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Journal ArticleDOI

Careers in context: An international study of career goals as mesostructure between societies' career‐related human potential and proactive career behaviour

01 Jul 2020-Human Resource Management Journal (Wiley)-Vol. 30, Iss: 3, pp 365-391
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.
Citations
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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

265 citations

Book ChapterDOI
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

Book
01 Jan 2000

70 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Employment-related values were recorded at two levels of scope: perceived importance of the work role and of particular job characteristics as discussed by the authors, and associations with workers' sex, age, employment status, and education level were significant.
Abstract: Employment-related values were recorded at two levels of scope: perceived importance of the work-role and of particular job characteristics. Associations with workers' sex, age, employment status, and education level were significant. Work values also differed among countries with a different cultural heritage - historically catholic, historically communist, or historically protestant. Implications for research into job content and reactions and for evaluative judgments in the operation of traits, motives, and attitudes were considered.

167 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the motivational resource of future work self salience and the additive effect of career adaptability dimensions in the prediction of career planning, proactive skill development, and proactive career networking in a sample of university students.

163 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of private finance on publicly funded health care systems depends on how the relationship between public and private finance is structured, and the experience in five nations that exemplify different ways of drawing the public/private boundary to address the particular questions raised by each model.
Abstract: The impact of private finance on publicly funded health care systems depends on how the relationship between public and private finance is structured. This essay first reviews the experience in five nations that exemplify different ways of drawing the public/private boundary to address the particular questions raised by each model. This review is then used to interpret aggregate empirical analyses of the dynamic effects between public and private finance in OECD nations over time. Our findings suggest that while increases in the private share of health spending substitute in part for public finance (and vice versa), this is the result of a complex mix of factors having as much to do with cross-sectoral shifts as with deliberate policy decisions within sectors and that these effects are mediated by the different dynamics of distinctive national models. On balance, we argue that a resort to private finance is more likely to harm than to help publicly financed systems, although the effects will vary depending on the form of private finance.

157 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors provided an integrative review of three empirically supported protean processes (identity awareness, adaptability, and agency) and discussed the role of protean careers in the contemporary work environment, clarify definitional and measurement issues, recommend research directions, and provide practical implications for organizations.
Abstract: How do self-direction and personal values influence career outcomes? Such questions have been central in research on the protean career—a career process characterized by the exercise of self-direction and an intrinsic values orientation in the pursuit of psychological success. This article provides an integrative review, with a focus on three empirically supported protean processes—identity awareness, adaptability, and agency. In addition, we discuss the role of protean careers in the contemporary work environment, clarify definitional and measurement issues, recommend research directions, and provide practical implications for organizations. Our underlying assumption throughout this discussion is that the elements of a protean career orientation (PCO) are basic elements of human needs for growth and meaning. In addition, we discuss how protean careers can be beneficial for organizations. In particular, we identify the “Protean Paradox” as a phenomenon that merits further investigation. More specifically,...

135 citations

Trending Questions (1)
How does the correlation between identities and career paths vary across different cultural and societal contexts?

Career goals and behaviors vary across societies due to societal context's influence on career-related human potential, impacting the importance of financial achievements and proactive career behavior.