The purpose of this study was to construct a career meta-competency model for sustained employability in the contemporary world of work. This study explored a convenience sample (N = 304) of early career employees’ personality preferences (measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), self-esteem (measured by the Culture-free Self-esteem Inventories for Adults) and emotional intelligence (measured by the Assessing Emotions Scale), as a composite set of their personality attributes, in relation to their employability attributes (measured by the Employability Attributes Scale). The participants comprised 81% blacks and 64% females employed in the business management field in managerial/supervisory (53%) and staff (28%) level positions. Their ages ranged between 25 and 40 years (early adulthood and establishment phase) (79%). The correlations, canonical correlations and multiple regression results indicated that the participants’ personality attributes were significantly and positively related to their employability attributes. Structural Equation Modelling indicated a moderate fit between the theoretically hypothesised career meta-competency model and the empirically tested structural model. The results indicated job level as a significant moderator of the relationship between the participants’ personality and employability attributes. Middle management level was associated with an inverse relationship between the personality and employability attributes. Staff and middle managers did not significantly differ regarding their mean scores on these variables. On a theoretical level, the study deepened understanding of the cognitive, affective, conative and interpersonal behavioural dimensions of the hypothesised career meta-competency model. On an empirical level, the study produced an empirically tested career meta-competency model in terms of the various behavioural dimensions. On a practical level, career v counselling and development interventions for guiding employees’ sustained employability in terms of the career meta-competency behavioural dimensions were recommended. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / D. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

méno a příjmení autora: Alena Příhodová Název diplomové práce: Kariérní poradenství Název práce v angličtině: Career counselling Katedra: Andragogiky a personálního řízení Vedoucí diplomové práce: PhDr. Michaela Tureckiová, Csc. Rok obhajoby: 2012 Anotace: V diplomové práci se autorka shrnuje dostupné poznatky o moderním kariérním poradenství, na nějž autorka nahlíží jako na dynamicky se vyvíjející poradenskou disciplínu. Kariérní poradenství hledá nejen optimální spojení jedinec-práce, ale také pomáhá jedinci prozkoumat a sledovat jeho profesní a osobní zájmy, stejně jako ho učí být manažerem vlastní profesní kariéry. Praxe kariérního poradenství nabízí pomocnou ruku jedinci v jeho potřebě hledání optimálního pracovního uplatnění v průběhu celého jeho života. Neméně významná je funkce kariérního poradenství v rukou státu, jakožto nástroje snižování dopadů nejistot trhu práce na nejohroženější skupiny jedinců. Dalšího významu kariérní poradenství nabývá v práci personalistů, pracovníků outplacementu a poradců pracujících se specifickými skupinami. Práce nastínila problematiku žen, jakožto specifické skupiny klientů kariérního poradenství. Klíčová slova: práce, poradenství, kariérní poradenství, kariérové poradenství, občanské poradenství, poradenství pro volbu povolání, kariéra, trh práce, ženská kariéra...

The main purpose of this study is to explore the role spirituality plays in the coping of traffic officers within the South African Traffic Services. A sample of ten traffic officers participated in the study, and data was obtained by means of open-ended questions during in-depth and semi-structured interviews. The literature review aimed to conceptualise spirituality, to conceptualise coping, and to theoretically explore the role of spirituality in the coping of traffic officers. Specific aims for the empirical study were: to gain a better understanding of how traffic officers experience the role of spirituality in coping with their role within the South African context; to provide a framework that can assist with creating an understanding of the role spirituality plays in coping as a traffic officer; and to formulate recommendations for possible future research that explores the role of spirituality in the coping of traffic officers within the discipline of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, more specifically in employee and organisational wellness, and career counselling. The research findings showed that traffic officers in the sample all utilised spirituality in the workplace to various extents, and that they exhibited adaptive coping abilities when doing so. They associated less spirituality or a lack of spirituality with weaker coping abilities. It was found that spirituality in the traffic officers is informed by a foundation of spirituality or religion, purpose to their work and life, their connection to their spiritual source, and the fruits of spirituality. Their coping ability was influenced by upbringing and background, by stressors from their work environment and by coping mechanisms. The role of spirituality in the coping of traffic officers culminated in their ability to interpret the meaning of spirituality, and then to implement spirituality in order to cope. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

No description available.

