Nadya Fouad

Outcome expectations, an integral theoretical component of social cognitive career theory, remains almost completely unexamined in the domain of academic persistence, or the decision a student makes to remain in college. This study sought to develop a theoretically derived scale to measure outcome expectations. An initial item pool was developed and sent to a sample of college students. A second, confirmatory sample of undergraduate students was collected via an online crowdsourcing platform. Results suggested the presence of a two-factor structure was the most parsimonious solution across both samples. The two factors retained across both samples reflected positive and negative outcome expectations that students perceived about remaining in college for the year. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Despite consistent increases of women and racial/ethnic minorities in the U.S. workforce over the last 60 years, there remains unequal distribution of these populations across occupations, suggesting ongoing factors contributing to occupational segregation. Scholars have identified both internal and external factors contributing to these disparities that need to be better understood to improve occupational equity for women and racial/ethnic minorities. Internal barriers, such as opportunities to develop a breadth of vocational interests or poor exposure to opportunities to develop confidence in various types of occupations, as well as external factors, such as discrimination, lack of acculturation, or lack of role models, may limit the occupational options for racial/ethnic minorities and perpetuate occupational segregation. This essay explores the barriers that coalesce to inform occupational segregation and provides …

The collective changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic impacting both individual workers and their environment suggest that changes occurred in workers’ person-environment fit. Drawing from the Theory of Work Adjustment and job crafting theory to examine how the pandemic may have shifted workers’ needs and the environmental reinforcers that lead to satisfaction, the purpose of this study was to explore how members of the U.S. workforce have adapted to the personal and environmental changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 439 participants were recruited through Prolific to participate in the study. Regression analyses were conducted to predict workers’ changes in values, occupational reinforcers, P-E fit, and adjustment styles. Results indicated (a) that participants who changed jobs during the pandemic reported greater job satisfaction with their new position, (b) that some work …

PurposeBased on the resource-based theory, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between operational employment levels of gender diversity and business performance over a multi-year period. This study also explores if gender parity moderates this relationship and how gender diversity is directionally developed.Design/methodology/approachA cross-lagged panel design and path analysis is applied to a global data set of women employees, women managers and women senior executives – in relation to revenue, of over 6,000 companies over the six-year period from 2012 to 2017.FindingsOverall results confirm a positive relationship between women managers and revenue over a multi-year period for all companies. A moderating analysis also finds a positive relationship between total women employees (as well as women managers) and revenue growth of companies headquartered in …

The career development of women has been a longstanding topic of inquiry in vocational psychology. Two previous major reviews in this area consistently identified that women tend to experience more career barriers than men. This major contribution sought to extend this work by providing a third systematic review of the literature on women’s career development. We focused our review explicitly on the experiences of women rather than women compared to men. We seek to answer the question that has been asked for 50 years: Do we need a separate theory of women’s career development? Our findings suggest that women experience several barriers at various stages during the trajectory of their careers. We make the case that perceptions of career barriers are an integral construct to women’s career experiences and theoretical prepositions in vocational psychology should explicitly capture this construct in …

Vocational psychology has long argued that career opportunities differ for individuals from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds. Yet, despite decades of research, are we closer to understanding the role of race and ethnicity in career development? The purpose of this article is to systematically review and critique research on racial/ethnic minorities in vocational psychology since critique of the research, with a particular emphasis on whether research with racial/ethnic minorities is theory-based, incorporates an intersectional framework, focuses on aspects of identity, and examines environmental and societal aspects of career development. We use our conclusions from that review to make a set of recommendations that we hope will stimulate future research.

In the following rejoinder, we respond to Betz, Phillips, Flores, and colleagues’ reactions to Fouad et al.’s major contribution (2023 [this issue]) on women’s career development. Particularly, we respond to comments highlighting the importance of studying individual differences along intersectional lines in explaining vocational behavior. We contend that this level of nuance in understanding people’s career decisions is necessary in order to build a diverse vocational science capable of informing multiple levels of intervention.

Person–environment fit is defined as the compatibility that occurs when individual and work environment characteristics are well matched. Models of person–environment (PE) fit have always been a prominent theme in the field of industrial and organizational psychology. The notion that people are differentially compatible in particular work environments is so well accepted that Saks and Ashforth (1997) called the topic" a cornerstone of industrial/organizational psychology and human resources management". B. Schneider (2001) concluded that" the concept of person–environment fit is so pervasive as to be one of, if not the, dominant conceptual forces in the field". Yet in the same article, B. Schneider also notes," There is considerable ambiguity over what is appropriate research from a person–environment fit perspective". Thus, the purpose of this chapter is as much to review where research on PE fit has been as it …