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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.

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.

Remote work has allowed IT professionals to engage in “side hustles”, which is against the law in the Indian labour market. Professionals in the IT industry are constantly being scrutinized due to the emerging “side hustling” culture, and as a result, they are frequently subjected to rude and uncivil behaviour by others. This study aims to examine the outcome of workplace incivility on the employee’s job search behaviour and their silence. Along with this, it examines the intervening effect of organizational cynicism on the interrelation of workplace incivility with job search behaviour and employee silence. It further investigates the buffering role of workplace friendship in the link between workplace incivility and organizational cynicism.

In this study, a mixed-methods approach was used, which included testing the structural model followed by a qualitative study. In Study 1, the structural model testing of time-lagged primary data from 252 respondents who worked in information technology (IT) or information technology-enabled services was done, whereas Study 2 included a qualitative analysis.

The findings disclose that workplace incivility is positively connected to job search behaviour and employee silence. Organizational cynicism significantly intervenes in the link between workplace incivility and job search behaviour, and between workplace incivility and employee silence, whereas workplace friendship functions as a moderator in the link between workplace incivility and organizational cynicism. The findings indicate that if an employee experiences incivility at work, then workplace friendship plays an active role in encouraging the cynical behaviour of targeted employees towards their organisation.

In the past, investigators have investigated the concept of workplace incivility; however, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, its impact on job search behaviour is studied for the first time ever, whereas its impact on employee silence is studied for the first time in a moonlighting context in Indian industry. In light of the massive layoffs in India's IT industry because of employees' pursuit of side hustles, the results of this study will help firms better comprehend the negative repercussions of workplace incivility. These effects include employees' reluctance to speak up about problems at work and an increase in their frequency of actively seeking other employment.

Research suggests that both internal and external resources are important in determining the level and intensity of job search behaviors among unemployed individuals. Specifically, an external resource, social support, and an internal resource, self‐efficacy, can have positive, facilitative effects on job search efforts. While these relationships are well‐established, the psychological mechanisms that explain the link between these resources and job search behaviors are unclear. This paper aims to explore positive coping and distancing as potential mediators of this linkage in an African‐American sample.

Participants responded to a survey containing the variables of interest at two job fairs in the Southeastern USA (n=223). Of participants, 70 percent were female and the average age was 39. In total, 37 percent of respondents had an undergraduate degree or a more advanced degree, and the average length of unemployment was 9.9 months.

Results suggest that the effects of both social support and self‐efficacy on job searches may be due to their impact on positive coping behaviors, which in turn are significantly related to increased search behaviors. Thus, positive coping had a consistent mediational role in explaining how higher levels of social support and more favorable levels of self‐efficacy enhance the intensity of two forms of job search behaviors. Distancing coping had a less significant and less consistent role as a mediator.

This suggests that interventions meant to enhance self‐efficacy and social support of job seekers may have positive effects on actively applying for jobs and on enlisting the help of others in finding jobs among African‐Americans, as well as on the positive coping skills of the unemployed. Interventions should strive to increase these resources while simultaneously providing realistic expectations regarding the probability of finding a job well‐suited for the job seeker. This argues for the potential effectiveness of individually formulated plans for securing employment.

The paper emphasizes the importance of coping strategies used by unemployed individuals as a factor in job search intensity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of perceived employability in the relationship between core self-evaluations (CSEs) and job search behaviour (preparatory and active job search).

A cross-sectional survey data were obtained among a sample of 254 employed and unemployed graduate students from a university in Southeast Nigeria.

Results of the hierarchical multiple regression show that CSEs was significantly and positively associated with only preparatory job search behaviour but not active job search behaviour. CSEs was positively associated with perceived employability. Perceived employability was positively associated with the preparatory job search but not active job search. Perceived employability also mediated the relationship between CSEs and preparatory job search but failed to mediate the relationship between CSEs and active job search.

The study makes important contribution to the literature on job search by augmenting our understanding on the mechanism that govern core self-evaluation and job search behaviour relationship.

Human resources practitioners can use the insights of the present study in understanding aspects of jobseekers’ personality and perception that may be relevant in job search behaviour. The study has also implications for career development practice especially in the areas of counselling of job seekers in environments where there is high level of unemployment.

There has been rarely any previous attempt at investigating the possibility that the relationship between CSEs and job search behaviour is mediated by perceived employability.

This study aims to examine the relationship between job search self‐efficacy, employment goals, job search planning, job search behaviors and effort allocated to job search.

The authors expected that employment goals would mediate the effect of job search self‐efficacy on job search planning, job search behaviors and effort allocated to job search. In total, 100 participants completed measures of these concepts. The results are discussed with reference to previous studies and to methodological choices.

Regression analyses did not confirm the hypotheses. Contrary to expectations, employment goals did not mediate the path between self‐efficacy, job search planning, job search behaviors and effort allocated to job search. Instead, self‐efficacy directly influenced job search planning and job search behaviors.

