Implications For Career Development Research Articles

Changing employer practices in graduate recruitment: Implications for career development

A major study of the changing graduate recruitment practices of UK employers, was conducted during 2014 by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU) for the Department for Business, lnnovation and Skills (BIS). It involved in-depth interviews with 76 employers (diverse by size and sector) and 30 'stakeholders' in graduate employment, including university careers services. The qualitative data were complemented by analysis of existing quantitative data on graduate employment and a wide ranging literature review. This article reports on selected findings relevant to career development professionals, including: the challenges for employers of attracting appropriate applicants; employers' generic skill needs and views on employability; the changing reasons and criteria for targeting specific higher education (HE) institutions; and employers' increasingly strategic use of work experience in graduate recruitment .

Mentoring protégés of color: Experiences of primary and informal mentors

This study examines mentoring from the perspective of academic mentors involved in relationships with protégés of color. Specifically, we look at factors that influence academic mentors' relationship satisfaction, commitment, and intentions to mentor protégés of color. Results suggest that interpersonal comfort, perceived similarity, and intrinsic motivation contribute positively to these mentor outcomes. As hypothesized, our data also suggests that interpersonal comfort, intrinsic motivation, and perceived similarity are more important for primary mentors than for informal mentors. The management education and career development implications of these findings are discussed.

Contributions of Family Factors to Career Readiness: A Cross‐Cultural Comparison

The authors examined the contributions of perceived family intrusiveness to career decision‐making difficulties (CDMD) and the mediating effect of family orientation as a personality trait in different cultural settings. In Study 1, a web‐based survey of 1,563 Hong Kong college students showed that perceived family intrusiveness significantly contributed to CDMD. This relationship was mediated by the relational personality trait emphasizing family orientation. Study 2 compared this pattern of relationship between a Hong Kong sample of 392 college students and a U.S. sample of 367 college students. The mediation model was only supported in the Hong Kong sample. Specifically, although the contributions of family intrusiveness to CDMD were demonstrated across the 2 cultural settings, the significant influences of family orientation were only supported in the Hong Kong sample. Implications for career development and counseling with college students from different cultural backgrounds are discussed.

Pay versus family-power parity: All the right stuff revisited

Working with a select group of mid-career managers and professionals, we addressed the relationship between gender and a person's relative within-family contribution to financial resources (family power). After introducing a set of control variables, gender was not related to compensation. But among these employees of private sector global organizations, men and women differed greatly in terms of family power. Women in our sample tended to be in personal relationships in which both partners contributed equally to annual household income; men tended to be in personal relationships in which they contributed substantially more in the way of financial resources than their female partners. This difference was magnified among individuals coming from upper class or wealthy family backgrounds. We discuss the theoretical and career development implications associated with these results and the implications for the next round of the career tournament, the competition to reach senior management.

An Empirical Study of the Career Paths of Senior Educational Administrators in Manitoba, Canada: Implications for career development

This paper conceptualizes queue theory (Tallerico & Blount, 2004) to discuss a mixed-methods study that determined the career patterns of senior educational administrators in public school divisions in Manitoba, Canada, compared by position, context and sex. Findings indicate that queue theory has merit for describing the career paths of senior administrators in Manitoba, but it must be qualified. Context creates labour queue stratifications based on educational level (access), the extent to which senior administrators are channeled into traditional career paths, and number of positions served overall. Context, sex and position interact to form queues based on leaves from service, and create discrepancies on the experiences of career supports and work challenges.

Influence of Temporal Distance on the Perceived Importance of Career‐Related Self‐Efficacy and Outcome Expectations

Because all career choices are about future actions, time is an important contextual variable in social cognitive career choice (Hesketh, 2000). However, there is a dearth of research examining the effect of time. The authors examined how temporal distance to career entry influences the perceived importance of self‐efficacy and outcome expectations concerning a career pursuit. They also examined the moderating effects of perceived support and barriers, as well as country. The participants were college students in the United States (n= 180) and in South Korea (n= 215). The results of hierarchical regression analyses did not show main effects of time, but a 3‐way interaction indicated the complex interplay of time and other contextual variables. Implications for career counseling and future research are discussed.

