Unlocking the careers of business professionals following job loss: sensemaking and career exploration of older workers

Abstract

Abstract

Critical moments and second-chance education constructing socially excluded women’s stories of career success

“…Arnold and Cohen 2008;Hall 1996;Mulhall 2011a;Sullivan and Baruch 2009). Research indicates that transitions have material consequences for an individual's career identity, including, for example, how people deal with role transitions (Ibarra and Barbulescu 2010), organisational restructuring (Walton and Mallon 2004) and job loss (Zikic and Richardson 2007). Such transformations are particularly relevant to career research, as they are often coupled with change.…”

Taking a positive approach to organizational downsizing

“…Moreover, stress management programs positively impact optimism (Luthans & Youssef, 2004) and should perhaps incorporate training strategies specifi cally designed to enhance psychological resource capacities (see . Recently, Zikic and Richardson (2007) described interventions that encouraged newly laid-off middle-aged white collar workers to engage in career exploration and "sensemaking" to make good (and opportunistic) of what was initially experienced as a bad situation. For laid-off workers, for example, career exploration could include encouraging and assisting them to proactively collect information on other types of jobs, careers, and industries, thereby having them reevaluate their career options.…”

(Re)Constructing Career Strategies After Experiencing Involuntary Job Loss

“…This article characterizes change in terms of the degree to which events themselves are within a person's control and the degree to which he/she can respond to the ensuing circumstances (Holland & Thomson, 2009). An example of a change within the individual's sphere of influence is voluntary redundancy, as compared to a change arising from events beyond his/her remit, such as involuntary job loss (Zikic & Richardson, 2007). Reactions to such occurrences can be represented by the extent to which a person is subsequently able to attend to the change, characterized as responses embodying the presence of agency (fateful) or responses typified by the absence of agency (fatalistic) (Thomson et al, 2002).…”

“…These inquiries, however, tend to examine the perceptions of managerial and professional employees (e.g. Zikic & Richardson, 2007) who are currently unemployed (e.g. Blustein, Kozan, & Connors-Kellgren, 2013) or have been re-employed in the private sector (e.g.…”

“…One addresses the aftermath of job loss (see e.g. Zatzick & Iverson, 2006;Zikic & Richardson, 2007), specifically using an active labour market programme as a site to study the impact of involuntary job loss on individuals' perceptions of their career experiences, having previously encountered discontinuity in their careers (Blustein et al, 2013). The second attends to narrative constructions of identity and career experiences (see e.g.…”