A model proposal for sustainable career from a complex adaptive system perspective

A career creates a complex mosaic of objective experiences and subjective evaluations, resulting in tremendous variety in how a career can take shape and a wide variety of possibilities for whether one's career will be sustainable. However, in the rapidly changing and transforming global world where careers emerge, sustainable careers have become more and more important for individuals, organizations and societies. In this respect, the first aim of the study is to develop a theory to explain how people can continue their careers in some way. This theory then makes special recommendations in order to understand the factors affecting careers, especially in tourism, and by revealing the elements to be considered accordingly. The second aim is to develop a Sustainable Career Scale (SCS) measurement tool that will help people understand what they should prioritize in their careers. The last aim is to put forward a Sustainable Career Model by making use of the complex adaptive system perspective throughout this whole process. In the study, the factors affecting sustainable career in the tourism sector were determined by using the mixed methods - grounded theory exploratory sequential scale development design. In this sense, in the name of sustainable career in the tourism sector, a theory with 11 factors at the first level and three factors at the second level, and the SCS, which is a measure of this process, has been developed. The study was carried out in three phases, two phases and then synthesis. The first phase of the study was a qualitative grounded theory research with the participation of 20 senior executives who have worked or continue to work in the tourism sector. The second phase includes the scale development phase with the participation of 311 tourism employees. In order to test the theory constructed through a set of information in the qualitative stage, a measurement tool designed with good psychometric properties, the SCS, was developed. In the third phase of the study, the findings obtained from the qualitative and quantitative stages were synthesized. During this synthesis, the Sustainable Career Model was developed with the perspective of the complex adaptive system utilized in the whole process.