Dr. Dobrow studies people’s careers across professional and organizational boundaries and over the course of time. Her research has won numerous best paper awards and has been published or accepted for publication in journals such as Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Academy of Management Learning and Education, and Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Research Stream 1: Dr. Dobrow studies the sense of calling—a consuming, meaningful passion people can experience toward a domain—that may compel people to pursue seemingly paradoxical career paths.

For example, why do young classical musicians attempt to pursue careers as orchestral musicians when 3,000 orchestral instrument majors graduate from U.S. college music programs annually and only 150 orchestral job openings are available? Hopefuls in numerous other professions—ranging from academia to professional sports—also face staggering odds against “making it.” Inspired by her own involvement in the professional music world as a bassoonist, Dr. Dobrow launched an ongoing longitudinal survey study of musicians who were students at two top U.S. summer high school music programs in 2001. This study has extended to three other occupational areas as well: art, business, and professional management.

Dr. Dobrow’s research encourages new ways of understanding calling. This research provides insight into the dynamic processes through which calling develops, which is fundamental to understanding the role it plays in people’s lives and careers. This research contributes by developing a construct-valid definition and measure of calling and then using this definition and measure to investigate previously unexplored assumptions about calling, including whether callings are made or developed and whether they lead to career pursuit. This calling scale is available from Dr. Dobrow upon request.

Research Stream 2: Dr. Dobrow studies developmental networks—the set of people who take an active interest in and action toward advancing a protégé’s career through providing developmental assistance.

In one set of papers, Dr. Dobrow and colleagues extend previous research on developmental networks that has been conducted solely from the protégé’s perspective. They propose that incorporating developers’ perspectives—that is, applying a mutuality perspective that considers both protégés and developers as active members of the developmental network—is critical to furthering scholars’ understanding of developmental networks. In a second set of papers, Dr. Dobrow and colleagues examine the role of individuals’ developmental networks in shaping their careers. They aim to understand how different types of support, such as career and psychosocial, from different types of people in the developmental network shape career outcomes over time.

Additional Research: Dr. Dobrow is involved in management education research. She and her colleagues studied how faculty can cultivate student interest in the management classroom. In a classroom field experiment, they found that presenting students with the opportunity to exercise choice about their final grades resulted in greater interest in management topics. This grade allocation is available from Dr. Dobrow upon request .

Read about Dr. Dobrow's research in…
Inside Fordham
Rice University, Shepherd School of Music Careers Forum, October 2007
Sonorities, The News Magazine of the University of Illinois School of Music, Winter 2007 (see “Choice,” pp. 42-46)
Fordham College of Business Administration Newsletter