During this invited talk at Tilburg University in November 2015, I discussed my work on (re)integrating work and careers.

1. BE SMART ABOUT IT
(RE)INTEGRATING WORK AND CAREERS
Jos Akkermans – Seminar Tilburg University 19-11-2015

2. Jos Akkermans
Assistant Professor of HRM and OB @ VU Amsterdam
Board Member NFMD; Director ACCR
MAIN RESEARCH EXPERTISE & INTEREST
 (Re)Integration of research on work and careers. Topics include career
competencies, job crafting, employability, and “smart jobs”.
 Interaction between Individual Career Management (ICM) and
Organizational Career Management (OCM). How do they enhance and/or
diminish each other? Career management paradox?
 School-to-Work Transition. Building theory on the transition of graduates to the
labor market in the “new career” landscape.

5. TODAY’S MAIN TAKE-HOME MESSAGES
 LOOKING BACK
 Hall & Las Heras (2010): (re)integrate work and careers
 Akkermans et al. (2013; 2015): career competencies as accelerants of
employability ánd work engagement
 HERE AND NOW
 Career competencies and job crafting as basis for enhanced employability
and W-H Balance
 Career competencies and job crafting as basis for job satisfaction and
work engagement
 Career crafting: a new concept
 LOOKING FORWARD (i.e., discussion time)
 Careers as shared responsibility between I and O

6. PART 1 –
LOOKING BACK

7. Hall & Las Heras (2010)
(Re)Integrate
Work & Careers

8. (RE)INTEGRATING WORK & CAREERS
 Who has followed this call until now?
 Surprisingly few researchers!
 Some studies on perceived employability and work engagement
 Our answer
 Career competencies as personal resources
 Increasing integrating between work and career implies that developing
yourself in one domain may spill over to the other one
SO WHAT ARE CAREER COMPETENCIES ANYWAY?

9. Career
Competencies
Reflective
Competencies
Communicative
Competencies
Behavioral
Competencies
Reflection on Motivation
Reflection on Qualities
Networking
Self-Profiling
Work Exploration
Career Control
CAREER COMPETENCIES
Akkermans et al. (2013; 2015)

10. (RE)INTEGRATING WORK & CAREERS
 Akkermans et al. (2013 in JCD)
 Validation of CCQ
 CC associated with perceived employability, self-efficacy, performance
 Akkermans et al. (2013 in JVB)
 Career competencies may act similar to personal resources in JD-R model
 Interplay between CC and job resources to enhance work engagement
 Akkermans et al. (2015 in HRM)
 Intervention focused on enhancing career competencies worked well…
 … and increased CC resulted in enhanced employability perceptions +
work engagement

11. PART 2 –
HERE AND NOW

12. STUDY 1
Career
Competencies T1
Job
Crafting T1
Internal Perceived
Employability T2
External Perceived
Employability T2
Work-Home
Interference T2
Work-Home
Enrichment T2

13. STUDY 1: THEORY
 GAP & “AHA”
 Understand how CC is linked to outcomes in several domains
 Integration between work, career, and life domain in 1 study

14. Job crafting
Increasing
Structural & Social
Resources
Increasing
Challenges
Reducing
Hindrances
Autonomy
Support
Projects
Additional tasks
Cognitive demands
Emotional demands
JOB CRAFTING
Bron: Tims et al. (2012; 2013; 2014)

15. Perceived
Employability
Internal
External
PE & W-H INTERACTION
Work-Home
Interaction
Interference
Enrichment

16. STUDY 1: THEORY
 GAP & “AHA”
 Understand how CC is linked to outcomes in several domains
 Integration between work, career, and life domain in 1 study
 Career Construction Theory (Savickas, 2005)
 Competencies  Behavior  Development
 Crystallization  Specialization  Actualization
 Spillover Models (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006)
 So far: spillover between work and home
 We argue: spillover between work, career, and home

17. STUDY 1: METHOD
 2-WAVE DATASET
 Total matched N=183
 Approximately 1 month in-between measurement moments
 DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS
 59.4% female; 35.47 hours per week
 Young employees
 STRATEGY OF ANALYSIS
 Latent variable SEM with AMOS 21

