AUTHOR=Kim Suyeon , Lee Heesu , Jin Sungmi 

TITLE=Development and validation of career sustainability scale for mid-career employees

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1442119

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1442119

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=A sustainability perspective on careers builds a resilient career system by simultaneously considering 10 individual’s current career needs and long-term career outcomes. The individual career agent's strategy 11 for achieving a sustainable career is a powerful approach to career development in an environment 12 where an individual's proactive career competencies are emphasized. Mid-career individuals, 13 especially those facing career transitions, need to increase their sustainability by maintaining, renewing, 14 and developing their current careers. To support sustainable career development for mid-career 15 employees, a tool is needed to objectively diagnose the level of career sustainability, taking into 16 account the characteristics of their career transitions. The purpose of this study is to develop and 17 validate a mid-career employee career sustainability scale. The research methodology comprised four 18 systematic scale development processes. First, an integrated literature review was conducted to develop 19 a conceptual model of mid-career career sustainability. Second, an initial pool of career sustainability 20 items was developed and subjected to expert content validation. Third, an exploratory factor analysis 21 (EFA) was conducted on 257 participants to verify the reliability and validity of the preliminary items. 22 Finally, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on 534 participants to finalize the final 23 items. The participants were all mid-career employees aged 40-55 currently employed in Korean 24 organizations. The new scale reliably and validly measured mid-career career sustainability across four 25 dimensions: meaning perception of career sustainability, skill acquisition for career sustainability, 26 relationship building for career sustainability, environmental awareness for career sustainability.