To prevent the potential threats of career plateauing for mid-career employees, it has been suggested to give them challenging assignments. This approach is inspired by empirical findings demonstrating that challenging job assignments generally have positive effects on job performance and career development. However, these studies have…

Proactive career behaviors become increasingly important in today's career environment, but little is known about how and when motivational patterns affect individual differences. In a six-month longitudinal study among German university students (Study 1; N = 289) it was demonstrated that motivation in terms of "can do" (self-efficacy and context…

Using longitudinal data from a nine-month e-mentoring program, we analyzed the influence of formal e-mentor networks and family-based role models on increases in both psychosocial and career-related outcomes. Findings indicate that e-mentor network relationship quality positively influenced general- and career-based self-efficacy which, in turn,…

We tested a social cognitive model of academic adjustment in a sample of 1377 students enrolled in engineering schools at two predominantly White and two historically Black state universities. The model brought together central elements of social cognitive career theory's (SCCT) segmental models of educational/vocational satisfaction, interest,…

This study presents the validation of a French version of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale in four Francophone countries. The aim was to re-analyze the item selection and then compare this newly developed French-language form with the international form 2.0. Exploratory factor analysis was used as a tool for item selection, and confirmatory factor…

A diverse Chinese sample of 2567 high school and college students was utilized to examine the structural validity of the PGI-S (Tracey, 2010) with respect to the fit to the circumplex structure, the theoretical model underlying the RIASEC types and the eight PGI (Tracey, 2002) interest types. The randomization test of hypothesized order relations…

Despite frequent reference to "work-life" issues in the organizational literature, little theoretical or empirical attention has been paid to nonwork areas beyond family. The purpose of the research described here is to move beyond work-family conflict to a broader conceptualization and measurement of work interference with life. A measure of work…

Although previous research often showed a positive relationship between pay satisfaction and job satisfaction, we dispute the universality of this finding. Cluster-wise regression analyses on three samples consistently show that two types of individuals can be distinguished, each with a different job reward-job satisfaction relationship. For the…

Many college students hold ambitious goals for upward social mobility via post-college careers. However, in the current economic recession such optimistic expectations are not a given. The present study examines how college students' current social status and beliefs in causal factors for socioeconomic status (SES) attainment lead to diverging…

This study examines the content of developmental networks from the perspective of self-determination theory. We qualitatively examine 18 proteges' constellations of developmental relationships to identify specific types of developmental support functions. Our study shows that the adoption of self-determination theory leads to a theory-based…

Unemployment bears many negative consequences for both individuals and societies. Particularly the long-term unemployed face poor chances of finding reemployment, and many recommendations issued in the regular unemployment literature may not apply to them. Therefore, the current study investigates whether employability (Fugate et al., 2004) may…

The "opt-out revolution" has become a much-discussed phenomenon over the last decade. According to media reports, highly educated women are increasingly opting out of careers that would place them on the fast track to top management levels. However, little attention has been devoted to whether the opt-out revolution may also apply to highly…

This study examines relationships between support from work, family and community domains with time- and strain-based work-family conflict in a sample of low-income workers. Results reveal significant within-domain and cross-domain relationships between support from all three life domains with work--family conflict. With respect to family support,…

Are individuals bounding work and family the way they would like? Much of the work-family boundary literature focuses on whether employees are segmenting or integrating work with family, but does not explore the boundaries workers would like to have, nor does it examine the fit between desired and enacted boundaries, or assess boundary stability.…

The current study compares the quantitative and the qualitative viewpoints on work motivation by relying on Self-Determination Theory's differentiation between autonomous and controlled motivation. Specifically, we employed a person-centered approach to identify workers' naturally occurring motivational profiles and compared them in terms of…