Few studies have investigated the effect of self‐efficacy on goals in job search domain. This paper fills some of the gaps.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role played by core self-evaluations (CSEs) in relationship to both job seekers’ job search behaviour and health complaints by examining the mediating role of job search self-efficacy (JSSE).

The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 216 Romanian unemployed persons. The hypothetical and alternative models (partial and full mediation) were tested using structural equation modeling.

The results supported a total mediation between CSE and job search behaviour and a partial one in relationship with health complaints, via JSSE. As a post hoc decision, a brief meta-analysis was conducted for the relationship between CSE and job search behaviour which revealed a very small effect (r=0.07, p=0.001). This result complemented and certified the findings on the lack of a total and also a direct effect between CSE and job search behaviour.

JSSE seems to be an important motivational factor. Fuelled by CSE, JSSE enables proper job search behaviour and also promotes job seekers’ health. From a practical point of view, the data suggest that developing interventions to strengthen unemployed individuals’ personal resources such as CSE and, especially JSSE, could not only foster their employment but could also protect their health.

Job search behavior is an important factor of an individual's career. In this study, proactive individuals' search for career opportunities during the transition from unemployment to employment is investigated. This investigation concentrates on the “in-between jobs” phase to better understand career transition. Proactive coping is a particularly important aspect of the transition from unemployment to work.

Using the career self-management model and proactive coping theory, this paper establishes a conceptual model and adopts path analysis to examine the model with a sample of 208 unemployed workers from Poland.

The results indicate both direct and indirect effects for proactive coping on job-seeking behavior. Unemployed job seekers, with greater proactive coping, intensify their job search behavior and increase their chances for re-employment.

Proactive coping is an important factor in career development. The findings of this study are a promising starting point for career self-development training for unemployed workers in transition.

Most of the training for the unemployed prepares them to react and adapt to ongoing circumstances. Our findings show the importance of being proactive during active coping with unemployment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of transformational leadership, organizational commitment, job embeddedness, and job search behaviors on voluntary turnover intentions among senior administrators in intercollegiate athletics departments in the USA.

In total, 196 senior athletic administrators completed an online questionnaire assessing transformational leadership of the athletic director, organizational commitment, job embeddedness, job search behaviors, and voluntary turnover intentions. A model of turnover intentions was tested using structural equation modeling.

Results indicated that organizational commitment did not mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and job search behaviors, nor did job search behaviors mediate the relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intentions. However, job embeddedness moderated the relationship between organizational commitment and job search behaviors.

While the study results cannot be generalized outside of the intercollegiate context, the findings further the understanding of variables influencing the relationship between transformational leadership and turnover, which can guide future research.

To limit job search and retain employees, managers would benefit from targeting retention efforts on employees with less organizational commitment and lower levels of job embededdness. Managers should strive to foster job embeddedness among employees.

This study examines potential mediating and moderating variables of the relationship between transformational leadership and voluntary turnover intentions, an area of inquiry that has not been fully explored in the literature.

Individuals normally make fairness judgements when experiencing negative outcomes on an important task, such as finding employment. Fairness is an affect-laden subjective experience. Perceptions of injustice can cause resource depletion in unemployed job seekers, potentially leading to reduced self-regulation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of: first, justice perceptions during a job search and their impact on job search self-efficacy (JSSE); second, the mediating role of JSSE between justice perceptions and job search strategies; and third, associations between job search strategies and quantity and quality of job search behavior.

Unemployed individuals (n=254) who were actively searching for a job reported on their past job search experiences with respect to justice, completed measures of JSSE, and reported recent job search behavior.

Results reveal the potentially harmful impact of perceived injustice on job search strategies and the mediating role of JSSE, a self-regulatory construct and an important resource when looking for a job. Specifically, perceived injustice is negatively associated with JSSE. Reduced JSSE is associated with a haphazard job search strategy and less likelihood of exploratory and focussed strategies. A haphazard job search strategy is associated with making fewer job applications and poor decision making. Conversely, perceived justice is associated with higher JSSE and exploratory and focussed job search strategies. These two strategies are generally associated with higher quality job search behavior.

There are two major limitations. First, while grounded in social-cognitive theory of self-regulation and conservation of resources (COR) theory, a cross-sectional research design limits determination of causality in the model of JSSE as a central social-cognitive mechanism explaining how justice impacts job search strategies. Second, some results may be conservative because social desirability may have restricted the range of negative responses.

This study provides insights to individuals who are supporting job seekers (e.g. career counselors, coaches, employers, and social networks). Specifically, interventions aimed at reducing perceptions of injustice, increasing JSSE, and improving job search strategies and behavior may ameliorate the damaging impact of perceived injustice.

This study is the first to examine perceived justice in the job search process using social-cognitive theory of self-regulation and COR theory. Moreover, we provide further validation to a relatively new and under-researched job search strategy typology by linking the strategies to the quantity and quality of job search behaviors.