Thursday 23 July 17:15 - 18:45

Hall: 01 - Basilica

Chair and Presenter: Bernhard-Oettel Claudia

Division: Division 1: Work and Organizational Psychology

This symposium brings together five presentations from Belgium, Germany, the UK, Sweden and
Norway. All contributions focus on employment and job changes and highlight the importance of
such transitions for the development of identity and career, job satisfaction and well-being,
individual economic resources and balance in non-work life. Using various theoretical points of
departure, samples and methods, all presentations make theoretical and practical contributions
towards a better understanding of what changes in job and employment status across the life
span mean for the development of satisfying sustainable careers. Additionally, each presentation
reveals how important the point of reference is for individuals who often compare
idiosyncratically and as couples how their current situation is an improvement to a previous state
or needs changes towards an envisioned state. These within-individual or dyadic perspectives of
change are captured in qualitative narratives, statistical analyses and theoretical
conceptualizations.
Paper 1 from Belgium studies the group of economically inactive using the LISS data. The study
takes personal preferences and contextual changes into account to investigate what different
career choices and developments mean for well-being.
Paper 2 from Germany investigates how past career shocks (job loss, short-time work) associate
with economic stress and well-being, thereby exploring the role of posttraumatic growth.
Paper 3 from the UK investigate transitions from entrepreneurship to employment to understand
how changes in autonomy and security relate to changes in job satisfaction.
Paper 4 from Sweden is a qualitative study with temporary agency workers that explores how
workers can use agency in this specific employment context to create sustainable careers,
momentarily or intheirfuture.Paper 5 from Norway takes a conceptual stance on career transitions into retirement and argues
that individual changes in subjective well-being can be understood and predicted more
accurately if pathways of both partners in romantic couples are considered.