Decent Work and its Implications for Careers

The principle of decent work was first espoused in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since 1999 the International Labour Organisation has operated according to a Decent Work Agenda and in recent times the movement towards the provision of decent work as a means of improving the quality of life has gathered momentum. Decent work is relevant to career development worldwide and embodies: a reasonable income; equal opportunities; safe working conditions; trade union representation; and a social safety net. Evidence is provided that decent work is not necessarily a feature of employment or career development across various countries. In a time of workplace fragmentation there are pay differentials in favour of workers under collective bargaining; working hours are longer than stipulated; overtime is not compensated; or there is work-related physical and mental stress. This paper explores the concept of decent work and its implications for career development.

Career Anchors Revisited: Implications for Career Development in the 21st Century

Career Anchors Revisited: Implications for Career Development in the 21st Century

Maintaining Wellbeing during Unemployment

A survey of 371 unemployed people in South East Queensland explored whether deprivation of the latent benefits of employment was able to predict psychological distress after controlling for other key correlates. A standard multiple regression found that the latent benefits (timestructure, social contact, collective purpose, enforced activity, and status) accounted for a significant 13 per cent of the variance in psychological distress, with time structure being the most important unique predictor. However, after controlling for self-esteem, positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), satisfaction with employment status, employment commitment, and financial strain, the latent benefits did not significantly add to the prediction of distress. The results are discussed in terms of their practical implications for career development.

Understanding Career Chance

This article presents a rationale for considering and integrating the chance construct in an individual’s career development. The notion of chance is conceptualized from the sociological work perspective and on basis of theoretical tenets grounded in vocational and career psychology. The article argues that the exercising of human control in the vocational aspects of life should take into serious consideration the chance factor that often emerges in life experiences. It discusses the chance phenomenon in worklife, and elaborates considerations and ways of incorporating the chance construct into the career development process; it also suggests implications for career development and career counselling.

Self-efficacy for career development: a study of occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists in the United States

Group achievements and social change are rooted in selfefficacy. This concept has important implications for career development in a changing environment. Associations that represent professionals involved with physical rehabilitation in the United States have identified activities that they feel are essential for the survival of the rehabilitation professions. The purpose of this study was to describe how confident rehabilitation professionals are to perform these activities. Results showed that most rehabilitation professionals did not feel totally confident to perform these activities. These results suggest that rehabilitation professionals may not be optimally prepared to adapt to the changing health care environment and suggest methods to facilitate professional development of these professionals.

Global careers in French and German multinational corporations

This paper sheds light on an apparent paradox: managers continue to accept offers of international assignments even though they tend to view them as a risky career move. Based on a review of the literature and a survey of expatriate managers of 20 French and 30 German companies on assignment in 59 countries, the paper examines the nature of the expatriate career concept, the career development implications of international assignments, and the effectiveness of corporate expatriate career management and repatriation systems. Most of the research on the career implications of international assignments has been conducted using the US samples of expatriates. By exploring expatriate career issues in a cross‐national sample of French and German expatriates, this study seeks to yield new and significant insights into whether the emerging concept of boundaryless careers is beginning to take hold in countries other than the US, and whether there are cross‐national differences in the nature of the expatriate career concept. The findings show that many expatriates are frustrated with how their companies manage their international assignments, especially the long‐range planning of their repatriation. However, there are clear differences between the French and German expatriates in terms of repatriation concerns. Despite widespread dissatisfaction in both groups, the German expatriates seem relatively nonchalant regarding their repatriation. This finding can be explained by the fact that the German expatriates are more willing to leave their companies upon return than their French counterparts, thus showing strong evidence of a “boundaryless career” orientation. An important finding is that companies that fail to take an integrated approach to international assignments and do not have effective international career development and repatriation systems, tend to end up with highly dissatisfied managers who, depending on their nationalities, may be quite willing to leave their companies upon repatriation.

A Career Readiness Typology and Typal Membership in Middle School

This study explored a career readiness typology of 629 8th‐grade students using the Career Factors Inventory. Data revealed developmentally appropriate elevated needs for information, specifically self‐knowledge. In addition, cluster analysis demonstrated the heterogeneity of career development needs of 8th‐grade students. Typal membership revealed little variance on sociodemographic factors. Career development implications are presented.