18. STUDY 1: RESULTS
 BASIC FINDINGS
 Reducing hindering demands did not fit latent JC factor
 Correlations all in the expected directions
 CC  JC  EPE & IPE
 Job crafting does mediate between CC and EPE
 Job crafting does not mediate between CC and IPE
 CC  JC  WHI & WHE
 Job crafting does mediate between CC & WHI
 Job crafting does mediate between CC & WHE

19. STUDY 1: RESULTS

20. STUDY 1: DISCUSSION
 INTEGRATION OF RESEARCH ON WORK AND CAREERS
 Heed the call of Hall and Las Heras (2010)
 First study to show a positive link between CC and JC
 EXTENSION OF CAREER CONSTRUCTION THEORY
 Not only applicable to career adaptability
 Theory applicable for integration between work and careers
 EXTENSION OF SPILLOVER MODELS
 Spillover not only between work and home domains
 Three-way spillover: work, career, ánd home

21. STUDY 2
Core Self-
Evaluations
Job
Crafting
Job Satisfaction
Work Engagement
Job
Resources
Career
Competencies

22. STUDY 2: THEORY
 GAP & “AHA”
 Understand how CSE can influence positive work-related outcomes
 Three proposed paths: perception, action, development
 Addition of more active outcome: work engagement

23. STUDY 2: THEORY
Core Self-
Evaluations
Job
Crafting
Job Satisfaction
Work Engagement
Job
Resources
Career
Competencies
 Self Esteem
 Self-efficacy
 Locus of Control
 Emotional Stability

24. STUDY 2: THEORY
 GAP & “AHA”
 Understand how CSE can influence positive work-related outcomes
 Three proposed paths: perception, action, development
 Addition of more active outcome: work engagement
 CSE (Judge et al., 1997)
 Extant literature shows direct and indirect effects of CSE on outcomes
 Evidence for perception path; action path not tested; development path new
 JOB DEMANDS-RESOURCES MODEL (Demerouti et al., 2001)
 Perceptions of job characteristics are related to outcomes
 Actually changing job characteristics is related to outcomes
 Development as a personal resources related to outcomes

25. STUDY 1: METHOD
 2 STUDIES
 German sample (N=303)
 Dutch sample (N=404)
 DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS
 GER: 26.6% female; 34.7 hours per week
 NL: 40.4% female; 33.6 hours per week
 Young employees (Mage=24/26)
 STRATEGY OF ANALYSIS
 Latent variable SEM with AMOS 21

26. STUDY 2: PERCEPTION PATH
 CSE related positively to autonomy and support (both
samples), however, only support related significantly to work
engagement (sample 2)
Social support
Core self-
evaluations
Work
engagement
Job satisfaction
Autonomy
.23**/.31**
.23**/.36**
.11†/.02
.09†/.03
.28**/.28**
.09†/.22**

27. STUDY 2: ACTION PATH
 CSE related positively to job crafting (both samples), job
crafting related significantly to work engagement (both
samples)
Job crafting
Core self-
evaluations
Work engagement
Job satisfaction
.40**/.45**
.11/.17*
.38**/.25**

28. STUDY 2: DEVELOPMENT PATH
 CSE related positively to career competencies (both samples),
career competencies related to work engagement (both
samples)
Career
competencies
Core self-
evaluations
Work engagement
Job satisfaction
.71**/.69**
.23†/-.08
.44**/.19*

29. STUDY 1: DISCUSSION
 CONFIRMATION OF THREE PROPOSED PATHS
 Support for all three paths, including the previously untested ones
 Surprising: work engagement not an outcome of perception path
 NEW PATHS  ACTIVE OUTCOME
 Both job crafting and career competencies related to WE
 Both not (or barely) related to job satisfaction
 FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT PROCESSES
 Perception path = passive = satisfaction
 Action & Development = (pro)active = engagement

30. STUDY 3: CAREER CRAFTING

31. CAREER CRAFTING
 DEFINITION OF CAREER CRAFTING
 “Proactive behavior that individuals perform to self-manage their
career, which is aimed at attaining optimal career-related
outcomes”
 ADDED VALUE OF CAREER CRAFTING
 It is more active and specific than career competencies
 It is related to long-term career development, that is increasing
person-career fit, rather than person-job fit (i.e., job crafting)

