Career experience and motivation as predictors of training behaviors and outcomes for displaced engineers

This paper reviews the literature on reactions to job loss and programs for retraining and reemployment. We examined the behavior and outcomes of 72 displaced engineers in a semester-long training program in technology management. Measures included experience (a combination of age, years in the defense industry, and number of jobs held), career motivation (a combination of career resilience, insight, and identity), training behaviors, and training outcomes. Training outcomes were negatively related to experience and positively related to results. Moreover, training behaviors were a function of the interaction between experience and career motivation. For highly motivated individuals, experience was positively related to training behaviors. However, low career motivation had a particularly deleterious effect on training behaviors for the most experienced individuals. Implications are discussed for additional research on the effects of experience and motivation on retraining and for the design of retraining programs for displaced workers.