Despite the diversity of entry points into academia, little research exists examining the experiences and impact of precarious employment at different life stages. Drawing on interviews with 19 academics employed casually or on fixed-term contracts in Australian universities, this paper illustrates how precarious employment is experienced at…

This qualitative study explored the conceptualizations of career development success among young women who had formerly aged-out of out-of-home care settings in Canada, addressing the central question: How do young people who were formerly in out-of-home care and self-identify as experiencing career development success conceptualize their career…

The literature on the lived experiences of early-career researchers (ECRs) has not fully leveraged the analytical potential of the concepts of 'sponsorship' and 'gatekeeping' when examining the importance of senior scholars in their work lives. This article conceptualises the micro-politics of seniors' sponsorship of ECRs based on 19…

The dual labor market theory (DLM) posited the existence of two distinct labor markets working in parallel. A primary one is a place where high wages, employment stability and high opportunities for advancement are the norms. On the other hand, low wages, arbitrariness and less desirable working conditions determine a secondary market. The main…

Purpose: From a workplace learning perspective, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between conditions for learning and stressful work and, to analyse the learning conditions that support the management of stressful work. The model of effort-reward imbalance (ERI) is adopted as an indicator of stressful work by measuring the…

Work is a significant factor in mental health and wellbeing outcomes. Career development processes can be helpful in finding and managing work trajectories that lead to these as well as additional wellbeing outcomes. Conversely, mental illness can impede the acquisition and retention of suitable work as well as the ability to fully engage in…

The McDonaldization of higher education refers to the transformation of universities from knowledge generators to rational service organizations or "McUniversities". This is reflected in the growing dependence on a casualized academic workforce. The article explores the extent to which the McDonaldization thesis applies to universities…

In the continuously changing society and knowledge-intensive economy, the demand for the recurrent updating of competencies is coming to the fore for all employees, including low-qualified employees. Employees are considered low qualified when they do not have a starter qualification for higher education. Although many educational studies have…

Without any doubt happiness among staff in any organization is pertinent to ensure continued growth and development. However, not many studies were carried out to determine the domains that will be able to measure the level of happiness among staff in universities. Thus, the aim of this study is to elicit the domains that explain the overall…

Non-tenure-track (NTT) research faculty are perhaps the most under-recognized group of academic professionals on the campuses today, despite their increasingly important role within the expanding academic research enterprise. The American Association for the Advancement of Science reports that the amount of federal spending on R&D has more than…

Insecurity haunts many working people as corporations restructure and remove the underpinnings of career-long employment that sustains workers' confidence in their future. Unless workers adapt to managing their own careers, they may see the future as a reign of terror rather than the dawn of a promising era. (Author/JOW)

Collectively, globalisation and flexibility strategies have changed the nature and structure of employment, and as such careers academics, careers practitioners and governments have argued that individuals need to manage their careers in fundamentally new ways to ensure continued employment. We have become concerned that the promise of shared…