关键词: 科研人员, 职业使命感, 职业幸福感, 双过程模型

Abstract:    Happiness is the ultimate pursuit of human beings. However, the survey conducted by Nature in 2021 showed that only 50% Chinese participants hold optimistic about their future (Woolston, 2021). Another large-scale survey conducted in 2019 illustrated that Chinese researchers reported lower occupational well-being than other occupational groups (Fu et al., 2021). The occupational well-being of researchers is not only related to their living conditions, but also has an important impact on their creativity. Therefore, how to foster the occupational well-being of scientific researchers is not only a topic of great concern to theoretical circle, but also a topic of great concern China′s current science and technology policy reform. For example, the implementation plan for deepening the reform of science and technology system posits that employers should foster researchers′ sense of contentment and happiness by improving salary and position management system.
    Occupational calling is defined as "a transcendent summons, experienced as originating beyond the self, to approach a particular life role in a manner oriented toward demonstrating or deriving a sense of purpose or meaningfulness and that holds other-oriented values and goals as primary sources of motivation" (Dik& Duffy, 2009, p. 427). Calling is a key factor that has positive effects on individuals′ well-being due to its capability to provide individuals with the sense of meaning in the work. Prior studies have showed that calling was related to well-being indicated by life meaning, life satisfaction, job satisfaction, career satisfaction and mental health. For scientific researchers, a knowledge-based group, maintaining vitality at work and improving professionally are two important sources of occupational well-being. Among them, work vigor represents the subjective well-being of happiness orientation, and subjective professional plateau represents the psychological well-being of self-actualization orientation. The effects of calling on the vigor and subjective professional plateau that are representative of researchers′ occupational well-being are understudied. 
    To address this important gap, we developed the dual process model explaining the effects of calling on occupational well-being based on conservation of resources theory (COR). We propose that occupational calling will affect occupational well-being through two different paths of resource creation and resource protection. To testing the model, we conducted the survey on 327 researchers in China using time-lagged design with one-month interval, and collected 257 valid responses from 44 universities. The regression analyses and path analyses were used to test the hypothesized model. The results showed that: (1) after controlling for core self-evaluation, calling has the incremental effects on researchers′ occupational calling. Namely, calling improved vigor and decreased subjective professional plateau, (2) approach job crafting mediated the relationships between calling and occupational well-being indicated by vigor and subjective professional plateau, and (3) avoidance job crafting mediated the relationship between calling and vigor, but did not mediate the relationship between calling and subjective professional plateau. 
    This paper contributes the literature in the following ways. First, this paper enriches the outcomes of calling by examining the effects of calling on researchers′ vigor and subjective professional plateau. Prior studies focused the occupational well-being on job satisfaction, burnout, career satisfaction and mental health. This paper is the first to examine the effects of calling on occupational calling indicated by vigor and subjective professional plateau. Second, this paper provides the new insight into the mechanism of effects of calling on occupational well-being. Given that calling is an important and value personal resource, conservation of resources theory (COR) was drawn to explain the relationship between calling and occupational well-being. The dual process model was supported by the data from three waves. Finally, this paper confirms and extends the COR theory by directly examining the different roles of approach job crafting and avoidance job crafting on the relationships between calling and occupational well-being. 
    This paper also provides important practical implications for organizations and researchers. First, organizations should conduct calling management and encourage researchers to explore their interests, values, and skills and match their unique skills with potential jobs or to encourage them to connect their work with a tangible, prosocially-oriented purpose. Second, given the different roles of approach job crafting and avoidance job crafting in the relationship between calling and vigor and subjective professional plateau, we suggest that researchers should engage in more approach job crafting and less avoidance job crafting. Approach job crafting can increase the vigor and decrease the subjective professional plateau. 

Key words: researchers, occupational calling, occupational well-being, dual-process model