College is a significant stage that heavily contributes to who and what citizens become after degree attainment. During career development, college students’ interests develop through taking part in coursework and employment based occupational exploration. It has been speculated that because sexual identity development and vocational identity development are active during the same phase of life, these processes might exert influence on each other (Chen, Stacuzzi, Ruckdeschel, 2004; Fassinger, 1996; Morrow, 1997). With the changing socioeconomic climate over the past decade, individuals of varying sexual orientation identities have found it necessary or desirable to be more open regarding their identity in their career. Currently, a lack of research exists that examines LGBQ+ students’ career development (Datti, 2009; Degges-White & Shoffner, 2002; Chung, 1995; Morrow, 1997; Schneider & Dimito, 2010). The purpose of this research study was to examine the career development of LGBQ+ students. Through a qualitative, phenomenological approach utilizing nine participants, the researcher examined how a LGBQ+ sexual orientation impacts a student’s career development. Four themes emerged from the study: the participant coming out process, awareness of intersectionality of identities, navigating their career as an LGBQ+ individual, identifying potential employers, and the role of career counselors. Recommendations are shared to further support LGBQ+ individuals in their career development. As a result of this study, leaders in post-secondary education as well as policymakers are able to gain insight into the career development of this population.

Cette thèse analyse le marché du travail dans l’industrie cinématographique, plus spécifiquement le marché des techniciens. Trois équipes de travail sont au cœur de l’analyse : l’équipe caméra, l’équipe électrique et l’équipe machinerie. Ensemble elles constituent le département image. Nous explorons les liens entre travail et carrière dans le contexte de la fluidité des relations d’emploi. À partir d’entretiens, d’observations et d’une base de données permettant de reconstruire les réseaux de collaborations, nous explorons ce que signifie « faire carrière » pour ces techniciens. La comparaison internationale nous permet de mettre en perspective le poids de chacune des régulations nationales sur la forme des carrières et les stratégies individuelles mises en œuvre par les acteurs. La première partie de la thèse montre comment la structure des collaborations supporte l’existence d’un monde social au sein duquel les individus partagent des conventions et des normes, et, au niveau des équipes de travail, des routines. Nous montrons comment l’activité et les relations entre les individus sur le plateau s’inscrivent dans la perspective plus large des carrières.La seconde partie de la thèse explore la question des entrées dans la carrière, montrant la place des réseaux relationnels. Les façons de recruter des individus, et particulièrement des chefs de poste, structurent les opportunités offertes aux individus. La troisième partie de la thèse se concentre sur le cas français pour explorer les combats des chefs opérateurs pour la reconnaissance de leur travail, notamment à travers les actions des associations professionnelles et par l’introduction d’un nouvel intermédiaire du marché du travail. / This dissertation deals with issues of labor market organization in the motion-picture industry, especially for the labor market of technicians. Three workteams are studied: the camera crew, electric crew and grip crew. As a whole, they constitute what is sometimes referred to as the “image department”. We explore the link between work and career in a context of fluid employment relations. Drawing from interviews, observations and a database allowing us to reconstruct collaboration networks, we explore what a career means for those technicians. The international comparison allows us to put into perspective the weight of national regulations on the form of careers and on the individual strategies of actors. The first part of the dissertation shows how the structure of collaborations sustains a social world in which individuals share conventions and norms, and, at the team level, routines. We show how activity and relations between people on set evolve in the larger context of careers. The second part of the dissertation deals with the question of entering the labor market, showing the role of social networks. The means used to recruit people, especially team leaders, structures opportunities for people. The third part of the dissertation focus on the french case to study the struggle of cinematographers to see their work recognized. In particular, we study the role of professionnal associations and of a new intermediary on the labor market.

Narcissism has been identified as a threat to society and the individual. Individuals with high levels of narcissism (narcissistic personality disorder) struggle to maintain jobs, stable relationships, and healthy life perspectives. Without knowledge about the origins of narcissism, mental health professionals may only be treating the symptoms of narcissism and not the factors that perpetuate its development. The purpose of this study was to measure narcissism in farming and law careers and to determine whether career is a factor in the development of narcissism. It was predicted that career would be an important developmental event and process that would have the ability to influence character traits (such as narcissism) through self-presentation, a process in symbolic interaction theory. To date, there has been no research on type of career as a factor in the development of narcissism. A cross-sectional design and 2-way independent analysis of covariance was used to compare narcissism in farming (N = 46) and law careers (N = 267) at the beginning and middle of individuals' careers, as well as after 10 years of experience. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference in narcissism between farmers and lawyers. Further, there was no significant difference in narcissism levels at the different stages of a law or farming career. Thus, career may not be a factor in the development of narcissism, and future research, theory development, treatment design, and cultural considerations may be best served by focusing on other phenomena to explain narcissism's effect in adulthood.

