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Aligning social identity and career identity has become increasingly complex due to growth in the pursuit of meaningful careers that offer very long‐term personal satisfaction and stability. This paper aims to explore the complex cognitive and affective thought process involved in the conscious planning of voluntary career change.

A review of recent findings relevant to voluntary career change decisions was performed in order to develop a better understanding of psychological and sociological processes contributing to the pursuit of an MBA degree and subsequent employee mobility.

Complex rational and emotional thoughts contribute to the definition and pursuit of proximal and distal career goals which stimulate self‐efficacy drives as they are achieved.

Because realistic forecasting of very long‐term distal goals is extremely challenging, career seekers must carefully consider how proximal and distal goal pursuit, such as an MBA degree, contribute to personal identity. Goal pursuit merely for the sake of advancing self‐efficacy will likely prove insufficient to anchor individuals within a career and cement their identity.

As part of their career change strategy, individuals frequently chose to enrol in an MBA program to rapidly develop competencies and experiment with new career options. Consequently, there is a growing disconnection between the career options offered by employers and the choices that employees are seeking.

The paper explores the psychological processes that contribute to the pursuit of “boundaryless” careers. Boundaryless career growth is attainable through improvements in communication that aid the definition of “reality”.

The purpose of the study was to discover the key psychological issues involved in voluntary career change in 30‐somethings, with implications for career theory and guidance.

A qualitative methodology was employed. Data gathering was by means of semi‐structured interviews and interpretation used interpretative phenomenological analysis. A sensemaking perspective within a constructivist framework defined the research.

Three types of themes were generated from the participant interviews. The first relates to issues of continuity and discontinuity during the change process, the second deals with participant's values directing the change, and the final theme covers the influence of context on the change process. The implications these themes have for contemporary meanings of career are discussed together with suggestions for guidance.

Findings only reflect views at a point in time. A recommendation for future longitudinal research is made. The effect of the researcher is acknowledged in the sensemaking process.

A number of revisions to traditional career theory are identified and several career guidance implications.

This research is unique in addressing specific issues relating to the 30‐something age‐group and is topical in dealing with the phenomena of autonomous career change among this group. The use of a phenomenological perspective is scarce in the study of career change and provides a highly personal insight that furthers our understanding of the meaning of career. This is of particular value to career theorists and career counsellors.

The multidisciplinary research on the phenomena of voluntary career transition (VCT) and voluntary turnover (VTO) remains disparate. This integrative review examines literatures in these two areas in relation to research in the Chinese context. The purpose of this paper is to identify future research directions for Chinese indigenous research in this area.

This review adopted an integrative literature review approach.

The authors found that research on VCT and VTO in different disciplines has shared identical or similar constructs and produced complementary empirical findings. This suggests that combining the disparate research in VCT and VTO in the Western literature to address the large‐scale career phenomenon in China may produce unexpected research outcomes, particularly when integrating the research with Chinese‐specific contexts in socioeconomic, cultural, and organization dynamics.

Taking advantage of, and linking existing literature in, VCT and VTO while considering the Chinese context may generate new knowledge to understand the massive career phenomenon in China. The authors offer a number of specific research questions based on the review and analysis of the literatures.

This paper offers insights for organizations to develop strategies and policies in balancing talent management and employees career concerns.

The paper is the first in the literature proposing an integrated research strategy on VCT and VTO to study the same phenomenon in organizations, particularly in the Chinese context.

Further investigation of the thoughts and attitudes contributing to the voluntary pursuit of an MBA degree and career change is necessary to better understand career motivations and to satisfy career goals. This two-part article attempts to achieve this objective.

Factors contributing to the cognitive decision to enrol in an MBA program and the subsequent impact of self-discovery gained on program entry on career strategy were explored using a 32-question survey based on empirical research findings.

Part-time and full-time MBA students exhibited differences in decision criteria applied for MBA program entry. Following program enrolment, opportunities for career growth led to upward goal revision and increasingly focused goals.

Participation was potentially limited by survey distribution during a demanding academic period where many project reports and group presentations were due. A single MBA program in the downtown Montreal area may not be representative of all programs in the population.

Anchoring individual career identity and social identity has become increasingly complex as employers in many industries undergo continuous transformational change.

Integration within the work environment of identified career roles requires additional attention to validate an individual's strategic career efforts.

Surveying MBA candidates about career decisions and goal-revision allows for a valuable “snapshot” of career evolution over time. By promoting increased self-awareness, applied knowledge gained through MBA program activities acts as a catalyst for self-efficacy beliefs which results in upward distal goal-revision or increased goal focus.

Further investigation of the thoughts and attitudes contributing to the voluntary pursuit of an MBA degree and career change is necessary to better understand career motivations and to satisfy career goals. The purpose of this two-part paper is to achieve this objective.

Factors contributing to the cognitive decision to enroll in an MBA program and the subsequent impact of self-discovery gained upon program entry on career strategy were explored using a 32-question survey based on empirical research findings.

