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Despite the dramatic increase in people's use of social media, relatively few studies have examined its effect on careers. Drawing upon social comparison theory and self-regulation theory, this study aims to investigate how career-oriented social media usage interacts with social comparison orientation (SCO) to influence the career exploration of university students.

Three waves of survey data are collected from 482 university students in China. Hypotheses are tested through ordinary least squares analysis.

Results show that career-oriented social media usage increases career anxiety, which in turn promotes career exploration. Furthermore, SCO strengthens such influence of career-oriented social media usage.

Given the limited attention paid to the effects of social media in career contexts, this study distinguishes career-oriented social media usage and proposes insights into its effect on career exploration. In doing so, this study extends social media literature and provides implications for the transition of university students from school to work in the digital era.

This study aims to examine the relationship between contextual factors and career exploration. Career adaptability mediates the relationship between social support, sense of belonging and career exploration.

This quantitative study involved 291 undergraduates recruited from two universities in China. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results indicated that social support and sense of belonging were positively related to career adaptability. Career adaptability was found to be a mediator between relational predictors and career exploration. Contrary to our hypothesis, the direct path from sense of belonging to career exploration was insignificant.

This study highlights the importance of career adaptability in connecting contextual indicators and career exploration in the Chinese context.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating effect of vocational identity and the moderating effect of work values on the relation between career exploration and fit perception of Chinese new generation employees.

A survey was conducted to measure variables in this study. Based on review of the related studies about work value, career exploration, vocational identity and fit perception, the authors establish a theoretical model and propose hypotheses. Data were obtained from 647 Chinese post‐1980s generation employees.

According to the statistical analysis result, the paper demonstrates that career exploration can affect fit perception through mediator of vocational identity; when people have stronger preference to chase for job comfort and security, the relations between career exploration effort, vocational identity and fit perception becomes stronger; once individual has stronger preference for status and independence, the relations between career exploration effort, vocational identity and fit perception becomes weakened.

The data used in this study only came from the employees, although the authors test homologous deviation through Harman single factor test. If the authors can conduct the survey from both employees and their supervisors, it will be better for them to avoid homology bias. Furthermore, more factors need to be considered in the formation of fit perception of Chinese new generation employees.

The paper explains the internal relations between work value, career exploration, vocational identity and fit perception on the basis on of the characteristics of Chinese new generation employees.

The purpose of this paper is to examine repatriate career exploration as a continuing growth‐oriented process and introduce repatriate hope as its crucial driver.

Through a review of relevant literature, the framework of hope theory is introduced to argue for a more “agentic” view of the repatriate that can act as an independent career agent in the increasingly boundaryless career environment.

The paper extends current knowledge of the repatriation process by describing ways in which repatriate hope drives career exploration toward valued outcomes of career growth and career success. It is also described how this repatriate career success will depend on the repatriate expectations and the social and organizational support received by the repatriate.

The main contribution of this paper is a new view of the repatriation process through the lens of the hope theory that emphasizes positive psychological perspective indicating career growth/success as a valued outcome of repatriate career exploration process. Thus, repatriate is viewed as a proactive individual managing his or her career success and using exploration as a means of coping with and adjusting to a shifting set of challenges presented by the dramatic role change.

Economic stressors such as job insecurity, job loss, unemployment, and underemployment cause severe difficulties for the workers affected, their families, organizations, and societies overall. Consequently, most past research has taken a thoroughly negative perspective on economic stress, addressing its diverse negative consequences and the ways that people try to cope with them. And even when following the advice provided by the scientific literature, people affected by economic stress will usually end up being off worse than they were before the onset of the stressor.

The current chapter pays credit to this perspective yet also tries to counterbalance it with an alternative one. While acknowledging the vast amount of literature outlining the negative consequences of economic stress on peoples’ well-being and careers, some literature also points at opportunities for a more positive perspective. More specifically, we argue that affected people can use a wide repertoire of behaviors for handling their current situation. Of particular promise in this regard is the concept of career adaptability, generally defined as the ability to change to fit into new career-related circumstances. Indeed, studies show that under certain conditions, career adaptability can facilitate people's search for not just any job but for a qualitatively better job, thus breaking through the spiral of losses usually associated with economic stress.

For the purpose of this argument, we link career adaptability to the concept of proactive coping, analyzing how and under which conditions career adaptability may present a contextualized form of proactive coping. We then address known personal and situational antecedents of career adaptability and show how career adaptability may be fostered and trained among different types of job seekers. We end this chapter with a discussion of open questions as well as directions for future research.

The effect of vicarious learning during clinical or medical internships on graduates' adaptive career behaviours has attracted scant attention from healthcare researchers, particularly, in the developing world context. Drawing upon the social cognitive career theory model of career self-management (SCCT-CSM), the current study examines how vicarious learning influences the clinical graduates' adaptive career behaviours (i.e. career exploration and decision-making) via career exploration and decision-making self-efficacy (CEDSE) and career intention.

Data were collected from 293 nursing graduates undertaking clinical internships in 25 hospitals across Nigeria who willingly participated in this study as they were also assured of confidentiality at two-waves. The proposed hypotheses were tested using a path analysis.

