The relation of social status to the career decision-making process

Understanding transitions in exploration profiles of students opting for higher education

Introduction

Since previous research on educational career exploration has mainly been cross-sectional and therefore has been unsuccessful in explaining how this process can change during the final year in secondary education before students make the transition to higher education, this study aimed to examine changes over time in the exploration process. A person-centered research perspective was taken to further deepen the understanding of how different exploration tasks jointly combine into meaningful profiles. In this way, this study tried to gain more insight into why some students go through this process successfully and others do not. Four goals guided this study: identifying exploration profiles of students in Fall and Spring of the final year in secondary school based on four decisional tasks (orientation, self-, broad and in-depth exploration), investigating transitions between exploration profiles across these two timepoints, and examining the role which different antecedents (i.e., academic self-efficacy, academic self-concept, motivation, test anxiety, gender, educational track, socio-economic status) play in explaining both profile membership and transitions between profiles.

Methods

Using self-report questionnaires to measure the exploration tasks and the antecedents in final year students, two cross-sectional samples collected in Fall (n = 9,567) and Spring (n = 7,254), and one longitudinal sample (n = 672) were examined.

Results

Latent profile analyses identified three exploration profiles at both timepoints: passive, moderately active, and highly active explorers. Latent transition analysis showed the moderately active explorers profile to be the most stable profile, while the passive profile was the most variable profile. Academic self-concept, motivation, test anxiety, and gender had an effect on the initial states, while motivation and test anxiety affected the transition probabilities. For both academic self-concept and motivation, students scoring higher were found to be less present in the passive or the moderately active than in the highly active profile. Furthermore, compared to students who remained in the passive profile, higher levels of motivation were associated with a higher probability to transition to the moderately active profile. Next to that, compared to students who remained in the highly active profile, higher levels of motivation were associated with a lower probability to transition to the moderately active profile. Results on anxiety were inconsistent.

Discussion

Based on substantial cross-sectional as well as longitudinal data, our findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the explanatory base of important differences in the study choice making process of students opting for higher education. This may ultimately lead to more timely and fitting support for students with different exploration profiles.

The paradoxical effects of social class on career adaptability: The role of intolerance of uncertainty

Introduction

As a growth background factor, family social class has far-reaching effects on youth career development. However, we have limited understanding of the role and functional mechanisms of social class in career adaptability. Based on the social cognitive theory of social class, we examine the mediating role of intolerance of uncertainty in the relationship between youths' subjective social class and career adaptability. We also explore the moderating influences of self-esteem.

Methods

Data were collected from a sample consisting of 712 undergraduates (63.2% female) in China.

Results

Results show that subjective social class positively impacts career adaptability via prospective anxiety, and negatively impacts career adaptability via inhibitory anxiety. The intensity of these indirect relationships is contingent on youths' self-esteem.

Discussion

Our study illustrates the complex and paradoxical effects of social class on career adaptability and has important theoretical and practical implications. This study expands the theoretical perspective by bringing in the social cognitive theory of social class, provides novel insight into the complex interaction between individuals and the environment in youth career development, and should provide inspiration for the design of career intervention programs.

Career sacrifice unpacked: From prosocial motivation to regret

In the ever more uncertain career context, many individuals engage in a form of career sacrifice (CS) at some point in their career journey; that is, giving up of certain career goals/actions or reshaping career decisions to accommodate specific work or life demands. This conceptual paper unpacks CS as an important yet little explored dimension of career decision making. Specifically, the paper examines possible triggers of CS as well as the diverse nature of CS, ranging from short-term (usually minor) type of sacrifice to more significant and long-term sacrifice. We explore the context of this type of career decision making, specifically the intersection of work and non-work-related triggers and conclude by discussing possible work and non-work outcomes both at the individual as well as organizational level. CS outcomes range from enhanced career self-management and relational benefits to positive organizational contributions, but at times can also lead to regret. Areas for future research are identified, especially exploration of demographic and more macro level variables as possible moderators in CS decisions. Future theoretical development of CS is discussed too.

STEM Career Interest of Kazakhstani Middle and High School Students

The aim of this study is to analyze secondary school students’ career interests in STEM subjects. This survey-based quantitative research is provided to gain insight into the STEM career interests of 398 students (7–11 graders), in the Almaty region of the Kazakhstan Republic. Through parametric and non-parametric test analysis, the relationship between students’ STEM career interest and their gender, their parents’ occupation, parents’ education, family size, school type, and school location were revealed. Results indicated that, on average, participant students showed positive interest in STEM careers. In particular, boys’ and girls’ responses were equally positive in many sub-scales of STEM. Additionally, great interest in STEM careers was shown by village students, whereas, for private school students who are living in the city, STEM career interests were the lowest in our sample. We also found that students’ family size, parents’ education, and occupation does not relate to students’ STEM career interest. Implications for STEM education in Kazakhstan are further discussed in this study.