The aim of this study was to construct a theory for women's managerial career development that explained how women in health care services and health science faculties achieved senior management positions and developed their careers. It sought to discover the main barriers to career progress and achievement of senior level positions by women in health related organisations and to identify how women managers dealt with obstacles. In-depth interviews with 35 women managers in senior positions in 19 different organisations from three different cultural regions formed the major data source; observations, field notes, personal and operational journals, documents, and literature supplemented this data.This research was conducted in two phases. In phase one a descriptive approach was used to develop propositions about women managers and their careers. These propositions formed the guidelines for phase two. The second phase used grounded theory methods, incorporating feminist and interpretative perspectives to identify the previously inarticulated core problem shared by participants. The barriers that women encountered were the contradictory, inconsistent and incompatible assumptions about their potential to have long term careers and ability to move into senior level management positions.These assumptions had been received during their life and educational experiences, as well as from their organisations. The gendered context of health care organisations and university educational institutions contributed to the limited career aspirations and career progress of women with health professional qualifications. By applying grounded theory strategies for analysis of the data, it was discovered that the women managers dealt with this problem through a core process, labelled metamorphosis, a four stage process for overcoming assumptions. This core variable was the way these women ++ / managers moved from managing without confidence to managing with confidence and assurance.This process occurred over time having four stages, each involving different activities and strategies. The progressive spiral stages were: being in a quandary (struggling with incompatible and contradictory assumptions); observing, examining and reflecting (on the impact of internal and external assumptions on their behaviour in organisational contexts, then realising that opportunities existed); learning and reframing (the managerial skills in order to re-frame their assumptions about the traditional characteristics of a manager); and finally change and transformation into being confident managers, so developing women's presence in management.The findings generated a theory which proposed a managerial career development model for enabling women to manage with confidence and assurance. The outcome was a theoretical model which recognised the dynamic interaction between contexts (professional, organisational, political, economic, cultural, and research); a picture of women managers (personal beliefs, skills, characteristics, attributes of life long learning, relationship between life and career roles, and ways of changing contexts); and the inner energy force creating women's presence in health related organisations (core process and power of their metamorphosis).Contributing to the development of this theory of metamorphosis was the recognition that being and doing research with women involved valuing the personal learning process. This thread has been integrated into the research fabric to strengthen the reflective and personal experiences of research. Using and valuing women's stories enabled their voices and visibility to be taken out of the shadows and demonstrated that they can be pioneers in their own lives. The sense of collaboration in research, education, and community ++ / healing will gain from encouraging women to aspire to leadership and management positions.

The literature and research investigating why people choose social work as a career has tended to focus on motivational traits rather than on the choice experience itself. Whereas the vocational sector has moved to include a focus on the narrative processes involved with selecting a career, much of the social work research fails to capture the meaning-making processes individuals engage in to make sense of their career choices within their personal and social contexts. This research project describes the meaning-making processes two students participating in the social work program at Central Queensland University and I employ to understand our career choice experiences. Over a period of four years, using a research approach that combines Clandinin and Connelly’s (2000) narrative inquiry with Riessman’s (2003) emphasis on social positioning within narratives, Geraldine, John and I explore the interplay between individual, community and professional agendas in our past, present and imagined career choice experiences – particularly focusing on the impact of gender. Identifying the importance of caring as a hallmark of the profession and what draws us to social work, this co-constructed research text highlights the agendas that predominantly support women’s entrance into the profession and challenge men’s participation. Drawing on the metaphor of a quilt to describe our career choice experience, this project draws attention to the importance for aspiring social workers to carefully choose, cut and join together bits of gendered narrative material to create a professional story that both legitimises their entrance into the profession and to position them within the larger career sector.

This study endeavoured to establish what influences students to undertake library and information studies. Are prospective students of library and information studies choosing their course and future occupation for the same sorts of reasons as in the past? Are prospective students well informed about their future occupation when they choose a course of study? What is the relative importance of some of the factors influencing their choice? Do metropolitan, regional and isolated students have the same understanding and expectations of their course and future occupation? A study of first year undergraduate students of library and information studies at three universities sought to provide answers to these questions. A quantitative and qualitative comparison of first year undergraduate students of Library and Information Studies at the University of Canberra and a random group from the same University was also undertaken in order to provide some comparative data. The findings showed that reasons for choosing library and information studies have generally not changed as much as one might expect. An interest in books and reading still ranks as a relatively important factor in students' choice, though there is some evidence of an increased interest in career and employment issues. Library and information studies students without an occupational background in the discipline generally have a hazy picture of what is involved in their future occupation and this lack of knowledge is compounded where students are located in regional or isolated areas. Generally most library and information studies respondents expressed a desire to enter 'traditional' workplaces in libraries rather than entering the broader information management field.

