The Connotation And Source Of Scientific Researchers’ Calling And Its Mechanism Of How To Influence Career Success

Recently, the concept of calling has received widely attention in the theoretical and practical circle. It has been proved by considerable researches in West that calling can bring a series of positive outcomes about the life and the work (Dik & Duffy,2009). While, among thoses, empirical studies based on the theories are rare (Praskova, Hood,& Creed,2014). Furthermore, viewing the connotation and source of the concept, we can figure out that "calling" has a similar development path in West and China (Zhang, Wei, & Zhang,2012). However, since the unique cultural context in China, such as the emphasis on the relationship between calling and fate, ancestors and the family (He, 2012), it remains to be discussed on the connotation, structure and the formation of scientific researchers’calling. Combining the Chinese cultural background, and the methods of questionnaire and case study, our study discusses the connotation, formation and function of scientific researchers’calling preliminary but fully, and finds that calling comes from within, and is a high-level career motivation of great significance to scientific research personnel.Firstly, based on the theoretical perspective of career calling to career success proposed by Hall & Chandler (2005), study one aims at investigating the mechanism how scientific researchers’calling influence their career success. Our study tests the model proposed by Hall & Chandler (2005) in Chinese cultural background for the first time, with the sample of 166 university researchers. Results show that the mediation chain of hard-working to goal commitment completely mediate the relationship between career calling and career success, and hard-working also completely mediates the relationship between career calling and goal commitment.Study two use the method of case studies, aiming at clarifying the connotation of career calling in Chinese context. Research data is the first ten biographies published by the acquisition project of the old scientists’ academic development data. Based on the coding, inducing and comparing of the cases, two points are found:(1) All the old scientist have a relative high level of career calling; (2) The old scientists’calling, brought by the work itself, is a strong and durable sense of purpose and meaning in the work roles with altruistic tendency. Namely, responsibility, meaning/purpose, prosocial behavior tendency, and longevity are all included.Study three intends to analyze the influencing factors of the old scientists’career calling, using the same methods and objects with study two. Results show that, the formation of the old scientists’career calling relates to (1) personal factors, like values, interests, and talents; (2) organizational and family factors, such as organization climate, organization needs, and family support; (3) national factors, like time features and national needs; (4) the interactive effects between individuals and contexts, and among the nation, organization, and individual. Namely, through introspection and reviewing, on one hand the national destiny determines organizational needs and then influences personal efforts in a way from top to bottom, on the other hand, individual’s interests and talents promote organizational needs and then respond national needs in the other way from bottom to top.Finally, we rethink the deficiency of this research from the perspective of methods and samples, propose the future direction, and discuss the theoretical and practical significance of the research.