Work-Related Subjective Experiences, Work-Related Self-Efficacy, and Career Learning Among People with Psychiatric Disabilities

Work-related subjective experiences and work-related self-efficacy were investigated as candidate correlates of career learning among people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Work-related self-efficacy was expected to mediate any observed relationship between work-related subjective experiences and employment status, after controlling for demographic, vocational, and clinical covariates. Baseline measures (n 1 = 104) were repeated at six months (n 2 = 94) and 12 months (n 3 = 94). Work-related subjective experiences and work-related self-efficacy were consistently associated with current employment after controlling for covariates. The proposed mediator role of work-related self-efficacy remains a viable hypothesis requiring further investigation. Both work-related subjective experiences and work-related self-efficacy appear promising as components of the social cognitive career learning theory to help explain career development among people with psychiatric disabilities.

Vocational education and training in schools : career advisers' perceptions and practices

This paper explores the currently highly topical issue of Vocational Education and Training in Schools (VETiS). Specifically, it focuses upon career advisers' perceptions of VETiS, their advising practices as pertaining to this program and their views of others' perceptions of VETiS. It draws upon a national research project and data derived from interviews conducted with career advisers during the course of the project. The paper demonstrates that career advisers perceive VETiS in a favorable light on the whole, and they advocate the practice of advising all students to do VETiS if students desire to do so. That said, the paper goes on to highlight tensions apparent in the career advisers' perceptions of, and subsequent advice-giving practices regarding VETiS - particularly in terms of the potential benefits it affords all students. It becomes clear that careers advisers have different agendas for advising different students - academic and non-academic students - to undertake VETiS as a course of study. Finally, the paper demonstrates the ways in which career advisers become complicit in the marginalisation of VETiS programs and the status of VET.

Career decision making among gifted students : the mediation of teachers

There is international concern about falling enrollments in higher education, particularly the sciences, by gifted students. In this mixed method study, the top performing 200 students (approximately 1%) within a particular education jurisdiction at the beginning of their first year at university were surveyed and 20 interviewed about their school experiences using a biographical interpretive design. This study focussed on identifying those characteristics of teachers which supported students’ interests. Participants identified seven characteristics of teachers that students identified as supportive of their potential career pathways. These included connecting pedagogical practices with student interests, being passionate about their subject matter, having good content knowledge, making learning experiences relevant, setting high expectations of students, being a good explainer of complex ideas, and being a good classroom manager. This study extends our knowledge of how teachers influence gifted students and has implications for both pre-service and in-service teacher education and career counselling.

Identity development in career-changing beginning teachers : a qualitative study of professional scientists becoming school teachers

This qualitative study provides a critical case to analyse the identity development of professionals who already have a strong sense of identity as scientists and have decided to relinquish their professional careers to become teachers. The study followed a group of professionals who undertook a one-year teacher education course and were assigned to secondary and middle-years schools on graduation. Their experiences were examined through the lens of self-determination theory, which posits that autonomy, confidence and relationships are important in achieving job satisfaction. The findings indicated that those teachers who were able to achieve this sense of autonomy and confidence, and had established strong relationships with colleagues generated a positive professional identity as a teacher. The failure to establish supportive relationships was a decisive event that challenged their capacity to develop a strong sense of identity as a teacher.

Career path of a corruption entrepreneur

The study of criminal career paths is necessary to understand the methods of success employed by high-performing criminals. The aim of this article is to focus on the career path of Jack Herbert who set up and maintained extensive corruption networks between organised crime groups and police in the Australian state of Queensland. This study builds on Morselli’s work on the career paths of Sammy Gravano and Howard Marks that demonstrate how understanding social networks is an essential part of comprehending how organised criminals succeed. The data for this study were taken from the transcripts of the Fitzgerald Commission of Inquiry, which uncovered the extensive and resilient corruption network operated by Herbert. Herbert’s relationships have been plotted to establish the nature of his operations. The findings indicate that communication of trust both allows for success and sets the boundaries of a network. Most importantly, this case study identifies Herbert’s reliance on holding a monopoly as the cornerstone of his network power and position. This article adds to the literature on criminal career paths by moving away from a classic organised criminal grouping into the area of police corruption and uncovers the distinctive opportunities that this position offers the career criminal.

