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Searching for a job is an important process that influences short- and long-term career outcomes as well as well-being and psychological health. As such, job search research has grown tremendously over the last two decades. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of prior research, discuss important trends in current research, and suggest areas for future research. The authors conceptualize the job search as an unfolding process (i.e., a process through which job seekers navigate through stages to achieve their goal of finding and accepting a job) in which job seekers engage in self-regulation behaviors. The authors contrast research that has taken a between-person, static approach with research that has taken a within-person, dynamic approach and highlight the importance of combining between- and within-person designs in order to have a more holistic understanding of the job search process. Finally, authors provide some recommendations for future research. Much remains to be learned about what influences job search self-regulation, and how job self-regulation influences job search and employment outcomes depending on individual, contextual, and environmental factors.

Action–state orientation (ASO) describes the ability to plan, initiate, and complete intended activities. Action-oriented individuals, compared to state-oriented, are better able to focus their efforts and therefore move toward goals. While Kuhl (1994) posits that affect mediates the relationship between personality traits like ASO and successful self-regulation, ASO scholarship rarely examines the role of affect, and no ASO studies have examined self-regulation over time. We address these limitations by examining students’ academic self-regulation over a semester. HLM analyses show that action- versus state-oriented people exhibit better academic self-regulation as expected. However, we found no support for affect as a mediator.

Work environments, which are widely acknowledged to exert strong influences on employee attitudes and behavior, have been studied since the initiation of formal work entities. Over this time, scholars have identified myriad impactful internal and external factors. Absent though are investigations examining economic downturns despite their acknowledged pervasiveness and destructive effects on worker performance and well-being. To address this theoretical gap, a multistage model acknowledging the impact of recessions on workplace responses, response effects, and environmental considerations is proposed. Inherent in this discussion is the role of economic decline on reactive change processes, the nature of work, and the structure and design of organizations. These significant changes affect employee attitudes and behaviors in ways that increase the political nature of these work environments. Organizational factors and employee responses to heightened recession-driven politics are discussed. Additionally, theoretically relevant intervening variables capable of influencing work outcomes are described. The chapter is concluded by discussing the implications of this theoretical framework as well as directions for future research.

Introduction – The most basic rule of job search is job search behaviour. Job search behaviour is defined as the effort of the individual, time spent on various activities in order to find a job. In the current competitive labour market – the modern employment environment, where many employees who may have a temporary employment status, where the use of outsourcing is common practice, or where there are those who are under-employed, there is great importance in adopting a robust job search behaviour for job seekers. However, employees may have other factors that affect their job search behaviour. In Trusty, Allen, and Fabian (2019), various motivational categories were put forward. These seven different categories range from wanting to avoid undesirable situations in the workplace to finding better job search methods.

Purpose – This article seeks to explain the data related to this research; it will focus on combining positive psychological capital with seven different sources of motivation, as categorised in Trusty et al. (2019).

Methodology – The method that will be used for this article will consist of a semi-structured interviews, which were used as a vehicle to gather qualitative research and for data collection. The interview questions were prepared using the seven different categories of motivation as detailed by Trusty et al. (2019) and related literature to determine the job search behaviour of the employees.

Findings – The findings will also include input from managers of human resources department employees, where job search behaviour was found to be high, indications suggest problems caused within the working environment, includes poor working relationships with colleagues and supervisors. Also the inability to optimise the skills of individuals and limited career progression opportunities are examples that effect job search behaviour and attitudes to work.

Exercises are key components of assessment centers (ACs). However, little is known about the nature and determinants of AC exercise performance. The traditional exercise paradigm primarily emphasizes the need to simulate task, social, and organizational demands in AC exercises. This chapter draws on trait activation theory in proposing a new AC exercise paradigm. First, we develop a theoretical framework that addresses the complexity of situational characteristics of AC exercises as determinants of AC performance. Second, we argue for planting multiple stimuli within exercises as a structured means of eliciting candidate behavior. Third, we show how the new paradigm also has key insights for the rating part of ACs, namely, in selecting dimensions, designing behavioral checklists, screening assessors, and training assessors. Finally, the impact of this new AC exercise paradigm is anticipated on important AC outcomes such as reliability, internal/external construct-related validity, criterion-related validity, assessee perceptions, and feedback effectiveness.

The core principles of total quality management (TQM) are considered to be incompatible with the traditional mechanistic way of organizing. It is believed that this constitutes a major reason for failed TQM programs: attempting to introduce its principles with the traditional mindset. Additionally, initiatives to change behaviour often fail due to the fact that no concurrent attention is given to the coherence and consistency of those macro‐organizational variables determining behaviour. These two primary reasons for TQM failures are the subject of this discussion.

