Twenty-five years of career growth literature: a review and research agenda
Industrial and Commercial Training
ISSN: 0019-7858
Article publication date: 13 December 2021
Issue publication date: 3 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The dynamic career scenario and the significant change from traditionally placing careers in employers’ hands to self-managing one’s careers have sparked profound scholarly interest in career growth. This paper aims to analyze quadricentennial literature on career growth published during the years 1995 through 2020. In this paper, through bibliometric and integrative reviews, the authors address the two critical questions, “what do we know?” and “where should we go?” While the bibliometric review examines the evolution and trends, the integrative review examines the dynamics of conceptual frameworks, primary research foci, research context and quality in research designs and methods.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines to identify the papers for this review. The data set comprised 102 papers and 60 papers for bibliometric and integrative review, respectively. “CiteSpace” is used for the bibliometric analysis and the template designed by the authors is used for the integrative review.
Findings
The results present conceptual clarification for career growth and its related constructs. The bibliometric analysis findings highlight the extensive research on career growth followed by organizational career growth and career growth opportunities. The findings also show that seven of the top 10 productive authors are from China. This study also identifies theoretical, conceptual and methodological opportunities and provides recommendations intended to further research engagements across the different aspects of career growth.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to introduce bibliometric analysis into career growth literature. This research adopts an integrative review approach and offers insights into career growth literature.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest concerning the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.FundingThe authors have received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.We thank the reviewer for the thoughtful and thorough review. We believe the reviewer’s inputs have been invaluable in improving our manuscript.
Citation
Modem, R., Lakshminarayanan, S., Pillai, R. and Prabhu, N. (2022), "Twenty-five years of career growth literature: a review and research agenda", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 54 No. 1, pp. 152-182. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-04-2021-0030
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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