Abstract
Within the last decade, the relation between personality and career decisiveness has received increased attention. This study examines the country-specific influence of the Big Five personality traits on career decisiveness and its determinants, namely career related adaptability, career-related optimism, and career-related knowledge, among 406 Chinese and German economics and management students. The results show that personality traits affect career decisiveness and its determinants and that the effects partly differ across countries. The findings, their implications, and further research directions are discussed and suggestions for career counseling are made. Key words: career decisiveness, country comparison, personality traits 1. Introduction Research in the area of career psychology has attempted to understand the reasons behind career (in)decisiveness for the past decades (Newman et al. 1999). The link between personality and students' career planning has been seen one the factors influencing career decision making. Goldschmid (1967) already demonstrated that personality influences the choice of college majors. Jarlstrom (2000) showed that personality is related to the career expectations of students. In addition, Reed et al. (2004) demonstrated that personality factors influence the career choices of students. Bacanli (2006) pointed out that personality characteristics may be seen predictors for a student's career indecisiveness. These relationships cause a need for diverse career counseling for students with different personalities. As Rottinghaus et al. (2005) point out, examining career decisiveness might help career councilors to identify personal concerns, which interfere with career decision making. This is turn, makes counseling process more efficient Rottinghaus et al. (2005) developed the career futures inventory (CFI), which measures the career identity status or career plan. It measures positive career planning attitudes through career-related adaptability, optimism, and knowledge. These three factors appear to be an essential basis for successful career planning which leads to career decisiveness. So far, the literature has not examined the influence of students' nationality on career decisiveness even though recent studies (e.g., Church 2000; Hofstede/McCrae 2004) have shown that there is a link between national culture and personality traits. That is, personality and culture might be related concepts, and therefore, a certain type of personality might display itself in different forms in different nations. As firms become more and more international and hire students in various countries, it becomes of crucial importance for the human resource management of international organizations to be able to anticipate the career planning of students in the countries of operations. The objective of our study is to examine the influence of career-related adaptability, optimism, and knowledge on career decisiveness. In addition, we will investigate the influence of personality traits on students' career decisiveness and its antecedents. Furthermore, we will examine if the various relations are similar in two countries, China and Germany. Differences in career planning process would imply a differing need well diverse process of career counseling in the two countries. 2. The relation between personality and career planning Career planning is the fundamental first step in the course of career development, the process of general and vocational decision making. This, however, implies that individuals are aware of their interests, skills, and values. Furthermore the individuals are assumed to have an idea about the world of labor (Parsons 1909). As career planning is of diverse nature, Gutteridge (1986: 52) defines it as a deliberate process of (1) becoming aware of self, opportunities, constraints, choice and consequences; (2) identifying career-related goals, and (3) programming work, education and related developmental experiences to provide the direction, timing and sequence of steps to attain a specific career goal. …
Highlights
Research in the area of career psychology has attempted to understand the reasons behind careerdecisiveness for the past decades (Newman et al 1999)
For the German sample the results show that conscientiousness and career knowledge have a significant and positive effect on career adaptability, while neuroticism has a significant and negative effect on career adaptability
These results show that the effects of the personality on two of the determinants of career decisiveness vary across countries
Summary
Research in the area of career psychology has attempted to understand the reasons behind career (in)decisiveness for the past decades (Newman et al 1999). The link between personality and students’ career planning has been seen as one the factors influencing career decision making. Bacanli (2006) pointed out that personality characteristics may be seen as predictors for a student’s career indecisiveness These relationships cause a need for diverse career counseling for students with different personalities. As Rottinghaus et al (2005) point out, examining career decisiveness might help career councilors to identify personal concerns, which interfere with career decision making This is turn, makes counseling process more efficient. Rottinghaus et al (2005) developed the career futures inventory (CFI), which measures the career identity status or career plan It measures positive career planning attitudes through career-related adaptability, optimism, and knowledge. Differences in career planning process would imply a differing need as well as diverse process of career counseling in the two countries
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