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1 – 10 of over 8000Examines the career goals and career management strategy among information technology (IT) professionals. With regard to career goals, found that IT professionals seek to advance…
Abstract
Examines the career goals and career management strategy among information technology (IT) professionals. With regard to career goals, found that IT professionals seek to advance their careers in three ways. The first two involve standard career paths. The third career path, termed technopreneurship, involves IT professionals setting up their own technology‐related business. With regard to career management strategy, the results showed that: career planning is positively related to career strategy; career strategy is positively related to professional enhancement; and professional enhancement is positively related to career satisfaction. One important implication is that it is important for computer professionals to plan and strategize their own career. This would lead to greater career satisfaction.
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Anushri Rawat, Shiva Nadavulakere, Linda Isenhour and Jean McEnery
Our study examines the impact of career enhancing strategies (CES), supportive work relationships and family–work conflict (FWC) on subjective career success.
Abstract
Purpose
Our study examines the impact of career enhancing strategies (CES), supportive work relationships and family–work conflict (FWC) on subjective career success.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were sourced from 107 professionals, who were the members of an alumni LinkedIn group of the Masters Human Resource degree program from a university in the Midwestern United States. Multiple regression analysis was employed to test the study hypotheses.
Findings
Results indicate that both forms of CES – networking and mentoring – were positively associated with subjective career success, and there exists a positive association between perceived organizational support and subjective career success. Further, FWC moderates the relationship between subjective career success and mentoring and also moderates the relationship between subjective career success and perceived supervisor support.
Practical implications
Organizations should provide opportunities to employees for networking and institute formal mentoring programs to enhance employees' perceptions of subjective career success. It is also crucial for organizations to promote work–life balance initiatives that can help reduce the levels of FWC experienced by employees.
Originality/value
Our study makes important contributions to the extant literature by highlighting the importance of CES and supportive work relationships in ensuring subjective career success. It also identifies an important moderator, FWC, which can significantly impact subjective career success.
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Ernest L. Okorley, Alberta A. Owusu and Samuel Akuamoah-Boateng
Despite the increasing awareness on students’ volunteerism globally, and its potential benefit to national development, there is limited research information on the subject in…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the increasing awareness on students’ volunteerism globally, and its potential benefit to national development, there is limited research information on the subject in developing countries including Ghana. The purpose of this paper is to assess the willingness of university undergraduate students in Ghana to volunteer for non-governmental organisation (NGO) work.
Design/methodology/approach
The research used a quantitative research approach using a descriptive survey design. The data were drawn from a survey of 678 students from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
Findings
The study shows high willingness of university undergraduate students to volunteer for NGO work. The motives relate more to students’ search for understanding of people and their context, values and career enhancement, than for their social, protection and recognition needs. The students are more likely to engage in NGO activities relating to peer education, counselling and environmental protection, than in administrative duties, relief and advocacy.
Practical implications
The study suggests that there is a great potential for students’ volunteerism in Ghana, and recommends that Ghanaian universities should integrate volunteerism into their curricula to prepare and link students to volunteer opportunities in NGO and the service sectors.
Originality/value
The case study provides new thought and suggestions on students’ volunteerism to developing countries and Ghana in particular. The evidence and context of likelihood to volunteer among tertiary students are lessons for developing countries with similar context to Ghana.
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Payyazhi Jayashree, Valerie Lindsay and Grace McCarthy
Taking a career capital approach, this paper addresses the issue of “pipeline block” frequently experienced by women seeking career advancement. Focusing on the Arab Middle East…
Abstract
Purpose
Taking a career capital approach, this paper addresses the issue of “pipeline block” frequently experienced by women seeking career advancement. Focusing on the Arab Middle East (AME) region, the authors take a contextually relevant multi-level approach to examine these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a qualitative, interview-based approach, drawing on data obtained from women leaders from the AME region. Drawing on Bourdieu's capital-field-habitus framework, we explore how women in the AME developed career capital in particular organisational fields.
Findings
The findings show the importance of human and social capital, as well as the influence of habitus for women's career advancement in specific fields. The study also highlights the unique contribution of cultural capital in helping women to navigate organisational fields where it is necessary to both challenge, and conform to, traditional norms.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations of the study include assumptions of homogeneity across countries of the AME, whereas differences are known to exist. Future research should consider these contextual differences, and also include a study of women who were not successful in gaining career advancement.
Practical implications
The study’s multi-level approach highlights practical implications for women, organisations and society. For organisations, the authors propose some context-relevant coaching strategies that can help women to attain leadership positions.
Social implications
The study’s multi-level approach highlights practical implications for women, organisations,and society. Focusing on organisations, the authors propose some context-relevant coaching strategies that can help women to attain advancement in their careers.
