【中英双语】职场中的四种典型思维，哪种最靠谱？
Putting Common Career Advice to the Test
在对“如何能在当代职场中游刃有余”这一问题进行了数十年的研究之后，研究人员锁定了四条最常见的建议：自己掌控事业命脉、构建本企业及本行业之外的关系网、追随内心的激情和随时准备投身下一份工作。
After decades of research on how to be successful in contemporary careers, researchers have identified the four most common pieces of advice people consider necessary to have a successful career：take your career into your own hands，network outside of your organization and industry，follow your passion and be ready to jump at the next job opportunity.
我们对2006年以来该领域内的田野调查进行了荟萃分析（meta-analysis），考察上述四条建议分别导向何种结果，以期测算出每一条建议的价值。分析对象涉及175个独立样本，覆盖世界各地处于不同职业阶段、身处不同职业的6.3万多人。
To figure out how worthwhile each piece of advice actually is, we conducted a meta-analysis of all available field studies since 2006 that had examined how each one relates to various career outcomes, totaling 175 independent samples of over 63,000 people around the world in various career stages and occupations.
基于这一样本量，我们能够确定哪条建议最具价值，哪些建议应该审慎采纳。我们将这四条建议各自所产生的影响分拆成如下三个维度来具体考量：
This allowed us to spot population-level patterns for each piece of advice and determine which are likely to be the most rewarding and which should be approached with caution. We did this by breaking down how each of the four pieces of advice relates to:
1、客观上的成功
（薪资水平、行业地位、晋升通道等）
2、主观上的成功
（职业满意度、职业幸福感等）
3、具体工作表现
（工作满意度、组织认同感、离职意向、退出行为和工作绩效等）
Objective career success (i.e., salary, status, promotions)
Subjective career success (i.e., career satisfaction, well-being)
Employee job outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, withdrawal, and job performance)
从这三个维度来进行数据分析，可以获知这四条建议对助力职场成功的价值如何。
Here are those four most common pieces of advice and what the data says about how useful they are for finding success in today’s jobs.
1. 把事业命脉掌控在自己手中
Take your career into your own hands
执行这条建议通常需要具备一种自我驱动的思维，这意味着知晓自身是职业道路及未来发展的全部责任人，而不能依赖雇主来承担该责任。与另外三条建议相比，这条建议总体上是最有价值的。我们还发现，与缺乏自主意识的人相比，拥有自我驱动思维的人在客观和主观两个维度都取得更大职业成功的可能性更高。
This piece of advice requires a self-directed mindset, which means a person assumes full responsibility for their own career path and development, rather than relying primarily on their employer. Compared to the other three pieces of advice, this one has the most positive effect overall. We also found it to be across-the-board beneficial for all outcomes considered — people who hold a self-directed mindset are more likely to experience both greater objective and subjective career success compared to those who don’t.
此外，完全由自己掌控职业生涯的人，在工作中拥有更高的士气（即更高的工作满意度和组织认同感）、更高的工作绩效评级和更少的工作退出行为（如缺勤等）。因此，这条引导职场人士提升工作技能和掌控自己命运的建议，是四条建议中对员工和雇主最有帮助的。
Additionally, people who take full ownership of their own careers are more likely to have greater morale (i.e., higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment), higher job performance ratings, and lower withdrawal behaviors (e.g., turnover intentions) in their current job. Thus, the advice to proactively develop your own skillsets and “pack your own parachute” is the most helpful of the four types for both the employee and employer.
我们的研究结果及建议：缺乏自我驱动思维的人通常认为其职业发展仰仗于他人的照拂，比如现任雇主。虽然过去这种思维无可厚非，但如今却是四处碰壁。部分原因在于公司需要快速适应不断演进的技术变革和全球化所带来的日益严峻的竞争，势必要求员工自主掌握相应的新知识和技能。
Recommendation: Someone lacking a self-directed mindset assumes their career development will be taken care of by others, such as their current employer. While this may have worked in the past, it’s no longer the case today. This is due in part to the need for companies to adapt quickly to changing technologies and increased competition caused by globalization. That requires employees to be on their feet to acquire the new knowledge and skillsets sought after by 21st century organizations.
