Development and validation of career sustainability scale for mid-career employees

A sustainability perspective on careers builds a resilient career system by simultaneously considering individual's current career needs and long-term career outcomes. The individual career agent's strategy for achieving a sustainable career is a powerful approach to career development in an environment where an individual's proactive career competencies are emphasized. Mid-career individuals, especially those facing career transitions, need to increase their sustainability by maintaining, renewing, and developing their current careers. To support sustainable career development for mid-career employees, a tool is needed to objectively diagnose the level of career sustainability, taking into account the characteristics of their career transitions. The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a mid-career employee career sustainability scale. The research methodology comprised four systematic scale development processes. First, an integrated literature review was conducted to develop a conceptual model of mid-career career sustainability. Second, an initial pool of career sustainability items was developed and subjected to expert content validation. Third, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on 257 participants to verify the reliability and validity of the preliminary items. Finally, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on 534 participants to finalize the final items. The participants were all mid-career employees aged 40-55 currently employed in Korean organizations. The new scale reliably and validly measured mid-career career sustainability across four dimensions: meaning perception of career sustainability, skill acquisition for career sustainability, relationship building for career sustainability, environmental awareness for career sustainability.