| Summary: | The changing work environment has caused individuals to revise and change their career decisions. This creates career uncertainty, which has become a widespread problem, particularly for students. When this problem is not addressed, it leads to career indecision, or less optimal choices which could influence career opportunities and quality of life. Career indecision could impact on organisations, resulting in problems such as person–job adjustment, lack of engagement and burnout. Although research on career uncertainty is available internationally, there is limited research on career uncertainty and its antecedents in the South African context. Career uncertainty can have short– and long–term effects on the individual. This study therefore contributes toward the gap in research on the antecedents of career uncertainty. Given that career uncertainty is a problem that individuals are constantly confronted with, it is important that the antecedents of this be investigated.
The objectives of this study were to 1) conceptualise the antecedents of career uncertainty according to the literature; 2) determine if socio–demographic characteristics (gender, career guidance, help from parents, help from other individuals and work experience) are significant predictors of career uncertainty; 3) determine if personality characteristics (self–esteem, self–efficacy and neuroticism) are significant predictors of career uncertainty; 4) determine if career decision–making difficulties are significant predictors of career uncertainty; 5) determine if student burnout and student engagement are significant predictors of career uncertainty; and 6) determine if academic performance is a significant predictor of career uncertainty.
A non–probability quota sample (N = 782) was used to investigate antecedents of career uncertainty in a sample of university students. Career uncertainty was measured by one item The changing work environment has caused individuals to revise and change their career decisions. This creates career uncertainty, which has become a widespread problem, particularly for students. When this problem is not addressed, it leads to career indecision, or less optimal choices which could influence career opportunities and quality of life. Career indecision could impact on organisations, resulting in problems such as person–job adjustment, lack of engagement and burnout. Although research on career uncertainty is available internationally, there is limited research on career uncertainty and its antecedents in the South African context. Career uncertainty can have short– and long–term effects on the individual. This study therefore contributes toward the gap in research on the antecedents of career uncertainty. Given that career uncertainty is a problem that individuals are constantly confronted with, it is important that the antecedents of this be investigated.
The objectives of this study were to 1) conceptualise the antecedents of career uncertainty according to the literature; 2) determine if socio–demographic characteristics (gender, career guidance, help from parents, help from other individuals and work experience) are significant predictors of career uncertainty; 3) determine if personality characteristics (self–esteem, self–efficacy and neuroticism) are significant predictors of career uncertainty; 4) determine if career decision–making difficulties are significant predictors of career uncertainty; 5) determine if student burnout and student engagement are significant predictors of career uncertainty; and 6) determine if academic performance is a significant predictor of career uncertainty.
A non–probability quota sample (N = 782) was used to investigate antecedents of career uncertainty in a sample of university students. Career uncertainty was measured by one item consisting of four categories: I am very sure; I know exactly what career I will pursue (n = 228), I am fairly sure what career I will pursue (n = 416), I am not sure at all which career I will pursue (n = 135) and I do not plan to follow a career (n = 3). For the objective of the study, categories one and two were grouped together with participants who were fairly certain which career they would follow, while participants in category three represented participants who were uncertain. Category four was not included as only three participants within that category answered. In total, 644 students were (fairly) certain, while 135 were uncertain. These two groups were enclosed as a dependent variable in the logistic regression.
The results of this study showed that work experience influences career uncertainty to some extent. This is supported by previous research. Furthermore, it was found that self–esteem also influences career uncertainty to some degree. However, these two variables were only significant in the first steps of the logistic regression. Furthermore, the results showed that career decision–making difficulties share a significant relationship with career uncertainty. The study also found that significant antecedents of career uncertainty include: a lack of information about the decision–making process; a lack of information about occupations; inconsistent information due to internal conflict; a lack of information about ways of obtaining information; and inconsistent information due to external conflict. In conclusion, exhaustion, cynicism and dedication were also found to be significant antecedents of career uncertainty. Based on these results, this study suggests that student burnout and student engagement influence an individual’s level of career uncertainty.
Recommendations were made for practice as well as for future research. === Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.
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