This paper proposes a conceptual approach to the construct of behavioural adaptability in work contexts and illustrates the application of the approach in two organisations. Behavioural adaptability is an important construct in both individual and organisational career development with practical value in strategic career planning. Using the Minnesota Theory of Work Adjustment, adaptable behaviours are described as being either proactive, reactive or tolerant. Two Australian civilian organisations participated in the research presented in this study (involving 257 respondents), thereby extending previous research on adaptive performance that has primarily focused on military personnel in the United States. Factor analytic results of self‐reported behaviour and supervisor‐rated performance offer initial support for the proposed framework. In addition, the validity of a set of predictors, including self‐efficacy, work‐requirements biodata, cognitive flexibility and personality traits, was examined. Results suggest that self‐efficacy for adaptable behaviour was related to adaptive performance. Work requirements biodata and adaptability‐related personality traits were also significant predictors in one of the organisations.
Recent meta-analyses investigating the relationship between personality and job performance have found that openness to experience is the least predictive of the Big Five factors. Unlike other research that has sought to explain the low criterion-validity with relation to job performance, this study explores the actual construct of openness to experience, suggesting that it consists of two dimensions that relate differentially to job performance thus reducing correlations between overall measures of openness to experience and performance criteria. Exploratory factor analysis of the six subdimensions, or facets, of the NEO PI-R (a popular measure of the Big Five factors) produced two factors of openness to experience corresponding to different areas to which people are open. A confirmatory factor analysis on a second set of data provided some support for this result. A pattern of differential relationships between the two factors and other variables including personality, biodata and supervisor-rated performance offered further support for the multidimensionality of openness to experience. The implications of these findings for future research in the selection context are discussed.
This research investigates the prediction of post‐retirement work. Unlike prior research, we examined both paid and volunteer post‐retirement work, showing the similarities and differences in their prediction. Using multinomial logistic regression analysis, a framework based on image theory was tested, which included evaluations of pre‐retirement work, attitudes to retirement, behavioural style and demographics, and used to predict both intentions to work in retirement in a pre‐retiree sample (N = 987) and actual work in retirement in a sample of retirees (N = 725). Both volunteer and paid post‐retirement work were strongly related to people's evaluation of their pre‐retirement work and for pre‐retirees, a proactive style of behaviour was also predictive. However, gender, health and retirement satisfaction more related to volunteer work and education to paid work.
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