key: cord-0685598-i7mtsumc
authors: Duperouzel, L. Christian
title: Pavers of the way: Enablers to a lived calling in an Australian context
date: 2021-09-30
journal: Int J Educ Vocat Guid
DOI: 10.1007/s10775-021-09503-1
sha: 1c5614a522bcf3d86e5aeb78106e9f647ae245b0
doc_id: 685598
cord_uid: i7mtsumc

The aim of this paper is to identify and explore ‘enablers’ to a lived calling: those people, things or events that pave the way for individuals to live their calling. These enablers emerged from a study of sixty-five Australian respondents across a range of industries. The results of the research, which utilised the grounded theory research methodology and collected data using semi-structured interviews, showed that the most prominent enablers to a lived calling were: (1) embracing opportunities and making the most of them; (2) support from others; (3) self-confidence/belief; (4) education and financial resources; (5) luck and (6) experience.

In the modern age of increasing work mobility and multiple work roles being engaged in over the course of one's working life, people are becoming more reluctant to partake in a job or career that does not allow them to give voice to who they are essentially (Weiss et al., 2003) . Studies by Lerner (1996) , as cited in Duchon and Plowman (2005) , highlighted that more and more people want their day-to-day work to be connected to a larger purpose in life, and filled with meaning in the process. According to Frankl (1992) , a human being's main motivation for living is their will to find meaning in life, and he asserts that one of the main ways that they can discover this meaning in life is by creating a work or doing a deed.

As my research and other studies have found, it is in the living of one's calling that one can find and sustain this meaning in life (Duperouzel, 2016; Bunderson & Thompson, 2009; Hall & Chandler, 2005) . Other beneficial effects that these early studies on calling have shown include greater work and life satisfaction (Douglass et al., 2016; Duffy et al., 2012a; Peterson et al., 2009; Wrzesniewski et al., 1997) ; increased well-being with reduced incidents of stress and depression (Duffy et al., 2010; Gazica & Spector, 2015; Lee et al., 2020; Treadgold, 1999) ; experiences of inspiration (O'Grady, 2011; O'Grady & Richards, 2011) ; clarity of self-concept (Duffy & Sedlacek, 2007; Treadgold, 1999) ; more engaged and adaptive career development (Constantine et al., 2006; Domene et al., 2012) ; enhanced organizational effectiveness and productivity (Fry & Slocum Jr., 2008; Jeon et al., 2013) and stronger career commitment and job involvement (Jia et al., 2021; Scheitle & Adamczyk, 2016; Serow et al., 1992; Serow, 1994) . As point out, this developing research on calling has thus far demonstrated a highly consistent pattern of results.

In the study, I operationally defined a lived calling as 'a consuming, meaningful passion or purpose that people experience toward a domain that is consistently expressed in their daily lives' (Duperouzel, 2016, pp. 13-14) . This operational definition is consistent with many of the scholarly definitions of calling (Berg et al., 2010; Vallerand et al., 2003; Wrzesniewski et al., 1997) , and finds its foundation in the definition articulated by Dobrow and Tosti-Kharas (2011, p. 1005) .

With a calling being something that is experienced and understood at a personal level (Rehm, 1990) , there is little uniformity in how the concept is defined. Dik and Duffy (2009, p. 427 ) define a calling as:

A transcendent summons, experienced as originating beyond the self, to approach a particular life role in a manner oriented towards demonstrating or deriving a sense of purpose or meaningfulness and that holds other-oriented values and goals as primary sources of motivation.

Articulating the concept in secular terms are Wrzesniewski et al. (1997) , who characterise a calling as encompassing deep fulfilment in work that serves a social purpose and thereby makes the world a better place. Both Bunderson and Thompson (2009, p. 37) , who state that a "sense of a calling is that place within the occupational division of labour in society that one feels destined to fill by virtue of particular gifts, talents, and/or idiosyncratic life opportunities", and Elangovan et al., (2010, p. 430) , who understand a calling as "a course of action in pursuit of pro-social intentions embodying the convergence of an individual's sense of what he or she would like to do, should do, and actually does", represent the neoclassical view of modern callings, which Yaden et al. (2015) note, put a sense of duty and moral responsibility to serving the greater good (or a higher power) at the centre of what it means to be called. Research by Hirschi (2011) challenges the neoclassical view that callings entail pro-social intentions, despite finding that callings entail intense self-exploration, and might be beneficial because they correspond with identity achievement and promote career confidence and engagement.

Often used interchangeably with the term 'calling' is 'vocation', which Ibanez-Noe (2011) explains is the Latin word for 'calling' (vocare, "to call" and vox, "voice"). Traditionally, the words 'vocation' and 'calling' have been inextricably linked with the provision of religious service . Reserved for the clergy and others in the religious community for many centuries, only those who dedicated their life to the church were seen to be worthy of being called by God or having a vocation (Steger et al., 2010) . Only with Martin Luther's reformation of the church and John Calvin's influence did the scope of these terms expand and come to include all people who have the opportunity to give divine expression to their work (Gregg, 2005; Hardy, 1990) . note that aspects of this broader view have also been incorporated into the teachings of other world religions such as Buddhism (Dalai Lama and Cutler (2004) ) and Islam (El Azayem and Hedayat-Diba (1994) ).

Despite this progression in conceptual scope, work remains to be done in understanding these concepts from a holistic perspective (Dik & Shimizu, 2019) . The highly personal nature of a calling/vocation, coupled with the descriptive discrepancies born of their subjective experience, has led to challenges in defining the concepts universally. For example, individuals who are religious might interpret their calling as originating from an external God, whilst individuals who are not religious at all might perceive their vocation as being intrinsic to who they are spiritually (Rosso et al., 2010; Steger et al., 2010) . These challenges in eliciting an all-encompassing definition were also encountered in this study, however the characteristics presented by respondents in their answers to the question, 'how would you define a calling?' were consistent with those used to define a calling in the literature, and the operational definition of a lived calling that was adopted for the study.

In the context of this paper, enablers are people, things or events that pave the way for individuals to live their calling. Existing research in the area shines a light on many of the factors that can help enliven a calling, and scholars have recognised that how individuals receive, seek, or understand their calling most often involves a process (Duffy et al., 2012b; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015; Hankle, 2009; Hernandez et al., 2011) . Involving both personal and social dimensions (Billett, 2011; French & Domene, 2010; Hernandez et al., 2011; Oates et al., 2008; Sellers et al., 2005) , the journey to how people align with their calling is unique to their lived experience.

