composition of modern workforces and nature of contemporary work, we offer a review and research agenda for integrating diversity process theory into career and vocational behavior research. Based on a review of theories that articulate how social identity shapes career outcomes, we highlight a need for additional theorizing that captures the dynamism and complexity of human experience and intersecting roles embedded within the career lifecycle. To address this need, we propose approaching the study of vocational behavior from a diversity process perspective. Integrating three diversity-related processes (identity, information processing, inclusion) across three career stages (career choice, adjustment, exit), we develop a model for exploring how diversity influences people's career experiences and transitions. Specifically, we identify five career transitions – identity-choice, information processing-choice, information processing-adjustment, inclusion-adjustment, and inclusion-exit – and discuss the underlying mechanisms for each. We also suggest specific directions for future research that respond to the increasing diversity and intersectionality of modern workforces and advances foundational insights into how individuals navigate their career experiences and trajectories. By bridging the gap between the career and diversity theoretical domains and offering a new perspective for researchers and practitioners in the field of career development, we hope to take an important step toward a more comprehensive, inclusive and socially responsive understanding of vocational behavior.

Our paper advances the embryonic interest of combining the theoretical frameworks of sustainable career and career ecosystem into a sustainable career ecosystem theory by introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a new actor, spotlighting the need for liminality of the relationship between an individual and career practitioner, and presenting a new conceptual model. We begin by providing a brief overview of sustainable career and career ecosystem theories, culminating in a recently proposed definition of a sustainable career ecosystem. Second, using this as our point of departure, we consider the theoretical perspectives for understanding a sustainable career ecosystem through (a) introducing AI as a new actor with the potential to disrupt and transform the (future) labor market and (b) making a case for the liminality of the individual and career practitioner relationship. Third, we consider various dimensions for analyzing a sustainable career ecosystem to offer a new conceptual model. We conclude with a future research agenda.

Article classification

Conceptual Paper.

This quantitative review systematically integrates the antecedents and outcomes of Family-Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (FSSBs) through bivariate meta-analysis and meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM). Utilizing data from 231 primary studies, which are drawn from 213 sources (N = 118, 100), we examined a set of hypotheses exploring the antecedents and consequences of FSSBs. We also conducted a comparative analysis of the explanatory power of two theoretical perspectives: the resource-based view (operationalized as work-family conflict and work-family enrichment) and the social-exchange perspective (operationalized as leader-member exchange relationship). Our results showed that the social-exchange perspective accounted for a greater proportion of FSSBs' impacts on work outcomes (i.e., in-role performance, and job satisfaction), while the resource-based perspective predominantly elucidates FSSBs' influence on employee wellbeing (i.e., burnout). In doing this, we unveiled nuanced insights into the nomological network surrounding FSSBs. Based on these results, we develop a future map for this growing body of research.

Employees with a chronic disease are confronted with health problems, pain, and a limited energy reserve, which may hinder their day-to-day functioning at work. In the current study, we use proactive motivation and job demands-resources (JD-R) theories to hypothesize that chronically ill individuals may optimize their own well-being and work performance by using proactive vitality management (PVM). In Study 1, we tested our hypotheses through multigroup comparative analyses among a mixed sample of both healthy and chronically ill employees who participated in a weekly, three-wave study (T1 N = 399, M age = 45.18 (SD = 13.13), 48 % female). In Study 2, employees with a chronic liver disease were followed over the course of 2,5 years and filled out surveys at three points in time (T1 N = 192, M age = 48.73 (SD = 10.75), 72 % female). Findings from both studies were in line with our hypotheses. More specifically, consistent with JD-R theory's health impairment hypothesis, results showed that exhaustion mediated the relation between PVM and (a) functional limitations and (b) absenteeism. Consistent with JD-R's motivational hypothesis, work engagement mediated the relation between PVM and (a) creative work performance and (b) absenteeism. In addition, results of moderated mediation analyses indicated that these indirect effects were stronger for chronically ill employees with more (vs. less) self-insight – i.e., a developed understanding of one's own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. These findings contribute to JD-R and proactive motivation theories and suggest that PVM is an important behavioral strategy that may protect chronically ill employees' occupational health and promote their performance, especially when combined with self-insight.

