Daily manifestations of career adaptability: Relationships with job and career outcomes

• Two diary studies demonstrate substantial within-person variability in expressions of career adaptability across five days.
• Daily career adaptability positively predicted daily task and career performance, as well as job and career satisfaction.
• Daily confidence also positively predicted all four daily job and career outcomes.
• Daily control positively predicted daily task performance, as well as daily job and career satisfaction.
• Daily concern positively predicted career performance and satisfaction; daily curiosity only predicted career satisfaction.

Most research on career adaptability has examined the construct as an individual differences variable and neglected that it may vary within an individual over a short period of time. In two daily diary studies, the author investigated the relationships of career adaptability and its four dimensions (concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) to their daily manifestations as well as daily job and career outcomes. Both Study 1 (N = 53) and Study 2 (N = 234) demonstrated substantial within-person variability in employees' behavioral expressions of career adaptability across five work days. Results further showed that daily career adaptability and daily confidence positively predicted daily task and career performance, as well as daily job and career satisfaction. Daily control positively predicted daily task performance, as well as daily job and career satisfaction. Daily concern positively predicted daily career performance and satisfaction, and daily curiosity positively predicted daily career satisfaction.