The personal factors that have been found to play a role in connecting people to their calling, or helping them to manifest it more fully, were identified by the following studies: being proactive and tenacious (French & Domene, 2010; Jaffery & Abid, 2020) , resiliency (French & Domene, 2010; Rojas, 2017) , personal agency (Bandura, 1991; Elangovan et al., 2010) , core self-evaluations (Hirschi & Herrmann, 2012) , clear sense of identity (Dalla Rosa et al., 2019; French & Domene, 2010; Lau et al., 2020) , personal trauma or adversity, e.g. a midlife crisis (Cremen, 2019; Duffy et al., 2012b; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015; Hernandez et al., 2011; Rojas, 2017) , fit with others with similar orientations (Dobrow, 2013) , changes in one's self or life circumstances, e.g. becoming a parent (Billett, 2011; Coulson et al., 2012; Dewey, 1990; Hankle, 2009; Vianello et al., 2020) , personal reflection or exploration (Bott & Duffy, 2015; Duffy et al., 2012b; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015; Hernandez et al., 2011) , life history (Billett, 2011; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015) , psychological capital (Jaffery & Abid, 2020) , search for life meaning (Elangovan et al., 2010) , dysfunctional career thoughts (Galles & Lenz, 2013) , career planning and decidedness (Hirschi & Herrmann, 2013) and career maturity (Duffy et al., 2011) .

Being also influential in assisting in the process of discovering and/or developing one's calling were the following external or social factors highlighted by the literature: receiving support or affirmation from others (Conklin, 2012; Dalla Rosa et al., 2019; Duffy et al., 2012b; French & Domene, 2010; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015; Hernandez et al., 2011; Sellers et al., 2005) , luck (Bright et al., 2005; Chen, 2005; Hirschi & Valero, 2017; Rice, 2014) , exposure to or engagement with the calling domain, e.g. through volunteering or extracurricular interests (Billett, 2011; Conklin, 2012; French & Domene, 2010; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015) , being presented with new opportunities (Billett, 2011; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015) , societal effects on their environment (Billett, 2011; Conklin, 2012; Coulson et al., 2012; Hernandez et al., 2011) , being in a new learning situation or stretched at work (Dalla Rosa et al., 2019; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015) , and the role modelling or mentorship of supervisors (Xie et al., 2019) .

In their exploration of the specific life experiences which shaped the perceptions that fifty-eight leaders had of their calling, Haney-Loehlein et al. (2015) further identified the following events that had an enabling effect on their respondents' ability to live out their callings: having a dream/vision of one's calling, the feeling of being freed from one's sinful past, engaging in religious practices, seeking clarity on one's calling, feeling an internal sense or awareness of God's guidance, feeling a strong conviction about what one is meant to be doing with one's life, being given leadership responsibility, and experiencing a positive difference to their life or others' lives as a consequence of being better able to utilize their natural gifts and abilities.

Of the Australian studies that have broadly covered the same territory as this paper, Coulson et al. (2012) qualitatively investigated how eleven parents understood the concept of calling and whether they experienced child rearing as their calling. Two enablers were identified by respondents that they felt brought life to their calling as parents. The first one was the change in self that they experienced upon becoming a parent, and the maturation that the parental role necessitated if they were to effectively actualise their call in that domain. The other identified factor that could be described as an enabler was the societal effect of becoming a parent. As Rossi (1968) notes in that paper, there exists considerable social pressure on a person to assume the role of a parent. To meet that expectation and fulfil one's parental responsibilities, that person may have to leave paid employment or reduce the amount of hours that they work away from the home. Incidentally, this would serve as an enabler to living their calling as a parent, if the work role that they transitioned from was not experienced as a calling.

In a series of papers that constitute the bulk of the Australian research into this phenomenon, Creed and his research team identified the development of a vocational identity (Creed et al., 2018) and having a goal orientation (setting goals and engaging in goal-implementation actions) (Creed & Hennessy, 2016; as being antecedent factors that enabled individuals to live their calling. Their other research has also found that having a career calling leads to more work effort, greater use of career strategies and higher emotional regulation (Praskova et al., 2015a) , and can act as a coping mechanism for junior doctors to prevent academic stress from leading to burn out in their profession (Creed et al., 2014) .

The research questions that this paper endeavours to answer are, 'what are the enablers to a lived calling in an Australian context?' and 'how might these enablers more broadly inform the guidance that is offered to individuals who yearn to live their calling?' In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the phenomenon of living one's calling, amongst both academics (Ponton et al., 2014; Word, 2012) and members of the general population who yearn to experience a greater sense of meaning and purpose in their lives. This attention afforded by academics has occurred in response to the recognised importance of the field, which Dobrow and Tosti-Kharas (2011, p. 1002 ) highlight when they write that, "understanding calling constitutes an important step toward addressing the question of how individuals seek and derive meaning from work and, more broadly, from life".

With the construct presenting as a strong consideration for both students and adults in making pivotal work and life decisions, and the promising findings that have emerged thus far, it is important that this momentum be maintained as researchers seek to better understand the more intricate dimensions of how callings are manifested in people's lives. To this end, this paper makes a unique contribution to the existing literature. Of the many studies that have explored the different aspects of how a calling can come into existence, very few have been conducted outside of North America (Jaffery & Abid, 2020; Lazar et al., 2018; Nath, 2017; Skrzypińska & Chudzik, 2012; Zhang et al., 2015) . Given the dearth of research on callings in Australia, the findings of this paper promise to inform a broader understanding of the personal and social enablers of this construct.

This study was qualitative in nature, and explored the intrinsic processes associated with a lived calling, and whether and how they drove leadership behaviour. Its primary objective was to understand the impact of a lived calling on leadership behaviour through the articulation of meaning that respondents made of their experience. The meaning sought from leaders is personally constructed, and accordingly I took an interactive stance as data were gathered for the study.

The grounded theory research methodology (Glaser, 1992 (Glaser, , 1998 Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was utilised in this research for its properties of emergence, and its systematic procedures which include comprehensive data analysis protocols. The ontological basis of the inquiry is of a constructivist nature. Constructivism posits that knowledge is not found or explored but constructed in the mind of the learner through the process of meaning making (Bodner, 1986) . From the constructivist perspective, a researcher's prior interpretive frame, biography, interests as well as the research context, relationships with research participants, concrete field experiences and modes of generating and recording empirical materials, will all shape to some extent his/her understanding of the phenomena being studied (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011) . Despite these influences, the researcher must suspend his/her 'reality' before entering the field. This is in order to discover the 'reality' of research subjects.