From the perspective of TQM, the importance of a human‐centred approach to organizing is argued. The human‐centred approach to organizing fundamentally offers the possibility of aligning human interests with organizational interests. Rather than depersonalisation of work, with the possible danger of alienation, work offers possibilities for self‐realization and self‐development. This is considered to be the most fundamental contribution of TQM. It is thus argued that TQM in its ideal fundamental concept differs from the traditional mechanistic principles by offering genuine possibilities for employee development and self‐realization.

It is argued that TQM entails a human‐centred approach to organizing which is fundamentally incompatible with traditional mechanistic thinking. Further, the needed focus on employee behaviour requires attention to organizational culture, management practices, and organizational structures and systems, seen as macro variables determining behaviour. Absence of coherence and consistency among these variables when attempting to change behaviour has been argued to be another major source of TQM failures.

Establishing coherence and consistency among the three elements of the behavioural context should thus be a central focus area.

Past research exploring the influence of affect on group outcomes has primarily considered how the experience of single emotions and mood vary and converge across group members, but does not address the fact that a single group member may express multiple, conflicting emotions simultaneously (e.g., emotional ambivalence). Such complex expressions may drastically alter the way other group members perceive and respond to one another, and in turn, drastically alter the group-level dynamics. We address this gap in the literature by modeling the social consequences of expressing emotional ambivalence, thereby expanding our understanding of emotional ambivalence in group contexts. Implications for research on emotional ambivalence and research on emotions in groups are discussed.

Self-employment is considered one of the responses to precarious employment, particularly among those who lost jobs during an economic crisis. Although starting a new business is widely available, operating new ventures remains challenging. This article aims to explore the premises of self-employment success, namely self-employment intention and proactive coping as crucial predictors of further performance.

The authors recruited participants among initially unemployed individuals who participated in the entrepreneurial program aimed at creating self-employment. Since entrepreneurs are expected to have specific personal characteristics important for performance, the authors assessed proactive coping as the key factor for self-employment intention.

The results depicted proactive coping as crucial in performing own ventures in the long run, which suggests that self-employment intention may change over time.

Proactive coping is particularly appropriate for self-employed at any stage of the entrepreneurial process because it maintains the intention to perform own business. Thus, the findings underline the need for proactive coping training for entrepreneurs, particularly those previously unemployed.

As the self-employment intention may differ in time, the importance of being proactive in operating small businesses increases.

The paper seeks to determine whether different aspects of migrant pre‐migration characteristics (human capital and motivation to migrate) and post‐migration behaviour (social integration and career self‐management) predict migrants' post‐migration career success.

The research employed a survey questionnaire applied to a sample of 210 migrants who had migrated from Sri Lanka to New Zealand. Twenty‐three independent and three dependent (career success – objective and subjective) variables were measured. Sequential multiple regression analysis was applied, mirroring the time‐sequenced theory of career development.

Overall, migrants' occupational status had declined markedly following migration. Variables representing human capital, social integration and career self‐management perspectives all contributed substantially to explaining variances in career success, especially objective career success, but motivation to migrate did not. Human capital variables were especially influential in determining pre‐migration success, acculturation in the host country and education in the host country in post‐migration success. Effects of career self‐management behaviours on success were relatively small.

A limitation is the cross‐sectional design, and possible non‐generalisability beyond a single migrant group and host country.

The paper discusses implications for migrants, policy makers and future research.

Migration, and interest in research on migrants' careers, is growing. This paper applies a wide range of predictor variables and a logical causal model to predicting migrant career success, indicates significant effects, and points to positive actions that may be taken by government, organisations and migrants.

Employees facing challenges in their careers – i.e. female, migrant, elderly and lower-educated employees – might expect job searches to have a low likelihood of success and might therefore more often stay in unsatisfactory positions. The goal of this study is to discover inequalities in job mobility for these employees.

We rely on a large sample of Dutch public sector employees (N = 30,709) and study whether employees with challenges in their careers are hampered in translating job dissatisfaction into job searches. Additionally, we assess whether this is due to their perceptions of labor market alternatives.

Findings show that non-Western migrant, elderly and lower-educated employees are less likely to act on job dissatisfaction than their advantaged counterparts, whereas women are more likely than men to do so. Additionally, we find that although they perceive labor market opportunities as limited, this does not affect their propensity to search for different jobs.

This paper is novel in discovering inequalities in job mobility by analyzing whether employees facing challenges in their careers are less likely to act on job dissatisfaction and therefore more likely to remain in unsatisfactory positions.