32. STUDY 3: CAREER CRAFTING
CAREER
CRAFTING
Reflective
Crafting
Communicative
Crafting
Proactive
Crafting

34. STUDY 3: PRELIM FINDINGS
 RELIABILITY
 All between .86 - .88 for the three scales in sample 1 (N=361) and
sample 2 (N=491)
 EFA
 Clearly two different factors for career crafting versus competencies
 Clearly two different factors for career crafting versus job crafting
 REGRESSIONS
 Career crafting as predictor of external and internal PE
 Career crafting as predictor of subjective career success

35. REWIND: SO WHAT?!
 WORK AND CAREER ARE INHERENTLY INTEGRATED
 And this trend will continue even more
 CAREER COMPETENCIES AND JOB CRAFTING AS EXAMPLE
 They relate to personality traits (e.g., CSE, proactivity)
 They relate to outcomes in several domains (i.e., work, career, life)
 They relate to each other
 CAREER CRAFTING AS A WAY TO GO FORWARD
 Proactive behaviors aimed at long-term development
 Building block for “SMART jobs” (job design of the future now)

36. PART3–
LOOKINGFORWARD

37. DISCUSSION TIME 
 (RE)INTEGRATING WORK AND CAREERS
 Any ideas how to further shape this research agenda?
 Which opportunities for integration between these domains
would be worthwhile to pursue?
 … or doesn’t it make sense at all to you?
 CAREERS AS SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
 We seem to have forgotten the organization in the debate on
career development. But careers happen in context.
 How does the perpetual need for proactivity match with what
goes on in terms of HR policies and appraisal systems?
 And what about the “career management paradox”?

38. j.akkermans@vu.nl

39. SMART JOBS

40. SMART JOBS
Hackman & Oldham (2010): “the very thing job
design researchers study is being transformed”
 NEW WAYS TO DESIGN ORGANIZATIONS
 Network organizations, cross-functional teams, etc.
 NEW WAYS TO ORGANIZE WORK
 I-deals, more flexible job descriptions, crafting, etc.

41. SMART JOBS
Hackman & Oldham (2010): “the very thing job
design researchers study is being transformed”
 ORGANIZE WORK SO THAT EMPLOYEES PERFORM ÁND LEARN
 Passend in de huidige arbeidsmarkt en organisatie
 DEVELOP “TRANSFERABLE COMPETENCIES”
 Thereby creating both internal ánd external employability
 And maintaining this over time: sustainable employability

42. INSTRUMENTS STUDY 1
 Career competencies: 21 items (Akkermans et al., 2013)
“I can clearly see what my passions are in my work”
 Job crafting: 21 items (Tims et al., 2012)
“I make sure that I use my capacities to the fullest”
 Perceived employability: 8 items (Akkermans et al., 2013; De Cuyper et al., 2012)
“In my current job, I am available for performing different types
of tasks”
“I would find another job rather quickly if I would search for it”
 Work-Home Interaction: 8 items (Geurts et al., 2005)
“How often does it happen that your work schedule makes it
difficult for you to fulfil your domestic obligations?”
“How often does it happen that you manage your time at home
more efficiently as a result of the way you do your job?”

43. INSTRUMENTS STUDY 2
 CSE: 12 items (Judge et al., 2002)
 “I am confident I get the success I deserve in life”
 Autonomy: 3 items (Bakker et al., 2003)
 “Can you decide on your own how your work is executed?”
 Support: 3 items (Bakker et al., 2003)
 “If necessary, my supervisor helps me with a certain task”
 Job crafting: 21 items (Tims et al., 2012)
 “I make sure that I use my capacities to the fullest”
 Career competencies: 21 items (Akkermans et al., 2013)
 “I can clearly see what my passions are in my work”
 Job satisfaction: 3 items (Cook et al., 1981)
 “I am satisfied with my current work”
 Work engagement: 9 items (Schaufeli et al., 2006)
 “I am enthusiastic about my job”