This thesis explored careers within Australian tourism with the aim of developing a model of influences on career development in the tourism industry. As tourism is still an emerging profession, careers have yet to be clearly defined and career paths are not easily identifiable. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that the industry is prone to high turnover, low retention rates, is often viewed as a low skilled industry and has difficulty attracting employees with a view to serious career development. While some research into careers into hotel management is available, in depth career studies in the tourism industry have yet to emerge. This thesis addresses this gap in the literature and provides industry stakeholders with information to assist in human resource management and policy development. The researcher drew finding from an electronic survey that was designed from information collected from an exploratory study conducted by the researcher, from literature available on both career development and research on the tourism industry, and from earlier research projects. This electronic survey was designed to collect primarily qualitative data and was disseminated to the Australian tourism industry. Results from this study suggest that careers in the tourism industry are influenced by a variety of mentoring relationships. Both formal education and on-the-job training was found to be increasingly important for those wanting to advance in the industry and remaining mobile between jobs, between organisations, within industries and geographically was advantageous. A motivation to work in tourism and a "passion" for the industry was found to be a strong influence on career development in the current study. This study should add to our understanding of careers in Australian tourism and, more specifically to our understanding of the role of formal education and on-the-job training in career development and the perceived value of such training. The current study reinforces previous knowledge of high levels of mobility within the tourism industry and suggests the need to change job, organisation, industry or geographical location is influential on career development in Australian tourism. In addition, the results suggest that although structured mentorship programs are currently unavailable to many in the tourism industry, mentorship in the form of informal and networking relationships assists career development. While this thesis has contributed to our understanding of career development in the tourism industry, because of inevitable limitations with the sample obtain for this study, it would be useful to replicate this survey with other sectors of the tourism, to explore influences on careers in tourism in other countries, to investigate gender issues in the industry and to further explore the influences of education, mobility and mentorship.

The career development theory of Holland (1985) maintains that people whose vocational interests have congruence (or "fit") with their work environments will be more satisfied than those whose interests are incongruent. This study investigated whether this theory held for a group of 120 unskilled workers, and for 54 teachers. The key issues were whether interest-job congruence correlated with job satisfaction, and whether the congruence-satisfaction relationship was a function of the congruence measure used. While previous studies showed positive correlations between person-job congruence and satisfaction, most of these used professionallyemployed subjects, and some used students; few researchers investigated the experiences of unskilled workers. A meta-analysis of previous research, carried out in this study revealed an overall mean correlation between congruence and satisfaction of .16, which was very low. Structured interviews in workplaces were used to gather data from the unskilled subjects, and a questionnaire was devised for use with the skilled subject group. The interviews and questionnaires used a card-sort procedure to ascertain subjects' vocational interests, asked questions about subjects' L jobs, collected details on education levels and job tenure, and concluded with a job satisfaction measure. The data gathered were analysed in various ways. Two different interest coding systems, and four congruence measures were applied, to see whether different measures gave differing results. Congruence levels were significantly higher in the skilled subjects than the unskilled subjects when one set of interest codings were used, but were low for both groups when the other codings were applied. Average job satisfaction levels were similar in each group of subjects. When congruence and job satisfaction were correlated, no significant correlations were found, using either subject group, either interest coding method,'or any congruence measure. Similarly, when certain factors (tenure, education levels and gender) were statistically controlled, there were still no significant correlations between congruence and total job satisfaction scores. Certain individual items on the job satisfaction questionnaires showed significant correlation with congruence levels, however, indicating that congruent people were happier than incongruent people with certain aspects of their jobs. On the whole, the results did not support Holland's (1985) theory of vocational choice. The current study suggests that interest may not be a strong predictor of satisfaction, at least in the group of Australian workers sampled. There are implications for career guidance with less academically-inclined people; careers advisers must address other needs as well as interests, in assisting clients to make work and study decisions.

<p>Protean career är en av de nya karriärerna och en ny syn på karriär. Den bygger på att individen själv i hög grad styr över sin karriär och dennes utveckling och baserar denna främst utifrån sina värderingar. För att undersöka förekomsten av Protean career orientation och dennes eventuella samband med kompetensutveckling genomfördes en enkätundersökning på en arbetsplats som resulterade i 134 deltagare. Korrelations- och regressionsberäkningar utfördes på insamlad data. Resultaten visade att det fanns ett samband mellan Protean career orientation och kompetensutveckling och att det förstnämnda var en stark prediktor för kompetensutveckling. Vidare erhölls resultat för att det fanns en måttligt hög grad av Protean career orientation och att det således finns en ny syn på karriär även i Sverige. Det banar väg för vidare forskning angående ämnet och att detta även belyses ur andra perspektiv.</p>

Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2006.