Multiple identities and career development of GLB immigrants

There has been increasing interest in the study of career development and career counselling for the gay men, lesbian women and bisexual (GLB) people given the clear link between sexual orientation and career development in the past two decades. Yet, there is still a relatively dearth of literature in this area, especially, much is unknown about the career identity and other related identity development experiences of GLB immigrant adults whose acculturation process intersects with cultural identity, race and ethnicity and sexual identity as they rebuild their careers in the host country. This article aims to explore the connections between multiple cultural identities and their affect on career development. It builds upon the current literature, uses some career development theories, and proposes career development and career counselling interventions for the target group.     

Story telling: crafting identities

ABSTRACT

Career guidance clients are seeking to craft new identities that better position them in their careers. The focus of the present article is on narrative career counselling's potential contribution in providing a meaningful and useful experience for career guidance clients. To illustrate the potential of narrative career counselling, the story telling approach is offered as an example to illustrate how identity can be crafted in contextually and culturally sensitive ways.     

Professionals' use of different mentor sources at various career stages: implications for career success

The authors investigated the various sources of mentors used by professionals, how these sources influenced both objective and subjective career success, and whether the participants used different sources of mentors at different stages of their careers. According to data from 430 faculty members at 2 U.S. research institutions, assistant professors with mentors in their professions, associate professors with mentors outside the work place, and professors with mentors within their organizations had the highest levels of objective career success. Assistant professors with multiple sources of mentors yielded significantly higher levels of both objective and subjective career success than did those with single sources or no mentor. If one links professorial rank to career stage, the results suggest that the participants used different sources of mentors at different stages of their careers.     

Professionals' Use of Different Mentor Sources at Various Career Stages: Implications for Career Success

Abstract

The authors investigated the various sources of mentors used by professionals, how these sources influenced both objective and subjective career success, and whether the participants used different sources of mentors at different stages of their careers. According to data from 430 faculty members at 2 U.S. research institutions, assistant professors with mentors in their professions, associate professors with mentors outside the work place, and professors with mentors within their organizations had the highest levels of objective career success. Assistant professors with multiple sources of mentors yielded significantly higher levels of both objective and subjective career success than did those with single sources or no mentor. If one links professorial rank to career stage, the results suggest that the participants used different sources of mentors at different stages of their careers.     

Adult Life and Career Counselling

The provision of life and career counselling for adults in the early 1970s is examined, distinguishing between counselling and other helping strategies. A major paradigm shift which is influencing counselling along with other aspects of society is identified. The range of provision of adult life and careers counselling existing in 1985 is summarised, and some speculations on future development are offered.     

Giving voice to the dual-career couple

Changes in the nature of careers, and also of families, mean new challenges for the increasing number of dual-career couples in society. Each couple faces multiple concerns, including two individual careers, a shared relationship and the interdependence among all of these elements. This paper contributes to the counselling literature by reporting two case studies in which a new methodological approach was adopted, intended to make a couple's concerns explicit and provide a platform for further action. Using the holistic model of the intelligent career, a facilitated process was used to elicit first subjective, then inter-subjective career data, enabling the partners to make sense of their individual careers within a context of their shared relationship. The preliminary results suggest the methodology may provide a novel and useful way to give 'voice' to—and in turn facilitate action by—the dual-career couple.     

Career guidance and therapeutic counselling: sharing ‘what works’ in practice with young people

Many young people in the UK and across the world, where austerity measures are biting deep, find themselves at a time of crisis and uncertainty in their lives. The assumptions previously held of clear and straightforward career paths are being challenged and ‘career’ has come to mean more than simply ‘work’ or ‘employment’. This has implications for career practice, where career advisers are engaging with a range of complex issues in their guidance interactions with clients. This article draws on research undertaken with therapeutic counsellors into ‘what works’ when counselling young people. It offers career practitioners the opportunity to reflect on four key emerging themes and to consider how the discipline of therapeutic counselling might inform guidance practice.     

Computer-Assisted Careers Counselling: A New Approach

This paper describes the outcome of a research and development project concerned to construct a computer aid for careers advisers and career decision-makers which differs in basic philosophy and design from others currentiy in the field. The resulting Careers Decision Aiding System (CDAS) is principally concerned with improving the quality of the decision-making strategy employed by clients by raising their awareness of the way in which their career choice is made, ratherthan with employing computer technology to attempt to match people to careers. The use of the CDAS by clients and careers advisers is illustrated by two case-studies.     

The effects of objective career success on subsequent subjective career success

We use a sample of working adults (N = 638) to explore the effects of past objective career success (mobility, promotions, and salary change) on current subjective success (human capital assessments by one's managers, core self evaluations, satisfaction with one's career) by gender, across an economic cycle (2004–2011), controlling for career stage. Results support a strong influence of past promotions, and less so for salary changes, on subjective career success. These effects were stronger for men and during the economic contraction, with managers being affected in their assessments based on the employees' past promotions. In contrast, past job mobility did not relate to subjective career success for either gender in periods of economic expansion or contraction. Evidence for an interactive perspective of career success whereby past objective success affects current subjective success is presented, as well as potential implications of the findings.     

Applying the principles and techniques of solution-focused therapy to career counselling

Career counselling aims to help clients become more effective agents in solving problems in their vocational aspects of life. To achieve this goal, theorists and practitioners are called upon to form useful helping approaches that can help clients in a more efficient and effective manner. This article proposes an alternative model toward this end by considering and adopting principles and techniques from the solution-focused therapy in career counselling practice. After a very brief introduction of the basic features of the solution-focused counselling, the paper reviews some key theoretical principles of the solution-focused therapy, and connects these principles to career counselling context. It then illustrates several solution-focused counselling techniques that are particularly applicable to career counselling intervention.     