因此，我们建议你通过主动寻找培训机会来提升自身的知识水平、夯实工作技能及各项能力，从而掌握自己的职场命运。比如，参加与职业相关的培训课程。
Therefore, we recommend that you take control of your own development by proactively finding training opportunities to increase and strengthen your repertoire of knowledge, skills, and abilities. You could do so by attending training courses related to your career.
此外，考虑到自我驱动思维能够提振员工士气、提升员工绩效，可以将其视为公司发展的最大驱动力，予以重视。其中的关键是在学习和职业发展规划中持有终身学习的积极心态。埃隆·马斯克对其员工的建议值得追随：通过“不断思考如何更进一步、如何挑战自己”来自我完善。
Additionally, given the increases to employee morale, performance, and lower withdrawal that this mindset brings, you could mention how it’s in your company’s best interests to promote your growth. The key is to be proactive about your ongoing learning and professional development. Follow Elon Musk’s advice to his employees: “Constantly think about how you could do things better and challenge yourself” to improve.
2. 构建本企业及本行业之外的关系网
Network outside of your organization and industry
在本企业或本行业之外建立职业关系需要具备“无边界”的思维。那些在客观和主观维度上取得成功的职场人士，离职的可能性也更高，在计划换工作时可能更容易让新雇主犹豫是否应该将其招致麾下。
Seeking out professional relationships outside of your own organization or industry requires having a “boundaryless” mindset. While these individuals have greater objective and subjective career success, they’re more likely to withdraw from their current employer, which could have negative effects on the perception of whether or not they should be hired.
总体来说，尽管“无边界”思维有助于构建竞争力，但其效率远不及自我驱动思维。换言之，就对个人职业生涯带来的有益效应而言，它与自我导向思维相比相对较弱。
Overall, although a boundaryless mindset is beneficial to your career success, it is at a rate considerably lower than being self-directed. That is, its beneficial effects are relatively weaker on most career outcomes than being self-directed is to those outcomes.
我们的研究结果及建议：尝试在本部门、企业或行业之外建立一个更广泛的社交网络。实现途径包括但不限于：邀请直接工作小组之外的同事共进午餐，在生活社区中担任志愿者，培养工作以外的爱好，参加工作圈子或专业领域之外的活动或会议等。谷歌前首席执行官埃里克·施密特认同了该建议：“对结识新朋友说‘yes’。”但是，就建议的优先级而言，我们认为还是应该首先把注意力集中在自我驱动上，因为它将产生事半功倍的效果。
Recommendation: Consider building a broader social network outside of your departmental, organizational, or industry silos. You may do this by inviting people outside your direct work group to lunch, volunteering in your community, cultivating non-work hobbies, or attending events or conferences outside your immediate network or area of expertise. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt echoed this advice: “Say yes to meet new friends.” However, when deciding which advice to prioritize, we recommend focusing your attention first on being self-directed, as it carries more bang for your buck in terms of how you use your energy.
3. 追随内心的激情
Follow your passion
价值观驱动意味着个人的职业发展主要基于其根深蒂固的价值观，并且仅仅从“追随内心的激情”这一角度来规划职业生涯。
Being values-driven means a person makes career moves based primarily on their deeply held personal values and approaches their career solely from the view of “pursuing their passion.”
然而，我们的研究结果表明应该审慎看待这一建议。因为追随激情这一思维方式的付出与收获难以成正比，其对带来“有意义的生活”的裨益极有可能比想象中更少。
However, our findings suggest this advice should be approached with caution, as it’s likely to result in smaller, incremental “meaningful life” dividends than people think they’re investing in.
结果表明，这种心态其实无关紧要——在统计学意义上，它与客观维度上的职场成功几乎毫无关系，而与获得主观维度上的职场成功之间的关系也是相对最弱的。
The results show this mindset doesn’t really matter — its relationship to objective success is statistically no different from zero, and it has the relatively weakest relationship to subjective success.
