Career Beliefs Research Articles

Managing career plateaus for mid‐career professionals: A process‐driven practice intervention using life‐design counseling

AbstractThis qualitative study explores the impact of life‐design counseling (LDC) on mid‐career professionals facing career plateauing. Seven mid‐career professionals underwent counselling sessions focused on overcoming barriers, evaluating career beliefs, and exploring options. Thematic analysis delves into their experiences, attitudes, and unresolved mid‐career dilemmas. Results indicate a shift from problem‐focused to solution‐based thinking. A two‐wave longitudinal study spanning 4 years confirms counseling's effectiveness in assisting individuals in making crucial career decisions, guiding positive career redirection amidst mid‐career plateauing. Our study specifically explored and analyzed the practical application of LDC intervention in the real‐world counseling scenario for overcoming career plateauing.

Planning to Obtain a Graduate Accounting Degree: Survey Evidence from Accounting Seniors

SYNOPSIS Graduate accounting enrollments are declining, which is concerning to accounting departments and the accounting profession. However, little is known about why some accounting students seek a graduate accounting degree, whereas others do not. Our research examines senior accounting students who plan (e.g., the grad group) or do not plan (e.g., the nongrad group) to obtain a graduate accounting degree. We focus our survey around three research questions. First, we find few differences in background characteristics between the grad and nongrad groups. Second, the grad group judges the cost/benefit of obtaining a graduate accounting degree more favorably and plans to take on less incremental debt in obtaining a graduate accounting degree. Third, relative to the nongrad group, the grad group perceives a more significant increase in four key differential career beliefs from obtaining a graduate accounting degree. Accounting programs can use our results to support enrollments in graduate accounting programs. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request. JEL Classifications: M40; M41.

Employability and career beliefs inventory: a brief version for unemployed persons

BackgroundConsidering that beliefs may be assessed and changed, inventories measuring employability and career beliefs may be of utmost importance for career interventions.ObjectiveThis study introduces the psychometric properties of a brief version of the Employability and Career Beliefs Inventory (ECBI) in a sample of unemployed persons.Methods and resultsAltogether, 2023 unemployed persons aged from 18 to 66 years old and living in Southern Portugal participated in an online survey. The ECBI’s original internal structure was tested and did not fit the data. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were implemented, and a three-factor solution was retained. The three factors discriminate three types of beliefs named growth, pessimism, and flexibility. Measurement invariance models identified scalar equivalence across gender and educational degree, and metric invariance across age. All items fit the graded response model’s parameters. The growth and flexibility subscales were less effective in the assessment of low latent trait levels, whereas the opposite was observed with the pessimism subscale. Internal consistency is good yet discrimination between factors is questionable. Correlations to career decision-making self-efficacy evidence validity based on the relations to other constructs.ConclusionDespite the limitations, the brief version of the ECBI proposed in this study is ready for further use and development among unemployed persons.

Social Identities and Cognitive Information Processing Theory: A Qualitative Analysis

Social identities impact the way individuals see themselves and their career options but career theories have been slow to the call in exploring how social identities interface with theoretical assumptions. The purpose of this study was to examine how social identities affect and inform specific dimensions identified by cognitive information processing (CIP) theory as being essential for effective career decision-making, that is, self-knowledge, options knowledge, decision-making process and skills, career beliefs, and overall career decision. Seventy-six students across ten sections of an undergraduate CIP-based career development course answered questions on an anonymous survey related to how their social identities impacted aspects of their career decision-making. Frequencies for social identities were calculated for each CIP dimension, and 11 categories identified for open-ended responses using the consensual qualitative research-modified approach accompanied pre-determined domains based on CIP theory. Across each component, the most common SI was age and generational differences. While students expressed the influence of social identities as occurring in each CIP dimension, statements related to the self-concept category occurred most often and were present in each domain. Our findings support previous work that the presence and impact of SIs on career decision-making components is undeniable, but also not universal. CIP theory provides a structure and avenues for discussing the role of social identities in career decision-making.

대학생의 단절 및 거절 도식과 자기개념 명확성, 진로신념, 진로적응성의 구조적 관계

The aim of this study is to clarify the structural relationships between college students' perceived disconnection and rejection schema, self-concept clarity, career belief, and career adaptability. In pursuit of this goal, a survey was conducted with 356 college students, and ultimately, data from 349 participants was analyzed. Firstly, the research findings indicate that the structural model fit of college students' perceived disconnection and rejection schema, self-concept clarity, career belief, and career adaptability is satisfactory, suggesting the model's suitability for predicting the structural relationships among variables. Secondly, in relation to college students' career adaptability, self-concept clarity had a negative impact, while career belief had a positive impact. Thirdly, a complete mediating effect of career belief was confirmed in the relationship between perceived disconnection and rejection schema and career adaptability. Additionally, a partial mediating effect of career belief was verified in the relationship between self-concept clarity and career adaptability. Based on these results, the significance of perceived disconnection and rejection schema, self-concept clarity, and career belief for college students' career adaptability was discussed, and future implications for career counseling and education were considered.

