Cross-cultural collaboration on contemporary careers

The cross-cultural collaboration on contemporary careers (5C) group is a non-profit consortium of faculty teams from around the world that explores career success and management and variations between the two. In addition to cultural differences, factors such as age (or ‘generation’), familial background, ethnicity, industry, etc. are examined in order to assess their impact upon career differences. The ultimate purpose of the consortium is to improve our understanding of modern careers and advance scholarship, appreciate differences and identify progressive solutions for the management of career issues (e.g. work-life balance and fulfilment) on behalf of individuals, career practitioners, organisations and even societies as a whole.

The 5C research consortium follows two avenues of research, outlined below:

Contextual embeddedness of careers – Every nation has its own unique set of institutional arrangements, deep-seated values, attitudes and beliefs. They inform and are reflected in the operation of the economy and society in general, and the ways in which people work and are managed at work. Career planning, promotion decision-making, individual career decisions and career preferences differ between institutional contexts and according to cultural values such as future orientation, power, distance and individualism. However, the majority of career-focused research has been carried out within individual countries, predominantly those identified as WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic).

This has contributed to a general lack of understanding about the nuances of career-related concepts and the heterogeneous views of work possessed by individuals around the world. Indeed, institutional and cultural perspectives on the professional sphere remain largely overlooked in most research. Key questions to address this include:

• How do culture, institutional context and other macro factors impact conceptions of work and success? To what extent can they be meaningfully compared across cultures?
• To what degree do the concepts of work and success exist in the natural world? To what degree are these ideas defined by individual-level factors (e.g. self-directed career behaviour or personality) versus higher-level factors (e.g. culture, economy, educational level or generation)?
• At the structural level, which context-specific characteristics of careers can be found, for example, in career planning, career paths, career decision-making and promotion criteria?
• At the behavioural level, which context-specific characteristics of careers can be found in individual career management, career expectations, career success and career mobility?

Comparative career research – Beyond a cross-cultural approach that focuses on cultural differences, comparative career research – similar to comparative HRM research – takes a broader view of international careers. It also includes other contextual factors such as institutional arrangements or national boundaries and explicitly compares various contextual settings. Among other effects, this approach leads to a greater emphasis on context and structure, counterbalancing the ‘actor-only’ tendency in careers research to date. Countries can be small or large, have greater or fewer regional differences, include one or many language groups and be more or less economically developed. They may have different labour markets, education systems, employment laws, trade unions and cultural expectations. Research has identified a variety of career models that are pertinent for certain countries in terms of, for example, career entry and development, career paths, career success factors and career transitions within and between organizations. Key questions to address this include:

• How do different institutional factors influence career systems?
• How do careers and career practices vary from country to country?
• What are the comparative similarities and differences between countries and between regions?
• Do we observe patterns of stasis, convergence and/or divergence between countries in terms of career systems and practices over time?
• Who, or what, are the key factors affecting the change (or rigidity) of career systems and practices, and through what processes does change or stasis take place?

A first qualitative interview wave served to create a baseline of factors for professional success. Employees in countries across all continents were surveyed. The second quantitative survey wave served to validate the 5C scale for measuring subjective career success. In addition, extensive data on career expectations, attitudes and behaviour were collected. People from different occupational groups in more than 30 countries on all continents were surveyed. A third survey wave is in preparation. The research methods used include multi-level structural equation modelling (MLSEM), qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and qualitative content analysis.

Interdisciplinary researchers from more than 30 countries are involved in the 5C project. This shows not only the national but, above all, the global social relevance of the study of work and definitions of career success across both physical borders and disciplines.

The results can be used at the political level to assess the potential effects of introducing new regulations. At the organisational level, the findings will help multinational companies in particular to assess the effectiveness of various HR management tools in different countries and to make decisions on localisation versus standardisation. At the individual level, the results support self-reflection.

The conclusions of the second survey wave are presented graphically and can be found online at www.5c.careers.

