Abstract
Career researchers have focused on the mechanisms related to career progression. Although less studied, situations in which traumatic life events necessitate a discontinuous career transition are becoming increasinglyprevalent. Employing amultiplecasestudymethod, we offera deeperunderstanding ofsuch transitions by studying an extreme case: soldiers and Marines disabled by wartime combat. Our study highlights obstacles to future employment that are counterintuitive and stem from the discontinuous and traumatic nature of job loss. Effective management of this type of transitioning appears to stem from efforts positioned to formulate a coherent narrative of the traumatic experience and thus to reconstruct foundational assumptions about the world, humanity, and self. These foundational assumptions form the basis for enacting future-orientated career strategies, such that progress toward establishing a new career path is greatest for those who can orientate themselves away from the past (trauma), away from the present (obstacles to a new career), and toward an envisioned future career positioned to confer meaning and purpose through work.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | A Psychological Approach to Entrepreneurship |
Subtitle of host publication | Selected Essays of Dean A. Shepherd |
Publisher | Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. |
Pages | 340-363 |
Number of pages | 24 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781783479801 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781783479795 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 26 2014 |
Keywords
- Careers
- Coping
- Disability
- Entrepreneurship
- Identity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Economics, Econometrics and Finance
- General Business, Management and Accounting
- General Psychology