Employees’ career mindsets as career capital for a digital work world orientation

Orientation: Employees need to develop career capital for an open-minded work world orientation in an unpredictable, rapidly evolving digital-era work world in which jobs and occupational pathways have become blurred and uncertain.Research purpose: This research empirically examined the extent to which distance learning employees’ career mindsets as career capital predicted facets of their digital-era work world orientation.Motivation for the study: The construct of work world orientation is empirically under-researched and the association between employees’ career mindsets, work world awareness and competency including their higher education studies’ contribution to their work world readiness is unclear.Research approach/design and method: Data were collected from (N = 486) full-time employed open- and distance-learning undergraduate students. Regression analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) were applied in the cross-sectional, quantitative study.Main findings: The results revealed the protean (pure challenge) career mindset as important ‘knowing why’ career capital to positively predict participants’ digital work world awareness, work world competency and work world readiness.Practical/managerial implications: The study highlighted the importance of the protean (pure challenge) career mindset in the career development learning of employees to better prepare them for the digital-era work world.Contribution/value-add: The study enriched understanding of the implicit role of employees’ ‘knowing why’ career capital in their approach-motivation towards important digital-era ‘knowing what’ career capital.