The research project deals with the question of how individual conceptualisations of work, career success and career transitions differ across cultures, generations or occupational groups. Bamberg contributes extensive expertise in the (qualitative and quantitative) empirical research of careers, career expectations and career paths in various countries, including the insights gained in recent years. A further contribution is the conceptualisation and theoretical foundation of the studies (including theory triangulation) on an interdisciplinary level.

Andresen, M., Apospori, E., Cotton, R., Gunz, H., Hall, D. T., Shen, Y., Bosak, J., Dickmann, M., & Parry, E. (2023). Individuals’ career perceptions in different institutionalized contexts: A comparative study of career actors in liberal, coordinated, hierarchical and Mediterranean market economies. Human Resource Management Journal, in print.https://doi.org.10.1111/1748-8583.12541 (5.667 Impact factor 2022)

Andresen, M., & Stapf, J. (2023). Is career what you make it? A critical review of research on social origin and career success. European Management Journal, 41(6), 1056-1071. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2022.12.008 (Open Access) (6.110 Impact factor 2022)   

Reichel, A., Lazarova, M., Apospori, E., Afiouni, F., Andresen, M., Bosak, J., Parry, E., Bagdadli, S., Briscoe, J., Gianecchini, M., Suzanne, P., & Taniguchi, M. (2023). The disabling effects of enabling social policies on organisations’ human capital development practices for women. Human Resource Management Journal, 33(1), 129-147. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12431 (Open Access) (5.667 Impact factor 2021)

Andresen, M., Lazarova, M., Apospori, E., Cotton, R., Bosak, J., Dickmann, M., Kaše, R., & Smale, A. (2022). Does international work experience pay off? The relationship between international work experience, employability and career success: A 30 country, multi-industry study. Human Resource Management Journal, 32(3), 698-721. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12423 (Open Access) (5.667 Impact factor 2021)

Briscoe, J., Kaše, R., Dries, N., Dysvik, A., Unite, J., Adeleye, I., Andresen, M. et al. (2021). Here, there, & everywhere: Development and validation of a cross-culturally representative measure of subjective career success. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 130(103612), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2021.103612 (6.065 Impact factor)

Bagdadli, S., Gianecchini, M., Andresen, M., Cotton, R., Kaše, R., Lazarova, M., Smale, A., Bosak, J., Briscoe, J., Chudzikowski, K., Dello Russo, S., & Reichel, A. (2021). Human capital development practices and career success: The moderating role of country development and income inequality. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 42(4), 429-447. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2506 (10.079 Impact factor 2021)

Andresen, M. (2021). When at home, do as they do at home? Valuation of self-initiated repatriates’ competences in French and German management career structures. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(4), 789-821. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1511612 (publishes online 2018)

Andresen, M., Apospori, E., Gunz, H., Suzanne, P. A., Taniguchi, M., Lysova, E. I., . . . Zikic, J. (2020). Careers in context: An international study of career goals as mesostructure between societies’ career-related human potential and proactive career behavior. Human Resource Management Journal, 30(3), 365-391. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12247

Dello Russo, S., Parry, E., Bosak, J., Andresen, M., Apospori, E., Bagdadli, S., Chudzikowski, K., Dickmann, M., Ferencikova, S., Gianecchini, M., Hall, D. T., Kaše, R., Lazarova, M., & Reichel, A. (2020). Still feeling employable with growing age? Exploring the moderating effects of developmental HR practices and country-level unemployment rates in the age – employability relationship. The International Journal of Human Resource Management,31(9), 1180-1206.  https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2020.1737833 (6.026 Impact factor 2021)

Gubler, M., Eggenhofer-Rehart, P., Andresen, M., Mandel, D., Mayrhofer, W., Lehmann, P., Schleicher, N. E., & Schramm, F. (2020). Are teachers “same same but different”? The meaning of career success across occupations. Teacher Development, 24(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2019.1691643 (1.8 Impact factor 2021)

