D.Phil.

Student Number : 0001241N - M Industrial Psychology dissertation - School of Human and Community Development - Faculty of Humanities / The following thesis explores the variables of math anxiety, deductive reasoning and career appraisal. This dissertation investigates whether there is a relationship between math anxiety and deductive reasoning. A relationship is found to exist between these two variables and the relationship is of an indirectly proportional nature. As a result, when “math anxiety is high, deductive reasoning is low” and visa viz. 74 participants were used in this research study to assess whether their appraisal of various careers differed or were homogenous in nature. This thesis discusses how various careers were appraised heterogeneously and others homogenously between people with different levels of math anxiety and deductive reasoning. This phenomenon is also explained through the possibility of extraneous factors, influencing these results.

Historically, school counselors have been the primary facilitators in supporting the career and college transition process for students, but many school counselors do not have the knowledge, resources, or materials to support students in this transition (Belasco, 2013). One way to help support career and college readiness is to develop comprehensive career and college readiness plans that involve more stakeholders than just the counselor and engage the community in supporting students to define and prepare for their paths for after high school (Alleman & Holly, 2013). This convergent parallel mixed methods study investigated what educators,students, and community partners in rural Oregon think is important to include in a career and college readiness plan that supports all students. I used Bronfenbrenner’s (1994) Ecological Model of Human Development to inform my data collection activities, casting a wide net to identify the stakeholder groups that have a potential impact on supporting students in their pursuit of a career or college education beyond high school. The qualitative data came from interviews with five Douglas County high school career and college readiness teams (n=8 participants), three student focus groups (n=24), and two partner meetings (n=15). The quantitative data was gathered through a career and college readiness survey administered to the staff and faculty at 14 Douglas County high schools (n=74 respondents). I used Farrell & Coburn’s (2016) Absorptive Capacity Theory as the lens through which to analyze the data, coding for the theory’s constructs around how prior knowledge, communication pathways, strategic knowledge leadership, and resources for partnering can be shared and leveraged between high schools and external partners. Findings from this study provide lessons learned about what should be included in a rural high schools’ career and college readiness plan that will help rural communities better support students in their transitions beyond high school.

Nessa dissertação, procura-se avaliar se o retorno esperado do ensino superior é determinante para a escolha profissional e explicar como os salários, as habilidades e as características sócio-econômicas dos alunos da Universidade de São Paulo (USP), em conjunto, se associam à escolha da carreira. Para atingir esses objetivos, são utilizados dados da Fundação Universitária para o Vestibular (Fuvest) de 1995 e de 1996 e do Censo 2000. As carreiras são divididas em seis áreas de atuação – educação, ciências humanas, negócios, saúde, engenharia e matemática/ciências – e são estimados dois modelos de escolha discreta: logit multinomial e logit condicional. Na estimação do logit multinomial são utilizadas apenas variáveis relativas às características dos indivíduos e no logit condicional inclui-se o salário médio de cada área de atuação. Os resultados indicam que o retorno esperado não tem efeito sobre a escolha profissional. / This research evaluate if higher education expected return is determinant for the professional choice and how the interaction between wage, abilities and socio-economic characteristics of Universidade de São Paulo’s students, all together, are associated to the career choice. Data used is from Fundação Universitária para o Vestibular (Fuvest) 1995 and 1996’s questionnaires and from Censo 2000. The careers are grouped in six concentration areas – education, human sciences, management, health, engineer, math/sciences – and two discrete choice models are estimated: multinomial logit and conditional logit. Multinomial logit contains only variables specific to individuals and the average wage of each concentration area is included in conditional logit estimation. The results show that expected return doesn’t have effect over the professional choice.

