Between- and within-person level motivational precursors associated with career exploration

Career exploration is a critical process for child and adolescent development leading people toward suitable work and developing a vocational identity. The present study examined the role of motivational precursors, namely work valences and personal agency beliefs, in explaining in-breadth and in-depth career exploration. Given the dynamic nature of motivation, we teased apart the between-person differences and within-person variabilities in motivational precursors to examine how they are independently associated with career exploration. Two hundred one high school students comprised the sample and were surveyed three consecutive years. Results revealed that work valences and agency beliefs were associated with career exploration at both the between- and within-person level. Further, when individuals exhibited greater level of agency beliefs and positive valences, they were more likely to exhibit more in-depth exploration one year later. Implications for career guidance are discussed.     

Career guidance in five English independent schools

English independent schools are not required to follow government statutory guidance in a number of aspects including career education and guidance, and yet many are actively engaged in careers work and this has caught the attention of policymakers. State schools are subject to statutory guidance but, according to Ofsted and other authorities, the majority fail to adequately support young people through their post-school transitions. Using evidence from five English independent schools, the type of provision they offer is analysed against benchmarks of good practice to identify where their support is focussed. The factors that shape the resourcing and design of career education and guidance in the five schools are also explored. The extent to which the practices observed in the case studies can be replicated in all, or a sub-set of state schools, is discussed in the light of policy influence of independent schools.     

Maladaptive repetition and career construction

The role of repeated maladaptive relationship patterns established early in life has been widely studied with the goal of understanding the various factors and processes that contribute to and occur during development and psychological adaptation. The effects of maladaptive patterns have also been studied with regard to the goal of guiding interventions. The present article is intended to highlight the contribution of Career Construction Theory (CCT) for the integration of the concept of maladaptive repetition into the theory and practice of career counseling. It begins with a constructivist conceptualization of maladaptive repetition and proceeds to situate this concept within the contexts of both CCT and the constructivist conception of career indecision. The article then presents a case study, discusses difficulties that arise during career decision-making, and analyzes the maladaptive cycle rupture considering the client's perspective about her transformation.     

Mentor status,occupational context,and protégé career outcomes: Differential returns for males and females

We report two studies examining the moderating effects of mentor status and protégé gender, along with the moderating role of occupational context, in the relationship of mentoring with protégé career outcomes. Our research replicates and extends previous findings, especially those by Ramaswami et al. (2010b). Results from Study 1 indicated that business school alumni with senior-male mentors earned more compensation than those with no mentors. Additionally, a 3-way interaction (protégé gender × senior-male mentor × occupation type) indicated that the senior-male mentor effect for compensation was especially prominent for females in male-gendered occupation types. Study 2, conducted in an aerospace manufacturing firm comprising both a male-gendered occupation and industry context, confirmed mentor-status by protégé gender interaction for compensation. Female protégés with senior mentors received more compensation than females with no mentors, and also more compensation than males with senior mentors. In contrast, protégés with “other” (not senior) mentors received less compensation than those with no mentors, with this negative effect being especially strong for females. Taken as a whole, these results confirm the importance of mentor status for protégé career success. The results also underscore the importance of considering both mentor attributes and work context in understanding male and female protégés' career returns from mentoring.     

When do employees cross boundaries? Individual and contextual determinants of career mobility

This study investigates the joint effects of individual characteristics and the labour market on career mobility. We propose that level of education, openness to experience, and a favourable labour market relate positively to employees crossing organizational, industrial, and occupational boundaries. Management programme alumni (N = 503) provided information through an online survey about their career histories, their level of education, and their openness to experience. Additionally, we used the unemployment rate as an indicator for yearly changes in the labour market. The results of our cross-classified multilevel analysis indicate that both individual characteristics and the labour market are determinants of career mobility. Level of education had a positive effect on organizational and industrial boundary crossing, and changes in the labour market related to organizational boundary crossing. Against our assumptions, openness to experience had no effect on career mobility, and none of the predictors were related to occupational boundary crossing. Our results demonstrate the importance of investigating career mobility from a boundary perspective combined with a focus on both individual and contextual characteristics. The dominance of education compared to personality and the difficulty of explaining occupational mobility open new research avenues and yield practical implications for employees, career counsellors, and organizations.     

