Magister Artium - MA / The objective of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between the personality preference and career anchors of police officers. The idea that personality relates meaningfully to the kinds of careers people choose and how they perform in these careers, has a long history in career psychology. / South Africa

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / In the current recessionary cycle in which individuals finds themselves, it is interesting to see whether organisations and individuals have changed their strategies or whether they pursued their tried and tested inherent mechanisms of recruitment/work selection. In recessionary times, organisations would usually have a bigger pool to select from whilst employees, in turn, would try to position themselves in a stable work environment. From an organisational perspective, organisations have also undergone major transitions such as downsizing, merges and acquisitions, right sizing, restructuring, and reengineering. These changes have a direct impact on employees level of motivation and job satisfaction (Ellison Schreuder, 2000). The concept of a traditional career that an employee occupies for a lifetime performing one type of work in an organisation no longer exists. Instead, employees now work for more than one organisation in their lifetime. These changes entail that employees need to be flexible and adaptive in making career decisions (Schreuder Coetzee, 2006). Career anchors can be operationalized as a representation of self- perceived talents, motives, values and abilities that guide employees to make career decisions. Schreuder and Coetzee (2006), are of the opinion that if employees are not familiar with their career anchors, they could find themselves trapped in work environments that are not satisfactory and would continually be questioning themselves. Suutari and Taka (2004) emphasize the fact that there needs to be a fit between the careers of employees and the work environment. If there is no fit between the career anchors of employees and the work environment then employees are likely to become dissatisfied which may result in a high turnover of staff with a corresponding low productivity rate. This study investigates and explores the phenomenon of career anchors based on Scheins 1978 career anchor theory and how these career anchors affect employees level of job satisfaction. The Career Anchor Inventory and the Job Descriptive Index were administered to a sample of 154 employees at a leading retail organisation who completed the questionnaires. The results of this research study indicate that there are significant relationships between biographical factors and career anchors as well as between biographical factors and job satisfaction and similarly between typology of career anchors and dimensions of job satisfaction. / South Africa

The notion of professional work is changing from the traditional learned occupations in which an exclusive body of knowledge and access to practice was controlled by a privileged minority. Nowadays, many more vocational groupings enjoy professional status, although the locus of control over standards and behaviours is moving from professional bodies to organisations in which access to, and use of, knowledge is embedded in information systems. Such changes are epitomised by a new organisational form the shared service centre (SSC) where business support functions are aggregated into business process centres so that efficiency and quality of service can be improved through task simplification, automation and the adoption of multidisciplinary process working. A consequence of the new factory-style environment is that work becomes polarised between a small number of senior professional personnel who design and monitor work systems, and the vast majority of workers who perform low-level, transactional tasks. In the hollowed out middle, a career bottleneck develops meaning that workers have little chance of progression and, moreover, the nature of lower level work may not equip them for senior roles potentially dulling aspirations of a long-term professional career. The purpose of this research is to explore the impact of these changes for the careers of finance professionals working in the SSC. Within the careers literature, there is a tendency to explain individual career orientations of today through theories constructed much earlier. For example, Schein s (1978) concept of career anchors aims to provide a stable framework of influence throughout an individual s work life, yet despite changes in organisational and technological landscapes, these original anchors remain unchallenged. This exploratory enquiry gathers data from finance professionals working in SSCs through interviews and an adapted survey instrument based on Schein s career anchor inventory (COI; 1990) to ask how do those working in professional roles in SSCs understand and navigate their careers? The fundamental contributions of this thesis are as follows: 1) theoretically, a classification which provides a novel frame of reference for understanding types of SSC and the work within them; 2) identification of pertinent skills that both guide and potentially enable careers for finance professionals in this context these extend beyond previous suggestions of soft skills into new business skills for global, multidisciplinary and organisationally focused professional work; 3) evidential support for a refreshed approach to career theory, especially for boundary-focused career scholarship (Inkson et al, 2012) and clarification of new dimensions in multidirectional careers (Baruch, 2004); 4) a proposal for a new set of six career anchors that challenge the relevance of old theory in new contexts and provide meaningful insight into the navigation of careers in new organisational forms. This work serves as a founding and original investigation into careers within finance SSCs. There are practical implications for individual career management, the role and relevance of professional accrediting bodies in new contexts, and also for organisational HR strategy and their function in supporting individual skills development for contemporary professionals in new organisational forms.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / In the current recessionary cycle in which individuals finds themselves, it is interesting to see whether organisations and individuals have changed their strategies or whether they pursued their tried and tested inherent mechanisms of recruitment/work selection. In recessionary times, organisations would usually have a bigger pool to select from whilst employees, in turn, would try to position themselves in a stable work environment. From an organisational perspective, organisations have also undergone major transitions such as downsizing, merges and acquisitions, right sizing, restructuring, and reengineering. These changes have a direct impact on employees' level of motivation and job satisfaction (Ellison & Schreuder, 2000). The concept of a traditional career that an employee occupies for a lifetime performing one type of work in an organisation no longer exists. Instead, employees now work for more than one organisation in their lifetime. These changes entail that employees need to be flexible and adaptive in making career decisions (Schreuder & Coetzee, 2006). Career anchorscan be operationalized as a representation of self- perceived talents, motives, values and abilities that guide employees to make career decisions. Schreuder and Coetzee (2006), are of the opinion that if employees are not familiar with their career anchors, they could find themselves trapped in work environments that are not satisfactory and would continually be questioning themselves. Suutari and Taka (2004) emphasize the fact that there needs to be a fit between the careers of employees and the work environment. If there is no fit between the career anchors of employees and the work environment then employees are likely to become dissatisfied which may result in a high turnover of staff with a corresponding low productivity rate. This study investigates and explores the phenomenon of career anchors based on Schein's 1978 career anchor theory and how these career anchors affect employees level of job satisfaction. The Career Anchor Inventory and the Job Descriptive Index were administered to a sample of 154 employees at a leading retail organisation who completed the questionnaires. The results of this research study indicate that there are significant relationships between biographical factors and career anchors as well as between biographical factors and job satisfaction and similarly between typology of career anchors and dimensions of job satisfaction.