A concepção de carreira e a relação das pessoas com o trabalho foram modificadas em decorrência das transformações econômicas e sociais ocorridas ao longo das últimas décadas. A idéia de uma carreira estável e duradoura por meio do emprego em organizações deixou de existir, impulsionando as pessoas a procurarem alternativas para a construção de suas trajetórias profissionais. Muitos encontraram no empreendedorismo uma possibilidade para o desenvolvimento de suas carreiras. Os empreendedores, caracterizados pela disposição para correr riscos, por transformar idéias em realizações e pela capacidade de inovação, constroem suas trajetórias por meio da criação de um negócio. O modo como o empreendedor desenvolve essa trajetória é o foco desta pesquisa. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório de enfoque qualitativo, que teve por objetivo investigar como o empreendedor desenvolve sua carreira. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas semi-estruturadas, em que os participantes foram convidados a narrar suas histórias de vida profissionais e a discorrer sobre aspectos relacionados ao desenvolvimento de suas carreiras. Participaram da pesquisa 16 empresários do estado de Goiás que revelaram possuir características empreendedoras. A análise do material gerado a partir da transcrição das entrevistas foi realizada por meio do método de análise de conteúdo. Foram realizadas a codificação e a categorização das mensagens contidas nas entrevistas e as informações resultantes desses procedimentos serviram como base para a interpretação dos resultados. Os empreendedores revelaram que o desenvolvimento de suas carreiras está baseado no aprendizado adquirido em suas experiências; em suas redes de relacionamento e no esforço e na dedicação que empregam no trabalho. Para construir sua carreira, o empreendedor precisa desenvolver as habilidades de gestão de pessoas, de visão de oportunidades e de realizar inovações. O desenvolvimento da carreira vincula-se ao desempenho do negócio e a maior parte dos objetivos profissionais do empreendedor é direcionada para a organização. A família ocupa um papel central na carreira do empreendedor, fornecendo ajuda financeira e psicológica e representando um ponto de apoio em suas vidas. Em decorrência dos resultados obtidos, foram formuladas algumas hipóteses, que podem servir como orientações a futuros estudos sobre este tema. As reflexões sobre os resultados converteram-se na proposição de um modelo que visa apresentar o desenvolvimento da carreira do empreendedor, por meio da perspectiva de estágios relacionados à variável tempo e ao crescimento do empreendimento. / The concept of career and relationship of people with their jobs had been modified due to the economic and social changes over recent decades. The idea of a stable and lasting career through the jobs in organizations ceased to exist, driving people to seek alternatives to the construction of their professional careers. Many find on entrepreneurship a chance to develop their careers. Entrepreneurs are characterized by the predisposition to take risks, the capability to convert ideas into accomplishments and the ability to innovate. They build their careers through the creation of an enterprise. The way that the entrepreneur develops his path, is the focus of this research. This is an exploratory study of qualitative approach, which aimed to investigate how the entrepreneur develops his career. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted where participants were asked to do a narrative of their professional life stories and discourse about issues related to the development of their careers. The participants were 16 businessmen of the state of Goias that revealed entrepreneurial characteristics. The material generated from the interview transcript was analysed using the method of content analysis. Were executed the coding and the categorization of the messages contained in the interviews and the information proceeding from these procedures were the basis for the interpretation of results. Entrepreneurs revealed that the development of their careers is based on knowledge acquired from their experiences, on their networks and on the effort and the dedication that devote at work. To build his career, the entrepreneur must to develop the skills of people management, vision of opportunities and capability of innovation. Career development is tied to the performance of the business and most of the professional goals of the entrepreneur are directed to the organization. The family occupies a central role in the career of the entrepreneur, providing financial and psychological assistance and representing a foothold in their lives. Due to the results, some hypotheses were formulated, which can be used as guidelines for future studies about this topic. Reflections about the results have generated the proposition of a model that aims to present the development of the entrepreneur career, through the perspective of stages related to the variable time and the growth of the enterprise.

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of Career Information System (CIS) on high school students’ vocational skills self-efficacy, outcome expectations, work hope, career planning, career decision-making difficulties and postsecondary plans. CIS is an internet-based computer system of occupational and educational information designed to help users become more knowledgeable about the labor market and education system, as well as provide career planning support. Students from two high schools participated in the study. Participants at School A were first-year students who completed the Interest Profiler module of CIS. Participants at School B were first-year students who completed the Interest Profiler, IDEAS, SKILLS, Reality Check, and Work Importance Locator modules of CIS. First-year students who did not participate in the CIS intervention served as the control group in both schools. Participants in both schools who utilized the CIS intervention demonstrated a number of significant differences compared to control group participants at posttest. School A treatment participants' vocational outcome expectations and work hope were higher and career decision-making difficulties (i.e. inconsistent information and lack of information) were lower compared to control participants. School A treatment group participants were also more likely to indicate postsecondary educational plans of specialized training, 2-year community college, or 4-year college, instead of no education plans, compared to control group participants. School B treatment participants' vocational skills self-efficacy was significantly higher than control participants at posttest. Treatment group participants at both schools demonstrated more changes in their occupational interests compared to control group participants at posttest. The effects of CIS did not vary as a function of race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status in regards to any of the career outcome variables in either school. Implications for the use of CIS among first-year high school students will be discussed and suggestions for future research will be provided.