The focus of interpretive epistemology is the relationship between the knower and what is known, specifically, the way in which they interact and shape one another (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011) . Only by objectively positioning themselves in relation to their subjects, can researchers hope to enter their respective worlds. Putting the knowledge of their subjects first, researchers can come to learn how subjects perceive and interpret the events of their lives. As they pertain to the area of study, these interpretations are extremely valuable when they offer fresh insights that validate or challenge the researcher's original assumptions (Charmaz, 2006) .

At the time of the study I was 35 years of age. Born as a Caucasian Australian with European roots that was raised in a middle class home with a religious background in the Roman Catholic faith, my understanding of a calling/vocation was initially consistent with the descriptions provided by Steger et al. (2010) . Over time however, this perspective was broadened as I moved away from religious practice. The effect of this was that by the time I commenced the study I was very receptive to the different interpretations that could be given to the calling concept. If I had an assumption going into the study, it was that individuals who were working in the government/not-for-profit sector of the economy might be more inclined to express a calling in the course of their work, the presumption being that they could be making more money by applying their skills in the for-profit sector. Given the emergent nature of the study, and that I had a very open-mind about what might be offered by respondents, steps did not have to be taken at the outset to bracket my knowledge of the concepts under investigation. Employing a mostly open-ended mode of inquiry during the interviews, my goal was just to allow the respondents to tell their stories, and for me to act as a guide back to investigation of the questions being asked when respondents went off on tangents with the detail being provided.

The qualitative research methods used for this research were semi-structured interviews, and within this framework, narrative accounts were collected and analysed using content analysis. The conventional content analysis method, described by Hsieh and Shannon (2005, p. 1279) , was utilised in this study. This method emphasises the importance of observing the text, and is characterised by the definition of codes during the data analysis stage of the research (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) .

Ethics approval was granted for the study under the low risk category of participants to be involved. In line with what was required to gain that approval, I ensured that ethical standards were met and maintained, especially in regard to the disclosure of information to respondents, the conduct of interviews, engaging a transcriber and the storage of research data.

A total of sixty-five respondents based in Perth, Western Australia were interviewed for the study. These individuals were chosen to participate in the research using the theoretical sampling technique, which grounded theory methodologists have recognised as being critical to the development of a conceptually dense and complex theory (Charmaz, 2000) . Having this amount of respondents participate in the research allowed me to reach the point of theoretical saturation, as required by the grounded theory methodology to constitute a valid and reliable study (Bloor & Wood, 2006) .

These respondents were invited to participate in the study via email, where they were advised of the nature of the study and forwarded the ethics and consent forms to sign and return. In a few select instances, possible respondents for the research were put forward by interviewees on the basis that these individuals might have something useful to contribute to the research. This respondent-driven sampling technique (Heckathorn, 2011) did not give rise to any bias in the data being collected as the basis for engaging these possible respondents was simply that they were seen to be living their calling in their respective domain, and nothing more. A very small number of respondents were known to me before I engaged them to participate in the research (for example, one was my accountant in my earlier years, and another had taught me some modules as a part of a personal training qualification that I had studied years prior), but the basis of engaging them was consistent with the theoretical sampling technique in that they appeared to be individuals who were living their calling and demonstrating some form of leadership by their display of character or formal work role. The questions asked of these respondents were no different to those asked of other participants in this study to ensure above all that the same type of information was being gathered for analysis. No upfront incentive was offered to the respondents for their participation in the study, however, after each interview was conducted I did offer to make available a copy of the published thesis to them. Approximately three quarters of the respondent group took me up on this offer.

Of these 65 respondents, 36 were male and 29 were female. The respondents ranged in age from approximately 18-75 years. Concerning their organisational involvement, 36 respondents worked in the not-for-profit/government/charitable services sector (for example, suicide prevention, relationship counselling, drug rehabilitation, illness and disability support), 16 respondents worked exclusively in the for-profit sector (for example, financial services, legal services, property management, food production, mining and natural resources), whilst a total of 13 respondents were involved in both the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. The individuals who were engaged in the not-for-profit/government/charitable services sector, in either a permanent or voluntary capacity, were selected on the basis that their choice of work evidenced, or in some other way suggested, the manifestation of a lived calling. Unlike previous studies on callings that sought to explore the concept in a religious context, this study did not selectively sample for respondents from a religious background.

Exploring the emergent relationship between a lived calling and leadership that has many unexplained components to it, made it vitally important for me to have the flexibility and freedom of inquiry allowed by the semi-structured interview method.

An interview schedule was created at the outset of the study (during the familiarization study phase) to provide a basic structure for questioning respondents, and it set out the essential questions that had to be asked of respondents to meet the objectives of the study. Examples of these essential questions were, 'what is your understanding of a calling?', 'are you living your calling?', 'how do you live your calling?', and 'what allowed you to live your calling, or impeded you from living it?' The majority of questions asked were framed as open-ended questions to elicit as much relevant data about the subject matter as respondents were willing to share. Slight modifications were made to the interview schedule as the interviews progressed to the main study in order to facilitate a more focused discussion with respondents. Given that respondents were asked directly whether they were living their calling, and the vast majority were able to provide clear answers to this question, steps were not taken to administer a calling questionnaire or scale (of the type developed by Dobrow and Tosti-Kharas (2011) or Praskova et al. (2015b) ) to measure the presence of a calling within this group.

The sixty-five interviews were conducted by me at the respondents' offices or, in a small number of cases, at their homes. Each interview lasted for approximately one hour, with some being shorter and others longer in duration, depending on the level of background and detail that the respondents went into with their responses. Some respondents had a greater knowledge and interest in the subject matter than others, which sometimes contributed to them elaborating on their answers with information that was valuable to the study. A number of respondents reported feeling very comfortable with me interviewing them, and this was reflected in the very personal nature of the information that was conveyed across interviews. I was therefore not given the impression that these respondents were putting on a façade or telling me 'what I wanted to hear'. In total, the data collection phase of the research lasted six months.

Each interview was recorded digitally using a recording application on my phone. When the interview was over, the audio file was uploaded to a computer and filed for transcribing. The task of transcribing the interviews was primarily carried out by professional transcribers, however I personally undertook the task of transcribing a number of the interviews, both to acquaint myself with the process, and also to familiarize myself with the data being collected. The field notes that were taken during these interviews were transcribed by me shortly after the interviews took place.

After the interview transcripts were completed, and checked by me multiple times for accuracy against the interview recordings, they were uploaded to ATLAS.ti, the qualitative data analysis and research software. With the individual human being comprising the unit of analysis for the research, I then proceeded to code the data using respondent utterances relevant to the research. This coding of the data was conducted in accordance with the coding training that I had been provided with by my project supervisor prior to the analysis phase, and had previously learned as a component of my Graduate Certificate of Business Research studies. The subsequent analysis of the data was also conducted by me pursuant to the protocols that I learnt to follow in the qualitative modules of that course of study.

