‘ … and now it’s over to you’: recognising and supporting the role of careers leaders in schools in England

ABSTRACT

There is a long history of teachers and schools being involved in the delivery of career education and guidance. As the breadth of career education and guidance activity in English schools grew throughout the twentieth century it became increasingly necessary to have an individual within the school responsible for leading and managing this activity (the careers leader). The transfer of responsibility for career guidance from local authorities to schools following the Education Act 2011 has intensified the need for this role. There have been various attempts to conceptualise and professionalise the role of careers leader and to develop appropriate training and support. This article defines the role and the rationale for the role, sets out its history and makes recommendations for the future professionalisation of the role. It is argued that this will include recognition of the role by policy, professionalisation and the development of a career structure and the development of appropriate training and CPD.     

Do you feel happy when other members look happy? Moderating effect of community-level social capital on interconnection of happiness

One's happiness is expected to be affected by the happiness of surrounding others. This socio-psychological nature of happiness, however, has not been fully examined in the literature of social psychology. The current study examined if this “psychological interconnection of happiness” occurs when (i) individuals have strong personal social capital and/or (ii) individuals belong to a community where other members have strong social capital. We analysed a large social survey dataset sampled from 408 communities in Japan (N = 7295). The psychological interconnection of happiness was measured by calculating the correlation between individual happiness and perceived community happiness. The multilevel analyses revealed that the psychological interconnection of happiness was moderated by community-level social capital above and beyond individual-level social capital, while individual-level social capital did not have a significant moderation effect.     

2020 Reflections from a Mid-Career Academic Psychologist: Select Tips for Prospective Graduate Psychology Students

Abstract

This paper provides some personal and academic reflections from a mid-career academic psychologist. In doing so, several select tips and suggestions are offered to prospective graduate psychology students, in particular. This paper strikes to encourage such students to seriously and thoughtfully consider why they wish to attend graduate school and some of the realistic possible negative consequences of doing so. Several select additional suggestions are noted for those students who ultimately decide to attend graduate school with a particular emphasis on the value and importance of forging a productive and collegial relationship with one’s graduate mentor.     

Lived religion and the religious field

ABSTRACT

In the study of lived religion, the focus on laypeople as religious agents can result in the simplistic juxtaposition of religion-as-practised by individuals and religion-as-prescribed by institutions. This perspective leads to analyses that over-emphasize agency and overlook the embeddedness of religious persons in intricate power relations that expand beyond the institution(s) closest to them. I propose that Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory, particularly as related to the religious field, offers tools for tackling this issue. While Bourdieu’s work has been criticized for relegating the laity to the status of passive consumers of religious goods, his theorizations can also be employed to produce nuanced micro-level accounts that prioritize laypeople’s practical knowledge of the field and the positions they take within it. Based on my case study of older Finnish women’s normative assessments related to religion, I demonstrate how scholars can investigate the role which their informants’ histories and investments within the religious field play in their religion-as-lived. The women in my study, lifelong members of Orthodox or Lutheran churches, defended their positions in the increasingly individualistic Finnish religious field through an emphasis on childhood socialization as the foundation of ‘proper’ religion.     

Social capital,migration stress,depression and sexual risk behaviors among rural-to-urban migrants in China: a moderated mediation modeling analysis

Background: Few studies have examined the complex relationship of migration stress and depression with sexual risk behaviors among migrants. The relationship between migration stress and sexual risk behaviors may be mediated by depression, and the mediation process may be modified by social capital. The study aims to investigate this moderated mediation mechanism among rural-to-urban migrants.

Methods: Data were collected from rural-to-urban migrants in China. Migration stress, depression, and social capital were measured with validated scales and used as predictor, mediator and moderator, respectively, to predict the likelihood of having sex with risk partners. Mediation and moderated mediation models were used to analyze the data.

Results: Depression significantly mediated the migration stress–sex with risk partner relationship for males (the indirect effect [95%CI]?=?0.36 [0.08, 0.66]); the mediation effect was not significant for females (0.31 [?0.82, 0.16]). Among males, social capital significantly moderated the depression-sex with risk partner relation with moderation effect ?0.12 [?0.21, ?0.04], ?0.21 [?0.41, ?0.01] and ?0.17 [?0.30, ?0.05] for total, bonding and bridging capital respectively.

Conclusion: Social capital may weaken the association between migration stress and sexual risk behavior by buffering the depression-sexual risk behaviors association for males. Additional research is needed to examine this issue among females.     

Shedding light on the relationships between Machiavellianism,career ambition,and unethical behavior intention

ABSTRACT

This research aims at revealing how Machiavellianism correlates with the propensity to engage in unethical behavior. The mediating role of career ambition was thus investigated for this purpose. This research posits that career ambition partially mediates the relationship between Machiavellianism and unethical behavior intention. The research model was tested via Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Research data were collected from full-time hotel employees and managers in Antalya, Turkey. The findings revealed that Machiavellianism positively correlated with career ambition and unethical behavior intention. Furthermore, the mediating role of career ambition in the relationship between Machiavellianism and unethical behavior intention was verified. Specifically, Machiavellianism predicted career ambition, which in turn predicted unethical behavior intention. Finally, considering the fact that the dark sides of the antecedents and consequences of career ambition have been neglected to a significant extent in the literature, the current study makes a significant contribution to filling this gap.     

The changing relationship between people and their job – the validity of career information

ABSTRACT

An overview of the evolution of career information in light of the changing nature of the world of work is presented. Owing to the constant fundamental changes in the labour market, the distribution of paid work has been also constantly changing. In this article, a more dynamic and – often temporary – interplay between citizens and their professional context is proposed. The case of Hungary has been used to describe the changing nature between people and their jobs. The historical overview helps explain the development of career information from pre-modernity to post-modernity and justifies the need for a more dynamic model of work adjustment and individual career development.     

Careers work in higher education in Pakistan: current practice and options for the future

ABSTRACT

In this article we examine the development of career guidance in Pakistani higher education. The article is based on a literature review supplemented with new data gathered from a review of higher education institutions' websites and five case study interviews. It considers both local and global influences as relevant contexts for understanding how the development of career guidance in Pakistani higher education is taking place. Concerns about alignment between skills supply and demand provide key drivers both for the development of career guidance and for a wider higher education reform. The practice of career guidance in Pakistani higher education is shown to be lagging behind policy and will need to be strengthened by new policy, resources and indigenous theories.     

Drivers and outcomes of salespersons’ value opportunity recognition competence in solution selling

Abstract

In B2B markets, firms seek to provide customer solutions instead of merely selling goods or services. As boundary-spanners, salespeople are pivotal for implementing this strategic shift. Yet, extant literature provides limited insights into salesperson’s resources and competencies required for customer solutions, particularly in the early phases of solution selling. This research focuses on salesperson’s value opportunity recognition competence (VOR), which is a central requirement for salespeople to be able to navigate the early phases of solution selling. Analyzing large-scale, multi-level data of 799 salespeople and their respective sales managers in 29 sales organizations, the authors investigate the role of different salesperson resources and work environment characteristics for strengthening their VOR. The authors find that salespeople need both customer and technical knowledge, but customer knowledge is more important. Salespeople also can substitute individual technical knowledge with strong internal relations, but strong customer relations are no substitute for individual knowledge about customers’ business models and processes. Formalization turned out to be a double-edged sword in the context of VOR development, while transformational leadership has positive effects only. The findings bear concrete implications for improving the selection, training, and work environment of solution salespeople.