TY - JOUR

T1 - Proactive motivation and engagement in career behaviors

T2 - Investigating direct, mediated, and moderated effects

AU - Hirschi, A.

AU - Lee, Bora

AU - Porfeli, Erik J.

AU - Vondracek, F.W.

PY - 2013/8

Y1 - 2013/8

N2 - 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 beliefs), "reason to" (autonomous career goals), and "energized to" (positive affect) significantly predicted career behaviors. Contrary to expectation, negative context beliefs had a positive effect when combined with other motivational states. Study 2 replicated and extended those results by investigating whether "can do" motivation mediates the effect of proactive personality and whether those effects are conditional upon the degree of career choice decidedness. We tested a moderated multiple mediation model with a unique sample of 134 German students, assessed three times, each interval being 6. weeks apart. The results showed that effects of proactivity were partially carried through higher self-efficacy beliefs but not context beliefs. Supporting a moderation model, indirect effects through self-efficacy beliefs were not present for students with very low decidedness.

AB - 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 beliefs), "reason to" (autonomous career goals), and "energized to" (positive affect) significantly predicted career behaviors. Contrary to expectation, negative context beliefs had a positive effect when combined with other motivational states. Study 2 replicated and extended those results by investigating whether "can do" motivation mediates the effect of proactive personality and whether those effects are conditional upon the degree of career choice decidedness. We tested a moderated multiple mediation model with a unique sample of 134 German students, assessed three times, each interval being 6. weeks apart. The results showed that effects of proactivity were partially carried through higher self-efficacy beliefs but not context beliefs. Supporting a moderation model, indirect effects through self-efficacy beliefs were not present for students with very low decidedness.

KW - Business psychology

KW - Career counseling

KW - Career engagement

KW - Career management

KW - Motivation

KW - Proactivity

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84877154360&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jvb.2013.02.003

DO - 10.1016/j.jvb.2013.02.003

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84877154360

VL - 83

SP - 31

EP - 40

JO - Journal of Vocational Behavior

JF - Journal of Vocational Behavior

SN - 0001-8791

IS - 1

ER -