PhD defence: Antecedents of Career Sustainability in the Netherlands and Pakistan
On Monday 29 June 2026 at 10.15 am., Ahmad Zakariya will defend his PhD thesis Careers in contrast: Examining the antecedents of career sustainability in the context of the Netherlands and Pakistan.
How can careers remain sustainable in a rapidly changing world shaped by globalization, technological transformation, and aging populations? In his dissertation, Ahmad Zakariya explores that question by examining how individual, organizational, and national factors influence career sustainability in two contrasting contexts: the Netherlands and Pakistan.
In his dissertation he combines interviews with women managers and survey data from employees across both countries. Zakariya investigates how work-life balance, competency development, organizational support, and age relate to sustainable career outcomes such as health, happiness, and productivity.
The findings demonstrate that sustainable careers are not shaped by individual choices alone, but emerge through the interaction between personal agency and broader cultural and institutional contexts. In the Netherlands, where individual autonomy and flexible labour systems are more prominent, work-life balance showed a particularly strong relationship with career sustainability. In Pakistan, collectivistic values and social support networks played a more central role in shaping career experiences.
The dissertation also highlights that there is no single pathway to a sustainable career. Women managers described diverse career narratives, ranging from proactive career planning to redefining professional ambitions around personal values and family responsibilities. Furthermore, age itself proved to be a relatively weak predictor of career sustainability, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, continuous learning, and supportive organizational environments throughout the span of a career.
Overall, this research argues for culturally sensitive and context-aware approaches to careers, human resource management, and labour market policies in an increasingly diverse global workforce.
Ahmad Zakariya is a lecturer at the National University of Modern Languages, Pakistan and a PhD student at the Utrecht University School of Governance (USG).
- Start date and time
- End date and time
- Location
- Utrecht University Hall, Domplein 29 Utrecht and online
- PhD candidate
- A. Zakariya
- Dissertation
- Careers in contrast: Examining the antecedents of career sustainability in the context of the Netherlands and Pakistan.
- PhD supervisor(s)
- prof. E. Knies
- prof. J.P.P.E.F. Boselie
- prof. M.C.W. Peeters
- More information
- Full text via Utrecht University Repository