Professional career, social capital, and human resource management: Open questions

• Published in: Izvestii͡a︡ Saratovskogo universiteta. Novai͡a︡ serii͡a Vol. 14; no. 2 (54); pp. 127 - 141
• Main Author: Tolochek, Vladimir A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Saratov State University 20.06.2025
• Subjects: human resources; professional attitudes of the subject; professional career; social capital; teachers
• ISSN: 2304-9790; 2541-9013
• DOI: 10.18500/2304-9790-2025-14-2-127-141

The relevance of the study is determined by the following: the possibilities to identify commonalities and develop a factual basis are disciplinarily limited with a narrowly disciplinary analysis of social reality fragments and their scientific explication as specific research issues. An expanded interpretation of the phenomenon of a professional career (PC (ПК)) leads us to the phenomenon and issues connected with professional development of a subject (PDS (ПСС)), while expanding its boundaries leads to the phenomenon and problems of human resources and human resource management (HRM (УЧР)), the latter leads to social capital (SC (СК)). The purpose of the research is to study the social and psychological phenomena associated with the choice of a professional field and the success of a subject’s professional career. Hypotheses: 1. An adequate analysis of socio-psychological phenomena as a research object requires periodic correction of the boundaries and content of their study as a research subject. 2. The empirical material accumulated in psychology (in the career study-field, in particular) exceeds the limits of the traditionally identified “research subject” and is liable to methodological reflection. Participants: nurses (n1= 14 and n 2 = 89, 2014 and 2022 survey data), teachers (n3 = 96; 2016), pre-school teachers (n4 = 44; 2015), government officials (n5 = 81; 2006). Methods (tools): analysis of literary sources, the original technique developed by the author “Dynamics of the style in the professional life” (V. A. Tolochek). Results: as predictors of the general and professional activity of the subjects (the respondents and their parents), we used the correlations between: 1) the level of the parents’ (father, mother) position and the level of education; 2) the level of the respondents’ position and the level of education; 3) the respondent’s residence place and their birth place. Values greater than 1.00 were considered as a reflection of people’s social activity, ‘efficiency’, and managerial potential; values less than 1.00 were considered as a deficiency of these qualities. Main conclusions: the research shows that the patterns of these variables are different among the representatives of the five professional spheres; they are better (numerically higher) in professions with a “high” hierarchy (a large number of positions in a “vertical career” – among government officials) than those with a “low” hierarchy. Practical significance: the identified correlations are important for the subsequent study of human self–realization in work, in a professional career in its three phases – pre-career – active career – post-career; they also allow us to develop related issues of youth employment, employment problems in the regions, migration, etc.