Careers in context: An international study of career goals as mesostructure between societies' career‐related human potential and proactive career behaviour
University of Bamberg1, Athens University of Economics and Business2, University of Toronto3, University of San Andrés4, Waseda University5, VU University Amsterdam6, University of Tennessee7, Pan-Atlantic University8, Bocconi University9, University of Malawi10, University of Belgrade11, Dublin City University12, Northern Illinois University13, Hansung University14, University of Bath15, University of Victoria16, Toulouse Business School17, Cranfield University18, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven19, BI Norwegian Business School20, Donghua University21, University of Padua22, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts23, Boston University24, Macquarie University25, Istanbul University26, University of Ljubljana27, Kookmin University28, Simon Fraser University29, Indian Institute of Management Indore30, University of Salzburg31, University of Los Andes32, International Islamic University, Islamabad33, Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad34, University of Hamburg35, University of Vaasa36, York University37
TL;DR: In this paper, a survey of 17,986 employees from 27 countries, covering nine of GLOBE's 10 cultural clusters, and national statistical data was used to examine the relationship between societal context and actors' career goals (career mesostructure) and career behaviour (actions).
Abstract: Careers exist in a societal context that offers both constraints and opportunities for career actors. Whereas most studies focus on proximal individual and/or organisational‐level variables, we provide insights into how career goals and behaviours are understood and embedded in the more distal societal context. More specifically, we operationalise societal context using the career‐related human potential composite and aim to understand if and why career goals and behaviours vary between countries. Drawing on a model of career structuration and using multilevel mediation modelling, we draw on a survey of 17,986 employees from 27 countries, covering nine of GLOBE's 10 cultural clusters, and national statistical data to examine the relationship between societal context (macrostructure building the career‐opportunity structure) and actors' career goals (career mesostructure) and career behaviour (actions). We show that societal context in terms of societies' career‐related human potential composite is negatively associated with the importance given to financial achievements as a specific career mesostructure in a society that is positively related to individuals' proactive career behaviour. Our career mesostructure fully mediates the relationship between societal context and individuals' proactive career behaviour. In this way, we expand career theory's scope beyond occupation‐ and organisation‐related factors.
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13 Jan 2010
TL;DR: The 2013 Human Development Index (HDI) as discussed by the authors covers 187 countries, the same number of countries as in 2012 and 2011, and is used to assess the human development of a country.
Abstract: How many countries are included in the 2013 HDI? The 2013 HDI covers 187 countries, the same number as in 2012 and 2011. Maintaining the same number of is the result of intensified efforts by the Human Development Report Office (HDRO) to work with international data providers and national statistical agencies to obtain required development indicators for the HDI which had been unavailable for some countries in previous years. For a full explanation of the results and methodology of the 2013HDI and other indexes in the 2014 Human Development Report, please see the Technical Notes 1-5. What does the HDI tell us? The HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. The HDI can also be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with different human development outcomes. For example, Malaysia has GNI per capita higher than Chile but life expectancy at birth is about 5 years shorter, mean years of schooling is shorter and expected years of schooling is 2.5 years shorter resulting in Chile having a much higher HDI value than the Malaysia. These striking contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities. Did the HDI rankings change for many countries in 2013? Based on the consistent data series that were available on 15 November 2013, there are few countries with changed ranks between 2012 and 2013. The HDI values for 2012 and 2013 are given in Table 1 of Statistical Annex. The HDI trends since 1980 are given in Table 2. In this table we also provide the change in ranks between 2008 and 2013. We advise users of the HDR not to compare the results from different Reports, but to use the consistent data given in Table 2 of the latest report. The consistent data are based on the latest data revisions and are obtained using the same methodology. The effect of change in achievements (improvement or declining) in human development indicators of
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251 citations
177 citations
21 Jul 2021
TL;DR: The Gini coefficient as discussed by the authors is a more complete measure of income inequality, considering the entire income distribution, and it indicates that income inequality is rising overall, and that the increasing disparity of income in the U.S. over the past 30 years results from skill-biased technological change that has benefited higher-skilled workers.
Abstract: Between 1947 and 1974, income growth was distributed fairly evenly among households in various income groups. However, income inequality has increased over the past 30 or so years. Since the mid-1970s, real income growth for households at the 95th percentile of the distribution has grown at a pace nearly 3/2 times that of households at the 20th percentile. A similar pattern holds between men and women. The Gini coefficient (lower-left chart), a more complete measure of income inequality, considers the entire income distribution. It indicates that income inequality is rising overall. One explanation holds that the increasing disparity of income in the U.S. over the past 30 years results from skill-biased technological change that has benefited higher-skilled workers. The skill-biased hypothesis asserts that technology improvements boost the productivity (and hence the income) of skilled labor by more than it does the unskilled. Since the 1980s, demand for skilled labor has kept pace with the relatively greater supply of skilled workers (as estimated by the rising proportion of college-educated workers), exerting upward pressure on wages for higher-skilled workers. Since the early 1980s, the average real wage has risen roughly 30% for male college graduates and nearly 50% for males with a postgraduate degree. 0 25 50 75 100 125
167 citations
References
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TL;DR: The negotiated order perspective on social organization was first proposed by Strauss and his collaborators in the early 1970s as discussed by the authors. But it was not defined as a formal framework until the early 1990s.
