Christian Maggiori

Career Adapt-Abilities Scale–Short Form (CAAS-SF) Construction and Validation

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) has become one of the most widely used questionnaires to assess career adaptability. To facilitate its integration into large surveys, in varied settings, the aim of this article was to develop a brief 12-item version, the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale–Short Form (CAAS-SF). A sample of 2,800 French- and German-speaking adults living in Switzerland completed the CAAS. On a first random subsample, a principal component analyses conducted on the CAAS-SF suggested a four-factor solution. A one-to-one association was found between these components and the subscales of the CAAS-SF. Confirmatory factor analyses, conducted on a second random subsample, confirmed the hierarchical factor structure of this short version. Based on Cheung and Rensvold’s criteria, the CAAS-SF reached measurement equivalence across linguistic and gender groups. Furthermore, the 12- and 24-item versions were strongly associated. The results supported the CAAS-SF as pertinent and economical alternative to the 24-item version.

Professional Trajectories, Individual Characteristics, and Staying Satisfied and Healthy

Staying satisfied and healthy in the face of a complex and uncertain professional world is a priority for individuals. This article examines the contribution of personality traits, career adaptability, and prior well-being as predictors of well-being over 1 year in four different professional trajectory groups: those who remained employed, those who experienced a professional change, those who moved from unemployment to employment, and those who remained unemployed. Results show meaningful differences between these groups in terms of well-being over 1 year. Employed individuals have higher life satisfaction and self-rated health than unemployed individuals. Regaining employment contributes to improved well-being. Different professional situations correspond to varying levels of career adaptability, suggesting it may be a precursor for career changes. Personality traits and career adaptability predict well-being over time, but the strongest predictor of future well-being is prior well-being. Results are discussed in light of career development, personality, and well-being theory.

Adaptability in Action: Using Personality, Interest, and Values Data to Help Clients Increase Their Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Career Meta-capacities

Career adaptability encompasses the attitudes, behaviors, and competencies that people use “in fitting themselves into work that suits them” (Savickas, Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work, Hoboken, Wiley, p. 45, 2005) . Savickas (The Career Development Quarterly, 45:247–259, 1997) proposed adaptability as a unifying concept to Super’s (The psychology of careers. New York: Harper & Row, 1957; Career development in the 1980s: Theory and practice, pp. 28–42, Springfield: Thomas, 1981; Career choice and development, pp. 197–261 San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990) life-span, life-space theory, essentially integrating the three major perspectives that Super elaborated: development, self, and context. Career adaptability includes four specific dimensions: concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. Career counselors can use these four dimensions dynamically within the counseling process to help clients better adapt their needs and capacities to different constraints imposed by the work environment (Savickas et al., Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75:239–250, 2009) .

Believing in a personal just world helps maintain well-being at work by coloring organizational justice perceptions

Justice is a core fundamental theme for individuals in organizations. This study suggests that believing the world is just where one gets what one deserves, and deserves what one gets, is an important personal resource that helps maintain well-being at work. Further, it suggests that personal belief in a just world, but not general belief in a just world, exerts its influence on well-being through increasing overall justice perceptions of the work environment. Using two waves of data drawn from a large random sample of working adults in Switzerland, results showed that personal belief in a just world at time 1 indeed augmented perceptions of overall organizational justice, and this in turn increased job satisfaction at time 2, that is, 1 year later. As expected, this effect was only evident for personal and not general belief in a just world, highlighting personal belief in a just world as an important yet largely overlooked resource for the work context, and suggesting the need to consider individual’s beliefs about justice as drivers of overall organizational justice perceptions.

Development and Validation of the Transition to Retirement Questionnaire

The aim of this study was to present the initial validation of a new questionnaire, the Transition to Retirement Questionnaire (TRQ) and to study its relationship with resistance to change and personality dimensions. Based on Schlossberg’s typology of the retired, the TRQ is designed to assess five dimensions related to personal perceptions of transition to retirement, retirement, and personal plans and activities. The sample consisted of 1,054 professionally active or retired adults from the Swiss French-speaking Canton of Vaud. Exploratory principal components and confirmatory factor analyses highlighted a five-factor solution that fit coherently with Schlossberg’s typology. Moreover, TRQ dimensions were related to resistance to change tendencies and personality dimensions. The TRQ seems to be an interesting tool for use in research but also for interventions with young retirees or people preparing for retirement.

