Social Class And Career Adaptability

With the development of economic globalization and rapid technological progress,people’s methods of seeking and engaging in work have gradually changed,making individual career paths more difficult to predict.In this context,career adaptability is a necessary condition for effectively solving career-related problems and promoting individual career development,which can help individuals use resources to cope with current and anticipated career tasks.Due to its important role in individual career development,career adaptability has become a topic of widespread concern among scholars.Among them,the factors influencing career adaptability are a research focus in this field.Research has shown that social class influences an individual’s opportunities to obtain resources,and these social class-based resources in turn affect an individual’s career behaviors and outcomes.Unfortunately,despite the prominent and important role that social class plays in career development and achievement,it still lacks sufficient attention in career psychology theory,academic research,and practice.The impact of social class on career adaptability has also not been fully studied.Based on the conservation of resources theory,social class provides channels for individuals to obtain and maintain resources.Higher social class means more resources,less threat,and higher self-control,which means that individuals in higher social classes will face less constraints and have greater career choice space,that is,higher job autonomy,in their career development.Job autonomy represents the ability of individuals to make career choices when facing external environmental constraints.Individuals with high job autonomy can perceive more job choices,which can lead to positive cognitive perceptions of the future and affect behavior.Therefore,individuals with high job autonomy may subjectively have a positive psychological readiness or willingness to face adaptation,and those who are willing to make changes and actively adapt can accumulate adaptive resources,that is,career adaptability.In summary,after obtaining job autonomy,individuals in higher social classes may further obtain career adaptability,resulting in a spiral increase in resource benefits.However,the influence of social class on job autonomy is not without boundaries.Proactivity personality may moderate the relationship between social class and job autonomy.According to the conservation of resources theory,proactive personality can actively utilize resources to obtain benefits,promoting individuals to enter a resource benefit spiral.Higher objective social class has more material resources,and proactive personality may further expand the advantages brought by higher objective social class,strengthening the influence of objective social class on job autonomy.At the same time,subjective social class may improve job autonomy by stimulating individuals’ intrinsic motivation,and individuals with high levels of proactive personality have strong intrinsic motivation and often proactively develop career resources to cope with challenges in their career process.Therefore,when the level of proactive personality is high,the promotion effect of subjective social class on job autonomy may be smaller.In conclusion,this study combined the conservation of resources theory and surveyed357 college students,among them,there are also a large number of MBA students working in enterprises,to investigate the influence of social class on career adaptability,introducing job autonomy as a mediator variable and proactive personality as a moderating variable.The results showed that(1)subjective social class promoted job autonomy,but the influence of objective social class on job autonomy was not significant;(2)job autonomy promoted career adaptability;(3)job autonomy mediated the relationship between social class and career adaptability;(4)proactive personality negatively moderated the relationship between subjective social class and job autonomy,and positively moderated the relationship between education in objective social class and job autonomy.Overall,the findings of this study have the following theoretical implications: Firstly,it enriches the relevant research on social class and contributes to a more complete understanding of the effects of social class.Secondly,it explores the mechanism of the influence of social class on career adaptability,which is a development of related theories.Finally,it explains the differences in career adaptability among individuals of different social classes from a resource perspective,clarifies the pathways through which social class affects career adaptability,and indicates that job autonomy and proactive personality may be important mediators and boundary conditions between social class and career adaptability.Moreover,the results of this study have practical implications as well:(1)career counselors can take a series of measures to help clients enhance their job autonomy,thus helping low social class populations who are at higher risk due to decreased career adaptability and ultimately improving their career happiness.(2)When formulating poverty alleviation policies,the government can focus on enhancing individual proactivity,in addition to implementing necessary financial and monetary measures,to encourage impoverished individuals to actively seek external opportunities to solve the various difficulties they face in their career,thus lifting them out of poverty.