我们的研究结果及建议：倘若你执意要追随内心的激情，也宜谨慎行事。拥有这种思维的人往往出于一种战略权衡：希望通过抵制名利的诱惑来获得更大的幸福感。但这种权衡往往扩大了“幸福感”的价值。追随内心的激情时，人们通常只是增加了些许快乐感，但其远未达到对生活带来实质性改变的程度。因此，与其仅仅关注能否燃烧自己的激情，还不如认识到任何工作既需要赋予意义也需要匹配能力。
Recommendation: Proceed with caution in solely following your passion. Many people adopt this mindset expecting a strategic trade-off: They’re trading the allure of money and prestige to secure greater happiness. However, this trade-off may be overestimated. What typically happens is people with this mindset are slightly happier, but not to any practically substantial degree. Thus, instead of focusing solely on passion, realize that any given job requires not only meaningfulness, but also competence.
关于这一点，可以参考求职社区缪斯（The Muse）的创始人凯瑟琳·明休（Kathryn Minshew）的建议：“我们每个人都有机会找到释放自身激情的工作……但‘完美的工作’只是一个神话。”
We recommend considering The Muse founder Kathryn Minshew’s advice that while “each of us has the opportunity to find work that is aligned with our passions…the idea of a ‘perfect job’ is a myth.”
4. 随时准备投身下一份工作
Be ready to jump at the next job opportunity
具有“流动性”思维的人，无论其当下的工作质量如何，往往都会不断寻找跳槽机会，为职业生涯的下一站做准备。结果表明，这无法助其获得客观维度上的职业成功，并且始终不利于拥有主观维度上的职业成功。持有这种思维的员工往往士气和绩效较低，离职可能性更高；对于雇主而言，其成本高而且潜在吸引力低。
A person who is constantly seeking out opportunities to make their next career move and change jobs — regardless of the quality of their current job — has a mobility mindset. Results show that this does not lead to greater objective career success and is consistently detrimental to subjective career success. Employees with this mindset also have lower morale and performance and are more likely to leave their current job, making them costly — and potentially unattractive — to employers.
因此，尽管拥有更多工作选择可能显得特别诱人，但随时准备离职无疑不利于个人的工作前景。事实上，从主观维度来衡量，流动性思维所导致的负面影响大约是自我驱动思维所带来的正面影响的三分之一。此外，从对个人心理健康影响层面来说，流动性思维的负面影响几乎等于其他三种思维方式的积极影响之和。
Thus, while it may be especially tempting right now to be on the lookout for the next opportunity, being ready to “bail” at any moment is summarily bad advice for one’s success in current and future jobs. In fact, the negative effect of the mobility mindset on subjective career success is about one-third the strength of the positive effect the self-directed mindset has on it. Additionally, the detrimental effect of being mobility-minded is nearly equal to the combined positive effects of all other mindsets on a person’s psychological well-being.
我们的研究结果及建议：不要急于跳槽，而要专注于如何从当前的工作中脱颖而出。在流动性思维的主导下，人们会产生“风景在别处”的心态，并且容易给人留下“不够稳定可靠”的印象。
Recommendation: Do not be too eager to “jump” jobs, but focus on excelling at your current job. Being mobility-minded leads to a “grass is greener” mentality and can earn you a reputation of being unreliable.
很多职业建议，尽管出于最善意的本心，但通常不是基于已经验证的事实依据，往往是陈词滥调或者自相矛盾、古调不弹。所以下次当你听取或给出职业建议时，应该明白并非所有的建议都同样有效。
A great deal of career advice, while given with the best of intentions, is often not based on verified evidence and is anecdotal, hackneyed, contradictory, or outdated. So the next time you hear or give career advice, consider that not all advice is equally valid.
对于规划职业生涯，我们的建议是：掌控自己的事业，享受旅途中无边界的风景，不要过于挑剔目的地，也不要急于跃入下一站的风景中。
Our recommendation for your career journey is to pack your own parachute, enjoy the “boundaryless” scenery on the trip, don’t be too picky about the destination, and don’t be too eager to jump at the next stop.
关键词：职场
丹尼尔·D·戈林（Daniel D. Goering）、克里斯蒂娜·S·李（Christina S. Li）|文
丹尼尔·D·戈林是密苏里州立大学管理学助理教授。克里斯蒂娜·S·李是俄克拉何马大学普赖斯商学院客座助理教授。
Lisa|译 周强|编校