The pension fund industry affects an enormous proportion of the world population and consists of more than $20 trillion of assets globally. Hence the performance of pension funds has major effects. This thesis investigates the performance of personal pension funds in the UK, one of the leading pension industries in the world. It identifies two important factors that are largely overlooked in the related literature: fund’s age and management outsourcing. Based on the ‘career concerns’ argument by Holmström (1999), it tests whether fund performance is age dependent, and in particular, whether funds perform better when they are young than when they ‘mature’. Moreover, one of the major features of the pension fund industry has been the enormous growth in management outsourcing. This thesis addresses this issue and tests whether there are differences in the performance between outsourced and internally managed funds, and investigates potential determinants of the decision to outsource. It argues that a ‘fashion to outsource’ may be partially responsible for the trend. Given that a CAPM-APT based analysis is not appropriate for the data at hand, the thesis employs three alternative performance measures, two of which utilise fund-specific benchmarks. The results show that risk-adjusted returns are statistically insignificantly different from zero but funds significantly outperform their benchmarks. Performance is found to change with fund’s age but this relationship is more complex than a simple ‘career-concern’ argument would predict. Risk-adjusted returns of the internally managed and the outsourced funds are both indifferent from zero but the outsourced funds are better at outperforming their benchmarks. Lastly, there is some evidence of a ‘fashion to outsource’. This research is novel in several ways. It provides the first detailed investigation of the performance of the UK personal pension funds. It is the first to address the question of potential factors (other than managerial characteristics) that may explain fund performance. It discusses the rise of outsourcing in the industry and analyses differences/similarities between performance of the outsourced and the internal funds. Finally, it is the first to investigate whether the rapid increase in outsourcing is due to ‘fashion’.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:44:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Felipe Mortara.pdf: 1577312 bytes, checksum: a45214fcca0b1b655553c191377c93ca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-19 / This research project identified relationships between career anchors and the activities of journalists that work in a large printing media company in Brazil. Through the analysis of a case study with 56 journalists from Grupo Estado editorial office, the survey focused on how the journalists perform and adapt their careers in an increasingly transforming scenario, under the influence of new technologies and media convergence. Life style and autonomy and independence were the prevalent carrer anchors found among editors and reporters. It was observed that not only reporters with this profile have better chances to become editors but the latter will have preference for hiring reporters with similar career anchors. Also, at least within this case study, to verify elements that include journalists within boundaryless and protean careers were observed / Nesta pesquisa foram identificadas relações entre as âncoras de carreira e as atividades dos jornalistas que atuam dentro de uma grande empresa de comunicação impressa. Por meio de pesquisa descritiva de estudo de caso com 56 jornalistas que atuam na redação do Grupo Estado, procurou-se elucidar de que forma o contexto em transformação em que estes jornalistas atuam, sob influência das novas tecnologias e da convergência dos meios, interfere em sua carreira. As âncoras de carreira mais encontradas foram as de estilo de vida e autonomia e independência, sendo esta última com maior incidência tanto em editores como em repórteres. Constatou-se que tanto repórteres com esta âncora têm mais chance de tornarem-se editores quanto que editores têm mais propensão a contratar repórteres com esta âncora. Foi possível também observar elementos que, ao menos dentro deste estudo de caso, incluem os jornalistas dentro das carreiras sem fronteiras e das carreiras proteanas

