Recognising that many workers worldwide often face poverty and exploitation, the International Labour Organisation aims to promote decent and productive work opportunities for all. We conducted a scoping review to get an overall view of current academic literature on decent work and precarious work for samples of blue-collar workers. The studies…

Career pattern is a useful methodological resource to generate portraits of career constructions. This article has two interconnected objectives. Through a literature review, it first aimed to synthesise the main contemporary career patterns. And second, using a qualitative approach, it sought to build contemporary narrative patterns of career…

Given the critical role of higher education in fostering social mobility and access to decent work, our study investigates how the college experience, shaped by social marginalization and economic constraints, influences students' academic engagement and work volition before and during COVID-19. Drawing from the psychology of working theory (PWT)…

This study explores the relationship between leadership style and psychological contract dimensions. The literature suggests that leaders in general and leadership style in particular can influence the psychological contracts of employees. Currently, there is no research as to how leaders perceive such contracts. This qualitative study presents…

Employability drives higher education policy yet despite the investment in developing 'rounded' graduates, students experience difficulties in articulating their achievements and capabilities during graduate recruitment. The purpose of this research was to trial and evaluate a career development intervention aimed at drawing on work experiences…

Previous scholarly work has elaborated on challenges faced by Chinese international returnees at Chinese workplaces. However, limited research has captured to what extent such challenges have involved Chinese Australian graduates in gaining employment in China. Hence this study investigates the challenges involved in obtaining successful…

The purpose of this article is to explore the "value" of creative workers' work from their perspective. The work of this group is often ephemeral and intangible, contributes to the development of society, and is often very poorly remunerated. Qualitative responses from a large survey of creative workers' work experience and attitudes…

This study examined the interactive effect of organizational career management practices and different types of work experience on career satisfaction and intention to quit the organization in 386 Indian employees. The results showed that after controlling for the effect of the demographic variables and organizational career management practices,…

In this article we examine the career paths of top-level managers in the arts. By analysing the training and work history of 23 managers in a variety of arts organisations we evaluate the utility of several existing theories for understanding careers that are characterised by low levels of initial knowledge, the absence of a clear method of entry…

A study is reported that investigates the relationship between career decision status, quantity and quality of work experience obtained by university students. Career decision status is the term used to capture an individual's level of decidedness and comfort with their career decisions and the reasons underlying this state (Jones & Lohmann,…

A survey of 1,451 Australian secondary students indicated that 18% participated in structured work placements, 54% in other paid work experience. Despite claims of the superiority of structured placements, other types of work experience also enhanced career awareness, improved self-esteem, and contributed to school-to-work transition. (Contains 28…

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…