Research on Work as a Calling

Not long ago Dr. Bruce Walsh, editor of the Journal of Career Assessment, asked if we would be interested in serving as guest editors for a special issue on calling for the journal. We could not have been more honored with the request and happily took on the role of reviewing and editing the manuscripts for this issue. We believe this topic is timely and important, especially given the influx of scholarly interest in calling over the past 5 years. One only needs to do a quick keyword search on PsycINFO to realize that since 2007, the number of articles, chapters, and dissertations on calling has more than tripled the number written prior to this date. Before 2007, the term calling only appeared in passing in the major vocational psychology journals; but since 2007, research articles specifically investigating calling have appeared in the Journal of Career Assessment, Journal of Career Development, Journal of Vocational Behavior, and the Career Development Quarterly, as well as in The Counseling Psychologist and Journal of Counseling Psychology, among others.

These articles published primarily over the last 5 years continue a long tradition of scholarship on calling within disciplines such as history, philosophy, and theology. However, they represent the early building blocks for what is becoming a foundation of empirical research within psychology, sociology, and management, investigating what it means to seek, experience, and live out a calling in one’s career. As research on this topic emerges from its infancy, much more is needed to strengthen and expand that foundation, encourage researchers to conduct increasingly sophisticated studies, and allow practitioners to have a better feel for how to work with clients’ sense of callings in career counseling.

As scholars devoted to this topic, mindful of its current status, and eager to help encourage new directions for scholarly inquiry on the construct, we sought contributions for this special issue from researchers on the front lines of calling research. Specifically, we targeted four areas which we felt had the most need of attention: (a) research on the measurement of calling and closely related constructs, (b) research with populations from outside the United States, (c) research using methodologies other than cross-sectional survey strategies, such as qualitative and longitudinal designs, and (d) research and theory that explores the possible “dark side” of having a calling, targeting conditions in which seeking, having, or living a calling may lead to negative vocational or well-being outcomes. We are thrilled to address each of these areas in the special issue through the timely contributions of seven articles from 16 authors. Three of these articles report on some of our own recent research, and were reviewed by Dr. Bruce Walsh. We are particularly thrilled that several articles address more than one of these four issues.

Two articles focused specifically on the measurement of calling and the closely related construct of meaningful work. To date, there has been a great need for psychometrically sound instruments to address each of these constructs. Dik, Eldridge, Steger, and Duffy (2012) developed and presented reliability and validity evidence scores on the Calling and Vocation Questionnaire (CVQ) and the Brief Calling Survey (BCS), which are publically accessible instruments that measure participants’ level of calling using a multidimensional approach rooted in theory. Similarly, Steger, Dik, and Duffy (2012) constructed and established initial psychometric support for scores on the Work and Meaning Inventory (WAMI) using a large sample of employed adults. This study makes an important contribution to the study of calling as meaningful work is often viewed as a broader construct that subsumes a sense of calling. We suspect that all three of these instruments will be useful tools for researchers.

Two articles using samples from outside the United States, by Domene (2012) and Hirschi and Hermann (2012), focused on the mechanisms underlying the link between calling and vocational and well-being outcomes. Domene (2012), surveying a large sample of Canadian university students, found calling to positively correlate with outcome expectations and self-efficacy, and found self-efficacy to fully mediate the link between calling and outcomes expectations. His study also is the first to examine calling using the multidimensional approach afforded by the CVQ. Hirschi and Hermann (2012) used a short-term longitudinal design to study the links between calling, vocational identity achievement, and life satisfaction among a sample of German university students. Calling was found to predict vocational identity achievement, but not life satisfaction, 6 months after the initial data collection. An intriguing result from this study was that after controlling for a student’s vocational identity achievement, calling was found to be negatively related to life satisfaction, and the authors offer some insightful discussion of what may explain this relation.

One study in this special issue used qualitative methods to explore the rich experience of having a calling. Specifically, Duffy et al. (2012) interviewed eight counseling psychologists who viewed their career in this fashion to understand how their calling developed, how they defined the construct, how they lived it out, and how it impacted their lives both professionally and personally. Results suggested that definitions of calling were diverse and that all participants reported that serving others was a critical part of their calling. Another study by Dobrow and Tosti-Kharas (2012) studied a group of aspiring musicians longitudinally over a 7-year period to understand how viewing one’s career as a calling interacted with being receptive to career advice. Supporting their hypotheses, the authors found evidence that those with a calling were significantly more likely to ignore career advice from trusted mentors, perhaps touching on the dark side of a calling. This same pattern of results was replicated by a second study with business students. Finally, complementing the Dobrow and Tosti-Kharas (2012) study, Cardador and Caza (2012) presented a theoretical model concerning the pursuit of healthy versus unhealthy callings. Here, the authors argue that the pursuit of a calling may actually lead to unhealthy work and personal outcomes when individual’s work identities are inflexible or when an individuals’ work and personal relationships suffer due to her or his passion for the job.

We believe these articles collectively make an important contribution to the vocational psychology literature in general and scholarship on calling in particular. These articles were composed by a diverse of group of scholars, representing three countries and two fields of study. The articles also present a range of topics and methodologies—scale construction, qualitative research, and longitudinal research targeting well-being outcomes and career-related outcomes, with important implications for theory. It has been a privilege to review and edit these manuscripts and we hope they are useful for researchers and practitioners.