Smale, A., Bagdadli, S., Cotton, R., Dello Russo, S., Dickmann, M., Dysvik, A., Gianecchini, M., Kaše, R., Lazarova, M., Reichel, A., Rozo, P., Verbruggen, M., & the Cross‐Cultural Collaboration on Contemporary Careers (5C) research collaborative (2019). Proactive career behaviors and subjective career success: The moderating role of national culture. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 40(1), 105-122. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2316 (8.174 Impact factor 2020)

Andresen, M., & Rosseburg, S. (2023). A carpenter yesterday, an electronic technician today: A Syrian refugee’s career transition and subjective career success upon entering the German labour market. In: J. P. Briscoe, M. Dickmann, D. T. Hall, W. Mayrhofer, & E. Parry (Eds.), Understanding careers around the globe: Stories and sourcebook (pp. 121-130). Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035308415.00022. Open Access: https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook-oa/book/9781035308415/9781035308415.xml

Andresen, M. (2020). Organisational career management outcomes. In H. Gunz, M. Lazarova, & W. Mayrhofer (Eds.), TheRoutledge Companion to Career Studies (pp. 219-241). Routledge.

Andresen, M., & Adam, L. (2015). Erwartungen an Arbeit, Freizeit und Karriere der Generation Y. In H. Fechtrup, W. Hoye, & T. Sternberg (Eds.), Arbeit – Freizeit – Muße – Über eine labil gewordene Balance (pp. 149-180). Lit.

Andresen, M., & Lehmann, P. (2017). New generation, new career orientations? What employers can expect from Generation Y. In R. Schouteten, J. Bücker, & P. Peters (Eds.), Partner(s) at Work (pp. 63-68). Ipskamp Publishing.

Andresen, M., Lehmann, P., Schramm, F., & Schleicher, N. (2016). Forschungsprojekt „5C“ Cross-Cultural Collaboration on Contemporary Careers. Ein internationales Forschungsprojekt zu Karrierezielen und Karrierezufriedenheit von Berufstätigen. Zusammenfassung der deutschen Resultate für Teilnehmende der Umfrage 2014/15. Forschungsprojektbericht, Februar 2016 (22 Seiten)(539.6 KB, 22 pages)

Andresen, M., & Seufert, D. (2020). Rückkehr mit Hindernissen. uni.vers Forschung - Lernen, ein Leben lang: Bamberger Beiträge zur Bildungsforschung, 05/2020, 48-51.

Stapf, J., & Andresen, M. (2021). Like father, like son? The relationship between social origin and career success – A SLR. Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings (ISSN 2151-6561), https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2021.245 (free access).

Stapf, J., & Andresen, M. (2021). Like father, like son? The relationship between social origin and career success – A SLR. In: Proceedings of the 81^st Academy of Management 2021 Annual Meeting, 15260, “Bringing the manager back in management”, Philadelphia/USA (online), July 30-August 3, 2021.

Reichel, A., Afiouni, F., Andresen, M., Apospori, E., Bagdadli, S., Bosak, J., Briscoe, J. P., Gianecchini, M., Parry, E., Taniguchi, M. & Suzanne, P. (2020). Disabling effects of enabling social policies on gender equality in organizational HR development. In: Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2020(1), DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2020.19326abstract. 80th Academy of Management 2020 Annual Meeting, “20/20: Broadening Our Sight”, Vancouver/CAN, August 7-11, 2020.

Andresen, M., Lazarova, M.B., Apospori, E., Cotton, R., & Dickmann, M. (2020). Relationship between international mobility, employability and career success: A 30 country study. In: Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2020(1), 19207, DOI: 10.5465/AMBPP.2020.19207abstract. Academy of Management 2020 Annual Meeting, “20/20: Broadening Our Sight”, Vancouver/CAN, August 7-11, 2020.

