In today's dynamic work environment, career transitions are often complex, yet research provides limited processual insight into how individuals interpret these complex career transitions and how their evolving interpretations are associated with career self-management (CSM) behaviors. Existing studies often adopt a macro-level perspective, focusing on predetermined predictors and outcomes of career success, while overlooking the lived experiences and micro-processes through which individuals make sense of transitions and enact CSM behaviors.
Elite athletes provide a compelling case for studying complex career transitions. Moving into life after sport entails simultaneously crossing multiple boundaries, for example, from structure to ambiguity and from sport networks to professional networks. This study investigates how elite athletes make sense of their career transitions and how these interpretations are associated with different patterns of CSM behaviors. We use the Conservation of Resources theory to understand these dynamics, and adopt a sensemaking lens to capture the micro-level perspectives of noticing what is happening, interpreting its meaning, and taking action, with these processes being continuously shaped by the surrounding context.
Through semi-structured interviews with recently retired and soon-to-be-retired athletes, this study makes three contributions to career transition literature. First, it adds a micro-level and processual perspective, seeking to understand the experience of the career transition and the associated CSM behaviors. Second, it extends CSM to complex career transitions and responds to calls for attention to non-standard workers. Third, by integrating context, the study focuses on how people interpret and navigate transitions in ways that reflect their personal and environmental context. Taken together, the findings deepen our understanding of complex career transitions in elite sport while offering implications for other complex transitions beyond sport.