This research explores the lived experiences and career decision making styles of three Vietnamese refugees in the United states. Since this study involves the lived experience of the participants pertaining to their everyday activities (i.e. living, making decision, and working in the United States), the phenomenological approach (Van Manen, 1990; Moustakas, 1994) is used to appropriately grasp the meaning of these experiences. I interviewed all the participants with phenomenological semi-structured questions in two in-depth sessions. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. Pertaining to the refugee condition, the following main themes emerged from the data: 1) The third culture: Vietnamese culture in the American context; 2) Different roles and responsibilities in the new land; 3) Feeling of being left out and discriminated against; and 4) The language barrier. In the career related area, I explored and discussed with the participants the meanings of the following career counseling issues: 1) Decision making styles, 2) Influential factors in the career decision making process, 3) Meaningful characteristics of job (values and interests), 4) Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, 5) Career counseling, 6) Counseling relationship, and 7) Working as minority professionals in the United States. The participants' lived experiences related to working in America reflect a dynamic theme of both resistance and adaptation to new changes. As Vietnamese professionals, they are all moving toward understanding and accepting more and more American styles of career decision making and career counseling. Further phenomenological research should be conducted to shed light on the complex dynamic of forming the third culture in America to improve career counseling services for refugees in our country. / Graduation date: 2001

This study determined the benefits and risks mentors experience from participating in mentoring relationships.The first research question concluded that mentors experience many benefits from participating in a mentor/protege relationship. These benefits include being part of the protege's successes, mentor recognition, meeting organizational goals, interaction with protege, networking,assessment of the protege's talent, accelerated orientation process, and providing job continuity.Mentors indicated their prestige within the organization increased mainly amongst their superordinates (30%) and least amongst their peers (50%) as a result of participating in a mentor/protege relationship. Additionally, mentors indicated that there were significant gains in influencing the actions (85%), thinking (80%), productivity (60%), and work quality(50%) of proteges. These gains were cited by mentors as both direct benefits to themselves and indirect benefits to the organization in getting the mission accomplished, developing potentialleaders, and influencing others to strive for excellence.Seventy percent (70%) of the mentors did not feel a sense of favors owed to them by their proteges as a result of participating in a mentor/protege relationship. They indicated this was not the intent of a mentor/protege relationship. If suspected, they would address the issue andpossibly terminate the relationship if necessary.Mentors did not experience significant gains in power (75%) or respect (45%) for spotting talent and engineering the protege's advancement for the good of the organization.The second research question concluded that mentors experienced many risks from participating in a mentor/protege relationship. These risks included: wasting limited resources, destroying friendships, harm to the organization and mentor reputation if the protege is promoted into a leadership position and fails, and the perception of favoritism amongst subordinates.Mentors indicated they experienced losses in prestige from amongst superordinates (10%) and subordinates (10%) as well as loss a steady loss in influencing the actions and thinking of the protege as the relationship progressed.Mentors indicated there was a loss in the protege's work quality (60%) and work productivity (25%) during the mentor/protege relationship.Fifteen percent of the mentors experienced a sense of favors owed to them by their proteges. However this sense of favors owed decreased towards the end of the relationship. / Department of Educational Leadership

Since the 1970s, several researchers have questioned the applicability of theories of career development based on research with White males to women, minority group members, andindividuals from low socioeconomic milieus. This study examined the validity of D.E. Super's theory of career development in an underresearched subject population, African-American male and female university students. A conceptual model of career maturity composed of determinants derived from Super's theory (1953, 1972, 1990) and based on research with Caucasians was hypothesized and examined. The rationale was that finding a good fit of the model that also accounted for a significant proportion of the variance would support the adequacy of Super's theory in explaining the career maturity of African-American students as well.The co-determinants of career maturity in the model were sex, educational level, and socioeconomic status (SES) as exogenous variables, and causality and work salience as endogenous variables. Causality and work salience were depicted as latent variables mediating the effects of the demographic variables on career maturity. The model was tested on a sample of 288 African-American students from freshman to doctoral levels. Additional hypotheses investigated which variables in the model were the best predictors of career maturity, sex differences in commitment to the work-role and in career maturity, and the relationship between SES and career maturity.Structural equation modeling using the EQS software program (Bentler, 1989) indicated that, while a good fit of the hypothesized model was obtained, only 12% of the variance in career maturity was explained by the variables in the model. The results suggested that Super's theory may not be wholly adequate in explaining the career maturity of African-American university students. Only commitment to work and educational level were found to be significant predictors of career maturity. Female students were found to be more committed to the work-role and to be more career mature than male students. In general, African-American students exhibited higher participation, commitment, and value expectations in the role of home and family than for the work-role. No significant relationship between SES strata and career maturity was found. Implications for theory, research, and practice were delineated and variables that may be more salient for African-American students' career maturity were also identified. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services