Utterances of respondents were captured as code labels, and I utilised a combination of the open coding and invivo coding methods. From these, codes were allocated to an initial set of categories of meaning, which emerged naturally from the data, e.g. 'Enablers to a lived calling'. The codes were then rechecked in the context of the categories of meaning to which they were assigned, to satisfy the requirement of constant comparison in grounded theory research, and to ensure that each code was allocated to the most appropriate category. Great care was also taken to ensure that the code labels which were used to capture segments of text, accurately reflected the meaning of the text, and independent checks of this code labelling was conducted by the project supervisors.

To capture prominent themes within the data, and highlight them for analysis and discussion, the codes were grounded. For an example in the 'Enablers to a lived calling' category, the code self-confidence/belief was grounded 26 times. In other words, this code was used in 26 different interviews to capture segments of text which reflected that theme.

After the 'Enablers to a lived calling' category was mapped as a network, the next step in the process was to create subcategories within this category, being collections of associated codes which reflect a common theme. These subcategories then became micro-units of analysis, which were analysed along with the broader categories which constituted the macro-units of analysis, to form a tentative grounded theory of 'lived calling as a driver of leadership behaviour'.

To ensure the rigour and trustworthiness of this study, I engaged in the following practices: (1) Memos were regularly created to record my thoughts about the research, important events, the outcomes of supervisory meetings, and other matters, such as the bracketing of my knowledge and assumptions concerning the research. I also created detailed field notes to record my experiences in the field; (2) Important meetings with supervisors were recorded using a digital recorder to show that they had taken place, and also for reference purposes during challenging periods of the research; (3) Each interview transcript was checked for accuracy multiple times (by both me and the company engaged to transcribe the interviews) against the audio recordings of these interviews; (4) Regular reflection on the direction that this emergent study was taking, and with this, having an awareness of the perils of: (i) failing to bracket knowledge and assumptions concerning the research, and (ii) adopting a theoretical framework that bears no relation to the story that is told by the data; (5) Draft copies of the thesis were saved to evidence the progression of the research at its different stages; (6) Giving extensive time and effort to cross-checking the entry of data, the practice of coding, and analysis of the data to ensure the plausibility of results; and (7) Meetings were held with supervisors at regular intervals, and they took place at important stages of the research, to satisfy the requirement to establish rigour, for example, after the familiarization study was conducted, to review and amend the interview schedule before commencing the main study.

Of the sixty-five respondents, forty-four characterised themselves as living their calling. Of the remaining twenty-one people in the sample, seventeen respondents were unsure whether they were living their calling or not, whilst four respondents described themselves as only partially living their calling. Despite these seventeen respondents being unsure of whether they were living their calling or not, they were still able to convey their understanding of the calling concept and identify enablers to the living of one's calling.

Of the forty-four respondents who characterised themselves as living their calling, twenty-two worked exclusively in the not-for-profit/government/charitable services sector, twelve worked exclusively in the for-profit sector, and ten worked in both the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. Of the seventeen respondents who were unsure whether they were living their calling or not, twelve worked exclusively in the not-for-profit/government/charitable services sector, four worked exclusively in the for-profit sector, and one worked in both the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. Of the remaining four respondents who described themselves as only partially living their calling, two worked exclusively in the not-for-profit/ government/charitable services sector, and the other two worked in both the notfor-profit and for-profit sectors.

It is perhaps unsurprising that thirty-two of the forty-four respondents (73%) who reported as living their calling were involved in the not-for-profit/government/charitable services sector on a full-time or part-time basis. This finding appears to support the presupposition that the choice of work of individuals who were engaged in the not-for-profit/government/charitable services sector, in either a permanent or voluntary capacity, evidenced, or in some other way suggested, the manifestation of a lived calling. What was surprising about the findings surrounding those participants who were undecided about whether they were living their calling or not, was that twelve of the seventeen respondents in that category (71%) worked exclusively in the not-for-profit/government/charitable services sector. Where disclosed, the specific reasons for this disconnect between the individual and the work engaged in varied amongst the respondents, but the common theme seemed to revolve around there being some form of misalignment between the nature of the individual and the type of virtuous endeavour that they were involved in. No discernible differences appeared between how individuals involved in the different sectors defined their calling or its source; for example, it could not be said that those working exclusively in the not-for-profit/government/ charitable services sector described the source of their calling in purely spiritual or religious terms.

The responses that these respondents provided to the questions concerning the factors which facilitated the living of one's calling were coded and allocated to the 'Enablers to a lived calling' category. A total of 110 codes were allocated to this category, and the full list of these codes is detailed in Table 1 .

From these findings, a number of dominant themes emerged which were influential in characterising how respondents to this study were enabled to live their calling. (40) 3. Support of other people/they believed in me (39) 4. Self-confidence/belief (26) 5. Having an education/educational opportunities (21) 6. Luck (18) 7. Being open/receptive to life (15) 8. Positive/right attitude/mindset (15) 9. Experience (13) 10. Financial security (13) 11. Determination (11) 12. Mentors (11) 13. Self-awareness/aware of own strengths and weaknesses (11) 14. Faith in God/higher power (10) 15. Leadership qualities recognised by others (10) 16. Having work/work being available (9) 17. Diverse life/work experiences (8) 18. Support in the workplace (8) 19. Ability to take risks (7) 20. Positive/stable upbringing (7) 21. Intuition (6) 22. Learning from past experiences (6) 23. Adversity (5) 24. Alignment in work (5) 25. Clarity of purpose (5) 26. Exposure (5) 27. Leveraging themselves/their efforts (5) 28. One thing led to another (5) 29. Politically astute (5) 30. Travel experiences (5) 31. Working with great people (5) 32. Business partners/ability to select the right ones (4) 33. Fortuitous circumstances (4) 34. Good health (4) 35. Hard work/good work ethic (4) 36. High energy level (4) 37. Lack/absence of fear (4) 38. Naivety (4) 39. Parent's/parental qualities (4) 40. Persistence (4) 41. Previous experiences prepared me for work/leadership position (4) 42. Time is my own (4) 43. Use resources/networks wisely (4) (3) 46. Good boss/es (3) 47. Having the right relationships (3) 48. Internal locus of control (3) 49. Living in the right place (3) 50. Maturing as a human being (3) 51. Staying true to myself (3) 52. Strong networks (3) 53. Ability to deal with people/people person (2) 54. Access to resources (2) 55. Being content with yourself/your life (2) 56. Being the leader (2) 57. Clarity of action (2) 58. Confidants/similarly minded individuals (2) 59. Continuous improvement/development (2) 60. Desire/hunger (2) 61. Fateful encounter with a person who points you in a new direction (2) 62. Finding/maintaining a balance (2) 63. Good career (2) 64. High quality leadership/management training (2) 65. Knowledge/expertise (2) 66. Losing everything (2) 67. Motivation to make a difference (2) 68. My life journey and the people encountered along the way (2) 69. Reputation (2) 70. Spiritual practice/development (2) 71. Strong conviction (2) 72. Technological advances/the internet (2) 73. The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity by Catherine Ponder (2) 74. Undertaking business venture (2) 75. Ability to communicate/with anybody (1) 76. Ability to deal with real/perceived failure (1) 77. Being accepted/well received (1) 78. Being willing to move on if things didn't work out (1) Of these themes, a number could be seen to encompass multiple codes that supported the primary enabler which described that theme. For example, the most frequently cited enabler was embracing opportunities and making the most of them. Related to that theme were other less grounded codes such as 'being open/receptive to life', 'clarity of purpose', 'Leveraging oneself and one's efforts' and 'ability to take risks'. The value of these supporting codes is that they can help to provide a fuller picture of the processes that have led to the primary enablers identified having that enabling effect.

