Journal of Vocational Behavior最新文献

We explored the transformative impact of ChatGPT on applicants' responses and performance in situational judgement tests (SJTs), as well as the role played by faking-prevention mechanisms, in two complementary studies. Study 1 examined how the availability of ChatGPT influenced response content and performance of real applicants (N = 107,805), who completed an SJT for admission before vs. after the release of the technology. We found only small differences in content (e.g., slightly less “authentic” words used) and performance (slight score improvements when controlling for response length, no differences otherwise). In Study 2, we used an experimental approach with (N = 138) Prolific participants completing a mock SJT, while being instructed to use ChatGPT when responding (vs. use online resources or no resources). We found only slightly higher SJT scores for the ChatGPT users, but no difference in response content. Additionally, GPTZero (i.e., a popular AI detection tool) struggled to detect ChatGPT content, and generated many false positives, in both studies. This research advances our understanding of how the release and popularization of ChatGPT can influence applicant behaviors. Given the “arms race” nature of applicant selection, they also highlight the importance of designing assessments to prevent or limit faking. Yet, the ever-evolving nature of AI calls for continuous research on the topic.

Research on automation and the future of work is a major focus for both academics and practitioners due to technological changes disrupting the labor market and educational pathways. Although recent articles have published projections about the types of tasks and jobs most likely to be automated in the coming years, little attention has been devoted to how different types of vocational interests are susceptible to automation, as well as resulting changes to the match between people's interests and their jobs. In the present article, we provide an integrative review of vocational interests and automation projections within and across jobs. By standardizing and mapping projections to Holland's RIASEC interest model, we found that Investigative (scientific) and Conventional (detail-oriented) interests, including STEM interests, are most susceptible to automation, whereas Social (people-oriented) and Realistic (hands-on) interests are least susceptible. For Artistic and Enterprising interests, some creative work, decision-making, and leadership skills may be affected by automation across a range of jobs. We build on these projections to propose a future research agenda integrating interests, technology, and careers. Specifically, we identify five areas for future research, including using intentional work design to enhance interests, the role of interests in career decisions related to project-based work, changes in people's interests following automation, increased use of basic interests, and the systematic impacts of automation on different groups of people. Overall, this review highlights how vocational interests will remain an important topic with high relevance for career guidance, education, and organizations as the future of work evolves.

In this commentary, we argue that studying vulnerable workers can challenge the established norms of organizational research, which mostly focuses on non-vulnerable employees. We highlight the significant differences in the experiences of vulnerable workers, which profoundly impact their professional lives, and often defy current organizational theories and research findings. Additionally, we explore how traditional beliefs in recruitment and selection, career development, organizational support, and identity management research may not apply well to vulnerable workers due to their unique challenges. We strongly advocate for a shift in the fundamental assumptions and paradigms of organizational scholarship to better accommodate and accurately represent the perspectives of this often-overlooked workforce.

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.