What Matters When: A Multistage Model and Empirical Examination of Job Search Effort

Abstract

We develop a multistage self-regulatory perspective on job search effort assuming active job seekers conducting job searches within a job search goal life span. Specifically, we propose that time pressure increases as the goal of finding employment becomes more proximal, while job search uncertainty decreases. Drawing on these premises, we integrate social comparison theory, control theory, and the attentional focus model of time pressure to hypothesize how various intrapersonal (i.e., prior effort, job search progress) and sociocontextual (i.e., effort put forth by peers in a social network) factors relate to job seekers' self-regulation of effort at different stages (i.e., preparatory, active-extensive, and active-intensive) of a job search process. In two studies of job seekers, we found that (1) prior job seeker effort is positively related to current effort across stages, (2) average peer job search effort is more strongly and positively related to job seeker effort earlier in job search, and (3) job search progress (i.e., the ratio of interviews to applications in Study 1 and perceived progress in Study 2) is negatively related to job seeker effort later in job search. Theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed.

The Strength of Many Kinds of Ties: Unpacking the Role of Social Contacts Across Stages of the Job Search Process

“…Job searches are funneling processes during which job seekers move through progressive evaluation and winnowing of opportunities from many different possibilities to a final match with a job (Blau 1993, Lopez-Kidwell et al 2013, Rees 1966). The first, or "extensive" stage, is about selecting a set of opportunities to pursue, whereas the subsequent, or "intensive" stages, are about deepening one's understanding about those select options and eventually obtaining offers.…”

“…Building on research on job searches as staged processes (Blau 1993, Lopez-Kidwell et al 2013, Rees 1966, I distinguish between three stages in the job search process: selecting the types of jobs for which to apply, submitting applications, and preparing for interviews. This distinction is analytically useful for disentangling the role of social contacts.…”

From a Novice to an Expert - Finnish Female Leaders’ Eventful Career Developments

“…A career orientation is goal-oriented action where people create, evaluate, and pursue fulfilling their own plans (Abele & Spurk, 2009;Creager, 2011). This is influenced by their conceptions of work, education, own possibilities, and limitations set by the environment as well as their own values and prevailing values in society (see e.g., Lopez-Kidwell, Grosser, Dineen, & Borgatti, 2013). In addition, perceptions of their own expertise and successes make important signposts (Uusiautti, 2013;Uusiautti & Määttä, 2015).…”

Green by Comparison: Deviant and Normative Transmutations of Job Search Envy in a Temporal Context

“…Our first study of unemployed job seekers investigates how clock-based temporal pressure regarding chronological time spent searching for a job (Ancona, Okhuysen, & Perlow, 2001;Lopez-Kidwell, Grosser, Dineen, & Borgatti, 2013) and market-based pressure regarding available employment opportunities (Griffeth, Steel, Allen, & Bryan, 2005) induce deviant behavioral responses to job search envy. In a second study of master's student job seekers over a two-year period comprising internship and fulltime job search events, we consider how marketbased pressure and event-based temporal pressure regarding a series of increasingly important search events (Ancona et al, 2001) affect deviant and normative reactions to job search envy.…”