The following six dominant themes of (1) embracing opportunities and making the most of them; (2) support from others; (3) self-confidence/belief; (4) education and financial resources; (5) luck and (6) experience, warrant a more in-depth exploration of how they served to pave the way for vocational unfoldment in the lives of the respondents who cited them. The utterances cited below for each enabler came from separate respondents describing the enabling impact that the phenomena had on their lives. (1) 92. Immersion/frequent exposure (1) 93. Independent of the opinions of others (1) 94. Inspiration (1) 95. Knowing where you are going to need people to come on the journey with you (1) 96. Lateral thinking/looking outside of the box (1) 97. Little things along the way (1) 98. Managing my mind (1) 99. Natural skills/abilities (1) 100. Not marrying early (1) 101. Not pressuring myself to climb the ladder of success (1) 102. Opportunities presented by era that I have lived (1) 103. Organisation trusts me to do the work (1) 104. Personal calling aligned with familial calling (1) 105. Personality issues (1) 106. Planning creates luck and opportunity (1) 107. Quaker philosophy (1) 108. Seeing the work of the organisation/hearing the stories of those being helped (1) 109. Transferable skills/abilities (1) 110. Being resourceful (1)

Respondents who were living their calling were opportunistic in the sense that when they were presented with opportunities to move forward with their calling, they made the most of them by choosing to follow that new path. This is borne out in the following segments of interview transcript where these respondents provided a more contextualised account of how this enabler came to shape their lived calling journeys:

Each of us is called to a particular way of life. Their call is to marriage, mine is to the priesthood, but if we respond to our call, we are responding to the circumstances which we are provided with the opportunity to become the best person that we can be. (Interview 3) So three things in life that when they're gone, they're gone forever…three is opportunity, and those opportunities present themselves in any form and I'm not just talking about professional opportunity, I'm talking about life opportunities. You have just met your fiancée. That's an opportunity. You are doing exactly what you are doing now and interviewing me. That is an opportunity. And so on. So recognise your opportunities and learn to accept them and develop them. (Interview 17) So I'm at all times on the lookout for opportunities. So essentially, the goal is to, on the one hand identify the opportunity or need and on the other hand, to identify people who relate to that need. So that's what I'm doing all the time from a personal point of view, is trying to identify new opportunity and a new way of making that happen. (Interview 22) Well enablers have been just to have the opportunity to do things for the opportunity to be in this position. To have had the good fortune for whatever reason for a group of people to say, okay you can have that job. When I started this job we had about 30 people, now we've got nearly 300. So it was a different job, it was a different time, a different -for a whole heap of different reasons. But having had that opportunity it's been great for me as a person. (Interview 28) In order to effectively make the most of opportunities that might come one's way, it appears there are other qualities that may have to be learnt or embodied at the time of encountering those opportunities, which can also have an enabling effect in allowing the person to make the most of the opportunity. For example, without having achieved clarity of purpose around one's calling, how is an opportunity recognised as such by the person who is encountering it? This can be seen in this quote from a respondent who cited clarity of purpose as an enabler to her calling: "Getting clear is the hardest thing I've ever done because, up until that stage, I was I won't say a victim but I responded to opportunities that came my way without understanding where those opportunities were going to take me. Now I look at every opportunity and say, "Is this moving me closer to my goal or not?" And if it's not, then I don't do it anymore" (Interview 11).

Having the support of others as individuals pursue their calling was recognised across the sample as being a vital enabler to living it. These support systems not only existed within the family and social environment (coming from one's spouse/ partner, parents, children and friends), but also in the workplace, and took the form of mentors/confidants, good bosses, superiors who recognised an inherent leadership capacity, and others who believed in them:

My faith, my health, Rosina (the respondent's wife), and without the support of young men. I was encouraged by wonderful chaplains. Allowed me to live my calling? I think, Rosina. (Interview 2) My husband's patience and I think having my husband as a support; he's been really amazing. And having I suppose the support of my family in allowing me...they just got on with things. (Interview 27) We have received a lot of help and support along the way and we appreciate that, we respect that and no one has ever achieved anything by themselves. (Interview 36) I think it's family support. If you don't have family support you're not going to get far I believe. You've got to have some -well not even just family support, having some support. Look I don't think I got anywhere along my life journey or my journey could have taken this path or that path to not so good as it is now, if I didn't have one particular person at that time who believed in me, who supported me in whatever it might have been. That's just fortunate for me that's happened along the way. You know how people come into your life for a reason and then go. So I think that's happened for me quite a number of times. So I think support is really important. (Interview 45)

In a number of instances, respondents reported that these support systems provided them with a sense of confidence that they otherwise lacked, which is a pertinent finding that bears a proximate relationship with the enabler of self-confidence/belief that was also strongly reflected in the data:

I've had enormous support from my husband, sounds trite, but it's been all important because when decisions have come along I, who innately have not a lot of confidence except on the outside, he said "Give it a go, you can do it", and I only see myself from the inside, I don't see myself from the outside. So that has made all the difference, I wouldn't have done some of the things I've done without that. (Interview 26) And not only that, let's say I was a very unconfident individual, and then when I went back to school, just the ability of -and I can't remember their names now -of a couple of people complimenting me, giving you that confidence; that's a huge thing. (Interview 57)

Without individuals possessing the self-confidence or belief in themselves to successfully live their calling, a significant barrier will be encountered in making progress along that journey. Numerous respondents identified this characteristic as being both an enabler, when individuals have confidence and belief in themselves, and an impediment, when this quality is absent from their lives:

No, self-confidence is the biggest one -the biggest single barrier [to living one's calling] is self-confidence or lack of confidence, or low self-esteem. (Interview 9) Once you have that sort of confidence, that you know where you want things to go, well, then you can then take steps to move it in that direction. (Interview 13) Self-confidence; that quiet determination that you're actually going to -that you're able to do these things… And so I think your own belief system -and that comes back to your self-esteem and your confidence, as we talked earlier.