Examining the Persistence Intentions of College Students of Color

This study used the Social Cognitive Career Theory—Career Self-Management Model (SCCT-CSM) to understand the process by which background variables impact students of color’s intentions to persist in college. Findings from 329 students of color revealed that perceived social status related positively to self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, that increased experiences of racism related negatively to self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, and that self-efficacy for self-regulated learning related positively to intentions to persist in college. Further, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning mediated the relationship between perceived social status and persistence intentions among this sample of college students of color. Lastly, SEM analyses provided support for several pathways of the SCCT-CSM model with students of color. Limitations of the current study are discussed. Implications and future directions for practice and research are presented.

Career Choice Prediction Based on Campus Big Data—Mining the Potential Behavior of College Students

Career choice has a pivotal role in college students’ life planning. In the past, professional career appraisers used questionnaires or diagnoses to quantify the factors potentially influencing career choices. However, due to the complexity of each person’s goals and ideas, it is difficult to properly forecast their career choices. Recent evidence suggests that we could use students’ behavioral data to predict their career choices. Based on the simple premise that the most remarkable characteristics of classes are reflected by the main samples of a category, we propose a model called the Approach Cluster Centers Based On XGBOOST (ACCBOX) model to predict students’ career choices. The experimental results of predicting students’ career choices clearly demonstrate the superiority of our method compared to the existing state-of-the-art techniques by evaluating on 13 M behavioral data of over four thousand students.

Access to Decent and Meaningful Work in a Sexual Minority Population

People who identify as sexual minorities consistently face barriers to decent and meaningful employment, especially when coupled with additional constraints such as low socioeconomic status or marginalization experiences. Drawing from the psychology of working theory as our theoretical framework, this study examined the relations of economic constraints (social class) and marginalization (negative sexual minority workplace climate) to work volition, decent work, and meaningful work with a sample of working adults identifying with sexual minority identities. Consistent with hypotheses, social class and workplace climate indirectly predicted decent work, via work volition, and workplace climate also directly predicted decent work. Decent work and work volition were each direct predictors of meaningful work and decent work partially mediated the relation of work volition to meaningful work. Results highlight the importance of advocacy and adequate workplace supports for sexual minority individuals.

Social Class Fragility and College Students’ Career Decision-Making at a Private University

The present study examined the role of social class in the career decision-making of undergraduate students attending a private university. Grounded theory was used to describe the process of social class and undergraduates’ career interests and plans. Interviews with undergraduate students ( N = 21) resulted in four categories and 13 axial codes. The grounded theory emerging from the data was labeled, social class fragility. Social class fragility captured the career goals and behaviors associated with participants’ striving for an acceptable career choice, based upon their social class contexts. The contextual factors described by participants included relational influences, social class consciousness, and vocational privilege. Results are discussed in terms of career interventions with college students attending universities that encapsulate upper middle-class norms.

Predictors of Career Decision Self-Efficacy

We examined sex, socioeconomic status (SES), classism, modern sexism, and locus of control as uniquely contributing factors to college students’ career decision self-efficacy. A total of 139 college students participated in the survey, and the hypothesis was tested with hierarchical regression. Results revealed that (a) sex and SES do not significantly contribute to classism and modern sexism to college students’ career decision self-efficacy and (b) classism and modern sexism, internality and luck uniquely contributed to college students’ career decision self-efficacy above and beyond the variances accounted for sex and SES. Results indicate the importance of classism and modern sexism over actual sex and SES in predicting college students’ career decision self-efficacy.

Impact of medical student origins on the likelihood of ultimately practicing in areas of low vs high socio-economic status

INTRODUCTION

Medical schools are in general over-represented by students from high socio-economic status backgrounds. The University of Western Australia Medical School has been progressively widening the participation of students from a broader spectrum of the community both through expanded selection criteria and quota-based approaches for students of rural, indigenous and other socio-educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. We proposed that medical students entering medical school from such backgrounds would ultimately be more likely to practice in areas of increased socio-economic disadvantage.

METHODS

The current practice address of 2829 medical students who commenced practice from 1980 to 2011 was ascertained from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) Database. Logistic regression was utilised to determine the predictors of the likelihood of the current practice address being in the lower 8 socio-economic deciles versus the top 2 socio-economic deciles.

