Androgynous people are most confident in their career decision making

Self-efficacy in the context of career choice means how confident someone is in successfully selecting a career. Choosing a suitable career represents a complex task which requires making plans, coping with setbacks, and knowledge about oneself as well as about occupations. According to a Turkish study, androgynous high school students with both feminine and masculine personality traits were most confident in their career decision making. So called undifferentiated students with little feminine and masculine characteristics showed the lowest confidence. Self-efficacy of mainly feminine or masculine students lied between the levels of androgynous and undifferentiated students.

Bolat, N., & Odaci, H. (2016). High school final year students' career decision-making self-efficacy, attachement styles and gender role orientations. Current Psychology. Online publication. doi:10.1007/s12144-016-9409-3

Generational differences at work might just be a cliché

"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today..." (Hesioud, 8th century BC).

The perception of generational differences at the workplace is likely as old as workplaces themselves. However, research evidence accumulates that generational differences are more likely stereotypes than actually existing differences. A study from the USA concluded that stereotypes serve as shortcuts for understanding the environment, and shortcuts are welcome in a busy world. Overall, however, there is no solid theoretical or empirical evidence supporting generationally based differences at work.

Constanza, D. P. & Finkelstein, L. M. (2015). Generationally Based Differences in the Workplace: Is There a There There?. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 8, 308-323. doi:10.1017/iop.2015.15

Getting into the new job: Honeymoon, hangover, or learning to love?

Expectations when entering a new job may be exceeded, met, or even disappointed. Accordingly, the development of attachment to a new job can see different trajectories across the first months in a new position. Researchers from the Netherlands and Belgium investigated the trajectories of organizational commitment of PhD graduates who had recently started their career. 
The largest group of participants experienced high commitment from the beginning. However, others experienced a honeymoon-hangover pattern, with increasing commitment in the first two months, and then a gradual, slow decrease. One group showed a "learning to love" pattern, with low initial levels in commitment that gradually increased over time.
 

Solinger, O. N., Olffen, W. v., Roe, R. A., & Hofmans, J. (2013). On Becoming (Un)Committed: A Taxonomy and Test of Newcomer Onboarding Scenarios. Organization Science, 24(6), 1640-1661.

How satisfied are you with your career choice?

Career choices are one of the major life decisions and therefore strongly linked to life satisfaction and well-being. According to a study with Croatian college students, several characteristics are linked to satisfaction with career choice. Generally the tendency towards experiencing regret after having made a decision is not beneficial to career choice satisfaction. Instead, having confidence in the made decision and committing to it is beneficial for immediate satisfaction. In the long term career choice satisfaction is predicted by a greater number of considered alternatives, perceiving the primary choice as appealing, and a sense of immediate satisfaction with the made decision.

Bubic, A. (2014). Decision Making Characteristics and Decision Styles Predict Adolescents’ Career Choice Satisfaction. Current Psychology, 33(4), 515-531, 

The critical factors that help job seekers get hired

Based on an analysis of 47 studies, a recent meta-analysis identified the critical factors that make job search interventions effective. The study shows that teach job search skills, improve self-presentation, boost self-efficacy, encourage proactivity and goal setting, and help to enlist social support are most effective. The analysis also shows that developing job search skills in combination with enhancing motivation is critical. The bad news is that job search interventions are less effective for long-term unemployed than for people who more recently lost their jobs.

Liu, S., Huang, J. L., & Wang, M. (2014). Effectiveness of job search interventions: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 140(4), 1009-1041.

Craft your job to increase your performance

Job crafting means actively altering one's job to better suit one's skills and interests. This type of proactive behavior  leads to higher levels of work engagement and to better job performance, according to a recent longitudinal study authored by researchers from the Netherlands. The results further showed that the effects are more pronounced regarding performance in core tasks than for more discretionary performance (e.g., providing social support at work).

Tims, M., Bakker, A. B., & Derks, D. (2015). Job crafting and job performance: A longitudinal study. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 24(6), 914-928.

Different motivations at different job search stages

People can pursue a goal because it is fun or inherently interesting (so called autonomous motivation) or because they feel pressured and obliged to do so (so called controlled motivation). Research typically shows that autonomous motivation is more beneficial and sustainable for a wide variety of outcomes (e.g., performance, satisfaction, well-being) while controlled motivation is usually related with detrimental outcomes.
A recent study now shows that such findings may need a more nuanced look. Researchers studied the development of motivation and job search behaviors across 5 weeks in students who would soon enter working life. Autonomous motivation decreased across time, but was consistently related to job search behaviors. In contrast, controlled motivation was also related to job search behaviors, but only towards the end of the 5 weeks. This shows that although autonomous motivation may have more sustainable effects on job search behaviors, when time gets short, also controlled motivation does the trick.

Journal of Applied Psychology

Gender discrimination can lead to career dissatisfaction in high aspiring women

Subjective career success means how satisfied you are with your whole work achievements. This evaluation is related to several important organizational outcomes like retention or performance. According to a French study, perceived gender discrimination is linked to lower subjective career success for women. Satisfaction is especially low when faced with gender discrimination if women strive for a management position, value technical specialization, place high importance on work-life-balance, or have a low need for employment security or autonomy.

Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations

Socioeconomic background influences risk-taking decisions of chief executives

A recent study from the USA investigated the influence of chief executive officers perceived social class origins on their strategic risk taking preferences. The authors of the study found that CEOs of upper and lower social class origins engage in higher levels of strategic risk taking compared to their middle class counterparts. This research was one of the first attempts to integrate work-related decision making and social class background. It provides an important initial step toward understanding the effects of the social class background of leaders on firm-level outcomes.

Kish-Gephart, J. J., & Campbell, J. T. (2015). You don’t forget your roots: The influence of CEO social class background on strategic risk taking. Academy of Management Journal, 58(6), 1614-1636.

What drives team performance?

A performance goal orientation is usually beneficial for job performance because it drives people to try to outperform others. Researchers from the Netherlands now investigated how the social context at work might influence this effect. They found that for people who highly identify with their team, performance goal orientation is beneficial for team performance. Conversely, for people who do not highly identify with their colleagues, a performance goal orientation motivates more individual performance. These findings imply that a strong individual performance goal orientation is only beneficial for team performance if the members of the team identify with each other.

Dietz, B., van Knippenberg, D., Hirst, G., & Restubog, S. L. D. (2015). Outperforming whom? A multilevel study of performance-prove goal orientation, performance, and the moderating role of shared team identification. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(6), 1811-1824.