Article 2015

Hope in Adolescent Careers: Mediating Effects of Work Motivation on Career Outcomes in Swiss Apprentices

Journal of Career Development
Journal · Vol. 42 · Issue 5 · pp. 381-395
Abstract

Being hopeful is critical for individuals who are engaged in vocational pursuits. However, the empirical research examining how and why hope is related to work and career outcomes remains sparse. We evaluate a model that proposes that dispositional hope affects job performance and turnover intentions through increased work motivation in terms of autonomous goals (reason to motivation), positive affective experience at work (energized to motivation), and occupational self-efficacy beliefs (can do motivation). The hypotheses were tested among 590 Swiss adolescents in vocational education and training using path analysis and multiple mediation analyses. The results revealed that hope was positively related to all three motivational states and supervisor-rated job performance and negatively related to turnover intentions. Positive affect mediated the effects of hope on turnover intentions and performance. Autonomous goals mediated the effects of hope on turnover intentions. These results support the importance of hope to employee well-being and organizational outcomes. © 2015, © Curators of the University of Missouri 2015.

Keywords

Author Keywords

work motivation performance hope adolescent career turnover intentions

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
University of Bern, Bern, BE, Switzerland
Warwick Business School, Coventry, West Midlands, United Kingdom
Funding & Acknowledgements
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, SNF
Grant: 140279
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Andreas Hirschi and Domingo Valero were supported by Grant 140279 (Project “The motivational system of career choices: Effects on choice implementation and career success”) from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
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