RESULTS

Those who were categorised in the lower 8 socio-economic deciles at entry to medical school had increased odds of a current practice address in the lower 8 socio-economic deciles 5 or more years after graduation (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.72, 2.45, P < 0.001). Other positive univariate predictors included age at medical degree completion (for those 25 years or older vs those 24 years or younger OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.27, 1.84, P < 0.001), being female (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.07, 1.48, P = 0.005) and having a general practice versus specialist qualification (OR 4.16, 95% CI 3.33, 5.19, P < 0.001). Negative predictors included having attended an independent school vs a government school (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.64, 0.92, P < 0.001) or being originally from overseas vs being born in Oceania (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.67, 0.96, P = 0.017). After adjustment for potential confounders in multivariate logistic regression, those in the lower 8 socio-economic deciles at entry to medical school still had increased odds of having a current practice address in the lower 8 socio-economic deciles (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.34, 1.99, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Widening participation in medical school to students from more diverse socio-educational backgrounds is likely to increase the distribution of the medical workforce to ultimate service across areas representative of a broader socio-economic spectrum.

Integrating Job Loss, Unemployment, and Reemployment With Social Cognitive Career Theory

Job loss and recovery remain critical challenges in the United States and Europe in the wake of the Great Recession. However, the experience of unemployment is poorly integrated in theories of vocational psychology. In this article, we explore how job loss and recovery can be understood through the lens of social cognitive career theory’s career self-management (SCCT-CSM) model. We apply the SCCT-CSM model to understand the critical importance of person-cognitive variables, individual differences, and contextual affordances to the experiences of job loss and job recovery. Implications for future research, including research with particular groups of unemployed persons, are discussed. Overall, our analysis indicates that the SCCT-CSM model is a fruitful perspective for organizing future scholarship related to job loss and recovery.

Examining the Career Decision Self-Efficacy and Career Maturity of Community College and First-Generation Students

This study examined the career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) and career maturity of 268 first-generation baccalaureate and community college student participants. Three independent variables were analyzed, including generational status (first generation and nonfirst generation), college type (baccalaureate, community college), and socioeconomic status (SES; low, medium, and high). The analysis indicated a significant interaction effect for generation by college type, with both first-generation and nonfirst-generation baccalaureate students reporting lower mean scores than community college students. This analysis also revealed an interaction effect for generation by SES, with first-generation students from high-SES backgrounds reporting the lowest levels of CDSE. A separate analysis using career maturity as the dependent variable indicated a main effect for generation, with first-generation students reporting a lower level of career maturity than nonfirst-generation students. The analysis also revealed a robust main effect for college type, with community college students reporting higher levels of career maturity than baccalaureate students.

Personal and Contextual Variables Related to Work Hope Among Undergraduate Students From Underrepresented Backgrounds

This study investigated the relationships among personal and environmental variables (i.e., college student generation status, psychological distress, experiences with racism and classism, and perceived social status [PSS]) and work hope. One hundred and seventy-six undergraduate students attending a predominantly White institution who identified as members of an underrepresented racial/ethnic group completed the study. Consistent with the hypotheses, results demonstrated that increased psychological distress and more experiences with classism, experiences with racism related to lowered levels of work hope and that heightened PSS related positively to work hope. When examined in combination, all variables significantly predicted work hope, but only the βs for psychological distress and PSS were significant. Unexpectedly, first-generation college students did not significantly differ from continuing generation college students in levels of work hope. Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for career counseling are presented.

Examining Social Class and Work Meaning Within the Psychology of Working Framework

In this article, we used the psychology of working framework to examine how social class relates to the experience of meaningful work with two samples of working adults. In Study 1, participants in higher social classes were more likely to experience work meaning than people in lower social classes. Regardless of class, participants reported serving others or contributing to the greater good as the primary source of their work’s meaning. In Study 2, we used a latent, multiple mediator model to test whether the three components of work volition mediated the relation between social class and work meaning. The model was a good fit to the data and partially supported our hypotheses. Specifically, volition and financial constraints fully mediated the relation between social class and work meaning, suggesting that social class may be linked to work meaning due to increased volition and decreased financial constraints.

Contributions of Social Status and Family Support to College Students’ Career Decision Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectations

The purpose of this study was to better understand the roles of social status and family support in the career decision making of young adults in college. We tested a path model predicting career decision self-efficacy and career-related outcome expectations in a sample of 270 male and female undergraduate students. Predictor variables included family of origin socioeconomic status, perceived social status, perceived family support, and intentional family career-related interactions. The sample was randomly split into a calibration sample and a validation sample. Based on a path analysis with the calibration sample, the hypothesized model was modified, and a multiple group analysis was used to test for model invariance for the revised model. The results of this study suggest that both family status and family support are associated with social cognitive career development outcomes. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.

Career Barriers and Coping Efficacy Among Native American Students

This study examined the relationship between career barriers (low perceived social status [PSS], experiences with personal and systemic classism, and general ethnic discrimination) and college outcome expectations (COEs) among a sample of 121 Native American postsecondary students. Self-efficacy for coping with career barriers was tested as a mediator of these relationships. Results indicated that lower PSS and more experiences with both personal and systemic classism related to lower COEs, and that coping efficacy for career barriers fully mediated these relationships. Contrary to expectations, experiences with ethnic discrimination was unrelated to COEs. Implications for future research and career counseling with Native American students are discussed.