By integrating the work-home resource model with the leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, we adopt a change perspective to examine the effects of the change rate in family-to-work enrichment (FWE) on that in job satisfaction through the change rate in LMX. Using a longitudinal, multilevel sample of 360 employees in 71 teams, the results of three waves of data over eight months reveal the FWE change rate is associated positively with the LMX change rate, which, in turn, is associated positively with the job satisfaction change rate. Furthermore, we show that LMX differentiation at Time 1 moderates the FWE change rate's effect on the LMX change rate over time, such that the relation is stronger when the LMX differentiation is high at Time 1. Moreover, the LMX change rate mediates the interactive effects of the FWE change rate and Time 1 LMX differentiation on the job satisfaction change rate over time. The results also show that the initial level of FWE is related positively with the LMX change rate, but not with the job satisfaction change rate. These findings emphasize the importance of studying changes in family-work research and providing new insights into the processes of the FWE change rate's effects on the change rates of important work outcomes over time.

The importance of social networking helping employees achieve career success is widely recognized. However, there is limited discussion regarding employees' subtle networking behaviors with leaders and their impact. With this paper we contribute to this oversight by conceptualizing workplace upward networking (WUN) and by developing and validating a new scale that assesses the extent to which employees build and maintain relationships with leaders in pursuit of resources. Using 10 samples (N = 1597), the results provide strong evidence for the reliability and validity of the WUN scale, and support the nomological network of the WUN construct. Our work contributes to social networking research by demonstrating the theoretical uniqueness of WUN versus similar constructs, such as workplace peer networking and impression management, as well as the underlying mechanisms by which WUN affects work outcomes. Overall, with this study we offer support for the reliability and validity of WUN scale and advance the burgeoning node-specific networking literature both conceptually and empirically.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of the global workforce turned to virtual meetings for work-related communication and continues to do so as part of the shift to hybrid work. This change in communication patterns has led to an increased scholarly emphasis on the costs of virtual meetings for employees. The present study adds to this emerging field of research by taking a theory-led approach to highlight that alongside costs there are benefits to spending time in virtual meetings for employee functioning. Specifically, we integrate the concept of flow experiences and the Conservation of Resources theory to expand our understanding of the psychological mechanisms that link daily time spent in virtual meetings to employees' functioning in the work (i.e., task performance and counterproductive work behavior) and home domains (i.e., work-family conflict and need for recovery). More specifically, we argue that the benefits of virtual meetings manifest through flow experiences and associated reduced within-day changes in cognitive depletion. Furthermore, we identify low emotional dissonance as a contingency in virtual meetings that can strengthen the benefits of this mode of computer mediated communication. Results from two daily diary studies largely support the hypothesized relationships. Our findings have important theoretical and practical implications for employee functioning in the ‘new normal’ of hybrid work.

Studies on interim leadership have proliferated across multiple disciplines over the past forty-five years since the first studies on non-traditional careers emerged in the late 1970s. Interim leadership tenures typically range from weeks to more than a year during critical change-induced contexts in organizations (e.g., unexpected leadership departures). Interim leadership brings benefits to both interim executives (e.g., career advancement, work-life flexibility) and organizations (e.g., the capacity to quickly adapt). Undertaking a comprehensive review of 61 articles on interim leadership published in top journals in multiple domains over almost five decades, we highlight terminologies adopted, moderating factors, theoretical perspectives and models pertinent to interim leadership explored to date. Importantly, our review identifies four emerging themes (i.e., Selection, Socialization, Success, and Succession) which represent stages of the interim leadership process, leading to the development of the resultant “4S” process framework. We subsequently explore factors which influence each of these stages that interim leaders move through from entering to exiting interim executive assignments. Following this, the review proposes a future research agenda for theoretical, empirical, and methodological advancement of interim leadership scholarship, particularly in relation to the less researched areas of socialization and success and notes practical implications to inform better practice of interim leadership for individuals and organizations.