This dissertation is a report on research into the development and evaluation of a career assessment and counselling procedure that falls under the aegis of the constructivist, narrative approach: My Career Chapter: A Dialogical Autobiography. My Career Chapter enables an individual to construct a holistic understanding of his or her career. The procedure facilitates an individual writing and reflecting on an autobiographical account of his or her career that is contextualised amidst systems of career influences. The resulting autobiographical text can be used in career counselling, including co-constructive dialogue between client and counsellor. The literature underpinning the research project is described with a wide-ranging discussion of issues that critically pertain to the research endeavour and essentially provide a primary base for the work. Two theoretical frameworks that exemplify constructivism in vocational psychology underpin the research: the Systems Theory Framework and the Theory of Career Construction. From the base of those two theoretical frameworks, narrative career counselling is explicated and exemplars are described. The Theory of Dialogical Self is introduced to inform the design of My Career Chapter and, ultimately, the theory and practice of narrative career counselling. The research is predominantly positioned within a paradigm of constructivism/interpretivism and the results of the studies are collectively interpreted accordingly; but postpositivism and critical ideological paradigms are present in a secondary form due to the mixture of research methods used in the project as a whole. Six empirical studies investigate the experience of My Career Chapter from the perspective of the developer, the counsellor-user, and the client-user; each explicated with two studies respectively. Research methods include autoethnography for the developer's experience, interpretative phenomenological analysis and focus group for the counsellor-users' experience, and quasi-experiment and interpretative phenomenological analysis for the client-users' experience. The studies of the developer's experience of My Career Chapter comprehensively explicate how and why the procedure was developed and emphasise the importance of reflexive science and practice. Crucially, the autoethnographies revealed a nexus of theory-practice-person which underpins the production of My Career Chapter, and critically influences the entire research project. The studies involving counsellor-users affirmed My Career Chapter's alignment with recommendations for the development and application of qualitative career assessment and counselling procedures. These studies also raised questions pertaining to the characteristics of client-users that may mediate the efficacy of the procedure (e.g., age, language ability). Studies of client-users firstly support the conclusion that My Career Chapter is a safe career assessment and counselling procedure, with minimal attendant risk of inducing psychological harm or distress. The procedure was experienced as being helpful as a tool for personal reflection, through its theoretically-derived processes of facilitating clients writing, reading, and hearing and talking their autobiographical manuscripts through in the interpretation phase. There are four dimensions of significance associated with this research project. Firstly, the divide between theory and practice has indeed been much lamented in vocational psychology and counselling psychology. Thus, the overall significance of the research reported upon in this dissertation is significant because it attempts to bring theory and practice together through a reflexive and theoretically informed research process into a career assessment and counselling procedure. Secondly, the research and development process produced a new career assessment and counselling product which will add to the limited range of techniques that fall under the aegis of constructivist career assessment and counselling broadly, and the narrative approach specifically. My Career Chapter complements other procedures. Thirdly, two of the research methods used in the project (viz., autoethnography and interpretative phenomenological analysis) demonstrated their potential as additional qualitative methods for research within vocational psychology. Finally, the research process has enabled the articulation of the Theory of Dialogical Self—from another branch of psychology—into the extant corpus of literature on career development theory and practice.

The purpose of this study was to construct a career meta-competency model for sustained employability in the contemporary world of work. This study explored a convenience sample (N = 304) of early career employees’ personality preferences (measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), self-esteem (measured by the Culture-free Self-esteem Inventories for Adults) and emotional intelligence (measured by the Assessing Emotions Scale), as a composite set of their personality attributes, in relation to their employability attributes (measured by the Employability Attributes Scale). The participants comprised 81% blacks and 64% females employed in the business management field in managerial/supervisory (53%) and staff (28%) level positions. Their ages ranged between 25 and 40 years (early adulthood and establishment phase) (79%). The correlations, canonical correlations and multiple regression results indicated that the participants’ personality attributes were significantly and positively related to their employability attributes. Structural Equation Modelling indicated a moderate fit between the theoretically hypothesised career meta-competency model and the empirically tested structural model. The results indicated job level as a significant moderator of the relationship between the participants’ personality and employability attributes. Middle management level was associated with an inverse relationship between the personality and employability attributes. Staff and middle managers did not significantly differ regarding their mean scores on these variables. On a theoretical level, the study deepened understanding of the cognitive, affective, conative and interpersonal behavioural dimensions of the hypothesised career meta-competency model. On an empirical level, the study produced an empirically tested career meta-competency model in terms of the various behavioural dimensions. On a practical level, career v counselling and development interventions for guiding employees’ sustained employability in terms of the career meta-competency behavioural dimensions were recommended. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The mobility of students has increased dramatically in the past decades which primarily is a consequence of globalization (Ninnes & Hellstén, 2005). Many higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world have responded to the global educational trend by actively recruiting students from abroad, with the incentive of maintaining a competitive position on the global, knowledge-based market (Knight, 2004). Simultaneously, an increasing number of students have responded to the expanded opportunities which have become available, aspiring to secure the best education to facilitate their path into a well-remunerated career (Waters & Brooks, 2011). By employing a qualitative research approach, this study explores how international degree-seeking students undertaking engineering studies in Swedish HE, take on their career development within a global framework. The findings are compared and analyzed in order to provide further insights into the career trajectories of engineering students from different countries. The findings suggest that the participants in the study have employed a large degree of agency and independence in advancing their career development further. Moreover, it has also been indicated that they, as global professionals, uphold a flexible stance towards future career opportunities, regardless of where in the world these would be located. Considering the increasing numbers of international students that occupy Swedish HEIs, the study concludes that further attention needs to be paid to gain further insights into the realities of this student population, both to increase our understanding of how they respond to the forces of globalization and to safeguard that career services address the real career needs of this population.