Entrepreneur optimism and the new venture creation process

By integrating two theoretical approaches to entrepreneurship research, the psychology of the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurship process, this paper proposes a new conceptual model examining entrepreneur behaviour and emotion across the new venture development process. Existing macro level research on the new venture creation process recognises the entrepreneur as a central agent in the process yet generally avoids, at each stage of the process, an examination of the micro level psychological experiences of the individual entrepreneur. Similarly, behavioural research examining entrepreneur individual differences has neglected to systematically explore the emotion and behaviour of the entrepreneur across the cycle of the new venture creation process. We propose a conceptual framework that integrates the exploitation phase of the new venture creation process with the psychological capital element of optimism and behaviour of the individual entrepreneur. Propositions for future research to facilitate deeper insight into the impact of entrepreneur behaviour and emotion on the new venture creation process and ultimately the success or failure of the new venture are offered.

Putting the cart before the horse? Driving student engagement through first year career identity development in a large multidisciplinary creative industries cohort

It is now widely accepted that first year students benefit from pedagogies which mediate and support their transitions to university, and assist them to develop an adaptive student identity. We present an initiative which takes an alternative and additional approach to this way of viewing the first year experience. Based on research into creative industries career trajectories, this initiative focuses on the establishment of nascent career identity and professional self-concept amongst 600 first semester Bachelor of Creative Industries (BCI) students at QUT. The BCI is offered as a three year undergraduate program involving self-selection of majors, minors and electives, and also as a four year double degree with Business and Law faculties. Students engage in a scaffolded process of initial career visioning and reflective course planning, based on their own industry and careers research, guided by industry-active academic and careers staff, and drawing upon the experiences of final year students.

As trajetorias de carreiras tradicionais estao dando passegem as proteanas? Um estudo com gereentes no setor public Australiano com foco em diferencas quanto ao genero ( Have traditional career paths given way to protean ones?: Evidence from senior managers in the Australian public sector)

Purpose – This mixed-method study aims to determine the extent to which the career paths of senior managers conform with the traditional versus protean elements described in the careers literature and whether these paths vary by gender. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 15 senior managers (seven women and eight men) in a large public sector agency in Australia were interviewed about their career trajectories to date. Data were coded according to four major areas which characterise and distinguish between traditional and protean careers: development, orientation of the employee, definition of success, and organisational environment. A total of 81 managers (34 women and 47 men) from the same organisation were also surveyed. Variables of interest were those that could be triangulated with qualitative data such as the availability of career opportunities. Findings – Results suggest that, contrary to much existing literature which proposes that all careers have been fundamentally altered, the traditional career which relies on length of service, geographic mobility and a steady climb up the corporate ladder, is still the dominant model in some organisations. However, the trend towards protean careers is evident and is more pronounced for women than for men. Research limitations/implications – The specific nature of the organisation (large, male-dominated, public sector) may limit the generalisability of results. Practical implications – The framework used to explore career paths according to traditional/ protean elements in this study may assist human resource practitioners to develop appropriate strategies which maximise the professional development of employees. Originality/value – The results of this research challenge the universality of change in the nature of careers, particularly in public sector environments.

It’s always a pleasure : exploring productivity and pleasure in a writing group for early career academics

The professional development needs of early career academics (ECAs) are increasingly subject to scrutiny. The literature notes writing groups can be successful in increasing research outputs and improving research track records – a core concern for ECAs. However, the pressure on ECAs to publish takes the pleasure out of writing for many. We argue writing groups, created by and for ECAs, can provide an environment for ECAs to (re)produce pleasure in writing and participation in the processes of academic review and debate. In addition, our experience of a writing group was that it provided a platform of social and emotional support contributing to our personal well-being and professional development.

Career paths in the third sector : implications for human resource management

My interest in career paths in the third sector came from three early observations. First, the majority of workers appear to be women, in fact 77% of community sector community services in NSW (O'Donnell, 1985). Second, when asked about their career, most workers express the opinion that they have none. Third, when I examined the individual career paths of community sector workers I was struck by the stop and start nature of their paid work. Even, or perhaps especially, well qualified workers would move out of a position after about two years often to a more difficult position in a new area, with little or no salary increase and little prospect of future promotion. Indeed, there appears to be little career path available. These observations raise a number of important questions, some of which will be explored in this paper. What is the structure of the third sector labour market? What is the staff structure of third sector organisations? Is it true that career paths are unavailable, either within organisations or within the sector? If none exists, why do workers stay in the field? What motivates them? If there is a high turnover of staff, is this the reason? What are the implications of all this? If some sort of career path does exist, why do workers deny having a career? What do we mean by `career' anyway?