Development and Exploration of the Experiences With Classism Scale

The examination of barriers in relation to college students’ vocational choice and development is an important area of research, but the barrier of classism is relatively underexamined. This may be due to the deficiencies in measurement, so we describe herein the development of a new measure, the Experiences with Classism scale (EWCS). The EWCS was developed to extend prior qualitative work that highlighted the need to consider experiences with classism in the lives of undergraduate students. Results provided initial evidence for the usefulness of the EWCS to measure undergraduate students’ experiences with classism at a personal and systemic level. Across two studies, the EWCS was demonstrated to have high internal consistency reliability, to have a stable factor structure consisting of two factors, to correlate as expected with relevant demographic variables, and to fit within a nomological network of convergent and discriminant constructs. The EWCS was also demonstrated to predict self-reported experiences of depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem, and psychological wellness. Implications for further research and practice are suggested.

Development of the Distance From Privilege Measures

This article reports on the development and validation of the Distance from Privilege (DFP) measures. Items for the measures were developed on theoretical grounds. The primary sample consisted of 292 undergraduates with various majors from a Midwestern University and a Historically Black University in the south. One of the measures is the DFP-Resources scale which consists of 11 items with two factors described as social capital and economic resources. The other measure is the DFP-Status scale that has 10 items and one factor. Results revealed that the DFP consists of two measures with good internal consistency and construct validity. Each measure accounts for a sufficiently high proportion of the overall variance and has moderately high stability over time.

Social Status Identity: Antecedents and Vocational Outcomes

This study extended the literature on potential antecedents and outcomes of perceived social status, or differential status identity (DSI). Fouad and Brown’s DSI was used as a conceptual lens for examining the relation of supports and barriers to an individual’s perceived social status and subsequent career indecisiveness and career decision self-efficacy. Results from a path model using 299 diverse undergraduate students provided general support for the hypothesized model, which included self-reported race/ ethnicity, social class, experiences with racism and classism and primary caregiver support as antecedents of DSI, and indecisiveness and career decision self-efficacy as outcomes of it. Differential status identity was tested as a mediator of the relations between the antecedents and vocational outcomes. Overall, the model was determined to fit the data well, but some paths were unsupported. Implications for research and practice using DSI as a conceptual framework are discussed.

A Qualitative Study of the Dislocated Working Class

This qualitative study examines factors that influence the career decisions of dislocated workers. The research focuses on individuals identified as working class, as this group has been relatively ignored in past research compared to individuals from higher socioeconomic statuses. Participants include 13 individuals (10 females and 3 males) ranging in age from 42 to 65 years. A total of 12 participants were identified as European American and 1 identified as African American. Participants' reported average incomes ranged from $21,000 to $60,000 per year. A consensual qualitative research approach was used to collect and analyze the data. Four major domains emerged, highlighting the importance of individual characteristics, the influence of others, developmental history, and decision-making processes in the career development of this particular sample. Results from the study highlighted the resilience and hopefulness of participants, despite the various barriers they encountered.

Career Aspirations and Expectations of College Students

Replicating previous research, this study examined differences in 677 diverse college students' career aspirations and expectations based on gender and ethnicity, and compared their career expectations to the U.S. workforce. This study extended the literature base by exploring discrepancies between occupational aspirations and expectations (aspiration—expectation discrepancy) in terms of Holland code congruence and complexity. Further, this study investigated how perceptions of career barriers, career decision self-efficacy, and differential status identity may be related to the aspiration—expectation discrepancy. Results revealed significant ethnic and gender differences in career aspirations and expectations. Furthermore, the careers college students expected to pursue were not entirely aligned with the current labor market. Discrepancies existed between the careers students aspired to and expected to pursue. Finally, our findings revealed that career barriers, career decision self-efficacy, and differential status identity are three factors that may be related to the aspiration—expectation discrepancy, which warrants more research.

A “missing scroll” of The Functions of the Executive

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reacquaint us with Chester Barnard's seminal treatise on status systems in organizations – the conceptualization that he labeled as a “missing scroll” of The Functions of the Executive.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyzes this “missing scroll” to draw the parallels and distinctions between Barnard's and the contemporary views of status systems in organization.

Findings

The paper outlines how this forgotten piece can inform and enrich the current understanding of the role of status in organization theory.

Practical implications

This paper draws practical parallels and distinctions between Barnard's and the contemporary views of status systems in organization and management literature.

Originality/value

This paper corrects the omission from The Functions of the Executive showing that Barnard was the first to recognize status systems as systematic in organizations.