Identity of professional career and employability in managers on mid-level in Chile, Bio Bio Region
Keywords:
Career, Career Identity Complexity, EmployabilityAbstract
This investigation addresses issues of identity construction in the current work context characterized by changing careers and needs for an employable workforce. In order to comprehend the process of construction and negotiation of identity along the career, narrative accounts of careers from a sample of 25 middle-aged middle managers working in the Bio Bio region in Chile were analyzed. Based on theories from psychology of the self, social psychology and the narrative approach we proposed a conceptualization of career identity as a dynamic aggregate of work descriptors that individuals ascribe to themselves, as well as a process of continuous construction of the self at work by means of a narrative. The notion of career identity complexity is suggested as the one that includes different referents of identification in continuously negotiation, with a variety of possible selves embedded in a rich and articulated career narrative. We hypothesize that career identity complexity is an antecedent of employability.
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