Perceived career congruence between adolescents and their parents as a moderator between goal orientation and career aspirations

We surveyed 601 Indonesian high school students (57.6% girls, mean age = 16.4 years) and investigated whether perceived career congruence between adolescents and their parents served as moderator between goal orientation (i.e., mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoid) and career aspirations. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that perceived congruence moderated the effects of mastery-approach and performance-approach, but not performance-avoid, on career aspirations. Mastery-approach orientation was more strongly related to career aspirations when perceived congruence was higher; whereas, performance-prove orientation was more weakly related when perceived congruence was higher. These findings highlight important roles for approach orientations and perceived career congruence between adolescents and their parents in career aspirations of adolescents in collectivist contexts.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Career Decision Scale With Iranian Undergraduate Students

The authors examined the reliability and construct validity of the Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, & Barak, 1976 ) with 1,610 freshman and sophomore students from public universities from a southwestern state in Iran. A Cronbach's alpha of .80 provided strong support for the scale's reliability. Exploratory factor analysis results indicated a 2‐factor model (Diffusion and Internal/External Barriers) of the scale with Iranian students, which was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Implications and recommendations for further research are discussed.     

A champion out of the pool? A discursive exploration of two Australian Olympic swimmers' transition from elite sport to retirement

BackgroundThe transition out of elite sport can be distressing and many athletes experience a range of transition difficulties. However, the socio-cultural and discursive contexts which shape experiences remain largely unexplored in the transition literature.ObjectiveTo explore retirement and transition difficulties in a cultural context through an analysis of Australian newsprint media.Design and methodsA discursive analysis of 121 media articles reporting on post-retirement experiences of two Australian swimmers 7 and 5 years (respectively) into retirement. Data were analysed for repeated representation of transition difficulties, specifically how the cause of difficulties was attributed. The identities that were ascribed to athletes and what these functioned to accomplish were also examined.ResultsThe identities of both individuals were repeatedly constructed in terms of an athlete identity, to the exclusion of other identities. The responsibility for transition difficulties was depicted as located solely within the individual and, thereby, the sport setting and the broader socio-cultural context were overlooked.ConclusionsIn this cultural context (Australian news media), the repeated construction of limited identity positions for retired athletes and the construction of former athletes as the sole locus of transition difficulties have implications for their psychological well-being. Despite this, the role of the sporting and cultural context is rendered invisible in these accounts and more broadly, and interventions remain targeted at the individual level.     

The stability of aspect-based career preferences and of the recommended list of occupations derived from them

Career-related preferences (e.g., team work, independence, length of training, income), which are an elaboration and extension of vocational interests, are one of the cornerstones that guide individuals to promising occupations recommended for further exploration. These preferences are informative and can serve individuals and their career counselors only if they are reliable and stable. Study 1 tested the two-week reliability of 31 career-related preferences of 213 freshman students and the two-year stability of the preferences of 132 of these students. Both the within-aspect preferred levels (e.g., only indoors most preferred, but mostly indoors also acceptable) and the importance of the aspects were elicited. The median within-participant two-week reliability was .85 for preferred levels and .64 for aspect importance; the median two-year stabilities were .75 and .51, respectively. In Study 2, the preferences elicited in Study 1 were used to derive a list of recommended occupations compatible with each participant's preferences at Time 1, Time 2 (2 weeks later), and Time 3 (2 years later), using a compensatory-model-based fit index. The percentage of identical occupations in the lists of the top ten recommended occupations was quite high — 62% for Time 1 and Time 2, and 54% for Time 1 and Time 3. The theoretical and practical implications of the reliability and stability of recommendations based on aspect-based career preferences are discussed.     

Career adaptability and career entrenchment

Career adaptability constitutes a resource that can help employees to effectively manage career changes and challenges. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between the two higher-order constructs of career adaptability and career entrenchment (i.e., the perceived inability and/or unwillingness to pursue new career opportunities), as well as relationships among the dimensions of career adaptability and career entrenchment. We hypothesized a negative relationship between overall career adaptability and career entrenchment, and more differentiated associations among their dimensions. Data for this study came from 404 employees in Brazil. Results of structural equation modeling showed that overall career adaptability weakly negatively predicted overall career entrenchment (standardized effect = − .13), after controlling for age, gender, education, and job tenure. More differentiated findings emerged at the dimension level. Future research should examine the mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship between career adaptability and career entrenchment.