Extreme subjective career success: a new integrated view of having a calling

This article develops a better understanding of an extreme form of subjective career success that transcends any particular job or organizational context: having a calling. I review the existing literature on having a calling and related constructs, put forth a new, integrated typology for having a calling, and suggest directions for future research. Beginning their work in the late 1930s to 1950s, the pioneers of career theory—known as the Chicago School—developed the notion that careers are comprised of both objective and subjective elements. In spite of this early, broad vision of careers, recent career research has been relatively limited in scope. Of the careers articles published in major interdisciplinary journals between 1980 and 1994, more than 75% focused on objective perspectives (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996: 8). Within the last several years, there has been a call for research that includes not only the subjective viewpoint of careers (e.g., Barley, 1989; Derr & Laurent, 1989; Hall,2002; Hall & Chandler, Working paper), but also the extension of career research beyond the boundaries of single organizations (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996). There are some notable streams of work, however, that attempt to address these limitations in careers research. Conceptualizations of subjective career outcomes and the relationship between subjective and objective career outcomes have begun to be examined (e.g., Hall & Chandler, Working paper; Heslin, Working paper; Nicholson & Andrews, Working paper), though with conflicting findings (e.g., whether subjective outcomes lead to objective outcomes, or vice versa). In terms of specific forms that subjective outcomes might take, Hall observed that careers have shifted away from being organizational to being protean, a form of career in which individuals are self-directed toward the goal of achieving psychological success—a subjectively defined measure (Hall, 1976; Hall & Mirvis, 1996; Hall, 2002). Hall’s notion of psychological success builds on Shepard’s view that human potential is realized only through following the “path with a heart,” and defining success as a “life fully worth living” (Shepard, 1984). Other researchers have examined what might be experienced by those enacting a protean career or following their path with a heart, such as work engagement (Kahn, 1990; May et al., 1999), flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), and intrinsic motivation (Amabile et al., 1994). To understand the complexities of psychological success—its characteristics or form, the nature of experiencing it, what its consequences are, etc.—I argue that it is important to focus on exemplars of this phenomenon. Given the implicit prescriptive assumption in this area of research and in the popular press that high subjective success is something to which we should all aspire, this paper will enter this discussion by examining the highly positive end of the spectrum. What is this extreme type of subjective career experience? It fits with the traditional 2 notion of what it means to pursue one’s vocation, or to pursue one’s calling. Weiss and colleagues, in their work on calling and leadership, comment on the rising importance of this area of research: “A new interest in the idea of vocation and calling—even though these terms may not be used—is emerging as people search for more humane and meaningful ways to understand their work lives” (Weiss et al., 2003: 6). Several other researchers have made forays into developing ideas about having a calling (e.g., Wrzesniewski et al., 1997; Gardner et al., 2000; Hall & Chandler, Working paper). Naturally, there is considerable overlap in how researchers have treated the sense of calling and related concepts. As yet, though, there is no synthesis of these views or an attempt to understand the range of implications of having a calling. In particular, these implications of having a calling are generally assumed to be positive. I suggest here, however, that there might also be a dark side to having a calling. Thus, this paper will explore various facets of having a calling, which can be viewed as an extreme form of subjective career success. First, I will offer a brief review of the existing literature on having a calling and related constructs.i Then, I will put forth a new, integrated typology for having a calling. Lastly, I will suggest directions for future research, including examining the consequences of having a calling—both positive and negative