Andresen, M., Apospori, E., & Mayrhofer, W. (2020). Same same but different? Career orientations of Generation Y between tradition and modernity. In: Proceedings of the 80^th Academy of Management 2020 Annual Meeting, “20/20: Broadening Our Sight”, Vancouver/CAN, August 7 - 11, 2020.

Buyens, D., Mayrhofer, W., Andresen, M., Arnulf, J.K., Homberg, F., Kalvina, A., Kieran, S., Ludviga, I., & A. Vandenbroucke (2020). New new, new old: Understanding individual and contextual influences on graduates’ career choices. In: Academy of Management Proceedings, 2020(1). 80^th Academy of Management 2020 Annual Meeting, “20/20: Broadening Our Sight”, Vancouver/CAN, August 7-11, 2020.

Ebert, A., & Andresen, M. (2020). Does teachers’ career success relate to their well-being? A typology of teachers based on the congruence between career goals and achievements and its relationship with teachers’ well-being.Academy of Management Careers Division Conference, “Careers in Context: Theorizing in and about Turbulent Times”, Vienna/Austria, February 14-15, 2020.

Andresen, M., Apospori, E., Gunz, H., Cotton, R., & Taniguchi, M. (2020). (Unconscious) differences in individuals’ career conceptions across market economies: A comparative empirical study about the role of Varieties of Capitalism for careers. Academy of Management Careers Division Conference, “Careers in Context: Theorizing in and about Turbulent Times”, Vienna/Austria, February 14 - 15, 2020.

Dello Russo, S., Parry, E., Bosak, J., Andresen, M., Apospori, E., Bagdadli, S., Chudzikowski, K., Dickmann, M., Ferencikova, S., Gianecchini, M., Hall, D. T., Kaše, R., Lazarova, M., & Reichel, A. (2019). Still feeling employable with growing age? Exploring the moderating effects of OCM practices and country-level unemployment rates in the age – employability relationship. 11th Biennial International Conference of the Dutch HRM Network, “The Societal Impact of HRM”, Tilburg/The Netherlands, November 14-15, 2019.

Andresen, M., Cotton, R., Hall, D. T., & Shen, Y. (2019). Does context matter? A comparative empirical study of differences in careers between market economies. In: Proceedings of the Academy of Management 2019 Annual Meeting, Boston/USA, August 9 - 13, 2019.

Andresen, M., Apospori, E., & Briscoe, J. (2019). Comparing careers across countries: New scholarship and directions (Symposium). In: Proceedings of the Academy of Management 2019 Annual Meeting, Boston/USA, August 9-13, 2019.
International Theme Committee’s (ITC’s) Emerald Best International Symposium Award Winner.

Andresen, M., Eggenhofer-Rehart, P., Gubler, M., & Mayrhofer, W. (2019). Connecting vocational personalities and career success conceptualizations. In: Proceedings of the 35th EGOS Colloquium ‘Enlightening the Future: The Challenge for Organizations', Edinburgh/UK, July 4-6, 2019.

Andresen, M., Apospori, E., Gunz, H., & 5C collaboration (2019). Agency and structure in careers: An international empirical study. In: Proceedings of the 3^rd Human Resource International Conference ‘Navigating the Shifting Landscapes of HRM‘, Dublin/Ireland, January 9-11, 2019.

Andresen, M., Bosak, J., Cotton, R., Dickmann, M., & Lazarova, M. (2018). Does an international career pay off? The impact of international work experience on employability and career success. In: Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018(1), 78^thAcademy of Management 2018 Annual Meeting, Chicago/USA, August 10-14, 2018.

Lazarova, M., Bosak, J., & Andresen, M. (2018). Symposium titled "Careers and Career Success Across National Contexts". In: Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018(1), July 1, 2018, Academy of Management 2018 Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL/USA, August 10-14, 2018.

