Abstract
Industry 4.0, which is characterised by digitisation, technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) is upon us. Machines are enabled to make decisions and communicate with humans, which fundamentally changes the way we live, work and relate to one another. Career satisfaction and employability are key constructs that can enhance career wellbeing in the increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world of work. By applying the social cognitive career theory, the person–environment fit theory and the conservation of resources theory as a theoretical lens, the relationship dynamics between career cognitions, career resources and career outcomes were explored as an objective of this study. Advanced statistical analyses such as canonical correlation analyses were utilised to explore a career satisfaction and employability profile for knowledge workers in the South African context. Suggestions for practice and psychological interventions to enhance the career wellbeing of knowledge workers are proposed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abele-Brehm, A. E. (2014). The influence of career success on subjective well-being. In K. Maree (Ed.), Psychological, educational, and sociological perspectives on success and well-being in career development (pp. 7–18). Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8911-0_2.
Bezuidenhout, M. (2011). The development and evaluation of a measure of graduate employability in the context of the new world of work (Unpublished master’s dissertation). University of Pretoria, Pretoria.
Bezuidenhout, M., & Coetzee, M. (2010). Preliminary exploratory factor analysis: Student Employability Scale (Unpublished research report). University of South Africa, Pretoria.
Blankley, W. O., & Booyens, I. (2010). Building a knowledge economy in South Africa. South African Journal of Science, 106(11/12), 1–6.
Botha, J. (2014). The relationship between adult learner self-directedness and employability attributes: An open distance learning perspective (Unpublished master’s dissertation). University of South Africa, Pretoria.
Coetzee, M. (2015). Employees’ psychosocial career preoccupations in relation to their work-related commitment. Southern African Business Review, 19(3), 30–47.
Coetzee, M. (2016). Change-oriented lifelong learning capacities. In E. A. Panitsides & J. Talbot (Eds.), Lifelong learning: Concepts, benefits and challenges (1st ed., pp. 65–78). New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
Coetzee, M. (2017). Working adults’ positive coping and age: Their interaction effects on psycho-social career preoccupations. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 27(6), 530–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2017.1399558.
Coetzee, M., Oosthuizen, R. M., & Stoltz, E. (2016). Psychosocial employability attributes as predictors of staff satisfaction with retention factors. South African Journal of Psychology, 46(2), 232–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246315595971.
Coetzee, M., & Schreuder, D. (2018). Proactive career self-management: Exploring links among psychosocial career attributes and adaptability resources. South African Journal of Psychology, 48(2), 206–218. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246317719646.
De Beer, C. S. (2015). Information sciences as an interscience: Rethinking science, method and practice. Waltham, MA: Chandos.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227–268.
Duffy, R. D., Blustein, D. L., Diemer, M. A., & Autin, K. L. (2016). The psychology of working theory. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63, 127–148. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000140.
Du Toit, A. S. A. (2014). Role of knowledge workers in the knowledge economy: Some empirical evidence from South Africa. Innovation: Journal of Appropriate Librarianship and Information Work in Southern Africa, 4(49), 90–103.
Engelbrecht, L. (2019). Constructing a career satisfaction and employability profile for knowledge workers (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of South Africa, Pretoria.
Ford, M. (2015). Rise of the robots: Technology and the threat of a jobless future. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Fugate, M., Kinicki, A. J., & Ashforth, B. E. (2004). Employability: A psycho-social construct, its dimensions, and applications. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 65, 14–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.10.005.
Gedro, J. (2017). Identity, meaning, and subjectivity in career development. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Greenhaus, J. H., Parasuraman, S., & Wormley, W. M. (1990). Effects of race on organizational experiences, job performance evaluations, and career outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 64–86. https://doi.org/10.2307/256352.
Hagmaier, T., Abele, A. E., & Goebel, K. (2018). How do career satisfaction and life satisfaction associate? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 33(2), 142–160. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-09-2017-0326.
Hartung, P. J., & Cadaret, M. C. (2017). Career adaptability: Changing self and situation for satisfaction and success. In K. Maree (Ed.), Psychology of career adaptability, employability and resilience (pp. 15–28). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66954-0_2.
Hirschi, A. (2018). The fourth industrial revolution: Issues and implications for career research and practice. The Career Development Quarterly, 66(3), 192–204. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12142.
Hobfoll, S. E. (1998). Stress, culture, and community: The psychology and philosophy of stress. New York, NY: Plenum.
Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Holmgreen, L., Tirone, V., Gerhart, J., & Hobfoll, S. E. (2017). Conservation of resources theory. In C. L. Cooper & J. C. Quick (Eds.), The handbook of stress and health: A guide to research and practice (pp. 443–457). West Sussex, UK: Wiley.
Koekemoer, E. (2014). An explorative study on factors influencing the career success of management employees. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 40(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i2.1204.
Lent, R. W., & Brown, S. D. (2006). Integrating person and situation perspectives on work satisfaction: A social-cognitive view. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69(2), 236–247.
Lent, R. W., & Brown, S. D. (2008). Social cognitive career theory and subjective well-being in the context of work. Journal of Career Assessment, 16, 6–21.
Lent, R. W., & Brown, S. D. (2013). Social cognitive model of career self-management: Toward a unifying view of adaptive career behavior across the life span. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60, 557–568.
Maggiori, C., Johnston, C. S., Krings, F., Massoudi, K., & Rossier, J. (2013). The role of career adaptability and work conditions on general and professional well-being. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(3), 437–449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.07.001.
Maree, K. (2017). Utilizing career adaptability and career resilience to promote employability and decent work and alleviate poverty. In K. Maree (Ed.), Psychology of career adaptability, employability and resilience (pp. 349–373). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66954-0_21.
Mihail, D. M. (2008). Proactivity and work experience as predictors of career-enhancing strategies. Human Resource Development International, 11(5), 523–537. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678860802417668.
Pool, L., & Sewell, P. (2007). The key to employability: Developing a practical model of graduate employability. Education and Training, 49(4), 227–289. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910710754435.
Rossier, J., Ginevra, M. C., Bollmann, G., & Nota, L. (2017). The importance of career adaptability, career resilience, and employability in designing a successful life. In K. Maree (Ed.), Psychology of career adaptability, employability and resilience (pp. 65–82). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66954-0_5.
Rothwell, A., & Arnold, J. (2007). Self-perceived employability, development and validation of a scale. Personnel Review, 36, 23–41. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480710716704.
Savickas, M. L. (2013). Career construction theory and practice. In R. W. Lent & S. D. Brown (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (2nd ed., pp. 147–183). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Savickas, M. L., & Porfeli, E. J. (2012). Career Adapt-Abilities Scale: Construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80(3), 661–673.
Schreuder, A. M. G., & Coetzee, M. (2016). Careers: An organisational perspective (5th ed.). Lansdowne: Juta.
Schwab, K. (2016). The 4th industrial revolution. New York, NY: Crown Business.
Sherry, A., & Henson, R. K. (2005). Conducting and interpreting canonical correlation analysis in personality research: A user-friendly primer. Journal of Personality Assessment, 84(1), 37–48. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa8401_09.
Sutherland, M., Naidu, G., Seabela, S., Crosson, S., & Nyembe, E. (2015). The components of career capital and how they are acquired by knowledge workers across different industries. South African Journal of Business Management, 46(4), 1–11.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Tchamyou, V. S. (2016). The role of knowledge economy in African business. Journal of the Knowledge Economy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-016-0417-1.
Turriago-Hoyos, A., Thoene, U., & Arjoon, S. (2016, January–March). Knowledge workers and virtues in Peter Drucker’s management theory. Sage Open, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016639631.
Van der Heijde, C. M. (2014). Employability and self-regulation in contemporary careers. In M. Coetzee (Ed.), Psycho-social career meta-capacities: Dynamics of contemporary career development (pp. 7–18). Dordrecht: Springer International. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00645-1_3.
Van Der Heijde, C. M., & Van Der Heijden, B. I. (2006). A competence‐based and multidimensional operationalization and measurement of employability. Human Resource Management: Published in Cooperation with the School of Business Administration, The University of Michigan and in alliance with the Society of Human Resources Management, 45(3), 449–476. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20119.
Van Staden, R. J., & Du Toit, A. S. A. (2012). Factors that influence South African knowledge worker behaviour. Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 36(1/2), 28–51.
Vondracek, F. W., Ford, D. H., & Porfeli, E. J. (2014). A living systems theory of vocational behavior and development. A living systems theory of vocational behavior and development (pp. 55–80). Sense: Rotterdam.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Engelbrecht, L. (2019). Facilitating Career Wellbeing: Exploring a Career Satisfaction and Employability Profile of Knowledge Workers. In: Potgieter, I., Ferreira, N., Coetzee, M. (eds) Theory, Research and Dynamics of Career Wellbeing . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28180-9_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28180-9_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28179-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28180-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)