The language of optimism : how entrepreneurs sell the sizzle in business plan offer documents

Existing macro level research on the new venture creation process recognises the entrepreneur as a central agent in the process yet generally avoids, at each stage of the process, an examination of the micro level psychological behaviour of the individual entrepreneur. By integrating two theoretical approaches to entrepreneurship research, the psychology of the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurship process, this paper examines, using content analysis, the language used by new venture founders in documents directly linked to their capital raising activity. The study examined the language of 108 offer documents (information memorandum’s) which were divided between 54 new ventures that were successful in raising capital and 54 new ventures that either did not proceed further or were not successful in raising capital through the Australian Small Scale Offerings Board. Specifically, we were interested in examining the level of optimism evident in these narratives given that entrepreneurs have been previously described in the literature as being excessively optimistic.

Improvising a future in the performing arts : a new strategy to help performance studies students successfully shift between academic culture, professional culture, industry and career?

If there is one thing performance studies graduates should be good at, it is improvising – play and improvisation are central to the contemporary and cultural performance practices we teach and the methods by which we teach them. Objective, offer, acceptance, advancing, reversing, character, status, manipulation, impression management, relationship management – whether we know them from Keith Johnson’s theatre theories or Erving Goffman’s theatre theories, the processes by which we play out a story, scenario or social situation to our own benefit are familiar. We understand that identity, action, interaction and its personal, aesthetic, professional or political outcomes are unpredictable, and that we need to adapt to changeable and uncertain circumstances to achieve our aims. Intriguingly, though, in a Higher Education environment that increasingly emphasises employability, skills in play, improvisation and self-performance are never cited as critical graduate attributes. Is the ability to play, improve and produce spontaneous new self-performances learned in the academy worth articulating into an ability to play, improvise and product spontaneous new self-performances after graduates leave the academy and move into the role of a performing arts professional in industry? A study of the career paths of our performance studies graduates over the past decade suggests that addressing the challenges they face in moving between academic culture, professional culture, industry and career in terms of improvisation and play principles may be very productive. In articles on performing arts careers, graduates are typically advised to find a market for their work, and develop career self-management, management and marketing skills, together with an ability to find, make and maintain relationships and opportunities for themselves. Transitioning to career is cast as a challenging process, requiring these skills, because performing arts careers do not offer the security, status and stability of other careers. Our data confirms this. In our study, though, we found that strategies commonly used to build the resilience, self-reliance and persistence graduates require – talking about portfolio careers, parallel careers, and portable, transferable or translatable skills, for example – can engender panic as easily as they engender confidence. In this paper, I consider what happens when we re-articulate some of the skills scholars and industry stakeholders argue are critical in allowing graduates to shift successfully from academy to industry in terms of skills like improvisation, play and self-performance that are already familiar, meaningful and much-practiced amongst performance studies graduates.

Career counseling people of African ancestry

One of the most important challenges facing the career counseling profession is developing effective strategies to counsel racially diverse individuals. Understanding the role of racial factors in career counseling requires an understanding of the impact of race on the development and identification of career concerns (Leong & Hartung, 1997 ). This chapter invites an understanding of career counseling with a focus on people of African ancestry. There is scant literature on the career development and career counseling of people of African ancestry including African Americans. This paucity of literature is explained, in part, by the fact that people of African ancestry have unique histories of being excluded from a broad range of human services, including career counseling. This chapter considers career counseling with people of African ancestry. First, the chapter explores how the African cultural belief of Ubuntu may influence individuals and then considers its possible influence on career counseling. Second,the chapter considers how cultural contexts may impact on the career counseling of individuals of African ancestry, specifically African Americans and African immigrants. Finally, social justice and narrative approaches to career counseling are examined as a means to address the needs of people of African ancestry in a range of cultural settings.