Career success of preschool teachers in Germany – the significance of the Big Five personality traits, locus of control, and occupational self-efficacy

Abstract

The career success of preschool teachers has been discussed to be important because it can be a precondition for the ability to provide a high-quality preschool education. Consequently, the identification of factors that can help explain individual differences in career success is a crucial research issue. Previous research covering various occupations indicates that the Big Five, internal locus of control (LOC), and occupational self-efficacy are good predictors of objective and subjective career success. However, there is a research gap on this topic in preschool teachers. This study examined whether the Big Five, LOC, and occupational self-efficacy could predict the career success of 560 preschool teachers in Germany. After controlling for other predictors, internal LOC corresponded with higher objective career success, but neuroticism and conscientiousness corresponded with lower subjective career success. Occupational self-efficacy corresponded with higher subjective career success. The findings are discussed with respect to practical conclusions. ARTICLE HISTORY

Networking Behavior as a Mediation in University Graduates’ HEXACO Personality Effects on Job Search Outcomes

“…HEXACO traits and job search outcomes via networking behavior. Accumulated research evidence also suggests that the effect of personality traits on work climate, supervisor support (Fullarton et al, 2014), job performances of both individual and group (Barrick & Mount, 1991;Fullarton et al, 2014;Kramer et al, 2014), job satisfaction and career success (Smidt et al, 2018;Sutin et al, 2009). In the job-search context, personality has been shown to make incremental improvements to the prediction of job search behavior (Boswell et al, 2006;Boudreau et al, 2001;Kanfer et al, 2001).…”

Psychological Capital and Career Outcomes among Final Year University Students: the Mediating Role of Career Engagement and Perceived Employability

“…This also indicates that individuals with high self-efficacy are more likely to engage and persist in actions that enhance career success, including satisfaction as a subjective measure. Hence self-efficacy is a good predictor of career success (Smidt et al 2017).…”

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“…Individuals with an internal locus of control tend to respond positively to stressful settings and are more confident, active, and alert when working to change their environment (Ahluwalia & Preet, 2018). These individuals are more ambitious and tend to be more driven to pursue their goals within their vocation than their counterparts with an external locus of control (Smidt et al, 2018). This conceptual framework aimed to present a picture of the military educator who teaches online without any formalized training to do so.…”