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This paper aims to investigate the joint influence of employees' career motivation and their self-construal on their engagement in three informal workplace learning activities: keeping up-to-date, asking for feedback from supervisors and knowledge sharing.

Data were collected through an online questionnaire from 323 employees from four Dutch Vocational Education and Training (VET) schools. Regression analyses were used to test the hypothesis.

Career motivation is positively related to all three informal learning activities. Employees' individual self-construal strengthens the relationship between career motivation and engagement in the learning activity of keeping up-to-date, while employees' collective self-construal strengthens the relationship between career motivation and engagement in the learning activity of knowledge sharing. Contrary to expectations, employees' relational self-construal does not strengthen the relationship between career motivation and engagement in the learning activity of feedback asking from supervisors.

The use of cross-sectional data collection made this study vulnerable to common method bias. Future studies should consider using a longitudinal research approach to overcome this limitation.

The findings suggest that both the motivational issue of “what do you want” and the self-identity issue of “who you are” are important for employee informal workplace learning. For human resource (HR) professionals this suggests that they should stimulate employees' career motivation, while for employees this suggests that they should engage in informal learning activities in keeping with their own style.

This is one of the first studies to provide empirical support for the joint influence of career motivation and self-construal on employees' informal workplace learning.

Following an incursion into the business world as an entrepreneur, many people go back to being salaried workers or unemployed. Using self-determination theory (SDT), this study aims to test the effects of self-determined motivation of Ivorian agricultural entrepreneurs on career retention, career satisfaction and subjective well-being.

The sample under study consisted of 171 agricultural entrepreneurs in the Ivory Coast who owned their businesses. Research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.

The findings reveal that the degree of self-determination in the motivation of Ivorian agricultural entrepreneurs does not have a direct effect on their intention as to whether or not to remain an entrepreneur. The findings nevertheless show that the more the degree of motivation of Ivorian agricultural entrepreneurs is self-determined, the greater satisfaction they experience with their entrepreneurial career and the higher their subjective well-being. The findings also show that satisfaction with the entrepreneurial career is a predictor of career retention among Ivorian agricultural entrepreneurs. In addition, career retention and subjective well-being are reciprocally linked, as are subjective well-being and career satisfaction.

Career retention of agricultural entrepreneurs in the Ivory Coast can be achieved through career satisfaction and self-determined motivation.

Based on previous studies on SDT in an organizational context, this study is, to the best of the knowledge, the first to have tested a theoretical model that can explain career retention, career satisfaction and subjective well-being among entrepreneurs. This research brings to light these processes among agricultural entrepreneurs in Ivory Coast.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrative process model that explains the mechanisms through which intrinsic motivation can influence career self‐management and subsequent subjective and objective career success.

Research on career self‐management can benefit by incorporating an intrinsic motivation perspective. The paper proposes a model that depicts how four components of intrinsic motivation – meaningfulness, competence, choice, and progress – can contribute to career self‐management.

Because the manuscript is conceptual and theoretical in nature, there are no empirical findings to discuss. The paper does, however, advance six testable research propositions linking components of intrinsic motivation to career self‐management and career success.

The model is most applicable for individuals who have some level of control over their own career choices and mobility. Also, we focus on intrinsic, rather than extrinsic, motivation, and we consider psychological and sense‐making aspects of motivation rather than structural and task‐based aspects. Propositions are advanced to be tested in future research; future research can use the model as a platform from which to study the connection between intrinsic motivation and career self‐management.

The paper describes how the model can be applied to help individuals navigate the realities and challenges of their careers.

Prior research has not specified the exact mechanisms through which intrinsic motivation may guide career self‐management. This paper provides an integrated process model addressing this need with relevance to researchers, career management professionals, and individuals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the career motivations of future counseling professionals.

Students completing their Masters of Counseling (n=174) responded to a 30 min survey about their career motivations, counseling career choice satisfaction, planned persistence in the counseling profession and perceptions of the demand and reward structure offered by counseling work. Motivational profiles were educed using hierarchical cluster analysis and compared via MANOVA.

Four distinct profiles were identified: “moderately engaged with family values,” “lower engaged,” “altruistic with family values” and “multiply motivated.” Clusters differed in their perceptions of the demand and reward structure offered by a counseling career, and their level of satisfaction with, and planned persistence in the profession. Cluster composition was unrelated to age, gender or pursuit of previous careers.