That's critical. I think that is the single biggest limiting factor I reckon; you know, that self-belief. (Interview 16) When we do our talks and shows, I don't use big Power Points, I don't have big production stuff, it's just me unplugged with a flip chart and what happens is I'll get the people involved to come and flip a chart over and then they have to introduce whatever's on there. That gives them confidence and they don't even know they're getting it. (Interview 33) As previously mentioned, the support of others can play a pivotal role in bolstering self-belief, and what the data suggest are that individuals who are living their calling are not only the beneficiaries of this encouragement, but they also seek to provide it to others so that they can more confidently progress down their own unique life path:

I have a view that the confidence levels amongst our youth are not as good as they could be because of tall poppy syndrome or just the nature of our culture. That I think we can actually inspire greater belief in oneself through teaching young people to have their own parameters and goals set early in life, and again to have greater confidence and belief in themselves as they move forward in their own careers. (Interview 39)

In terms of external achievements and resources that individuals can acquire to better their chances of being able to live their calling, having an education, and possessing the financial means to progress along their path were identified by respondents as being critical to that journey: So you think the education's also an enabling factor as well? Oh, absolutely. Education is that which remains after you've forgotten everything you've been taught. I think the education system now is -the blinkers are being taken off. There's not a tunnel vision of education. There are lots and lots of questions now to which -well, there always have been lots of questions to which there is no right answer, and I think our education system does that better today than it ever did. (Interview 12) Financially, usually I find -well it was for us, for me, a financial situation. I think that affects a lot of people. As I said earlier, with mothers not beingparents not being able to have one stay at home and be a full time parent, or -and even their partners having to work such long hours on top of it, so where that family time is taken away. (Interview 21) So if someone's calling was to really, you know, solve some problem or illuminate something, then there might be that sort of structural barrier of education or financial barriers as well, I suppose. (Interview 29) So I think having an education which allows you to analyse and think and make decisions which may not be according to a particular discipline is important. (Interview 32) Kind of on one level it feels it chose me, I didn't choose it. It was just -yes it just seemed the right thing to do. Luckily I was in a position financially that I didn't really have to work again and I was -when I left to have my secondwhen I left work to have my children they said to me "when are you coming back?" and I said "I'm not coming back, I'm going to be a stay at home mum." (Interview 42)

Luck was a factor that a number of respondents felt played an enabling role on their lived calling journey. The form that this luck took varied depending on the respondent's unique life circumstances, as the following segments of interview text attest to:

There weren't the opportunities, so I suppose, yeah, just the jobs, or the opportunities being available at the time that I happened to be looking. Luck, I suppose. Okay, so that was the enabler? Yeah. (Interview 20) I think I've been very lucky along the way. There were a couple of points in which I had to apply for my job again. There used to be a government policy that said, every five years, CEOs have got to apply for their jobs again on the open market and there were a couple of times when I might not have been competitive, but somebody came along on the panel and supported me. So I have actually been very lucky. Very lucky indeed. (Interview 24) Well I'm just luckily personally I was born -I live in the western world…So I haven't -we're really lucky, the baby boomers, because we haven't had any world wars. All of those things, we're just incredibly lucky, privileged opportunity to realise some sort of potential. (Interview 30) So yes, I mean I'm one of the lucky people who gets up in the morning and going to work is a joy, not a reason to pay the mortgage. That doesn't mean it's always easy but you know my first thought is not always about what I need to earn or my career path. My first thought is how lucky am I to be going to work every day in a sport I love in an environment I love. (Interview 37)

Possessing experience and having exposure to their calling domain were cited by respondents as being very significant in shaping their vocational journeys. Across multiple codes, these themes presented themselves as being relevant to how respondents were able to open up to new possibilities and progress along their unique path to living their calling (Diverse life/work experiences; Learning from past experiences; Previous experiences prepared me for work/leadership position; Travel experiences; Immersion/frequent exposure):

I guess from my own perspective I mean we were never -none of my brothers and I were ever pressured or expected to join the family business. You will do this or you will do that. Never. It was obviously something we grew around. I mean it was the kitchen table talk. We were exposed to the business. We would go in as little kids and help dad when he was collecting fish as he was on the weekends from the railway line that used to come from the south-west or from the north. We would go in the school holidays. So you get exposed to the business so your calling is -I don't know if it's a push or a pull with me but you get exposed to it. (Interview 10) So that fortune favours the prepared, is that you're ready, you're skilled, you have the educational background. You have the experience. (Interview 46) One is, because if you've had the experience, I think that's number one. I think that a lot of people who get up into jobs who haven't had the experience and it shows out in the end. I think nothing is better than experience. (Interview 47) I think when you work hard and are lucky enough to have lots of exposure, you gain experience and if you continue to be active and use that experience and build on it, I think that's how you, you know, I became federal president of the organisation. (Interview 59) Having the history as a child of moving around a lot and being exposed to living overseas and being exposed to a whole lot of different viewpoints led me to not have as my number one way of life, the need to nest, the need to be based in one place, the need to think geographically, I want to be a Melbourne boy or an Adelaide boy and so being willing to take the opportunities and to travel and to move and whether that's good or bad it's what I did as a kid and I think it's a really positive thing but it also meant that I could live in Darwin, I could live in Perth, I could live overseas for a whilst. (Interview 61)

Despite the unique nature of the calling journey that each individual will take, there appears to be many shared aspects of that lived experience, which can be seen from the existing literature and the findings of this research to have an enabling effect on the ability of individuals to advance further along their vocational path. Across the different studies that shed light on this aspect of the calling phenomenon, a number of personal and social factors have been highlighted which provide points of focus that can be leveraged by individuals and institutions alike to create greater synergy between how individuals experience their calling, and their ability to live it out in practical ways.

