Career Interruptions: A Reconceptualization From a Chinese Taoism Perspective

Abstract

This paper is a first attempt to draw attention to the misconception and stigma of career interruptions and provide a new conceptualization of this widely existing career phenomenon. The unique contribution of introducing Taoism into conceptualizing career interruptions is to help bring the ontological aspects of career interruptions into a sharper focus. The present study borrows the conceptions such as Wu, Wu-Wei, and the cyclic motion of time from Chinese Taoism to reveal the attributes of career interruptions and introduce the appreciator stance into the career interruption literature. The article is structured as follows. First, an overview of the literature is provided. Second, the present study argues that a reconceptualization is needed to deal with the misconception and stigma associated with career interruptions. Third, borrowing from the wisdom of traditional Chinese Taoism, four propositions are developed to help reconceptualize career interruptions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.