Redefining working identity in career transitions: The role of mindfulness and self-regulation

Career transitions require individuals to fundamentally redefine their working identity-the amalgam of professional roles, relationships, and narratives that constitutes one's sense of self at work. Although Ibarra's seminal "test-and-learn" model has advanced the current understanding of how identity transitions unfold, the psychological mechanisms that enable or constrain this process remain underspecified. The purpose of this research paper is to develop a propositional theoretical framework that integrates mindfulness and self-regulation into the working identity transition process. Drawing on the possible selves model, the strength model of self-regulation, and contemporary mindfulness theory, this research paper develops a framework and seven propositions that articulate how mindfulness and self-regulation shape identity exploration, evaluation, and integration during career transitions. A key theoretical contribution is the identification of mindfulness as a continuous moderator of self-regulation's impact on identity work: as mindfulness decreases, self-regulation increasingly defaults to rigid conformity that inhibits identity change; as mindfulness increases, self-regulation enables flexible navigation between established and emerging professional identities. The current research paper specifies the cognitive mechanisms-executive attention, reappraisal, and metacognitive decentring-through which this moderation operates. The research paper concludes with boundary conditions, a future research agenda specifying testable hypotheses and appropriate methodologies, and concrete implications for organisational leaders designing career transition support programmes.