Reciprocal Effects of Career Adaptability and Occupational Self-Efficacy: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study With Varying Time Lags

Researchers widely agree upon the pivotal role of career self-management in vocational development. Yet, little is known about how core self-management constructs denoting agentic capacity affect each other reciprocally over time. We address the shortage of existing longitudinal change investigations by proposing and testing a reciprocal model in which career adaptability and occupational self-efficacy as core career self-management constructs are reciprocally interrelated. Cross-lagged panel analyses of three-wave data from a large and heterogeneous sample of employees indicate support for the presence of substantial reciprocal effects of career adaptability and occupational self-efficacy across time lags of three, six, and nine months. From a series of exploratory multigroup analyses, this pattern of results emerges as robust across a range of sociodemographic variables, including gender, age, education, leadership position, and organizational tenure. Moreover, the results remained stable after considering further controls (e.g., future temporal focus, grade point average). Our findings broaden the scope of dynamic vocational research by demonstrating the utility of a change-oriented approach in elucidating the emergence of individuals' career self-management. We discuss practical implications concerning career intervention strategies, study limitations, and prospects for future research.

Automated summary

Researchers have found the significant role of career self-management in vocational development, but little is known about the reciprocal relationship between core self-management constructs. This study proposes and tests a reciprocal model, finding substantial reciprocal effects between career adaptability and occupational self-efficacy over time. The results are robust across various sociodemographic variables and remain stable after considering further controls.