The Role of Career Beliefs, Career Self-Efficacy and Social Support in Developing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity Skills

The Role of Career Beliefs, Career Self-Efficacy and Social Support in Developing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity Skills

The civil service careers of university support staff and new public management: A qualitative study from Chile

New public management policies have been in effect in Chile since the 1980s, influencing the development of human resources policies and procedures, particularly within higher education institutions. While the impact of these policies on academic staff is evident, their implications for non-academic personnel who operate under the same regime as public servants remain unclear. This research aims to investigate the relationship between new public management principles and the career beliefs of non-academic personnel in Chile. Utilizing focus groups, this study analyzes the perceptions of career trajectories among the collaboration staff at the country's most prominent public university. Finally, the results are discussed.

Introducing Sources of Self-efficacy and Dysfunctional Career Beliefs in Socio-cognitive Career Theory in Entrepreneurship

A missing link between entrepreneurship education and career choices is how and when alumni decide to behave entrepreneurially. This question pertains to the impact of entrepreneurship education as envisaged in various educational policies. The vast majority of relevant studies have examined the concepts of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention across courses and audiences worldwide. A recent trend adopts more systematic career development theories as the social cognitive career theory (SCCT). In this line, the present article provides new insights in SCCT models including the construct of dysfunctional career beliefs that represents an essential element in career decision-making. The article presents a small-scale quantitative research through a sample of Greek adults aimed to examine the relations between entrepreneurial intention and dysfunctional career beliefs as well as the informational sources of self-efficacy representing fundamental premises of SCCT. The pilot findings show that “significant others”, a dimension of dysfunctional career beliefs, influence the entrepreneurial career decision process as an extraneous personal parameter. Linear multiple regression analysis demonstrated that positive emotions, mastery experiences and the perceptions regarding significant others’ influence in career decision-making significantly predicted entrepreneurial intention. It is also shown that influence from significant others moderates the relationship between positive emotions and entrepreneurial intention, that is, intensifying the previous relationship when influence of significant others is low and decreasing it when this influence is high. These findings are discussed in the context of entrepreneurial career decision making with implications to educational and career counselling practices.

College students' career beliefs and career preparation behavior effect on the relationship between career decision levels

College students' career beliefs and career preparation behavior effect on the relationship between career decision levels

Accounting or Finance? The Role of Differential Career Beliefs on Undergraduate Students’ Choices of Major

ABSTRACT This study examines the role of four differential career beliefs on students’ decisions to major in accounting or finance. Differential career beliefs were calculated as the belief about an accounting versus a finance career for the following four career beliefs: interesting work, job security, job variety, and high earnings potential. Students’ background characteristics (such as age, gender, etc.) were included as control variables. A survey was administered to 271 accounting and finance majors enrolled in the first intermediate accounting course. Results indicate that the differential career belief about interesting work had the greatest impact on choices of major and that differential career beliefs about job security and high earnings potential were also significant. Our findings suggest that finance students would be more likely to choose accounting as a major if their beliefs about accounting involving interesting work could be increased.

Impact of occupational health coaching on irrational career beliefs and workplace deviant behaviors among school employees: Implications for Educational administrative policy.

Workplace-disruptive behavior is an important public and organizational health issue that calls for public discourse. The high rates in Nigeria and its associated career illogical assumptions among teachers brought about this study to investigate the impact of rational emotive occupational health coaching (REOHC) on irrational career beliefs and workplace deviant behaviors in a sample of Nigerian primary school teachers. A sample of 128 primary school teachers in Nigeria was recruited as participants. They were assigned to REOHC and control groups. Work deviance behavior scale and teacher irrational belief scale were used to assess the participants at 3 points. A pretest-post-test and follow-up design was used in this study. The findings indicated that the REOHC program significantly reduced work-deviant behaviors and irrational career beliefs among primary school teachers. The outcome also demonstrates the connection between groups and gender. This study concluded that primary school teachers' work-related deviant behaviors and illogical beliefs were reduced as a result of the REOHC treatment. Therefore, occupational therapists should help teachers with deviant behaviors and irrational beliefs to change using rational emotive behavioral techniques.