Originality/value
The study demonstrates originality in the findings by showing how women overcome the pipeline block in relation to their career advancement. The use of the Bourdieusian framework, an in-depth qualitative approach, and the AME context also add to the study's originality.
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David Rae and Naomi Ruth Woodier-Harris
Enterprise and entrepreneurship education (EEE) is seen as a major contributor to economic growth and development in the post-2008 environment we term the “New Era”. The role of…
Abstract
Purpose
Enterprise and entrepreneurship education (EEE) is seen as a major contributor to economic growth and development in the post-2008 environment we term the “New Era”. The role of EEE in enabling graduates to develop entrepreneurial intentions and career plans is therefore of major importance. The paper explores how EEE can influence postgraduate entrepreneurship and career initiation in the context of the New Era economy at an international level.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores the learning experiences of a group of 60 postgraduate international students who completed an Entrepreneurship programme at the University of Lincoln which included the development of personal learning narratives and career plans. The students were exposed to the opportunity-centred entrepreneurship approach and the “Entrepreneurial Effectiveness” model in the QAA (2012) guidelines. Their narratives were analysed to assess: prior career intentions, proposed career intentions resulting from the EEE programme, application of learning arising from the EEE programme and a survey of students was used to validate the narratives
Findings
EEE has a wider influence on personal development and career planning than simply the intention to create new ventures. The paper builds on a prior study of international postgraduate students’ orientation to entrepreneurship education in their expectations of the UK higher education, which confirmed that career development is a major motivator for international study in the UK (Rae and Woodier-Harris, 2012). The paper contributes new understanding of the relationships between EEE and graduate career intentions, especially at PG and international levels. The paper explores personal growth, confidence and identity development, formation of new career intentions and the application of learning. The international dimension is considerable and this is discussed.
Practical implications
The paper has implications for the marketing, design and delivery of EEE at international and HE institutional levels, as well as for the practices of educators in designing, validating and delivering programmes for entrepreneurial career development, at national and international levels.
Originality/value
The paper contributes new understanding to the role of EEE in postgraduate career initiation at international level in a period of significant and complex economic transformation.
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Ana Cláudia Nave and Arminda do Paço
Given the current importance of corporate social responsibility, this research is designed to discover the motivations that lead employees to agree to participate in the corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
Given the current importance of corporate social responsibility, this research is designed to discover the motivations that lead employees to agree to participate in the corporate volunteering activities promoted by their companies and to understand whether demographic variables such as gender and age have an influence on different types of motivations.
Design/methodology/approach
This research had the collaboration of a company to develop the case study about its volunteering programme and for the collection of data through an electronic questionnaire.
Findings
The variables related with the factor values were identified as the most important motivational category for people to engage in volunteering, which shows that what these volunteers want is to contribute to the success of the event and the respective social cause. On the other hand, the motivational category related with career was considered the less important.
Practical implications
The participation in volunteering activities enable employees to broaden their communication skills, increase their aptitude for helping others, adapting, negotiating and working as a team, while also increasing their confidence, creativity, leadership capacity, their desire for continuing improvement and their problem‐solving skills.
Originality/value
A great part of existing research is focused on the motivations of “conventional” volunteers which collaborate occasionally with nonprofit organizations. Thus, the present study will expand the research in the area of corporate volunteering, contributing to a better understanding of what really motivates employees to volunteer.
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F. Robert Buchanan, Kong‐Hee Kim and Randall Basham
The purpose of this study is to explore career orientations of business master's degree seekers in comparison with social work degree pursuers in an effort to provide insight for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore career orientations of business master's degree seekers in comparison with social work degree pursuers in an effort to provide insight for educators and policy makers.
Design/methodology/approach
A web‐based survey of current master's students from two graduate schools at a large university provided 388 respondents who were employed full‐time while pursuing their degrees. Hypotheses were tested with hierarchical regression and MANOVA analysis.
Findings
Business degree pursuers are more strongly influenced by the motive to achieve professional advancement than the motive to acquire knowledge. The findings indicate that careerism and educational motives for business master's students are related to recognition of job alternatives that are an improvement over the current job being held. Social workers' organizational mobility perceptions were influenced by careerism and a desire to gain knowledge, and less influenced by professional advancement motives. Interestingly, the results show that social work graduate students were more careerist than business degree pursuers.
Research limitations/implications
Although this research focuses on the career orientations of business master's students in a comparison to social workers, a broader sample employing samples in other study fields would further expand the knowledge regarding the career orientations of graduate students.
