What is it about?
This article reports from a study that examined the career decision-making of 693 creative industries workers. The participants reflected on formative moments and career decision-making. We applied the theoretical model of self-authorship, which provides a way of understanding how people employ their sense of self to make meaning of their experiences. The self-authorship process emerged as a complex, non-linear and consistent feature of career decision-making.
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Why is it important?
Theoretical contributions include a non-linear view of self-authorship that exposes the authorship of visible and covert multiple selves prompted by both proactive and reactive identity work. The study has implications for educators, workers, and organisations. Although the article does not have an educational focus, we also emphasise that across higher education, awareness of creative industries practice is often overlooked in favour of developing technical expertise.
Perspectives
Self-authorship has most often been applied to higher education contexts, and we see huge potential for its use within career. This is because careers are increasingly non-linear. In our sample, participants were sometimes at multiple points of self-authorship in their different roles.
Professor Dawn Bennett
Curtin University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Self-authorship and creative industries workers’ career decision-making, Human Relations, March 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0018726717747369.
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