A Multiple Case Study of Career Construction and Career Development Processes of People with Adventitious Blindness

A Multiple Case Study of Career Construction and Career Development Processes of People with Adventitious Blindness

Role identity of staff in Chinese volunteer tourism sending organisations

Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the volunteer tourism sector had experienced sustained growth around the world, including in China where a dynamic volunteer tourism sector has emerged over the last decade. When analysing this sector through a future-focused, post-pandemic lens, it is important to pay attention to the resilience building of volunteer tourism staff to better respond to the recovery and restart stage of volunteer tourism. This reflects the pivotal role that sending organisations and their staff play in maximising good practice during volunteer tourists' selection, pre-departure preparation, orientation, and post-trip evaluation. Drawing on role identity theory, this paper explores how volunteer tourism staff in Chinese sending organisations perceive their role identities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 current and former Chinese volunteer tourist staff. The transcribed interviews were analysed through thematic template analysis. Results show that there are both conventional and idiosyncratic dimensions of Chinese volunteer tourism staff's role identity, and the 17 identified roles were grouped into four overarching roles, professional, supporter, influencer, and self-actualiser. Comprehending the role identity of volunteer tourism staff is crucial for shaping a robust career belief, as well as enhancing staff recruitment, training, and retention. This, in turn, can boost staff resilience in the volunteer tourism sector post-pandemic.

Researching Entrepreneurial Beliefs in Career Decision-making

Abstract Entrepreneurship is suggested as a key-mechanism for endogenous growth and social cohesion in modern, knowledge-driven societies and economies. Whether the youth will develop entrepreneurial competencies and initiatives has been considered crucial for economic growth and development and a key-subject of education and career counseling. Despite an increasing body of theoretical and empirical literature which mainly emphasize the formation of entrepreneurial intention and the strengthening of entrepreneurial self-efficacy -usually as a result of some intervention-, the findings show deficiencies or relative ambiguity, in terms of explaining the complex factors (e.g. entrepreneurial mindset, dysfunctional beliefs) associated with entrepreneurial intention and behavior. The present conceptual paper presents a synthetic literature review aiming at a deeper understanding of entrepreneurial intention and behavior. Based on the emergence of new, more explanatory, models to predict entrepreneurial behavior we emphasize how relevant research could approach this topic through the lens of the Socio-Cognitive Career Theory - driven by self-efficacy, outcome expectations and goal-directed activity - given that to date few studies have used this theoretical framework. We also suggest that the traditional entrepreneurial self-efficacy concept is investigated along with a new framework (ASKO) to measure beliefs regarding success of new ventures. ASKO typology traces a variety of different entrepreneurial mindsets within the person-environment dichotomy. Moreover, the potential contribution of dysfunctional career beliefs and locus of control in the formation of entrepreneurial behavior is examined. Career decision process and entrepreneurial career choices are highly complex and entail elements of various theoretical perspectives. The present literature review sheds light to our understanding of entrepreneurial career choices and suggests holistic in-depth research that will provide rich explanatory information on a wide range of behaviors. Finally, the present review provides opportunities to get insights regarding the nature and potential influence of support interventions in the context of entrepreneurship education and career counseling. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, career beliefs, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, ASKO typology, career counseling, entrepreneurship education.

"체육전공 대학생의 실패공포, 진로신념과 그릿의 관계: 문제중심학습(PBL) 참여 중심으로 "

"체육전공 대학생의 실패공포, 진로신념과 그릿의 관계: 문제중심학습(PBL) 참여 중심으로 "

IPA를 활용한 대학생 진로적응성 프로그램의 교육요구도 분석

Objectives The purposes of this study were to examnin college students’ educational needs for the development of career adaptability program.
 Methods To accomplish this purpose, a survey was conducted with 149 students at D university. We were analysed by the difference between impoartance and performance and were confirmed their educational needs using IPA.
 Results As a result for the study: first, we were confirmed the educational needs of career adaptability because of the importance of career adaptability was higher than the performance of career adaptability. Second, According to the IPA, the career adaptability factors with the highest priority in the eucational needs were career preparation behavior and social resource utilization ability. Third, Factors in the maintained and strengthened area were career goal adjustment ability and social responsible behavior. Fourth, Factors career adaptability with relatively low educational needs were found self-understanding, work environment exploration, and positive career beliefs.
 Conclusions Those results will suggest basic directions to development of the career adaptability program at college.