The findings showed that vicarious learning during clinical internship had a direct effect on career exploration, decision-making and career decision self-efficacy among graduate trainees. Also, the findings revealed that the effects of vicarious learning on the graduates' career exploration and career decision-making were significantly mediated by career decision self-efficacy and career intentions.

The findings of this study have important practical implications for higher education institutions and industries that send and receive clinical graduates for clinical internships to gain more skills. More emphasis should be on encouraging learners to learn vicariously in addition to other forms of learning experiences available during clinical internships.

The study explains that the graduates' higher engagement in clinical career exploration and decision-making was based on a higher level of vicarious learning during internships. The results suggest that higher education institutions and healthcare service providers can derive greater benefits from more emphasis on promoting vicarious learning during clinical internships.

The purpose of this paper is to use hope theory as a foundation from which to understand the global dual‐career exploration phenomenon. Additionally, the concept of curiosity is explored as a triggering mechanism for dual‐career couples to explore and learn about career options in a global context.

Hope theory is used to provide theoretical support for the proposed conceptual model.

It is concluded that hope and curiosity are important elements for dual‐career couples to leverage in order to reduce stress, maintain marital status, and allow the trailing spouse to resolve the potential dramatic and negative impact on their career path.

Both hope and curiosity have been argued to have developmental aspects, meaning that individuals can nurture and strengthen their level of hopefulness and curiosity. Organizations which aid individuals in developing these abilities will likely increase the probability that their global employees will successfully complete their foreign assignment.

The paper explicitly examines dual‐career exploration as it occurs in a global context. More specifically, it takes the perspective that global dual‐career exploration is a continuous and adaptive process in which individuals who are hopeful and curious will be more successful in exploring and adapting to career options.

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be deployed in workplaces. While there are many positive outcomes of AI integration, understanding the extent of its consequences on employees is limited. Hence, this study examines employee perceptions of AI and the consequent influences on employee job attitudes and career behaviors. Utilizing the career self-management perspective, the authors explore the mechanisms related to employee perceptions of AI and potential career exploration behaviors.

The authors tested several hypotheses using employee survey data (N = 345 call center agents) collected from a firm that recently integrated AI in their operations. The authors collected data on four occasions (one-week intervals between data collection) to determine employee perceptions of AI taking over jobs (Time 1); job insecurity (Time 2); psychological distress (Time 3); and career exploration behavior (Time 4).

The findings reveal that perceptions of AI taking over jobs are significantly associated with higher career exploration behaviors. In addition, the authors found job insecurity and psychological distress as pathways that explain why employees having perceptions of AI taking over their jobs influences their career exploration behaviors.

These findings fill a gap in the literature by revealing how AI integration in the workplace, despite its many positive outcomes for organizations, can have a negative influence on employees. The negative employee perceptions of AI can lead to career exploration behaviors. From the career self-management perspective, the authors offer novel insights that have practical implications for talent management, particularly the need to communicate effectively to employees about AI integration in the workplace to avoid them feeling threatened and leaving their jobs.

This paper aims to examine the “darker side” of what it means to engage in an international academic career. Extending beyond well‐documented themes relating to the difficulties of cross‐cultural adjustment and unfulfilled expectations/opportunities for promotion, this paper seeks to introduce “transience and risk” as two important dimensions of this very specific career choice. The paper draws especially on the contemporary “new” careers literature, including conceptions of career exploration as a framework to understand the research findings.

The paper employs a qualitative methodology, drawing on semi‐structured interviews conducted in situ with 30 expatriate academics in four different countries.

Transience and risk were identified as two important dimensions of the “darker side” of pursuing an international academic career. However, these two dimensions also had further positive aspects, thus signalling the complex and often contradictory nature of this specific career form.

Introduces a more cautionary note to the contemporary literature on international careers and career exploration more generally.

Careers that evolve across international boundaries require support that extends beyond cross‐cultural training.

The paper contends that in as much as an international academic career offers a broad range of opportunities for fulfilment it also presents significant challenges that should be acknowledged.

Within the framework of learning in organizations, the concept of career‐related continuous learning (CRCL) has gained increasing attention from the research community. The purpose of the present study is to explore the combined effect of job‐ and career‐related variables on formal CRCL activities.

The study was based on a longitudinal framework with multiple sources of data. A total sample of n=106 call center agents provided information about job‐ and career‐related variables. Subsequently, their CRCL activities within their first 18 months in one of 11 call centers were assessed from company records.

Regression analysis revealed that job involvement predicted subsequent CRCL. Interestingly, women engaged in more CRCL activities than their male colleagues.

In addition to objective measures of formal CRCL activities, future research should include subjective measures (i.e. survey methodology) of informal CRCL.

Via interventions such as active participation in decisions, and in task and work design, organization might want to foster employees' job involvement to ensure high degrees of subsequent CRCL behaviors.

The paper addresses a phenomenon (i.e. CRCL) that receives increasing attention from both practitioners and researchers; objective, longitudinal data provide evidence for the proposed relationship between job attitudes and CRCL and thus, causal inferences can be drawn.