Contribution of Personality, Job Strain, and Occupational Self-Efficacy to Job Satisfaction in Different Occupational Contexts

Using a large sample of employed adults (N = 1,714) living in Switzerland, this study investigates the relationship between the five-factor model of personality dimensions and job satisfaction, considering the role of job strain as defined by Karasek’s job demand–control model and occupational self-efficacy. These relationships were assessed both within the overall sample of employed and specific occupational groups. The analyses on the overall sample show an effect of neuroticism and extraversion on job satisfaction. Furthermore, job strain and occupational self-efficacy are related to job satisfaction. The effect of neuroticism is partly mediated by job strain and occupational self-efficacy, while extraversion and conscientiousness have an indirect effect through occupational self-efficacy. When we consider the occupational groups, the results highlight differences between the groups showing variability in the relationship between personality, job strain and occupational self-efficacy, and their effects on job satisfaction.

Career pathways and professional transitions : preliminary results from the first wave of a 7-year longitudinal study

The main purpose of this chapter is to present and to discuss the implementation and the main methodological characteristics, notably in terms of design and research protocol, sampling and data collection procedure via a mixed-mode approach, of our 7-year longitudinal study on professional trajectories. More specifically, adopting several psychological perspectives, this study addresses professional transitions and career pathways and personal experiences – particularly in terms of well-being – of employed and unemployed middle-aged adults (25–55 years) living in Switzerland. Furthermore, based on the first wave of data (N = 2469), we introduce some results concerning, amongst others, the predictors of the choice of the mode to complete the questionnaire and of the intention to participate in the next wave, and possible differences on vulnerability indicators with reference to personal characteristics, resources and professional situation. Finally, considering the procedure implemented and the results emerging from this first wave, we discuss several implications and challenges for the next waves.

Precariousness Profile and Career Adaptability as Determinants of Job Insecurity: A Three-Wave Study

The present study compares the mean levels and growth in job insecurity across employees’ precariousness profiles as defined by a combination of perceived employability and financial difficulties. Drawing on the labor market precariousness and workplace stress literature, we hypothesized that employees with the most precarious profile would report elevated levels of job insecurity followed by a growth trend. Moreover, career adaptability was expected to act as a resource for counteracting job insecurity. The study was based on three waves of a longitudinal “Professional Paths” survey (National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES) conducted in Switzerland. The data of 799 professionally active adults were analyzed using latent growth modeling. In line with our hypothesis, the findings showed the highest levels of job insecurity and the most pronounced growth trend among employees with the precarious profile. Interestingly, different career adaptability facets played differing roles in predicting job insecurity, potentially revealing some of its under-researched aspects.

Achieving Meaningful Retirement Adjustment in Late Career

In an ageing society, achieving good quality of retirement adjustment has become a major challenge for individuals, organizations, and governments. Adopting a retrospective view, this paper explores how older workers achieve meaningful retirement adjustment in their late career, that is, how they are getting used to changes in their retirement life (i.e., adjustment process) and achieve psychological comfort (i.e., adjustment quality). This paper proposes a framework to investigate meaningful retirement adjustment as a subjective experience across time, and resulting in two main outcomes: subjective well- being and identity. We conducted a Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) as described by Hill (2012), comprising two semi-structured interviews with 16 Swiss individuals who had been retired in average for 4.22 years. First, we found that retirees were ambivalent about perceiving different phases in retirement adjustment process; in the beginning of the process the majority of resented affects were posit...

Smoking and adolescence: exploring tobacco consumption and related attitudes in three different adolescent groups in Switzerland

The present study constitutes an investigation of tobacco consumption, related attitudes and individual differences in smoking or non-smoking behaviors in a sample of adolescents of different ages in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. We investigated three school-age groups (7th-grade, 9th-grade, and the second-year of high school) for differences in attitude and social and cognitive dimensions. We present both descriptive and inferential statistics. On an inferential level, we present a binary logistic regression-based model predicting risk of smoking. The resulting model most importantly suggests a strong relationship between smoking and alcohol consumption (both regular and sporadic). We interpret this result in terms of both the impact of the actual campaigns and the cognitive processes associated with adolescence.