From Policy Shifts to Career Shifts: How Political Changes Fuel Professional Reconversion in the Knowledge Economy

Political shifts can occur in any country at any moment, and it can lead to different kinds of changes, such as employment disruptions. These kinds of changes can force employees to follow a different career path, make new choices and acquire different skills. This research investigates how the instabilities from the Romanian presidential elections affect the decisions of the employees in their professional and personal life. The actual situation in Romania needs more focused attention on professional retraining and on knowledge economy-based adaptation measures for making workers more prepared for the new professional market. In order to analyze these impacts of political instability on workforce adaptability, we have used a survey data collection. The uncertainties about the workplace stemming from political instability lead the employees to find other alternatives in terms of getting new skills and checking out other job offers. By its skills development features and the new emerging sector employment generation, the knowledge economy plays a vital role in professional transition routes. The research frames the need for the development of targeted national policies that enable workers in the adaptations to careers being supported by knowledge economy approaches, in order to reduce the impact of the political instabilities.