Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of the Study of the Phenomenon of Professional Vocation
A number of phenomena that are widespread in modern market conditions (overqualification, employment outside one’s specialty, instrumental attitude to work, precarious employment, “personnel ageing”, outflow of specialists from industries, mismatch between the interests of employers and personnel training system, etc.), actualizes the study of non-economic (mental, moral) growth factors, providing the labor activity of the population and economic growth across the country. One of these factors is professional vocation. The article describes the evolution of views on vocation as the object of study. The author highlights the historical roots of the study of this phenomenon in the framework of religious, philosophical and scientific currents. He considers manifestations of the phenomenon of vocation in various spheres of human activity. The author summarizes the views of researchers on the role of vocation in professional activities, and defines the stages of formation of professional vocation. Analysis of the concepts of professional vocation helped determine that most of the scientists consider it as a subjective mechanism that gives sense to labor activity. Less often, however, they emphasize the role of vocation as a non-economic factor in labor activity and constructive work behavior. It is revealed that in the study of various manifestations of professional vocation, the majority of analysts operate in fairly narrow subject areas, exploring the relation to work in particular occupational groups (teachers, doctors, the military, etc.). Few attempts are made in order to trace the manifestations of professional vocation on the examples of regional and national samples. The paper proposes a scheme for the study of aspects of professional vocation based on the formal representative survey. The author presents a general concept of the tools used in the survey, which makes it possible to approach the subject of research from a complex, rather than general perspective (exploring the influence of various aspects of personal, social and work life on the individual’s attitude to work).