Search

Jobs have arguably failed to deliver for most job holders worldwide, with mass precariousness now the norm across the globe. Where does this leave career development, which is often associated with jobs? One constant is working to make a living. Securing that goal into the future – which is what ‘career’ implies – may require more than just what the United Nations/International Labour Organization call ‘Decent work’. ‘Sustainable Livelihoods’ span multiple forms of work, emphasise social connectedness, including social protection against crises of all kinds, plus protecting the ecosystem for present and future generations. As such, they resonate with all 17 of the 2015–2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They further imply re-starting anew with a metaphorical clean slate concerning how we (meaning all work and career professionals) conceptualise work, and work together to support sustainable careers for others. Biased in Humanitarian Work Psychology, this paper starts to sketch out a shape for that collaboration.

Drawing on the Psychology of Working Theory, the aim of this study is to assess the relationship between decent work, work needs’ satisfaction and entrepreneurial intentions in Burkina Faso, Switzerland, and Togo. We also test the applicability of the model of entrepreneurial intentions in these countries. Using a sample of 1,829 individuals we conducted structural equation modeling and multigroup analyses. Our results show that the model of entrepreneurial intentions is applicable in West Africa and Switzerland, and that it seems that perceived control and attitudes towards entrepreneurship are particularly important for entrepreneurial intentions. In all three countries, decent work contributes to the satisfaction of survival, social connectedness, and self-determination needs. Decent work and the satisfaction of needs do not seem to influence entrepreneurial intentions suggesting that other factors are important for the development of entrepreneurial intentions. The implications for policy, education and career guidance and counseling are presented.

Limited research has been conducted to explore the racial trauma experience of East Asian American women, especially in the workplace. We sought to understand (a) how racial trauma has influenced this population's work and non-work life and (b) how they have coped with this traumatic stress in career development and mental health aspects. Twelve participants working in the United States participated in semi-structured interviews about the impact of workplace racial trauma on their mental health, work, relationships, and coping strategies. Five domains were developed using conventional content analysis: (a) racial trauma at work is expressed with microaggression, (b) racial trauma causes a loss of psychological safety, (c) racial trauma creates relationship dilemmas, (d) racial trauma creates challenges in participants’ career development paths, and (e) career and mental health coping strategies are used to manage racial traumatic stress. Implications for theoretical advances and counseling and organizational practice are also discussed.

Rooted in the decent education as a precursor to decent work, this study investigated via network analysis the relationship between the work as meaning inventory for university students (WAMI-U) (positive meaning, meaning-making through study, greater good motivations) and the humor styles questionnaire (HSQ) (health-promoting styles: affiliative humor, self-enhancing humor; health-endangering styles: aggressive humor, self-defeating humor) in 371 Italian university students. Central nodes and bridge nodes between WAMI-U and HSQ were calculated. Positive meaning, meaning-making through study (WAMI-U), and self-enhancing humor (HSQ) had high centrality. Affiliative humor, self-enhancing humor (HSQ), and positive meaning (WAMI-U) had bridge function. The high centrality and bridge function of self-enhancing with all dimensions of WAMI-U, followed by the bridge function of affiliative humor in relation to meaning-making through study (WAMI-U) confirmed them as health-promoting styles. Negative associations between maladaptive humor styles and positive meaning (WAMI-U) confirmed their standard as health-endangering styles. Implications for research and prevention are discussed.