Of the personal factors that the extant literature has found to play a role in connecting individuals to their calling, or helping them to manifest it more fully, being proactive and tenacious (French & Domene, 2010; Jaffery & Abid, 2020) , resiliency (French & Domene, 2010; Rojas, 2017) , personal agency (Bandura, 1991; Elangovan et al., 2010) , core self-evaluations (Hirschi & Herrmann, 2012) , clear sense of identity (Dalla Rosa et al., 2019; French & Domene, 2010; Lau et al., 2020) , personal trauma or adversity (Cremen, 2019; Duffy et al., 2012b; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015; Hernandez et al., 2011; Rojas, 2017) , fit with others with similar orientations (Dobrow, 2013) , changes in one's self or life circumstances (Billett, 2011; Coulson et al., 2012; Dewey, 1990; Hankle, 2009; Vianello et al., 2020) , personal reflection or exploration (Bott & Duffy, 2015; Duffy et al., 2012b; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015; Hernandez et al., 2011) , search for life meaning (Elangovan et al., 2010) , dysfunctional career thoughts (Galles & Lenz, 2013) , career maturity (Duffy et al., 2011) , and life history (Billett, 2011; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015) were identified as being enablers to a lived calling in this study, albeit to varying degrees. For example, tenaciousness as reflected in the code label 'Determination' was cited eleven times, whereas the theme of resiliency, as captured by code label 'Ability to deal with real/perceived failure' was cited only once by respondents. Of the most prominent personal factors that this research identified which were not highlighted by the earlier research studies were self-confidence/belief, prior experience/s, being open/ receptive to life, having a positive mindset/the right attitude, the ability to take risks, having an education and possessing financial resources.

As it concerns the enabling role that external or social factors played in the process of discovering and/or developing one's calling, a number of the salient findings from the existent literature were also prominently identified by this study. Foremost amongst these were (1) being presented with opportunities that were taken up (Billett, 2011; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015) , (2) receiving support or affirmation from others (Conklin, 2012; Dalla Rosa et al., 2019; Duffy et al., 2012b; French & Domene, 2010; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015; Hernandez et al., 2011; Sellers et al., 2005) and 3) luck (Bright et al., 2005; Chen, 2005; Hirschi & Valero, 2017; Rice, 2014) . Other themes that presented quite strongly across the literature and this study were having exposure to or engagement with the calling domain (Billett, 2011; Conklin, 2012; French & Domene, 2010; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015) , having mentors (Xie et al., 2019) , the societal effects on one's environment, e.g. living in the right place or having work be available (Billett, 2011; Conklin, 2012; Coulson et al., 2012; Hernandez et al., 2011) , and having opportunities to learn and develop oneself (Dalla Rosa et al., 2019; Haney-Loehlein et al., 2015) . Of the novel external or social enablers that were highlighted by respondents to this study, having a positive/stable upbringing was recognised as being important, as was working with great people.

Related to people's ability to gain an education and secure financial resources through the provision of service in the marketplace are the economic conditions and governmental policy/action that can indirectly impact the ability of individuals in society to live their calling. Whilst these important macro-environmental factors could be seen to fit within the enabler of 'societal effects on their environment', scant mention of them was made by respondents in this study. One imagines that were these same questions to be asked of respondents today, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, that the health of the economy and the availability of financial support from the government, would have featured more prominently in the enablers category.

The implications of these findings for individuals, organizations and career/vocational counsellors are significant, especially when coupled with the related findings to emerge from the previous studies on the phenomenon. For individuals who strive to live their calling more fully, proactive steps can be taken to help them discern what their calling might be, for example, self-reflective developmental practices that enhance their confidence in themselves and their path can be engaged in, or they could expose themselves to different fields that they have an inherent interest in. Money and other resources could also be reserved to undertake courses of study, or otherwise make the most of opportunities for advancement when they present themselves in the future. Lastly, networks or support structures can be built, which could include the presence of mentors, who themselves have found clarity on their calling path and are therefore equipped to journey with mentees along the path to unearthing their calling.

For organisational personnel such as human resource managers who are concerned with increasing productivity and improving the overall well-being of the workforce, they can work with their leaders to introduce programs or opportunities that can help develop their people in the direction of their calling. Such programs could include vocational workshops or leadership pathways for individuals whose experience of work as a calling, and excellent performance, evidences a strong alignment between that person and the future goals of the organisation. The role of this human resource manager/department could also expand to include some version of an in-house counselling role, in which employees are actively mentored on their calling journey. Planning and performance discussions could also touch upon how the calling of individuals works into or supports the core work of the organisation, and any opportunities that are available to align them with work which would better allow them to maximise their natural talents for the organisational good. Stronger support from leaders, or mentoring from line managers, could also be offered to nurture these callings, with the effect that employees will feel more committed to the organisation and engaged in their work.

Vocational counsellors also have a significant role to play in being able to integrate these findings into the education and advice that they provide to persons who are looking to live their calling. By understanding, for example, which personal factors enable a calling, they can emphasise the importance of upskilling and investing in oneself so that the career capital that is created can be leveraged for advancement when the right opportunities present themselves in the future. The networks that these counsellors are able to set up and deploy could also be extremely useful in providing their clients with the support systems that are so vital to being able to live a calling. Given the importance of this enabler, a group method of counselling, which integrates the close inner circle of the person being counselled, may prove beneficial in allowing the members of their support system to better understand the client's calling and help nurture it to fruition. In terms of the exploratory self-reflective practices that respondents engaged in to ground themselves in an awareness of their calling, these can be incorporated into the therapeutic toolkit that practitioners use to help connect their clients with the source of their calling and its intuitive promptings. Vocational counsellors who work for employers can also use this information to help develop roles and broader systems of work within their organisation that are experienced by members of the workforce as being conducive to the expression of their natural talents and strengths, and thus personally meaningful.

Despite the novel findings to emerge from this study, the utilization of the interpretative mode of analysis precludes claims being made about the generalizability of results across contexts (Gasson, 2004) . Further studies exploring the phenomenon of enablers to a lived calling in an Australian context would have to be conducted using a similar methodological approach before any common enablers could be identified to show transferability and fit between the unique context of this study and those that would frame these other studies.

Given that a lived calling is a deeply personal construct and that individuals use different language to process their experience, and convey the meaning that those experiences had for them, it can be difficult for the person researching this phenomenon to relate concepts to each other for the purpose of theory building. An example of this were the different sources of a lived calling offered by respondents which conceivably could be understood to mean the same thing, i.e. is "God" any different from the "spiritual source of being", or what one would describe as the "universal energy"? Having to navigate this ambiguity, I was careful not to subjectively superimpose my understanding over the data, despite having to classify some aspects of the data using open codes.

