Claire S. Johnston

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.

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.

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.

Career Development and Aging

Career development and aging represents a topic of growing importance for individuals as well as organizations. As society and the workforce is aging, late career employees embody a steadily growing proportion of the working population (Van der Heijden, Schalk, & Van Veldhoven, 2008). In order to create and maintain a successful and satisfying late career, this population has to successfully deal with today’s changing work environment and its demands. In this chapter, first a review traditional stage-based models of late career development is given. Then an overview of how the current work environment increasingly necessitates a protean career orientation and career adaptability among older workers is provided. The chapter concludes with implications for career counseling and HR practices regarding older workers.