The development of calling: a longitudinal study of musicians

This study investigates the dynamics of the sense of calling over time. Results of a fourwave, 3 ½-year longitudinal survey study of 567 young musicians suggest that participants' calling was shaped by their ongoing behavioral involvement and social encouragement in the calling domain. Counter to expectations, level of ability was not a significant predictor of calling; neither were demographic characteristics. The sense of calling can be a powerful psychological force. Researchers have begun to examine this phenomenon, both in terms of theorizing about the construct itself (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, & Tipton, 1985; 2005; Weiss, Skelley, Hall, & Haughey, 2003; Wrzesniewski, McCauley, Rozin, & Schwartz, 1997), as well as exploring calling as a predictor of outcomes, such as life and job satisfaction, better health, and fewer reported days of missed work (Wrzesniewski et al., 1997). As yet, researchers have not investigated the conceptual or empirical origins of this potentially powerful force, nor have they explored what factors influence the development of calling over time. The goal of this study is to begin this exploration of the dynamics of calling. The existing work on calling, along with the popular literature on this topic (e.g., Finney & Dasch, 1998; Levoy, 1997), is based on many assumptions that have not been tested empirically. Regardless of whether the calling is presumed to be located internally (e.g., hidden deep inside of people) or externally (e.g., it is out there in society, the labor market, with God), the calling is generally assumed to be a coherent, stable entity that is awaiting discovery. Further, it is often assumed that people either “have” a calling, which is generally viewed as a very positive condition, or they have not yet found their calling, which is viewed as a less desirable situation. (An exception to this binary perspective on calling is Wrzesniewski et al.’s (1997) research, which measures work orientations, including the calling orientation, continuously.) From a temporal perspective, the few existing empirical studies on calling have not yet questioned whether calling is, in fact, a stable construct. If calling is viewed as a dynamic construct, questions can be raised about what factors influence its change over time. Additionally, some existing conceptualizations of calling (e.g., Hall & Chandler, 2005) are based upon individuals’ conscious recognition or acknowledgement that their current work is their calling. The risk of this approach is that the strong connotations associated with the word “calling”—whether they are positive or negative—along with the multitude of definitions of calling in both the academic and popular literatures, make it unclear what the “calling” is that participants claim to “have.” Moreover, a cross-sectional approach to understanding calling cannot untangle whether people enter into their careers to fulfill the sense of calling they experience toward these domains or whether people rationalize being in their specific career situation by believing that they are experiencing a calling (Vroom, 1966). Thus, to develop our understanding of calling, it is imperative to separate the experience of a calling in a domain from the career choice of working in that domain, rather than conflating them. The present study aims to contribute to the nascent study of calling by exploring the following questions: 1) Does calling change over time? 2) What predicts differences in these changes in calling over time? These questions are examined in a 3 ½-year longitudinal survey study of musicians. Level of ability, behavioral involvement, and social encouragement factors are tested as predictors of calling. The present study views calling as a subjective orientation toward a particular domain, and is comprised of seven core elements, passion, identity, urgency, engulfs consciousness, longevity, sense of meaning, and domain-specific self-esteem. To be answered, the research questions required a population in which the calling phenomenon was likely to be found, whose members were at a phase of their career path that would be the most critical for examining the early development and evolution of calling, and whose members have been significantly involved in the focal calling domain, but who have not yet committed to pursuing a career in that domain. Based on these criteria, this study focused on high school musicians (N=567)

Siren song? A longitudinal study of the facilitating role of calling and ability in the pursuit of a challenging career

In an 11-year, five-wave longitudinal study of 450 amateur high-school musicians progressing from adolescence to adulthood, we found that regardless of their actual musical ability, people with stronger early callings were likely to perceive their abilities more favorably, which led them to pursue music professionally

A Siren song? A longitudinal study of the role of calling and perceived ability in career pursuit

In a seven-year, four-wave longitudinal study of 450 musicians, we found that people with stronger early callings perceived their abilities especially favorably and pursued music professionally, whereas those with weaker early callings perceived their abilities less favorably and did not pursue music professionally—regardless of their objective musical ability

Managing the grading paradox: leveraging the power of choice in the classroom

How can management educators cultivate students' interest in the MBA classroom? Inspiring interest, an important antecedent of learning, can be an uphill battle due to the ubiquitous presence of grades. Grades are meant to encourage interest, yet they often do just the opposite. The result is a grading paradox. We hypothesize that leveraging choice in the classroom can manage this grading paradox by increasing interest. In a field experiment in real-world MBA classrooms (N = 91 students), we found that a choice intervention, the opportunity for students to allocate the weight of several course components toward their final course grade, was associated with higher levels of two types of interest, triggered situational interest and maintained situational interest. This study corroborates and extends previous laboratory-based research documenting the positive relationship between choice and interest, and offers a practical tool that management educators can use to encourage student interest

Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life: testing fundamental assumptions about calling, effort and enjoyment