Practical implications
Previous research has mostly dealt with cost/benefit analyses of the value of master's level education. The findings in this research would help policy makers and graduate program educators in a better understanding of students, to assist in marketing, placement, and curriculum design.
Originality/value
The value of master's level education is under‐researched. Much of the existing information is anecdotal. This study deals with specific elements of educational motivation, career orientation, and human capital.
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Using the inaugural Edinburgh International Magic Festival (EIMF) as a case study, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the motivational factors prevalent in a group of young…
Abstract
Purpose
Using the inaugural Edinburgh International Magic Festival (EIMF) as a case study, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the motivational factors prevalent in a group of young event and festival volunteers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper will first review the extent of volunteering and, thereafter, will discuss volunteering in the festival and events industry. Focussing on motivations to volunteer, this paper will also identify key research that has examined volunteer motivation in the festival and event sector. Within the context of the festivals and events sector, the paper highlights the benefits of volunteering to the volunteer, the organisation and the community as a whole. The paper discusses volunteering as a means of developing specific skills and knowledge that improve volunteers' CVs and potentially has a positive impact on career opportunities and careers in the festival and event industries. Using the inaugural EIMF as a case study, the authors conducted semi‐structured interviews with volunteers as a means of more fully understanding motivations to volunteer.
Findings
The paper argues that volunteers in contemporary society approach a volunteering activity from a utilitarian perspective. The aim of such an episode is to improve industry‐specific skills and knowledge and positively impact on future career opportunities.
Practical implications
Festival and event organisers need to fully understand the motivations of their volunteers, in order to not only fully utilise existing skills, but also assist in the development of individually required skills and knowledge.
Originality/value
This paper argues for the development of specific training and development programmes for festival and event volunteers as a means of developing skills and enhancing career opportunities.
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Sheeba Asirvatham and Maria Humphries-Kil
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on career aspirations and experiences explored with senior women organizational scholars employed in neoliberally driven public…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on career aspirations and experiences explored with senior women organizational scholars employed in neoliberally driven public universities in Aotearoa (New Zealand) legally mandated to serve as a critic and conscience of society.
Design/methodology/approach
Over the 18 months period, three sequential research conversations were conducted with each of 12 participants known for their commitment to social justice and planetary well-being. The conversational approach allowed for spontaneous participant-lead development of ideas. Sequencing of conversations allowed for reflection on matters raised in previous conversations.
Findings
Vitality and creativity deemed essential to scholarly careers were reportedly under pressure. Career concepts in use indicate a protean commitment to self-direction but also recognized constraints of institutionally driven neoliberal output regimes. Detrimental impacts of neoliberal values permeating their employing institutions were offered spontaneously often in radical feminist terms but paradoxically given liberal feminist remedies.
Research limitations/implications
The 12 diverse transcripts of participant conversations generated remarkable similarities that indicate the influence of career articulations on the social construction of reality. The implications of this interpretation invite further reflection on the consequences of normalization of career metaphors and their implication in the intensification of institutional control, the weakening of professional autonomy and the system preserving restriction of career-related responsibilities.
Practical implications
Highlighting constraints to creativity and vitality necessary for scholarly work can inform further research into professional influences on justice and environmental matters in and beyond the Academy.
Social implications
In this paper a short review of Aotearoa (New Zealand) as in vanguard of neoliberal intensification globally, the implication of this doctrine in neoliberally driven universities and the impacts on career opportunities, degradations and responsibilities of scholars are explored.
Originality/value
The conversational research process contrasts with more tightly framed empirical research methods by generating spontaneous participant-led articulations of career-related dynamics explored and expanded over subsequent conversations.
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Frank Bezzina, Vincent Cassar, Joseph G. Azzopardi and Peter McKiernan
The purpose of this study is to both understand the motives for volunteering in local government (a strong/structured context) and determine how such motivation and other…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to both understand the motives for volunteering in local government (a strong/structured context) and determine how such motivation and other demographics interact with organisational contexts to influence volunteering outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a functional approach to volunteerism. The Volunteer Functions Inventory is modified to better assess the motivations of elected local government volunteers. The responses of 152 Maltese local councillors were used to answer four research questions empirically.
Findings
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the introduction of a seventh VFI dimension, namely the political function. The study provides evidence that local councillors who received greater amounts of functionally relevant benefits reported more satisfaction and a stronger intention to continue volunteering in local government. The aggregated effect of multiple motives as well as other person-based determinants (marital status and education) produced a significant impact on volunteering outcomes in this strong/structured situational context of this public sector environment.
Originality/value
This study contributes to a better understanding and assessment of the motivations of elected local government volunteers. It addresses practical recommendations for sustaining civil society, while acknowledging the potential and contribution of volunteers with various demographic characteristics.
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