Lect 4: Sustainable careers: Towards a conceptual model- Ans de Vos, Beatrice van Der Heijden, Jos Akkermans

Question 1

what are the 3 key dimensions that can help to analyse and study sustainable careers?

Answer 1

Person, time, context

Question 2

what is sustainable career?

Answer 2

it means having different job experiences over time that follows various paths, allowing you to adapt and grow in different areas of life. It’s shaped by your own choices and actions, and it gives personal meaning and satisfaction to you. Its not just about staying in one job, but about building a career that evolves, fits your life and continues to be fulfilling over the long term

Question 3

what is the difference between physical sustainability and social sustainability?

Answer 3

• physical sustainability looks at how a company’s actions impact natural resources (like water, air, and material),
• social sustainability focuses on how those actions affect people’s health and happiness, it looks at how work experiencees and choices can positively impact individuals over time

–> its about understanding how our jobs and career paths can be sustainable for both the environment and people’s wellbeing

Question 4

what is a traditional view of career?

Answer 4

career reflect individuals’ ongoing employment in jobs that support personal development over time
this philosophy has often been implicit, with varying perceptions of what constitutes succesful personal development

Question 5

sustainable career paradigm has starting gaining attention in relation to what?

Answer 5

• HRM policies
• aging and motivation
• learning agility
• employability

Question 6

what is learning agility

Answer 6

refers to an individual’s ability to rapidly learn from experience and apply that learning in new and different situations

Question 7

what is employability?

Answer 7

refers to the set of skills, knowledge, personal attributes, and abilities that make a person more likely to gain and maintain employment, as well as succeed and advance in the workplace. It reflects a person’s readiness and capacity to perform well in a job, adapt to changing work environments, and continue developing professionally.

Question 8

explain the multiple stakeholder perspective in career sustainability

Answer 8

Individual careers are interconnected with and influenced by various stakeholders (family, peers, employers, educational systems, society). (which makes it challenging) therefore:
A multiple-stakeholder approach is essential for understanding individual career sustainability

Question 9

contextual factors in career theory are

Answer 9

Contemporary career theory often overlooks the importance of situational context and stakeholders, focusing heavily on the individual (Inkson et al., 2012).Activeness by a person is likely to depend on and interact with the context, creating more or less space for personal initiative, or (unconsciously) affecting personal initiative e.g. due to family norms, organisational policies, occupational sector, country and cultural factors
The individual’s initiative is influenced by:
- Family norms
- Organisational policies
- Occupational sectors
- Country and cultural factors

Question 10

what is sustainable careers?

Answer 10

it is shaped by internal (personal changes) and external (contextual changes) factors, leading to opportunities, challenges, and dilemmas. It requires balancing these factors over time to ensure long-term succes

Question 11

sustainable careers are characterised by mutual beneficial consequences for the person and for their surounding context and should be considered by taking a long term perspective. What are the 3 key indicators for evaluating sustainable careers?

Answer 11

Health, hapiness and productivity (these benefit both the individual and their broader context (family, organisation, society)

Question 12

explain the key indicator health

Answer 12

Involves both physical and mental well-being, ensuring a dynamic fit between a career and a person’s physical/mental capabilities.
Physical demands, such as in manufacturing or nursing, may have long-term impacts (e.g., back problems). Mental demands, such as stress, may lead to burnout.

Question 13

explain the key indicator happiness

Answer 13

Refers to subjective elements of feeling successful/ career satisfaction and the alignment of one’s values and goals with their work-life balance and personal growth.
Happiness concerns the dynamic fit of the career with one’s values, career goals, or needs regarding work-life balance or personal growth
This changes over time.

Question 14

explain the key factor productivity

Answer 14

Includes high job performance in one’s current job as well as high employability in the future, aligning a person’s skills with organisational needs.
It refers to the dynamic fit of the career with organisational human capital needs and encompasses elements such as engagement and extra-role behaviours which are essential for the long-term performance of organisations.

Question 15

what is a dynamic fit and how does it relate to sustainable careers?