These challenges may have also impacted some or all of the seventeen respondents who were unsure of whether they were living their calling or not. Without some form of context for properly understanding this phenomenon (for example, through religion or spirituality) it can be difficult to adequately characterise and describe the nature of a calling, and if a person's understanding of the concept is grounded purely in his/her physical experience of the world, then this could impede that person's ability to relate to the construct in more esoteric terms. In hindsight, this consideration could have led me to selectively sample for an additional number of participants who were able to conceive of their calling in this deeper and more expansive way.

A future research agenda which builds upon the findings of this work in an Australian context would involve further interviews being conducted with individuals from a broader range of industries than were represented in the study. From this broader range of responses, a more nuanced set of enablers to a lived calling may possibly emerge. Attention could also be given to exploring the most commonly identified enablers using different research methodologies, and this wider scope of inquiry could also incorporate quantitative methods of measuring how the presence of these enablers leads to their significant impacts.

Social cognitive theory of self-regulation

When callings are calling: Crafting work and leisure in pursuit of unanswered occupational callings

Vocational education: Purposes, traditions and prospects

Theoretical saturation

Constructivism: A theory of knowledge

A two-wave longitudinal study of career calling among undergraduates: Testing for predictors

The role of chance events in career decision making

The call of the wild: Zookeepers, callings, and the doubleedged sword of deeply meaningful work

Grounded theory: Objectivist and constructivist methods

Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis

Work worth doing: A phenomenological study of the experience of discovering and following one's calling

Religion, spirituality, and career development in African American college students: A qualitative inquiry. The Career Development Quarterly

Parent's conception and experience of calling in child rearing: A qualitative analysis

Evaluation of a goal orientation model of vocational identity. The Career Development Quarterly

Vocational identity and career progress: The intervening variables of career calling and willingness to compromise

Testing a goal-orientation model of antecedents to career calling

Career calling as a personal resource moderator between environmental demands and burnout in Australian junior doctors

Vocation as psyche's call: A depth psychological perspective on the emergence of calling through symptoms at midlife. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance

The art of happiness at work

Longitudinal predictors of the development of a calling: New evidence for the a posteriori hypothesis

Democracy and education

Calling and vocation at work: Definitions and prospects for research and practice

Calling and vocation in career counseling: Recommendations for promoting meaningful work

Multiple meanings of calling: Next steps for studying an evolving construct

Dynamics of calling: A longitudinal study of musicians

Calling: The development of a scale measure

Calling and career outcome expectations: The mediating role of self-efficacy

Living a calling, nationality, and life satisfaction: A moderated, multiple mediator model

Nurturing the spirit at work: Impact on work unit performance

Calling and life satisfaction among undergraduate students: Investigating mediators and moderators

Perceiving a calling, living a calling, and job satisfaction: Testing a moderated, multiple mediator model

Calling, vocational development, and well being: A longitudinal study of medical students

Spirituality, religion, and career development: Implications for the workplace

The presence of and search for a calling: Connections to career development

The role of a lived calling in driving the leadership accomplishment of a virtuous purpose

The psychological aspects of Islam: Basic principles of Islam and their psychological corollary

Callings and organizational behavior

Man's search for meaning

Sense of "calling": An organizing principle for the lives and values of young women in university

Maximizing the triple bottom line through spiritual leadership

Relationships among career thoughts, vocational identity, and calling: Implications for practice. The Career Development Quarterly

Rigor in grounded theory research: An interpretive perspective on generating theory from qualitative field studies

A comparison of individuals with unanswered callings to those with no calling at all

Basics of grounded theory analysis: Emergence vs forcing

Doing grounded theory: Issues and discussions

The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research

Discover "vocation": An essay on the concept of vocation

Psychological success: When the career is a calling

The power of perceived experience: Events that shape work as a calling. The Career Development Quarterly

The psychological processes of discerning the vocation to the Catholic priesthood: A qualitative study

The fabric of this world: Inquiries into calling, career choice, and the design of human work

Comment: Snowball versus respondent-driven sampling

Hearing the call: A phenomenological study of religion in career choice

Callings in career: A typological approach to essential and optional components

Vocational identity achievement as a mediator of presence of calling and life satisfaction

Calling and career preparation: Investigating developmental patterns and temporal precedence

Chance events and career decidedness: Latent profiles in relation to work motivation. The Career Development Quarterly

Three approaches to qualitative content analysis

The idea of vocation: Toward a moral-philosophical theory

Occupational calling: Antecedents, consequences and mechanism

Spiritual leadership: A validation study in a Korean context

Calling and career commitment among Chinese college students: Career locus of control as a moderator. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance

Examining the indirect effects of self-concept on work readiness through resilience and career calling

Medicine as a calling among male and female medical students in Israel: Does it make a difference? International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance

The role of calling in a social cognitive model of well-being

The politics of meaning

Calling orientations of junior doctors and medical interns in India: Cultural, occupational and relational perspectives

Pursuing multiple callings: The implications of balancing career and motherhood for women and the church

The role of inspiration in organizational life

The role of inspiration in scientific scholarship and discovery: Views of theistic scientists

Zest and work

Vocational perception: A mixed-method investigation of calling

Self-regulatory processes mediating between career calling and perceived employability and life satisfaction in emerging adults

The development and initial validation of a career calling scale for emerging adults

Vocation as personal calling: A question for education

Incorporation of chance into career development theory and research

Vocation as calling and resilience in the workplace: A correlational study

Transition to parenthood

On the meaning of work: A theoretical integration and review. Research in Organizational Behavior

Divine callings: Religious sensemaking in the organizational founding process

Women called: A qualitative study of Christian women dually called to motherhood and career

Called to teach: A study of highly motivated preservice teachers

Calling, service and legitimacy: Professional orientations and career commitment among prospective teachers

Intricacies of the calling: Spirituality of Polish nuns

Calling in work: Secular or sacred

Transcendent vocations: Their relationship to stress, depression, and clarity of self-concept

Les passions de l'ame: On obsessive and harmonious passion

The developmental trajectories of calling: Predictors and outcomes

Calling, new careers and spirituality: A reflective perspective for organizational leaders and professionals

Engaging work as a calling: Examining the link between spirituality and job involvement

Jobs, careers, and callings: People's relations to their work

What drives the trickle-down effect of calling orientation from supervisors to subordinates? The perspective of social learning theory

Being called: Scientific, secular and sacred perspectives

Work as a calling in China: A qualitative study of Chinese college students

Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations