Building a Sustainable Career: A Conservation of Resources Approach

The sustainable careers literature has thrived in recent years, led by diverse conceptualizations and empirical investigations. We adopt a person-centred approach to investigate how individual factors of working professionals contribute to achieving career sustainability. We draw on the conservation of resources (COR) theory to propose that personal resources (e.g., career competencies) and organizational resources (e.g., organizational career management practices) jointly influence career sustainability by promoting proactive career behaviors. We collected two-wave data from a sample of 414 full-time working professionals employed in different organizations in India. The results suggest that career competencies positively impact career sustainability. This relationship manifests through proactive career behaviors. Further, these relationships become stronger with the support of organizational career management practices. The current study findings contribute to the sustainable careers literature by enhancing our understanding of how personal and organizational resources contribute to crafting a sustainable career.