Answer 15

A key component of sustainable careers is maintaining a dynamic person-career fit,which refers to the capacity to adapting and to changes in personal needs and job demands over time.
Th notion of a dynamic person-career fit in terms of health, happiness and productivity is at the core of sustainable careers

Question 16

sustainable career should have a long-term perspective and a systemic perspective, explain both

Answer 16

long term perspective: Sustainable careers should consider both short-term success and long-term well-being. For example, a promotion may lead to short-term career success but could strain other areas of life (e.g., home life).

systemic perspective: The balance between personal and contextual factors (family, job, organization) must be aligned to ensure career sustainability. This includes ongoing adjustments to fit changing needs.

Question 17

what are the key principles of conservation of resources theory?

Answer 17

Primacy of resource loss: Losing resources (like health, skills, or job security) has a more significant negative impact than the positive effect of gaining equivalent resources.
Resource investment: People invest resources to (1) protect against loss, (2) recover from losses, and (3) gain new resources that can enhance career sustainability.

Question 18

what does the self-determination theory state in relation to sustainable careers?

Answer 18

Overview: This theory highlights the importance of fulfilling three core psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—for personal and career growth.
It states that the proactive, growth, and development oriented individual interacts with their surrounding social world, when striving for the fulfillment of three innate psychological needs, i.e. the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Key Concepts:
Autonomy: The ability to make independent career decisions.
Competence: Feeling capable and successful in one’s work.
Relatedness: Having meaningful social connections at work and in life.

Question 19

what are “benefits” of being employed

Answer 19

being employed gives you easier acces to additional resources such as income, social networks, support from stakeholderas at the workplace, which promotes their career sustainability

Question 20

what is the matthew effect?

Answer 20

if people with ample resources are more easily able to gain additional resources and satisfytheir needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness as means of enhancing their career sustainability, this also implies that those who end up in a resource loss cycle will find it increasingly more difficult to satisfy thoese needs, thereby creating a situation in which the weak get weaker and the strong get stronger

Question 21

what is the lifespan theories of selection, optimization and compensation (SOC)

Answer 21

over time individuals use strategies to maximize career gains and minimise losses. SOC theories outlines how people adjust their goals and resources throughout their life
key strategies:
Selection: Focusing on key career goals that are achievable.
Optimization: Using resources efficiently to reach those goals.
Compensation: Adjusting when losses (e.g., health, job opportunities) occur by reallocating resources to maintain career sustainability.

Question 22

individuals strive to achieve three different life-span goals

Answer 22

1. Growth (i.e. reaching higher levels of functioning)
2. Maintenance (i.e. maintaining current levels of functioning or returning to previous levels of functioning)
3. Regulation of loss (i.e. functioning adequately at lower levels

Question 23

socio-emotional selectivity theory (SST) what is it?

Answer 23

As individuals age, they become more focused on emotionally meaningful goals rather than career success or resource accumulation.
Key Concepts:
In early career stages, individuals focus on gaining knowledge, autonomy, and status (instrumental goals).
Later in life, the focus shifts to relationships, emotional fulfillment, and mentoring (emotional goals).
Career Application: Career sustainability depends on the ability to adapt goals as one ages and changes in career priorities occur.

Question 24

explain the three critical dimensions to analyse the sustainability of careers

Answer 24

person= central actor in the definition of sustainable career, important to understand how individuals, through their actions and the interpretations they give to experiences, affect the sustainability of their careers
Careers are affected by multiple context in which they evolve: work contact but also private life context, occupational sector one belongs to, broader labor market context and one’s society and culture
time= important to consider what makes a career sustainable across the life-span, thereby considering both intra-individual changes as well as changes occurring within the different layers of context

Question 25

what are career competencies?

Answer 25

knowledge skills, and abilities that are central to career development and and consists of a reflective, communicative and a behavioral component:
Reflective, communicative, and behavioral competencies help individuals plan and manage career transitions.
Reflecting on skills, networking, and seeking opportunities improves career success.

Question 26

what is career adaptability?

Answer 26

The psychosocial resource for coping with current and anticipated career-related tasks, transitions, and traumas- constitutes a self-regulatory, transactional and malleable resource that enables workers to successfully solve unfamiliar complex and ill-defined problems throughout their careers

Question 27

what is the context dimension?

Answer 27

careers are influenced by multiple layes of context beyond the individual
- work group level
- organisational level
- occupational sector
- national level
- private life context

Question 28

what is the time dimension

Answer 28

career evolves over tme and sustainability is a dynamic process
- changes over time
- different meanings of time
- intra-individual change
- career resilience
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