The role of adaptability in career development and progression

If there’s anything that shows human gumption, it’s their ability to adapt. Human beings have adapted to survive and thrive across all domains of life. So why should a career, which is an integral part of our lives today, be any different?

Adaptability is defined as the capacity to hone and use psychosocial resources necessary to make changes in the self and the situation. An adaptable person in the workplace keeps up with moving priorities, projects, clients, and technology. They're adept at dealing with changes at work, whether process updates or their work environment. But how closely is the ability to adapt linked to career progression and satisfaction?

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Adaptability, career progression and satisfaction

Now more than ever, employees are faced with a constantly changing work environment as a result of job restructuring, technological advancements, globalization and more. These changes have made careers less predictable and made employees increasingly responsible for their own career development. In this landscape, customized career paths have gained importance, and personal resources, such as career adaptability, are becoming more and more relevant for career development.

Career construct theory, as posited by Savickas (2005), provides a way of thinking about how individuals choose and use work. It focuses on how they use their vocational personality to adapt to a sequence of job changes while remaining faithful to oneself and recognizable by others. It views an individual’s adaptability from school to work, from job to job and occupation to occupation as fostered by five principal types of behaviour: orientation, exploration, establishment, management and disengagement. Career construct theory describes the self as being built from outside-in, rather than inside-out.

Hence, the attitudes, beliefs and competencies are grouped into four dimensions of adaptability: concern, control, curiosity and confidence. Which means that an adaptive individual is conceptualized as a) becoming concerned about the vocational future, b) increasing personal control over one's vocational future, c) displaying curiosity by exploring possible selves and future scenarios and d) strengthening the confidence to pursue one's aspirations.

Research by Hirschi et all (2015) also favours the psychological trait of willingness when it comes to adaptability. This helps individuals meet the unfamiliar, complex, and ill-defined problems presented by vocational development tasks, occupational transitions, and work traumas and provides the self-regulation required as a way to cope with the same.

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The final word

As Savickas puts it, career construct theory describes the self as being built from outside-in, rather than inside-out. A high level of adaptive outcomes is more likely to be achieved for those who are willing and able to perform behaviours that address changing conditions. A correlation analysis undertaken by Utrecht University[1] implied that the level of career satisfaction and job satisfaction will increase as and when the level of adaptability increases, or vice versa.

[1] Utretch University