The fundamental aim of education is to empower learners to succeed in their career path and, as such, the future of South African learners depends on the quality of decisions and the progress made by them in respect of their personal and career development needs. The focus of the study was on investigating the awareness of guidance and counselling in Ga-Rankuwa secondary schools, and explore factors influencing career choice. The total number of secondary schools that participated in the study were seven (7), and all public schools from the disadvantaged context, in the Tshwane West Education District. The study was a descriptive survey, and the target population consisted of 859 participants. The data were collected, using two questionnaires; namely the Career Development Questionnaire (CDQ), and the Selfstructured Questionnaire (SSQ). The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to generate data, which were used as descriptive statistics of frequency table, percentages and cross-tabulation to “raise awareness on the status of career guidance and counselling in GaRankuwa secondary schools” The findings of the study showed that career guidance and counselling was not effectively implemented in schools, and that inadequate career education was offered to learners during Life Orientation classes. From the findings, it was discovered that learners did not have the accurate, sufficient, informed and practical knowledge to help them make sound career decisions, and that learners’ levels of career maturity were very low. It was evident from the findings that age, gender, parents/guardians educational background did not have any significant influence on learners’ career choices. The researcher, therefore, recommends that Life-Orientation teachers be exposed to extensive career guidance and be offered training in career counselling, and that there should be adequate and accessible career guidance and counselling facilities for learners – and that career guidance strategies and policies should be reviewed. / Psychology / Ph. D. (Psychology)

The study population for the research comprised Grade 9 learners attending three co-educational, independent schools in KwaZulu-Natal in order to determine factors influencing the selection of business studies for FET phase. Methodology involved qualitative and quantitative approaches with closed and open-ended questionnaires plus one-on-one interviews. Descriptive statistics were produced and opened ended questions and interviews were examined for trends and influences. Findings reflected wide divergence in factual information, attitudes, and opinions on significant issues such as expected level of difficulty, influence of educators, parents and peers on selection, amount of work required and value of subject for future studies or careers. Conclusions were that there was a lack of completed research indicating a need for future research, greater preparation was required pre-FET level to assist decision making about selection of the subject which should involve parents, educators and input from the business world. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

Hochschulabsolventinnen und -absolventen steht eine Vielzahl beruflicher Möglichkeiten offen. Damit der Einstieg in den Arbeitsmarkt gelingt, haben die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter der Technischen Universität Chemnitz ihre Erfahrungen aus der täglichen Arbeit gebündelt und stellen sie nun in diesem aktualisierten Band zur Verfügung. Von der beruflichen Zielfindung über die Jobrecherche bis zur Gehaltsverhandlung finden sich hier wertvolle Tipps für Studierende, Absolventen und alle weiteren Interessierten. Um auch beim Berufseinstieg im sächsisch-tschechischen Grenzraum zu unterstützen, bietet der vorliegende Band zudem Artikel zum Verfassen internationaler Bewerbungen und Tipps für den grenzübergreifenden Berufseinstieg und die Jobsuche in der Tschechischen Republik. Der Transnational Career Service ist eine Kooperation zwischen der Technischen Universität Chemnitz sowie den tschechischen Partnerhochschulen Universität J. E. Purkyně Ústí nad Labem und Technische Universität Liberec. Ziel des Projektes ist es, Karriereperspektiven im deutsch-tschechischen Grenzraum aufzuzeigen und den Austausch von Fachkräften zu fördern. Dieser Band stellt die Ergebnisse aus fast 3 Jahren grenzübergreifender Projektarbeit dar. / University graduates have a wide range of career perspectives ahead. In order to smooth the entry into working life, the employees of the Technische Universität Chemnitz have combined their daily work experience and made it available in this updated volume. Starting with defining professional objectives, continuing with job research and salary negotiations, university students, graduates and other interested parties will find valuable advice. This volume furthermore provides articles on international application processes as well as advice for a cross-border job entry and job research in the Czech Republic, supporting a career start in the Saxon-Czech border region. The Transnational Career Service is a cooperation between the Technische Universität Chemnitz and the Czech partner universities J. E. Purkyně Ústí nad Labem und Technical University Liberec. The project’s objective is to show career perspectives in the Saxon-Czech border region and to support the exchange of skilled personnel. This volume presents the results of almost three years of transnational project work.