Understanding potential career changers’ experience of career confidence following a positive psychology based coaching programme

Changes in the labour market over the last decades have led to an increase in the number of career and job changes individuals are likely to face in their working lives. Previous research indicates that a high level of confidence can help individuals to make positive career changes, yet an agreed definition of confidence is not widely accepted, and the literature provides a limited evidence base for practice. This research involved five female participants who were contemplating a career change. They took part in a coaching programme which consisted of four positive psychology interventions based on a proposal of core confidence as a higher order construct composed of self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and written reflections and an interpretative phenomenological analysis showed that participants perceived their career confidence before the programme as low, incorporating negative affect and self-doubt. After the programme, participants demonstrated increased career engagement, self-awareness and a positive and optimistic outlook. The analysis revealed that change was effected through the development of hope, change in cognitive processes and coaching as a catalyst. Implications for the definition of career confidence, and for positive psychology and career coaching practice are considered

The Roots of Virtue: A Cross-Cultural Lexical Analysis

Although the notion of virtue is increasingly prominent in psychology, the way it has been studied and conceptualised has been relatively Western-centric, and does not fully account for variations in how it has been understood cross-culturally. As such, an enquiry was conducted into ideas relating to virtue found across the world’s cultures, focusing specifically on so-called untranslatable words. Through a quasi-systematic search of academic and grey literature, together with conceptual snowballing and crowd-sourced suggestions, over 200 relevant terms were located. An adapted grounded theory analysis identified five themes which together provide an insight into the “roots” of virtue (i.e., the main sources from which it appears to spring): virtue itself (the concept of it); considerateness (caring about it); wisdom (knowing what it consists of); agency (managing to be/do it); and skill (mastery of the preceding elements). The results help shed further light on the potential dynamics of this important phenomenon

Psychometric properties of the Hebrew version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9)

Work engagement may be defined as a positive and fulfilling psychological state associated with both affective response and mental arousal. In this study, the psychometric properties of the Hebrew version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) were investigated by using a sample of Israeli (N = 252) white-collar employees. We conducted a series of confirmatory factor analyses of the UWES-9 in addition to the customary reliability analyses. We found that a three-factor solution of the UWES-9 best fit the data and confirmed the dimensions of vigor, dedication, and absorption associated with work engagement. The reliability coefficients of consistency were high. The validity of the UWES-9 was confirmed by its correlations with Job-Intrinsic and Job-Extrinsic Satisfaction (MSQ-SF; Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire Short Form). The Hebrew version of the UWES-9 administered to Israelis shares the same psychometric properties reported for the original Dutch version and suggests a transnational, translinguistic, and transcultural validity

Psychometric properties of the Hebrew version of the Dutch Work Addiction Scale (DUWAS-10)

The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Hebrew version of the Dutch Work Addiction Scale (DUWAS-10), developed by Schaufeli, Shimazu, and Taris (2009). Three hundred fifty-one employees completed a questionnaire measuring workaholism; of these, 251 employees completed questionnaires measuring work engagement, job satisfaction, overcommitment, and burnout. The results confirmed the expected two-factor structure of workaholism: working excessively and working compulsively. Strong correlations were obtained between self-reports and peer-reports, and satisfactory correlations were obtained between the first and second administrations of the DUWAS-10. Furthermore, DUWAS-10 scores showed predictable relations with actual number of hours worked per week, work engagement, job satisfaction, overcommitment, and burnout. Interestingly, despite working fewer hours per week, women reported higher levels of workaholism in comparison to men, and managers reported higher levels of workaholism in comparison to non-managerial employees

Understanding potential career changers’ experience of career confidence following a positive psychology based coaching programme

Changes in the labour market over the last decades have led to an increase in the number of career and job changes individuals are likely to face in their working lives. Previous research indicates that a high level of confidence can help individuals to make positive career changes, yet an agreed definition of confidence is not widely accepted, and the literature provides a limited evidence base for practice. This research involved five female participants who were contemplating a career change. They took part in a coaching programme which consisted of four positive psychology interventions based on a proposal of core confidence as a higher order construct composed of self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and written reflections and an interpretative phenomenological analysis showed that participants perceived their career confidence before the programme as low, incorporating negative affect and self-doubt. After the programme, participants demonstrated increased career engagement, self-awareness and a positive and optimistic outlook. The analysis revealed that change was effected through the development of hope, change in cognitive processes and coaching as a catalyst. Implications for the definition of career confidence, and for positive psychology and career coaching practice are considered