When careers reach a dead end: identification of occupational crisis states

The reliability and validity of the Occupational Crisis Scale, (OCS; Hutri, 1995a) were examined in 3 separate studies. The OCS was developed to identify employees who are at a dead end in their job or career. Participants were employees from various occupations, psychology students, and previous vocational counseling clients. The results demonstrated the OCS's internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, divergent and convergent validity, as well as changes in occupational crisis states after a 1-year follow-up. The prevalence of occupational crises was rated to be at least 1 for every 30 employees. All identified crisis participants were women. Occupational crises were related to long consideration of career change, suggesting that the crises were of developmental origin. The findings are compared with the results from a preliminary study among vocational counseling clients. The use of the OCS to assist troubled employees is discussed.