A expatriação pode ser entendida pela prática de convidar um funcionário a assumir um cargo pela empresa em um país estrangeiro por um período de um ou dois anos. Essa prática, ás vezes, tem sido estudada somente pela missão em si, enquanto que é um processo amplo e único composto por três etapas: a preparação, a expatriação em si e a repatriação, momento este pouco abordado nos estudos. A repatriação compreende a etapa em que o expatriado volta para o país de origem, tendo que se readaptar ao ambiente de trabalho e social. Dentro da perspectiva profissional, um dos problemas que dificulta a adaptação do expatriado é a questão da carreira, pois, na expatriação, geralmente, os funcionários exercem atividades mais amplas. Assim, quando retornam ao país de origem, muitos voltam a exercer as mesmas atividades de antes da expatriação. Dessa maneira, este estudo tem o propósito de analisar as mudanças ocorridas com a expatriação para os funcionários que tiveram/estão tendo uma experiência profissional internacional e sua relação com as expectativas de carreira geradas com a repatriação. Para atender esse objetivo, foi realizado um estudo de caso na empresa Alpha, na qual foram realizadas 21 entrevistas: dois representantes da área dos Recursos Humanos (RH) e 19 expatriados. Como principais resultados, destacam-se: a empresa, apesar de ter um programa de expatriação há 12 anos, ainda precisa de políticas e práticas mais estruturadas, muito em função de que a internacionalização tomou uma dimensão maior do que a organização estava preparada para suportar, o que tem refletido na área de RH. Assim, as dificuldades em relação à adaptação cultural, família, língua estrangeira sobressaem-se e o expatriado não percebe como a sua carreira está se desenvolvendo nesse momento. Entretanto, a expatriação permite possibilidades para os profissionais e para a empresa, mas também tem muitos desafios a serem superados. Como possibilidades foram destacadas: maior competência para a tomada de decisão, ampliação do network interno, conhecimento de outras culturas, maior aprendizado, desafio profissional, entre outros. E como desafios têm-se: conciliar as expectativas da empresa com a do funcionário, reconhecimento do processo de expatriação, atuação do RH, planejamento da carreira, melhor preparação e acompanhamento da família, treinamento e adaptação do expatriado, práticas e políticas ampliadas e atenção ao perfil dos expatriados. Como principal achado tem-se que os repatriados passam a dar mais valor a sua carreira interna do que a organizacional, pois quando retornam a empresa não apresenta um planejamento para aproveitar esse funcionário em posições que demandem mais responsabilidades, como as na missão. Dessa forma, a carreira fica comprometida no momento em que a organização não reconhece o aprendizado do repatriado e esse busca outras oportunidades no mercado de trabalho. Os que buscam espaço dentro da organização acabam se “tornando um problema” para a empresa. / The expatriation can be understood as the practice of inviting an employee to take a job within his company in a foreign country for a period of one or two years. This practice has been studied only as the mission itself, when it is a broad and unique process involving three stages: preparation, expatriation and a stage that is rarely addressed in studies: the repatriation. The repatriation encompasses the step where the expatriate returns to his country, which requires him the readjustment to social and working place. From a professional perspective, one of the difficult problems in the expatriate adaptation is the issue of career, because in expatriation, generally, the employees are responsible for broader activities. Thus, when they return to their origin country, many of them are responsible for the same activities that they were before expatriation. Thus, this study aims to analyze the changes from expatriation allowance regarding employees who have had/ are having an international professional experience and their relation to career expectations generated from the repatriation. To achieve this objective, a case study has been done in Alpha Company, in which 21 people have been interviewed: two persons who represent the Human Resources (HR) and 19 expatriates. The main results concluded: the company, despite having a 12 year expatriation program, still lacks more structured policies and practices, mostly because that internationalization has taken as a major dimension than the organization was prepared to hold, which has been reflected in the HR area. Thus, the difficulties related to cultural adaptation, family, foreign language end up having a bigger dimension and the expatriate can not perceive how his career is being developed at that time. However, the expatriation provides many opportunities for the professionals and for the company, and also there are many challenges that need to be overcome. The possibilities that were mentioned: more competence for decision making, expansion of the internal network, knowledge of other cultures, higher learning, professional challenge, among others. And as challenges, they indicated: to reconcile the company's expectations with the employee's, more valorization of the expatriation process, greater activity of HR, career planning, better family preparation and monitoring, training and adaptation of expatriate, policies and practices expanded and greater attention to the profile of expatriates. The main result showed that the repatriates are giving much more value to their internal career than to the organizational, because when they return, the company does not have a structure to allocate them in positions that require more responsibilities, as it was required in their mission. Thus, the expatriate’s career becomes jeopardized since the organization does not recognize his learning, and this disregard influences him to seek for others opportunities in the marketplace. And those who seek for a space within the organization, end up "becoming a problem" for the company.

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