The effects of objective career success on subsequent subjective career success

We use a sample of working adults (N = 638) to explore the effects of past objective career success (mobility, promotions, and salary change) on current subjective success (human capital assessments by one's managers, core self evaluations, satisfaction with one's career) by gender, across an economic cycle (2004–2011), controlling for career stage. Results support a strong influence of past promotions, and less so for salary changes, on subjective career success. These effects were stronger for men and during the economic contraction, with managers being affected in their assessments based on the employees' past promotions. In contrast, past job mobility did not relate to subjective career success for either gender in periods of economic expansion or contraction. Evidence for an interactive perspective of career success whereby past objective success affects current subjective success is presented, as well as potential implications of the findings.     

The nomological network of self‐management strategies and career success

Changes in the labour market require people to show more self‐management than before if they want to succeed. The present research was conducted to analyse the nomological network of general self‐management strategies (i.e. selection of goals; optimization as implementation of goal‐pursuing behaviour), specific self‐management strategies (i.e. career planning) and central indicators of career success, i.e. objective career success (pay, position), self‐referent subjective success (career satisfaction), and other‐referent career success (comparative judgment). In a large sample of professionals (N=1,185), we found in support of our hypotheses that the generalized strategy of optimization was linked to the domain‐specific strategy of career planning, and that domain‐specific career planning was directly linked to all outcome measures. The generalized strategy of optimization was directly linked to subjective success, but only indirectly to objective success. The link from self‐management to subjective success was independent of objective success. Most interestingly, and in accord with our social comparison assumption, objective success was more closely linked to other‐referent success than to self‐referent success. Implications for career research and career counselling are discussed.     

Executive Career Counselling

Executive career counselling is relatively new. Some of its implications are examined and a three-tiered approach by organisations is advocated. Executives are verbally fluent, and this highlights the importance of the 'opening paragraph' of words they use in counselling. Neuro-linguistic programming offers a useful set of tools to the executive career counsellor. Left-handedness, probably overlooked in most types of counselling, is briefly considered. However, counselling is not only about problems, but also offers executives a welcome chance to review their lives and careers.     

Person-environment congruence in relation to career change and career persistence

This study examined Holland’s theoretical proposition, that personality-work environment congruence influences career stability and change, with a sample of 212 career changers (respondents who expressed an intent to change career and had engaged in preliminary career change activity) and 249 career persisters (respondents who indicated an intent to remain in their current career). Independent groups ANCOVA (controlling for age and current career tenure) indicated that career persisters scored higher on congruence than career changers, however, the effect size was within the small to medium range. Repeated-measures ANCOVA indicated, with a medium effect size, that career changers moved towards careers that were more congruent with their personality profiles than their current careers. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Using career development theories in the treatment of clients with eating disorders

Various types of psychotherapy have been used in treating clients with eating disorders - a debilitating and frustrating form of psychological illness which mainly occurs in females, especially female youth. However, little is known about the relevance of career counselling for this group of clients. This article attempts to incorporate theoretical concepts from vocational and career psychology into the helping process for clients with eating disorders. It illustrates the rationale and applicability of infusing career counselling concepts and strategies into the psychotherapy for individuals recovering from eating disorders. It also provides the implications for blending the career counselling and therapeutic interventions in the treatment process.     

Emotion in career contexts: Challenges for theory and research

In this article I argue that we need a greater understanding of the role of emotion in career development and career management. Notions of careers as sequences of events and experiences and new relational approaches to organizational career development suggest opportunities for exploring the experience, expression, and management of emotion within individuals’ careers. Also, ideas about emotional labour can inform career counselling practice. I also explore how far research into emotions in career contexts requires a constructivist or constructionist approach, and discuss some of the methodological issues in working within positivist, and non-positivist (specifically constructivist and constructionist) paradigms. Both have their strengths, and we should not lose sight of these in furthering our understanding of individuals’ careers and of ways to intervene effectively in career development.     

Using career counselling with group life design principles to improve the employability of disadvantaged young adults

This article explores the effects of group life design counselling on unemployed young adults’ career adaptability skills. Purposive and criterion sampling were used to select 62 participants involved in a skills programme (mean age = 24.86 years, SD = 6.38 years). A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test comparison group-design, embedded in an intervention framework, was used to gather data. Intervention occurred in the quasi-experimental group. Paired t-tests were used to compare the difference between the pre- and post-test scores obtained on the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS). The scores on career concern and career control, as well as the total score on the CAAS, of the quasi-experimental group increased after the intervention. The results suggest that group career counselling interventions with life design principles enhanced the career adaptability in participants as a core element of employability. Future research should focus on more longitudinal research and tracing the long-term progress of participants to establish the value of the approach for diverse clients in (individual and) group contexts.     

心理资本对企业员工职业成功的影响：职业承诺的中介效应

采用问卷调查法,以265名企业员工为调查对象,在控制被试的人力资本及人口统计学变量之后,使用结构方程模型分析员工心理资本与职业承诺、职业成功的关系。结果发现：（1）心理资本对员工的职业承诺、职业成功有显著地预测作用;（2）职业承诺在心理资本与员工客观职业成功之间起部分中介作用;（3）职业承诺在心理资本与员工主观职业成功之间起完全中介作用。