Life Satisfaction, Courage, and Career Adaptability in a Group of Italian Workers
Abstract
:1. Practioner Points
- Career adaptability positively contributes to the ability to face future challenges associated with difficulties regarding social and work uncertainties;
- Courage can enhance the value of an organization, increasing the levels of life satisfaction in workers;
- Ethics education and training in organizational settings concentrate on rigorous regulation and imposing compliance controls;
- Career counselors can help people develop their courage, set challenging goals, take calculated risks, support their desire for continuous learning and improved performance, and lead them to career success.
2. Introduction
- Career Adaptability. This variable comprehends a series of skills that favorably impact people’s ability to handle their jobs or plan their lives (Rossier 2015). In particular, there are four resources at the center of said variable: (a) concern, the capability to plan the future by taking into consideration who the individual is and whom they wish to become; (b) control, the propensity to consider that the future can be manageable, albeit partially; (c) curiosity, a person’s level of ability to explore the self (as regards knowledge, skills, abilities and values) and the environment; and (d) confidence, the belief that one can face challenges, and successfully cope with obstacles and barriers (Savickas 2011; Savickas and Porfeli 2012).
- Courage. The opportunity to behave courageously often defines special moments of a person’s career. This variable corresponds to “the ability to act for a meaningful (noble, good, or practical) cause, despite experiencing the fear associated with perceived threat exceeding the available resources” (Woodard 2004, p. 174). Courage implies a deliberate sensation to perform actions, according to different levels of fear, when facing a barrier to achieving a significant result or objective, maybe a moral one (Woodard and Pury 2007). Multiple components can be recognized in the definition of courage, among them (1) the existence of a threat and (2) a significant or worthy result. In the work context, Srivastva and Cooperrider (1998) have defined courage as a management virtue and described professional courage as a quality that prompts and empowers people to pursue the right pathway by the ethics of their profession (Harris 1999).
- Life Satisfaction. Life satisfaction is a crucial aspect of an individual’s overall well-being (Pavot and Diener 1993), and the Life Design paradigm considers it an essential outcome in career development (Rossier 2015). Life satisfaction is defined by Diener (2000) as a cognitive process in which individuals evaluate the quality of their lives based on a set of established criteria.
- Research Aims. Considering the Life Design approach, which underscores the importance of courage and career adaptability concerning professional challenges, this study aims to analyze the connection between life satisfaction, courage, and career adaptability in a group of employees. More specifically, a fully mediational model (Figure 1) between life satisfaction and career adaptability is tested through courage.
3. Method
3.1. Participants
3.2. Measures
3.3. Procedure
3.4. Data Analysis
4. Results
4.1. Preliminary Analysis
4.2. Measurement Model
4.3. Structural Model
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
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Men | Women | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 | 3 | M | SD | M | SD | |
1. Career adaptability | 0.460 ** | 0.254 ** | 93.65 | 12.53 | 95.29 | 12.44 |
2. Courage | 0.191 ** | 38.19 | 7.88 | 38.68 | 8.72 | |
3. Life satisfaction | 22.73 | 5.77 | 22.05 | 6.20 |
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Santilli, S.; Valbusa, I.; Rinaldi, B.; Ginevra, M.C. Life Satisfaction, Courage, and Career Adaptability in a Group of Italian Workers. Soc. Sci. 2024, 13, 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13020106
Santilli S, Valbusa I, Rinaldi B, Ginevra MC. Life Satisfaction, Courage, and Career Adaptability in a Group of Italian Workers. Social Sciences. 2024; 13(2):106. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13020106
Chicago/Turabian StyleSantilli, Sara, Isabella Valbusa, Barbara Rinaldi, and Maria Cristina Ginevra. 2024. "Life Satisfaction, Courage, and Career Adaptability in a Group of Italian Workers" Social Sciences 13, no. 2: 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13020106
APA StyleSantilli, S., Valbusa, I., Rinaldi, B., & Ginevra, M. C. (2024). Life Satisfaction, Courage, and Career Adaptability in a Group of Italian Workers. Social Sciences, 13(2), 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13020106