Because of recent developments in organisations, such as the introduction of life course savings schemes, the expected increase of the retirement age, resulting life stage policies and the increasing diversity of employees, the extant theories about careers are no longer up to date. Therefore, the department Management & Organisation of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is currently conducting a large-scale research project on careerdeterminants. Careerdeterminants are individual factors, such as personality, learning style and behaviour, and situational factors, such as learning possibilities and policy, that affect career outcomes, such as salary growth, well-being and satisfaction.

The research project differs from traditional questionnaire research on multiple aspects. First of all, the research is tailor-made: relevant and current themes for the organisation and how these can be addressed in the research project is determined in collaboration with the organisation. Secondly, the research design is longitudinal: to be able to reveal causal relationships within careers (for example a change in job position on time A leads to more satisfaction on time B) we want to collect data from a longer timeframe. Thirdly, we use a web based survey: respondents fill in the questionnaire on their own pc, which costs little time, and increases response rates.

On this site you find news, the agenda, presentations, academic publications (which you can request), more information about the research project, such as background, the theoretical model, the research questions, the data collection and the feedback we provide to the participating organisations, current research, the research group, links and contact information.