Le contexte actuel du marché du travail déstabilise la société salariale et, avec la disparition de la relation d’emploi à long terme, les salariés sont contraints d’élaborer des stratégies de carrière pour se protéger de nouveaux risques sociaux. Cependant, les entreprises des industries alimentaires rencontrent des difficultés pour recruter et fidéliser les salariés essentiels à leur développement. Par conséquent, il semble que la carrière organisationnelle continue de servir les intérêts stratégiques des entreprises. Dans cette recherche, nous nous interrogeons sur le devenir des carrières : « Comment évolue la carrière organisationnelle dans les industries alimentaires ? ». Nos objectifs sont d’une part, de répondre à un problème concret de gestion des carrières dans les industries alimentaires en France et d’autre part, d’enrichir les connaissances actuelles en matière d’orientation professionnelle qui semblent insuffisantes au regard des phénomènes observés sur le marché du travail. En outre, nous nous intéressons à toutes les catégories socioprofessionnelles, et notamment la population ouvrière qui semble largement oubliée des recherches sur la gestion des carrières. De façon à anticiper ces évolutions, nous élaborons une méthodologie appropriée en combinant la théorie des ancres de carrière avec la méthode de prospective de métiers. Cette nouvelle méthode, que nous appelons la « prospective des carrières », repose sur l’analyse de cent quarante études empiriques, cinquante-huit entretiens semi-directifs, cent quatre-vingt-trois questionnaires autoadministrés, un focus groupe et un webinaire. Nos principaux résultats concernent la co-construction de cinq scénarios prospectifs des carrières, l’identification de trente-quatre orientations de carrière possibles et l’opérationnalisation du concept de prospective de soi. / The present labour market destabilize the labour society and, with the disappearance of the long-terme employment relationship, employees are forced to develop career strategies to protect themselves from new social risks. However, companies in the food industry are facing difficulties in recruiting and retaining employees needed for their development. Therefore, it appears that the organizational career continues to serve the strategic interests of the companies. In this research, we wonder about the future of careers: “How is the organizational career evolving in the food industries?”. Our objectives are, on one side, to respond to a concrete career management problem in the food industry in France and, on the other side, to extend the current knowledge of vocational guidance that seem insufficient in the light of phenoma observed in the labor market. In addition, we are interested in all socioprofesionnal categories, and in particular the working-class population, which seems largely forgotten in career management research. In order to ancitipate these evolutions, we develop an appropriate methodology by combining the theory of career anchors with the jobs prospective method. The new method, which we call “career foresight”, is based on the analysis of one hundred and forty empirical studies, fifty-eight semi-structured interviews, one hundred and eighty-three self-administered questionnaires, a focus group and a webinar. Our main results concern the co-construction of five prospective career scenarios, the identification of thirty-four possible career orientations and the operationalization of the self-prospective concept.