Carolyn Dexter Award 2018 /International Theme Committee’s (ITC’s) Emerald Best International Symposium Award Finalist

Careers Division 2018 Best Symposium Award Finalist, nominated by the Careers Division of the Academy of Management

Eggenhofer-Rehart, P., Andresen, M., Gubler, M., & Mayrhofer, W. (2018). Doing good what money can’t buy? Exploring teachers’ career success preferences in DACH-countries. In: Proceedings of the 34th EGOS Colloquium ‘Surprise in and around Organizations: Journeys to the Unexpected', Tallinn/Estonia, July 5-7, 2018.

Bagdadli, S., Gianecchini, M., Kaše, R., Andresen, M., Bosak, J., Briscoe, … Smale, A. (2018). The impact of organizational career management practices on career success and the moderating role of institutional factors. In: Proceedings of the 34th EGOS Colloquium ‘Surprise in and around Organizations: Journeys to the Unexpected', Tallinn/Estonia, July 5-7, 2018.

Briscoe, J., Kaše, R., Dries, N., Dysvik, A., Unite, J., Adelye, I., Andresen, M. et al. (2017). Minding the gap(s): Development and validation of a cross-cultural measure of subjective career success. In: Proceedings of the 3rd Global Conference on International Human Resource Management, New York/USA, May 18-20, 2017.

Gubler, M., Mandel, D., Andresen, M., & Lehmann, P. (2016). Aspirations, engagement and enablers of success in teachers' careers - A cross-cultural, cross-occupational comparison. In: Proceedings of the EARLI Conference 2016 'Diversity and Inclusion as a Challenge for Teacher Education', Special Interest Group "Teaching and Teacher Education", Zurich/Switzerland, June 20-22, 2016.

Briscoe, J., Andresen, M., Apospori, E., Gunz, H., Lysova, E., Lehmann, P., ... Khapova, S. (2016). Exploring subjective career success around the world: Accounting for agency and structure. Symposium. In: Proceedings of the 76th Academy of Management 2016 Annual Meeting, Anaheim/USA, August 5-9, 2016.

Mandel, D., Andresen, M., & Lehmann, P. (2016). Are teachers different? Teachers' careers vs. careers of other occupational groups. In: Proceedings of the EARLI Conference 2016 'Diversity and Inclusion as a Challenge for Teacher Education', Special Interest Group "Teaching and Teacher Education", Zurich/Switzerland, June 20-22, 2016.

Schleicher, N., Eggenhofer-Rehart, P., Andresen, M., Dickmann, M., Gubler, M., Lehmann, ... Schramm, F. (2015). Subjective career success in the D-A-CH-region - First results of the 5 C survey. In: Proceedings des Herbstworkshops der Kommission Personalwesen des VHB, Graz/Austria, September 24-25, 2015.

Auf dem Sprung.
Interview with Prof. Dr. Maike Andresen, text written by Sophie Crocoll, Konrad Fischer, Leonard Knollenborg, Felix Petruschke
Wirtschaftswoche, 07/2024, p. 16-23.
https://www.wiwo.de/my/erfolg/management/auswandern-tschuess-deutschland/29644312.html

Wichtig ist die Work-Langeweile-Balance
Interview, text written bei Sofie Czilwik
Zeit Online, 15.08.2023
www.zeit.de/campus/2023-08/berufswahl-berufseinstieg-langweiliger-job-stress

Mehr Geld oder mehr Glück?
Interview, text written by Caroline Becker
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Column “Beruf und Chance”, 15.04.2023, p. 29.

Erst das Leben, dann die Arbeit
Interview, text written by Manuela Nagel,
Fränkischer Tag, 30.03.2023, p. 4

Neues Jahr, neuer Job? Zeit für eine Bestandsaufnahme
Interview, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Column “Wirtschaft / Arbeit”, 09.11.2022, https://sz.de/dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-221109-99-449620

Bildung und Arbeit erforschen
Forschungswelten, ZEIT, 26.03.2020, p. 2.
https://www.zeit.de/campus/angebote/forschungskosmos/wissen-fuer-die-gesellschaft/uni-bamberg/bildung-und-arbeit-erforschen