Phenomenology of Career Change in the Malaysian Workforce

Evolution in economy, technology and social institutions over time have given rise toboundaryless and Protean careers that promote mobility and self-direction in managing one'scareer. This has led to the phenomenon of career change whereby individuals undertake ashift from one field of work to a completely different field of work. In career change research,career changers have been studied as a collective, singular group undergoing a similar changeexperience, which neglects individual differences that may contrast the experience of changefrom one changer to another. Furthermore, the emotional experience that accompanies acareer change has been examined with a primary focus on the role of positive emotions,which overlooks the role of negative emotions in career change. Thus, this book sheds lighton three key narratives of career change; Rejectors, Navigators and Seekers, that wereidentified in a phenomenological study of career change amongst Malaysian working adults.Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 career changers across age, gender andethnicity with a focus on how they made sense and meaning of their lived experience ofcareer change within their environment and context. Each career change narrative was foundto have different characteristics, motivations and behaviors respectively, which shaped theirunique career change process. Negative emotions were also revealed as key drivers of thecareer change process, although each narrative expressed different types of negative emotions.Finally, the book also introduces an adaptive perspective to career development by way of theAdaptive Career Construal Model (ACCM) which was proposed based on the continuous bi-directional relationship between career decisions and career outcomes.