Investigating suicide as a career response
Purpose – To empirically consider work and career as potential influences of suicide. Design/methodology/approach – In this qualitative study we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 16 individuals who were survivors (i.e. family members or intimates) of individuals who had committed suicide. Data was analyzed using a grounded theory methodology. Findings – This exploratory study used purposive self-determination as the theoretical framework for analyzing their life histories. Factors of purposive self-determination, including lack of purpose, feeling controlled, experiencing failure, and social exclusion all figured prominently but differentially according to life-stage. Distinct work and career themes for early-career, mid-career and late-career suicides emerged. Early-career suicides were attributed to educational or work-related contexts, leading to a sense of hopelessness. Mid-career suicides emphasized despair based in failure. Finally, an attempt to escape from challenges associated with transitioning roles in retirements emerged as a key theme in late-career suicides. Originality/value – Although suicide has been studied extensively from medical, psychopathological, sociological, anthropological, philosophical and religious perspectives, there is a dearth of research considering why certain individuals choose to end their own lives as a result of work and career related reasons. This study sought to contribute to our understanding of this under-researched phenomenon. Additionally, while extant careers theory and research has considered positive notions of career such as career success or careers as a calling, this work presents an alternate lens, the consideration of career failure and careers as a sentence.
Year of publication: |
2014
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Authors: | J. Duff, Angus ; C.A. Chan, Chris |
Published in: |
Career Development International. - Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1758-6003, ZDB-ID 2031899-6. - Vol. 19.2014, 1, p. 4-26
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Publisher: |
Emerald Group Publishing Limited |
Subject: | Careers | Suicide | Work | Life-stage | Purposive self-determination | Withdrawal | Career failure |
Saved in:
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