Specificity of career orientations among professionals with horizontal career: the case of nursing profession

The article presents research findings on career orientations of professionals with a horizontal career type. A horizontal career involves a gradual increase in the level of professionalism, experience and competence of a specialist without a significant change in job status. A vertical career as advancement from a lower position to a higher one is not possible for all categories of professionals, although it is precisely this that is assessed as socially successful. The subjects were nurses, as an example of a professional group with a typical horizontal career, in which employees remain in the same position for a long period of time. In addition, these professionals represent a socially important type of profession in which a horizontal career is the main one. An analysis of the psychological aspect of a career, an understanding of career orientations as a reflection of the leading values and ideas of employees about their professional path allows us to better understand the motives of employees carrying out professional activities within the framework of a horizontal career and direction, and to clarify the systems of motivation and incentives for employees in conditions of the impossibility of promotion. The results of the study showed that the most important career orientations among those surveyed were “job stability”, “service to society” and “integration of different spheres of life”, which reflects the specifics of the profession, horizontal type of career and the characteristics of this professional group. The analysis of the data showed differences in career orientations and confirmed the assumption about the change in the hierarchy of values at different stages of the horizontal career. It was suggested that it is possible to use the analysis of the nature of career orientations to diagnose personal maturity and professional crises of specialists.

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