Implications for educators pertain to capitalizing on career motivations for different types of entrants, to tailor recruitment and professional preparation.

The authors add to existing literature by drawing on the theoretical lens of expectancy-value theory in a person-centered approach, to the study of counselor motivations, professional perceptions and career choice satisfaction.

This paper outlines a programme of concept development, research and application on the career motivation of young managers. An assessment centre was used to evaluate dimensions of career motivation. The results were corroborated by other research data and suggested the need for considering situational conditions affecting career motivation. This led to a set of guidelines for early career development and a consideration of company policies and supervisory strategies for applying them. The impact of the results on the companies involved is described. Finally, the paper addresses the value of this research approach for generating useful knowledge.

Educational psychologists have, over the last half century or so, directed their attention to the study of student motivation. While teachers have not entirely been ignored, there has been little inquiry into teacher motivation that has been systematic and theory-driven. The concentration on students has tended to overlook the centrality of teacher motivations as integral to teachers’ goals, beliefs, perceptions, aspirations, and behaviours, and thereby to student motivations and learning. It is perhaps not surprising that those motivation researchers who have developed robust theories in relation to student learning in educational contexts would begin to turn their attention to teachers, to see whether those same theories might have explanatory power with regard to teacher motivations. Teacher self-efficacy research (e.g., Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2007; Woolfolk Hoy & Burke-Spero, 2005) has made important contributions to the study of teachers. Motivation researchers are now beginning to turn their attention to other aspects of the complex of motivational factors which demand greater attention and exploration. Robust theoretical frameworks already exist in the motivation literature, which can be applied to guide future research in this area. There has recently been a surge of interest, or what we have elsewhere described as a “Zeitgeist” (Watt & Richardson, 2008a) in applying well-developed theories in motivation research, to the domain of teaching.

This paper aims to explore the Spanish Self-Initiated Expats’ (SIEs) motivations and factors involved in the choice of the host destination.

Through an exploratory and qualitative study, drawing upon SIE literature on motivations and careers, 22 Spanish SIEs were interviewed in a semi-structured way.

Most SIEs clearly detailed the line of reasoning behind the host destination choice (specific destination); a second group considered a limited number of potential countries to relocate to (alternative destinations), and the smallest one did not choose a specific location. Career motivations were the most mentioned ones and different degrees of career planning were found: those with a very defined career planning process relied upon one potential destination, while those with a less defined one considered several alternative host destinations. The European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students experience was one of the most mentioned factors influencing the choice of the host destination, which may be common to other European Union (EU) nationals. As to the limiting ones, the visa requirements outside the EU were identified. Other factors were particular to Spain, such as the perceived need for English proficiency for a successful global career and the degrees of career planning.

These findings may assist Talent Management Managers to align organizational strategies with SIEs motivations. They may also help future Spanish and European SIEs in their individual career management process.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the expatriation motivations and factors influencing the destination location of Spanish SIEs, adding to the SIE and global career literature.

In the last twenty years, the women’s movement has resulted in a greater representation of women in once male-dominated venues, such as the job force and higher education. Women currently represent nearly 43% of those in the United States labor market, and it is expected that four in every five women ages 25–54 will be employed by the year 2000 (Hoyt, 1988; U.S. Department of Labor, 1995). Despite women’s increasing participation in the world of work, they continue to choose occupations that represent the stereotypically feminine range of occupations, meaning less pay and less status (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987). For example, women are still underrepresented in engineering, architecture, and the physical sciences (Eccles, 1994; U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau, 1995). These gender-based occupational patterns are also evidenced in college enrollment; women continue to comprise the majority in academic majors that are considered traditionally feminine, such as early childhood, elementary, and secondary education, library science, nursing, and home economics, whereas men are the predominant majors in physics, chemistry, architecture, and engineering (Bartholomew & Schnorr, 1994; National Science Foundation, 1990).

Career motivation is usually examined among young or mid‐career workers. The older worker is left alone. Unfortunately, in an environment in which the older person represents the fastest growing segment of the labour force, this critical resource is being frittered away. Examination of current practices suggests a large portion of older workers are persuaded by their employers′ actions that their careers are at an end. Alternatives to extend and increase this group′s career motivation are discussed.