The Relationship between Employees’ Career Self-management and Career Sustainability: A Latent Profile Analysis

In accordance with the increasingly dynamic career environment, employees’ proactive self-management has become pivotal to sustaining long-term employability. Although both theoretical and empirical studies have shown the benefits of career self-management, most studies have ignored the interwind relationships between different career self-management. Drawing on a diverse sample of 368 Chinese employees across occupations, this study employs latent profile analysis to uncover latent patterns of career self-management and examines their differential associations with career sustainability. Three empirically distinct profiles emerged: low, moderate, and high career self-management. These three profiles differed in predicting career sustainability. Employees with high career self-management exhibit the strongest positive effect on career sustainability. These findings extend career development theory by integrating person-centered insights into career sustainability research and provide human resource practitioners with evidence-based guidance for tailoring developmental support to employees’ self-management capacities.

Keywords: Career Self-Management, Career Sustainability, Latent Profile Analysis, Perceived Employability.