We test the fundamental assumptions that people experiencing a stronger sense of calling invest more effort in their work tasks, and find those tasks more enjoyable, than people with a weaker sense of calling. Both assumptions have been expressed theoretically, yet received limited empirical support. Among 2,839 workers in a crowdsourced marketplace, we found that people with a stronger calling toward their work completed more of a relatively unengaging work task and enjoyed the task more than those with a weaker calling. The calling-effort relationship was particularly strong when there was no financial incentive for effort (i.e., paid a fixed amount), highlighting the risk of exploitation for strong-calling employees. People with stronger callings nonetheless responded to financial incentives—they completed more work when offered additional pay to do so. The relationship between calling and enjoyment of the task was particularly strong when there was a financial incentive for effort (i.e., paid piece-rate), indicating that extrinsic rewards did not “crowd out” intrinsic rewards. Our findings are thus consistent with research about the presence of multiple motives for behavior. Our empirical support for these assumptions using more appropriate, rigorous methods paves the way to further develop novel calling theory

Calling and the good life: a meta-analysis and theoretical extension

While a positive view of calling has been pervasive since its introduction into the literature over two decades ago, research remains unsettled about its unequivocal contribution to various aspects of the “good life,” an optimal way of living well via worthwhile endeavors. Further, scholars have identified two conceptual types of calling, marked by internal versus external foci; yet their differential impact on outcomes indicative of the good life, such as eudaimonic and hedonic well-being, is unknown. Through a meta-analysis of 201 studies, we provide the first systematic review focused on these two fundamental theoretical tensions in the calling literature: how strongly related callings are to outcomes in the domains of work and life, and which type of calling (internally- vs. externally-focused) more strongly predicts these outcomes, if either. We find that callings more strongly relate to outcomes indicative of the good life than recently argued. We further find that callings are more strongly linked to work than life outcomes, and to eudaimonic than hedonic outcomes. The two types of calling converge with each other in being associated with many similar outcomes, yet show some divergence: internally-focused callings are more positively related to hedonic outcomes and less positively related to eudaimonic outcomes, relative to externally-focused callings, thus supporting a view of callings as hierarchically-structured with a higher-order calling factor composed of two correlated, yet distinct, lower-order calling types. Integrating our metaanalytic findings with relevant literatures, we propose a theoretical model that addresses psychological and social need fulfillment through which different types of callings contribute to the good life

Only time will tell: Conducting longitudinal research on careers

Longitudinal research is key to the advancement of our understanding of careers, yet it is also a particularly challenging endeavor for scholars. In this chapter, we draw on our experiences as longitudinal researchers to discuss the challenges, and merits, of conducting longitudinal research on careers. We begin by defining what longitudinal research is, and is not. We then describe the contributions that longitudinal research can make to the careers literature, above and beyond other research designs like cross-sectional studies. We conclude by offering a “Top 10" list of practical tips for conducting and publishing longitudinal research on careers. Throughout this chapter, we provide examples of reviewers’ comments on our own longitudinal research and discuss the strategies that we used to address these comments, so that other scholars may benefit from our acquired knowledge. As an end goal, we hope that this chapter stimulates longitudinal research on careers, and helps scholars weather its challenges to truly reap its upsides

Developmental networks and professional identity: a longitudinal study

Purpose: – This paper seeks to examine the relationship between individuals’ developmental mentoring networks and a subjective career outcome, clarity of professional identity. How developmental network characteristics are related to professional identity over time is explored. Design/methodology/approach: – This is a three-wave, longitudinal survey study, covering a five-year span (1996-2001). The participants (n ¼ 136), full-time MBA students at the inception of the study, provided complete developmental network data on each survey. The relationships between clarity of professional identity and three different measures of developmental network density were explored: early-career density; general density; and density dynamics (e.g. the change in density over time). Findings: – Developmental network density, which reflects the professional identity exploration process, is negatively related to clarity of professional identity. Research limitations/implications: – The study is limited by the use of graduating MBA students from a single, top-20 business school as participants. Practical implications: – The findings suggest that people might be able to improve their careers through changing their developmental networks, particularly during their early-career years. Originality/value: – This paper provides novel insights to the mentoring, identity, and careers literatures. Given the previously uncharted territory of understanding the dynamics of developmental networks and its relationship to career outcomes, this study opens avenues for future research, while also answering questions about developmental networks and the ways they function over time

When the stars align: career and life consequences of calling

In this paper we argue for the importance of disentangling the psychological experience of calling from its behavioral pursuit. We examine the strength of people's calling and their ultimate pursuit-or lack of pursuit-of that calling in their work. We conducted a 4-wave, 11-year prospective longitudinal field study of 508 people anchored in a common calling domain, music, to examine how calling and the pursuit of that calling interact to influence key career and life outcomes. We find differential effects based on whether people with varying calling strengths pursued the calling or not