Professional Fulfillment: Concept and Instrument Proposition

Abstract

This paper aims to propose a concept and an instrument of professional fulfillment (PF), which is theoretically defined as the perception of having attained or being on the right track for attaining one’s most important career goals. The Professional Fulfillment Scale (PFS) was developed in order to operationalize PF, being tested across two studies. Regarding Study 1, in which 406 workers took part, results from exploratory factor analysis evidenced construct validity for PFS. In Study 2, in which 270 workers took part, results from confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling presented satisfactory model fit indices for PFS. We conclude that both the professional fulfillment concept and the scale are useful for mapping people’s importance and achievement of career goals and evaluation of progress, working as a diagnostic tool for career management.

Subjective Well-Being and Flourishing at Work: The Impact of Professional Fulfilment

“…Professional fulfilment is related to how people pursue their career goals and how they evaluate their goal progress, which engenders a two-dimension comprehension of the concept (Oliveira- Silva et al, 2019). To analyse people's professional fulfilment, we needed to observe the importance and achievement of specific types of goals and people's evaluation of goal progress.…”

“…To analyse people's professional fulfilment, we needed to observe the importance and achievement of specific types of goals and people's evaluation of goal progress. This means that the concept of professional fulfilment involves two dimensions: 1. content of goals, which indicates what types of goals matter most to the individual; and 2. evaluation of goals or goal progress, which refers to how satisfied one feels with the degree of attainment of career goals (Oliveira- Silva et al, 2019). The content dimension of professional fulfilment engenders the human value structure as proposed by Schwartz (1992) and Schwartz et al (2012), according to which values are defined as criteria or goals that transcend specific situations, are ordered by their importance and serve as principles that guide an individual's life.…”

“…In summary, professional fulfilment concerns people's beliefs about their career goals, being defined as the perception of having attained one's most important career goals or the positive evaluation of being on the right track for attaining career goals (Oliveira- Silva et al, 2019). It considers individual criterion concerning the attainment of goals, represents a cognitive concept and takes into account work and personal values to understand and categorise career goals (Oliveira-Silva, 2015).…”

“…The Professional Fulfilment Scale -PFS (Oliveira- Silva et al, 2019) was used to measure professional fulfilment. The scale is comprised of two dimensions.…”

“…How to achieve professional fulfilment is a frequent question people ask when they consider their career path and how to make the most of it. To perceive oneself as professionally fulfilled certainly involves effective career development and management, but achieving professional fulfilment is essentially related to fulfilling people's core needs regarding their career (Oliveira- Silva, Porto, & Arnold, 2019).…”