Designing an Structural-Interpretive Model (ISM) of the factors affecting Career Proactivity

The present study was conducted with the aim of identifying the factors influencing the formation of career proactivity.

The research method is qualitative and using Interpretive-Structural Modeling (ISM) method. The research community in the literature review section included all related articles, theses and books from 1996 to 2023. In the interview with specialists, the research community included career counseling specialists and industrial and organizational psychologists (including faculty members and consultants working in counseling centers) at 2023. In this research, the data were collected using demographic characteristics questionnaire, pairwise comparison questionnaire and interviews with experts and were analyzed using structural-interpretive modeling and MICMAC analysis.

The results showed that 10 factors has an effect on the career proactivity and based on the structural-interpretive model, it contains three levels of independent or key variables, relational and dependent. The proactive behavior variable as an independent and key variable had the most influence and the least dependence compared to the variables mentioned at other levels in the model.

Being proactive in career requires being equipped with special behaviors, cognitions and skills that give a person the ability to control, guide and successfully advance the career. Therefore, paying attention to these skills and acquiring competencies related to them provides the basis for enriching career in today's world.