The primary objective of the study was to explore the relationship between career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment using a sample of 86 employees at four Information Technology companies in South Africa. A secondary objective was to determine whether individuals from various gender, race, position and age groups differed significantly regarding their career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The instruments used were the Career Orientations Inventory (COI), Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) and Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). The research findings indicated that career anchors are partially related to participants’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment and participants’ levels of job satisfaction and organisational commitment are significantly related. The findings also showed that demographic groups differ significantly regarding their career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. It is recommended that interventions aimed at improving individual career decision making and organisational retention practices take cognisance of how these variables relate to individuals’ career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The study is concluded with recommendations for Industrial and Organisational Psychology practices and further research.

A lot of effort is put into diversity by organizations today, but the diversity question mainly focuses on gender, ethnicity, cultural and beliefs (Robertson, et al., (2017), while one of the most daunting diversity challenges has been proven to be diversity between generations, which often goes overlooked and unaddressed. A new generation represent an increasing share of the work force and many of them are already today positioned in leading positions, aspiring for leadership positions or aiming to reach for management positions to be able to do difference. Organizations that understand how to successfully address generational conflict and leverage each generation’s strengths will be better able to keep employees motivated and productive amidst the social and economical changes.   This study aims to explore the leadership preferences and motivation factors for the Millennial Generation, in order to unlock their potential and be able to bridge this knowledge gap. The preferences were examined through a survey, targeting a study group of millennial knowledge workers with various backgrounds from different companies to be able to dismiss possible bias reflecting different cultures. The survey was performed by adopting items from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), based on Bass’ (1985) Transactional – Transformational leadership theory and the Career Orientation Inventory (COI) reflecting Schein’s (1985) theory about career anchors.   The survey was delivered through several channels and in the end a sample group of 105 Millennial knowledge workers were included in further analysis. An Explorative Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to determine the underlying structure among the variables in the analysis. Since this research is based on previous studies (Blom, 2010), the methodology is chosen as a confirmatory approach with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to show how well the model fits the data. A Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is performed to evaluate the relationship between the variables from Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) for Transactional and Transformation Leadership theory and Career Orientation Inventory for Career anchors.   Findings by Blom, (2010) reveal that the Millennial knowledge workers prefer leadership dimensions that involve intellectual stimulation and charisma, which correspond to a transformational leadership style compared to a transactional leadership style. This type of leadership focus on the change in individuals and creates valuable and positive changes, which inspires towards both common and individual goals. Similar results were obtained in our study and the relation with motivating factors shows that the sample group with higly educated people in the knowledge sector are motivated by having meaningful purpose with their job. They also wish to reach administrative positions in their companies and are interested by the thought of create and manage their own business. The interrelation between these factors determines the degree of satisfaction which is directly linked to the relationship between motivation and productivity. This is why it shall be one of the highest priorities of each organisation to find how to motivate their employees on an individual level, it is directly connected to productivity. Key words: Millennials, Transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership, Career Anchors, knowledge workers

The primary objective of the study was to explore the relationship between career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment using a sample of 86 employees at four Information Technology companies in South Africa. A secondary objective was to determine whether individuals from various gender, race, position and age groups differed significantly regarding their career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The instruments used were the Career Orientations Inventory (COI), Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) and Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). The research findings indicated that career anchors are partially related to participants’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment and participants’ levels of job satisfaction and organisational commitment are significantly related. The findings also showed that demographic groups differ significantly regarding their career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. It is recommended that interventions aimed at improving individual career decision making and organisational retention practices take cognisance of how these variables relate to individuals’ career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The study is concluded with recommendations for Industrial and Organisational Psychology practices and further research.

This research focused on the relationship between self-esteem and career anchors in the context of career development. The objectives of the study were twofold. The first was to establish the relationship between individuals’ self-esteem (as measured by the Culture Free Self-Esteem Inventory) and career anchors (as measured by the Career Orientations Inventory); and the second was to determine if self-esteem significantly predict career anchors. An online survey was administered to a non-probability, convenience sample (n = 77) of full-time individuals, employed adults at managerial and general staff levels, in the South African financial services industry. The sample consisted of predominantly married (58.4%), white (44.2%), females (57.1%) between the ages 35 and 44 years (32.5%). The Culture Free Self-Esteem Inventory for Adults (CFSEI 2-AD) and Career Orientations Inventory (COI) were used to gather data. Correlational analysis showed an association between the variables of CFSEI 2-AD and COI. A multiple regression analysis supported that self-esteem predict career anchors. Recommendations were suggested for use by human resource professionals to inform the career development of employees in the South African financial service industry. / Human Resource Management / M. Com. (Human Resource Management)

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