Career authenticity in academia: examining the role of antecedents across gender and academic rank

Daphne L. van Helden*, Laura den Dulk, Bram Steijn, Joke G. Boonstra, Meike W. Vernooij

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
80 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Attention to shaping the direction of one’s career according to personal needs and preferences is growing. However, there is limited understanding how contextual antecedents affect career authenticity. Moreover, little is known about whether antecedents of career authenticity operate in the same way for men compared to women and if the impact of these antecedents differs per position. In this study, we contribute to these gaps in the literature by analysing the role of five antecedents of career authenticity in the academic context. Our analysis is based on a cross-sectional survey collected among a sample of 398 academics working in The Netherlands. It shows that justice in promotion practices is the most important contextual antecedent in explaining career authenticity in academia. After analysing the data using multi-group Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), we found that some antecedents relate differently to career authenticity for men compared to women. Our data also showed how most antecedents operate differently per academic rank. These insights show that higher education institutes can boost their academics’ career authenticity but should tailor such actions to academics of different genders and in different positions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)367-388
Number of pages22
JournalEuropean Journal of Higher Education
Volume14
Issue number3
Early online date19 Apr 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Research programs

  • ESSB PA

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