Developmental I-Deals, Boundaryless Career Beliefs, and Career Capital Construction Behavior

Developmental idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) are learning-oriented employment arrangements tailored to employees’ preferences and needs. This study examined a new pathway by which developmental i-deals affect employees’ career capital construction behavior. Guided by boundaryless career theory, we proposed that developmental i-deals enhance employees’ boundaryless career beliefs, which facilitate their human, social, and innovation capital construction behavior. To extend boundaryless career theory and show that control beliefs are salient in establishing a boundaryless career, we examined three different roles that internal locus of control plays in the proposed process: (a) internals are more likely than externals to seek developmental i-deals, (b) internals are more likely than externals to experience the positive effects of developmental i-deals on boundaryless career beliefs, and (c) internal locus of control promotes perceived job alternatives, which further strengthen the first-order moderating effect of internal locus of control. Data collected from 209 college-graduate employees at three points over eight months supported the proposed moderated mediation effects. The findings advance the current i-deal research by showing how developmental i-deals facilitate an employee’s career capital construction behavior (via strengthened boundaryless career beliefs), especially for those with stronger control beliefs, such as internals.

Relationship between spiritual intelligence (SI) & job satisfaction (JS) in millennials

In this fast-paced lifestyle with escalating cases of anxiety and depression, millennial are trying to find meaning in life and at work. The presence of high-octane electronic media both in millennial’ personal & professional life is making them more anxious about their career and personal beliefs. There is a belief that a person who exhibits spiritual intelligence is most likely to achieve a sense of job satisfaction in life. Various MNCs are organizing many programs to develop and enhance the employee’s spiritual intelligence. This paper focuses on millennial working in the Defense and IT field with empirical study to analyze the influence of spiritual intelligence on their job satisfaction. Dhamodharan and Ravikumar mention that millennial, born in the period between 1981-1995, witnessed consumerism and technological advancement worldwide. People born in this era were less exposed to traditional religious teaching due to changing social-cultural values; hence they indulge in spirituality to balance their lifestyle to optimize the basic value of life. Emmons mentions that “SI is a blend of internal & external structure: spirituality being an internal structure and intelligence as an external structure to create a new structure which evolves the person with remarkable capacities to practically use their spirituality on their everyday basis.”

문제중심학습(PBL) 참여에 따른 체육 대학생의 그릿과 마인드셋, 실패공포 및 진로신념에 대한 연구

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the grit, mindset, coping with the fear of failure and career belief that students develop through practice in field education activities of the Project-Based Learning (PBL) class would be changed.BR Method: A total of 52 students from University A located in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do majoring in sports participated in this study. Questionnaires distributed to 52 students who participated in Therapeutic Recreation PBL were collected and processed for analysis. The frequency analyses were performed to identify the research subject, and Cronbach’s α coefficient was calculated to confirm the reliability of the research tools. To confirm the research question, the mean and standard deviation of the pre- and post-scores of factors related to grit, mindset, fear of failure, and career belief were calculated and a t-test was performed.BR Results: The results were as follows. First, as a result of examining the changes related to grit before and after the PBL participating in the therapeutic recreation class of college students, significant differences were found in the post-test, but not in the pre-test. Second, as a result of examining changes related to mindset before and after the PBL participating in the therapeutic recreation class of college students, the growth mindset was slightly increased, while the mindset was slightly decreased in the post-test compared to the pre-test. Third, as a result of examining the changes related to fear of failure before and after the PBL participating in the therapeutic recreation class of college students, it was found to be decreased in the post-test compared to the pre-test. Fourth, as a result of examining changes related to career belief before and after the PBL participating in the therapeutic recreation class of college students, it was found to be decreased in the post-test compared to the pre-test.BR Conclusion: In summary, the findings in this study suggest that participation in the PBL class for sports college students has an effect on grit, mindset, fear of failure, and career belief.

Career resilience and professional attitudes of tourism practitioners in China under the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis paper investigates the current psychological state of Chinese tourism practitioners and their career resilience during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It empirically examines the effects of COVID-19 on Chinese tourism practitioners' professional attitudes and their career belief in the future. The study is intended to guide enterprises and governments to design effective strategies/policies to deal with the effect of this unfavorable environment.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consists of 442 tourism practitioners in 313 tourism enterprises in China. The data were collected via a targeted online survey based on a well-structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using statistical procedures including multilevel regression analysis.FindingsThe study results show that Chinese tourism practitioners have strong career resilience in the face of current turbulent time. After testing, the model shows that career beliefs and social support have a significant positive impact on the professional attitudes of tourism practitioners, and that career resilience has a partial mediating effect on their career beliefs, social support and professional attitude.Originality/valueThis study enriches the existing literature on career belief, social support and career resilience. It provides a new interpretation on how career belief and social support impact career resilience and thus shape tourism practitioners' professional attitudes during pandemics.