Part-time and full-time MBA students exhibited differences in decision criteria applied for MBA program entry. Following program enrollment, opportunities for career growth led to upward goal revision and increasingly focussed goals.

Participation was potentially limited by survey distribution during a demanding academic period where many project reports and group presentations were due. A single MBA program in the downtown Montreal area may not be representative all programs in the population.

Anchoring individual career identity and social identity has become increasingly complex as employers in many industries undergo continuous transformational change.

Integration within the work environment of identified career roles requires additional attention to validate an individual's strategic career efforts.

Surveying MBA candidates about career decisions and goal-revision allows for a valuable “snapshot” of career evolution over time. By promoting increased self-awareness, applied knowledge gained through MBA program activities acts as a catalyst for self-efficacy beliefs which results in upward distal goal-revision or increased goal focus.

Although a significant body of work has amassed that explores the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of employee turnover in organizations, little is known about how employees go about quitting once they have made the decision to leave. That is, after the decision to voluntarily quit their job is made, employees must then navigate through the process of planning for their exit, announcing their resignation, and potentially working at their company for weeks after their plans to resign have been made public. Our lack of understanding of the resignation process is important as how employees quit their jobs has the potential to impact the performance and turnover intentions of other organizational members, as well as to harm or benefit the reputation of the organization, overall. Moreover, voluntary turnover is likely to increase in the coming decades. In this chapter, we unpack the resignation process. Specifically, drawing from the communication literature and prior work on employee socialization, we develop a three-stage model of the resignation process that captures the activities and decisions employees face as they quit their jobs, and how individual differences may influence how they behave in each of these three stages. In doing so, we develop a foundation upon which researchers can begin to build a better understanding of what employees go through after they have decided to quit but before they have exited their organization for the final time.

The research summarized focuses on the career change experiences of managers and professionals over the ages of 35. An initial pilot study was conducted and formed the basis of a questionnaire which was distributed to a sample of successful and unsuccessful career changers. In addition, a third group of participants were tracked for six months as they pursued a career change. In seeking to identify the key factors predictive of a successful mid‐career change, the research findings suggest that this is linked to three variables. Age itself did not emerge as a major explanatory variable.

The purpose of this paper is to examine artists’ experiences of involuntary career transitions and its impact on their work-related identities.

Semi-structured interviews with 40 artists in the Netherlands were conducted. Self-narratives were used to analyze the findings.

Artists who can no longer make a living out of their artistic activities are forced to start working outside the creative realm and are gradually pushed away from the creative industries. This loss of their creative identity leads to psychological stress and grief, making the professional transition problematic. Moreover, the artistic community often condemns an artist’s transition to other activities, making the transition psychologically even more straining.

This study provides in-depth insights into how artists deal with changes in their work-related identities in the light of involuntary career transitions.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the occurrence of job level, salary and job authority demotions in the workplace through the analysis of Belgian Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC)-data of 2007-2011.

Three hypotheses are tested: H1: there is a gender inequality in job authority demotions. H2: the level of education and the probability of being subject to a job level, salary or job authority demotion are negatively correlated. H3: age is negatively correlated with job level, salary or job authority demotion probabilities. The cross-sectional data of the SILC cover a specific time period with data on inter alia living conditions. The longitudinal data give information on inter alia income and non-monetary variables over a period of four years. The authors estimate multivariate regression models for binary demotion variables. These analyses allow the authors to estimate the odds of being demoted. The authors discuss the demotion rates, the bivariate correlations and the regression analysis.

The data analysis result in the fact that base salary demotions are not commonly applied as literature and the Belgian law on salary protection endorses. Fringe benefits demotions, as for instance the abolition of a company car or a bonus are, however, more frequent. There is a gender gap with regard to job authority demotion. Highly educated respondents are less confronted with job authority demotions. Age is negatively correlated with base salary/fringe benefits or job authority demotion probabilities, but not with job-level demotions. H1 is thus confirmed. H2 and H3 only partly confirmed.

Several analyses were restricted because the EU-SILC did not question all dimensions of demotion in detail.

This study contributes to the scarce literature on demotion and to empirical studies on demotions regarding job level, salary and job authority.

The purpose of this paper is to show the need for new conceptualizations to explain international career behaviors emerging from increasing international migration flows.

The career diversity and growth of Indian knowledge workers in Tokyo is estimated through the analysis of secondary data and previous qualitative studies.

The shortage of skills in IT and liberalization of migration policies is enabling diverse international career development. Individuals' career stories are suggested as a key to understand differences in career behavior.

Further studies with more concrete data on employment, larger samples and comparison with different international career patterns will enhance understanding of international careers.

Individuals with international careers are potentially beneficial for organizations, but diverse career behaviors demand adaptable support systems. Using career stories is suggested as a suitable strategy to understand individual priorities and values.

The paper bridges the gap between research on careers, IHRM and highly skilled migration.