**1. Introduction**

Career calling has emerged as a popular subject of interest within the contemporary career academic and practitioner press [1]. Traditionally, career calling has been studied mostly from a religious context internationally [2] and in South Africa [3]. However, due to the pressures with in modern life, work is affected. Lent [4] noted a major driver of the world of work being technology. This is also coupled by other individual and environmental factors that affect not just the work but also the possible meaning that can be ascribed to work [1]. This has all led to calls for more nuanced multidisciplinary understanding around the experience of work under such difficult times [5]. Put simply, career calling is ascribed to refer to the drive that assists an individual to gain some form of purpose or meaning in their life [6]. This state of being is derived from the interplay between individual and environmental forces [7]. In essence, others, for example, Duffy and Sedlacek [8] associated quests for a calling to emanate from outside pressures and subsequently

influence the individual internally. The presence of a calling is argued to bring a sense of direction in an individual's life [9] and ultimately becomes an occupation an individual settles in [10].

There has been a notable positive response to calls for research focusing on understanding the notion of a career calling. We note some gaps in the extant literature. First, with regard to research, we note a scant focus as a link between career calling and outcomes related to health [11] and within professions such as teaching. Most research has centred on outcomes of work such as work engagement, job satisfaction, and turnover [12–16]. Given challenges affecting the contemporary world of work, we magnify the need to explore health outcomes related to the lived experience such as mental health and physical health.

#### **1.1 Chapter context**

The teaching profession is in a state of flux. The journey into teaching for some, especially in South Africa, may not have been due to the exercise of choice [17]. Career paths such as teaching were mostly positioned for the Black populous who could not exercise career choice [18]. Also included are career paths such as being a social worker and a nurse [19]. This positions for the need for redress in South Africa [20–22]. Linked to this are also challenges affecting those within professions such as teaching (inclusive of the public service). These challenges are mostly health related such as mental health and have their origin in the work done by such employees [23–24]. This chapter is positioned in a South African rural context, using a sample of teachers working in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Rural areas in South Africa remain marginalized with issues illustrating the poverty and inequality gaps being apparent [4, 25, 26]. The challenges in rural communities may potentially affect how teachers perform duties around teaching and learning with implications also for career mobility [27]. Given such a context, strategies are needed to assist teachers in rural areas to adjust to the harsh realities they face that impact their career paths [17].

#### **1.2 Chapter goals**

The chapter's goal is to explain whether the presence of a career calling predicts employee's mental and physical health. The chapter further explains whether career adaptability moderates the relationship between the presence of a career calling and employee health measured through mental and physical health. Overall, the chapter answers the following question: What is the influence of career adaptability on the relationship between the presence of career calling and employee mental and physical health?

The chapter is structured as follows: first, the theoretical and empirical literature is presented. This is inclusive of the hypotheses that were tested and of the conceptual model. Thereafter, the methodology, results and discussion sections are presented.

#### **2. Theoretical lens**

Given the interdisciplinary nature of this chapter, some theoretical positions are noted. Making use of the Calling Theory of Psychological Success (CTPS) developed by Hall and Chandler [28], the presence of a calling has been linked to positive behaviour inclusive of a range of organisational outcomes [29–30]. This can also be linked to the Career Construction Theory (CCT), a popular career theory [31–33].

*The Influence of Career Adaptability on Career Calling and Health of Teachers DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93563*

The thinking here through the presence of a calling is that individuals develop a set of meta-competencies such as career adaptability. A contemporary response to the ideas espoused in the CTPS and CCT is through the Work as a Calling Theory (WCT) [1]. The WCT explores the experience of how an individual when perceiving their career as a calling, this may in turn result in the living of a calling. The distinction, yet linkage, is between the perception and ultimately the reality. This distinction and linkage do not in any way divorce the individual from facing individual and contextual challenges [34] but proffer a way of managing these.

### **3. Empirical literature**

#### **3.1 Career adaptability, career calling and health**

The empirical literature appears to show connections between the variables under study. Research found the absence of a calling to be associated with negative behaviours such as depression, irritation, anxiety, withdrawal intent, and physical symptoms [11]. The thinking here could be that in the life of an individual, work, especially decent work, has the potential to satisfy individual needs and drives with the added benefit of creating social connections [34]. The presence of such a state of being around the meaning of work for the individual has the potential to affect not just individual but also community well-being [35]. This also leads to the salient link that has been made between the meaningful work and calling with outcomes such as (a) life satisfaction, (b) life meaning, (c) job performance, (d) job productivity, (e) commitment, and (f) motivation [36–37].

Career adaptability becomes a critical aspect of individual career development. The thinking here is that through career adaptability, the individual has a strategy that assists to manage career shifts and experiences [38]. These shifts and experiences may have their origin within an ever-changing work environment. Research attributes the current environment especially with reference to the economic outlook to have a bearing on employee loyalty as well as morale motivation and job security [39]. Potentially, career adaptability may exist as a possible panacea to manage such change.

**Figure 1.** *Conceptual model.*

The empirical evidence appears to show support for the notion that career adaptability functions as a self-regulatory tool for managing stress, thereby promoting employee health in the periods of career shifts [38, 40–41]. Subsequently, the nature of the changes happening in the world of work affects employee well-being [42]. Based on the presented literature, the following hypotheses were formulated:

H1: Presence of calling predicts employee mental health.

H2: Presence of calling predicts employee physical health.

H3: Career adaptability moderates the relationship between presence of calling and employee mental health such that when career adaptability is high, the relationship between presence of calling and employee mental health is stronger.

H4: Career adaptability moderates the relationship between presence of calling and employee physical health such that when career adaptability is high, the relationship between presence of calling and employee physical health is stronger. **Figure 1** presents the conceptual model that was tested.
