Career roles: their Measurements, Determinants and Consequences

Over time, depending on their traits and preferences, people will select and enact certain roles in their jobs which may grow into enduring career roles (which are coherent and enduring sets of characteristics describing the way a person is doing his or her work; Hoekstra, 2011, p164). In this dissertation we presented a new measure for career role identification, the Career Role Identification Questionnaire (CRIQ). Making use of the Comparison Awareness Inducing Technique we were able to reduce the effects of self-presentation tactics in survey responses. Furthermore, the results in this dissertation indicate that peoples’ personality traits predict which roles they prefer to have in the work context, which, in turn, predict the career roles they have or expect to have in the future. In addition, career roles may focus on exploration (targeting innovation and change) or on exploitation behavior (targeting production and results). Our results indicate that especially exploration career roles contribute towards employee employability. With this research we aim to contribute to further conceptualize and provide meaning to all career positions and pathways that are present in the current career landscape.