How and when future orientation shapes weekly career adaptability

Abstract

Previous research has revealed higher career adaptivity leads to higher career adaptability from between-person perspective. However, the construction of career adaptability is dynamic rather than static, so how career adaptivity influences episode-level career adaptability from a within-person perspective is critical but unknown. Drawing on career construction theory, we examined how future orientation, considered part of career adaptivity, influences weekly career adaptability. One wave of between-person data (N = 97) and four waves of within-person data (repeated measures) were collected from undergraduates in a Chinese university. The results found that future orientation positively predicted weekly career adaptability, and weekly future work self-mediated the relationship between them. Loneliness negatively moderated the relationship between future orientation and weekly future work self and further negatively moderated the indirect effect of weekly future work self between future orientation and weekly career adaptability. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.