Gender barriers in the legal profession: Implications for career development of female law students

To draw attention to the changes occurring in the legal profession, in general, and in law school, in particular, this analytical discussion aims at examining some of the key issues pertinent to the life career development of female students in law schools. The authors explore gender‐related psychosocial aspects, such as the differences between the career patterns of men and women. The applicability to women of key tenets from several career development theories is considered, and several specific career counseling implications and strategies, aimed at addressing the unique needs of women studying in a law school environment, are provided.

Social capital in the success of knowledge workers

The concept of social capital will be key to individual and organizational success throughout the twenty‐first century. Social capital is the stock of accumulated resources that one can access based on the relationships that can aid or be leveraged in accomplishing an end or furthering a pursuit. Several attributes of social capital are explored that distinguish it from other forms of capital; namely, physical, financial, human, market, intellectual, and knowledge capital. These attributes considered are capital’s transferability, controllability, fungibility, entropy, and synergy. Implications for career development and one’s ability to contribute to organization effectiveness are discussed, as well as management practices affecting the development of social capital. Concludes with propositions for future research.

A Stocktake of the Economics of Vocational Education and Training in Australia: Some Implications for Career Development

This article addresses four specific aspects of research into vocational education and training in Australia which were included in a book published in mid-2001 by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research: the changing skill requirements of Australian industry, modelling industry's demand for vocational education and training, enterprise accounting for skills (since whether an enterprise perceives its training expenditures as a cost, or as an investment, influences its decisions about how much training to undertake, of what kinds, and for whom) and provision of vocational education and training in secondary schools, considering especially the significant features of the various approaches, the profiles of participating students (and their destinations) and the costs involved. The article identifies some implications of the research for those concerned with career development in Australia.

Alternative work arrangements among professionals and managers

This study examines part‐time work arrangements among 78 women professionals and managers to learn more about their implications for career development. Specifically, it documents the level of success of the work arrangements, their expected career implications, and the factors distinguishing less successful arrangements. Results revealed specific career development challenges unique to part‐time workers, as well as challenges common among full‐time workers. Part‐time workers already adopting a protean career model may fare better in alternative work arrangements. Lessons learned in dealing with diversity may be helpful to organizations in achieving fit between workers’ personal definitions of success and their work arrangements.

Careers, development and the future of the organisation

An international investigation of corporate approaches to learning, renewal and transformation reveals that the emergence of network and virtual models of organisation has profound implications for career development, and for the approaches to corporate learning, and to change, relationship and knowledge management, that are adopted. Individuals and organisations need to be reconciled, and the distinction between knowledge and learning, and the potential contribution of shared learning, learning technologies and learning partners better understood. More reflective, thinking, holistic, sensitive and people centred approaches to management are advocated. People and organisations should be true to themselves. Boards need to understand the new realities and provide their organisations with a distinctive rationale and a renewed sense of purpose.

Career anchors revisited: Implications for career development in the 21st century

Organizations are undergoing a metamorphosis today. Whether one speaks of downsizing, rightsizing, flattening, becoming a learning organization, or simply of a transformation into something as yet unknown, no one would deny that profound changes are occurring worldwide. These changes in the occupational environment have implications for development in the future. Will there even be such a concept as an career, or careers become a more fragmented set of jobs held together far more by what I have labeled the career? The internal involves a subjective sense of where one is going in one's work life, as contrasted with the external career, the formal stages and roles defined by organizational policies and societal concepts of what an individual can expect in the occupational structure.1 In studying careers longitudinally, it became evident that most people form a strong self-concept, a career anchor, that holds their internal together even as they ...

Career mobility within organizations: implications for career development ‐ part 2 ‐ a case study

Focuses on career mobility and development in a large multi‐disciplinary organization. Discusses a case study, analysing career opportunities of all employees in one organizational unit, concentrating on barriers to career mobility and the human resource development implications. Examines the existing internal labour market structure and uses information from an attitude survey within the organization. Discusses some critical issues which emerge and outlines a number of human resource development interventions which may remove career mobility barriers.