Academic Career Development: A Review and Research Agenda

Academic career development refers to the process by which employers as well as scholarsworking in research, teaching, and/or administrative roles in academic and higher education contexts manage various tasks, behaviors, and experiences within and across jobs and organizations over time, with implications for scholars’ work-related identity. In this review article, we address the question: to what extent has conceptual and empirical research on academic career development captured central constructs and processes outlined by two important and comprehensive career development theories? Using social cognitive career theory and life-span, life-space theory as guiding frameworks, we categorized relevant articles published in academic journals into five thematic clusters: (a) individual characteristics, (b) contextual factors, (c) active regulation of behavior, (d) career stages, and (e) work and nonwork roles. Within these thematic clusters, major topics in the existing literature on academic career development include gender differences and women’s experiences, mentoring and other career development interventions, and career development in the field of medicine. In contrast, social and cognitive processes, action regulation, later career stages, and the work-nonwork interface have been neglected in the literature on academic career development. We conclude by outlining an agenda for future research, including theoretical and methodological considerations.