Abstract: in which he advocated the merging of social organization and social psychology. Or perhaps it was earlier, in a synthesis of Mead and Park, initially through the work of Hughes, and later through scholars such as Becker, Habenstein, Roy, and Stone. In any case, while it is true that there were symbolic interactionists working on problems of social organization prior to the 1960s, a basic conceptual scheme consisting of organizing concepts and statements about how organizations and social orders operate did not exist. A more focused perspective, however, began to develop in the 1960s with the work of Strauss and his collaborators, and by the end of the 1970s, a systematic conceptual framework for such study had been sketched out. That framework-the negotiated order-currently represents the dominant perspective on social organization to have been born from the domain assumptions of symbolic interactionism, and its fertility can be measured by the increasing amount and variety of research activity generated by it. The purposes of this article are fairly straightforward. I will provide a brief account of the development of the negotiated order perspective, in which it has changed from a general theoretical stance to a more focused and paradigmatic framework. I will also
185 citations
"Careers in context: An internationa..." refers background or methods in this paper
...…career structuration model (Barley, 1989; Giddens, 1984) and explain how we use a revised version of Barley's approach by referring to the concept of mesostructures (Maines, 1982; Maines & Charlton, 1985) to develop a mediated model linking societal context via mesostructure to career behaviour....
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...…shall call them here) are manifested in individual and organisational actors' shared stock of practical knowledge (Duberley, Mallon, & Cohen, 2006; Maines, 1982) about contextually possible, sensible, and appropriate career behaviours for fashioning a course through the societal world (Barley,…...
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...Mesostructures are “the settings of rules, norms, and processes through which social life is mediated” (Little, 2012: 7), the “realms of human conduct through which social structures are processed and social processes become structured” (Maines, 1982: 277)....
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...…and organisational actors' shared stock of practical knowledge (Duberley, Mallon, & Cohen, 2006; Maines, 1982) about contextually possible, sensible, and appropriate career behaviours for fashioning a course through the societal world (Barley, 1989; Dokko et al., 2019; Giddens, 1984; Maines, 1982)....
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...We show how conceptualising the link between macrostructure and action within societies using the related concept of mesostructures (Fine & Hallett, 2014; Maines, 1982; Strauss, 1978) helps provide useful conceptual clarity....
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TL;DR: In this article, a longitudinal model of the process of proactive career behaviours and career success with two samples of graduates making the transition from college to work was tested using structural equation modeling.
Abstract: The current article tests a longitudinal model of the process of proactive career behaviours and career success with two samples of graduates making the transition from college to work. Using structural equation modelling, we tested a theoretical model that specified the relationships between career progress goals, career planning, networking behaviours, and career success. A longitudinal panel study was conducted within two samples using a 3-year (sample 1) and 1-year (sample 2) time lag between the first and second data collection. The results support the process model and suggest that at graduation, career planning is affected by the goal of making career progress. In turn, career planning is positively associated with networking behaviours. Both career planning and networking at graduation are positively related to career planning and networking 1 year later (sample 1) but in sample 2, in which a 3-year time lag was used, these relationships were no longer significant. Support is found for the relationship between networking during the early career and objective and subjective career success. The findings are discussed in terms of their general implications for understanding the proactive career behaviour process through which graduates affect their career success during the first years of their professional career.
183 citations
177 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the influence of early career experiences, occupational group membership, and national culture on proactive career behaviors, including career planning, skill development, consultation, and networking.
172 citations
21 Jul 2021
TL;DR: The Gini coefficient as discussed by the authors is a more complete measure of income inequality, considering the entire income distribution, and it indicates that income inequality is rising overall, and that the increasing disparity of income in the U.S. over the past 30 years results from skill-biased technological change that has benefited higher-skilled workers.
Abstract: Between 1947 and 1974, income growth was distributed fairly evenly among households in various income groups. However, income inequality has increased over the past 30 or so years. Since the mid-1970s, real income growth for households at the 95th percentile of the distribution has grown at a pace nearly 3/2 times that of households at the 20th percentile. A similar pattern holds between men and women. The Gini coefficient (lower-left chart), a more complete measure of income inequality, considers the entire income distribution. It indicates that income inequality is rising overall. One explanation holds that the increasing disparity of income in the U.S. over the past 30 years results from skill-biased technological change that has benefited higher-skilled workers. The skill-biased hypothesis asserts that technology improvements boost the productivity (and hence the income) of skilled labor by more than it does the unskilled. Since the 1980s, demand for skilled labor has kept pace with the relatively greater supply of skilled workers (as estimated by the rising proportion of college-educated workers), exerting upward pressure on wages for higher-skilled workers. Since the early 1980s, the average real wage has risen roughly 30% for male college graduates and nearly 50% for males with a postgraduate degree. 0 25 50 75 100 125
167 citations