Personality and career decisiveness

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is two‐fold: first, the degree to which career adaptability, career optimism, and career knowledge predict career decisiveness in China, Germany, and the US is to be examined; second, the effect of the five personality traits on the determinants of career decisiveness, on career decisiveness, and on the relation between career decisiveness and its determinants in the three countries is to be investigated.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire. The sample consists of 555 business students from three countries: China (196), Germany (210), and the USA (149). A two‐stage OLS regression analysis was applied for assessing the relation between career decisiveness, its determinants, and the personality traits.FindingsThe results show that personality traits have direct and moderating effects on career decisiveness and its antecedents. In addition, the influence of personality and the antecedents of career decisiveness differ in the three countries examined.Research limitations/implicationsThe conclusions of this study may be subject to several limitations that suggest further possibilities for empirical research, e.g. the study does not examine the influence of cultural traits on career decisiveness, its determinants, and their relation.Practical implicationsThe identified cross‐country differences lead to the need for diverse career counseling for students with different personalities in different countries.Originality/valueSo far research on students' career decisiveness has focused only on national samples. The explorative paper examines the influence of personality traits on business students' career decisiveness in three countries.

Exploring the path through which career adaptability increases job satisfaction and lowers job stress: The role of affect

“…Highly adaptive individuals are better predisposed, in terms of preparation and mental CAREER ADAPTABILITY, AFFECT, AND JOB ATTITUDES 8 readiness, to search for a job (Koen et al, 2010). They also tend to be more extraverted and conscientious (Gunkel, Schlaegel, Langella, & Peluchette, 2010). The personality characteristics of low neuroticism and high extraversion and social context beliefs were found to be significant predictors of career adaptability development in a population of 330 Swiss eighth graders (age range 12-16; Hirschi, 2009).…”

When and why do negative organization-related career shocks impair career optimism? A conditional indirect effect model

“…Given the many potential positive effects of career optimism, it is important to better understand its possible predictors. Comparatively few studies have examined factors that might promote career optimism, including personality (Gunkel et al, 2010, Mcilveen et al, 2013a, Mclennan et al, 2017, different types of support (Garcia et al, 2015, Puklek Levpušček et al, 2018, and self-efficacy beliefs (Garcia et al, 2015). Moreover, career optimism can be affected through career coaching interventions (Spurk et al, 2015).…”

An Empirical Study on Career Choices Among Undergraduates: A PLS-SEM Hierarchical Component Model (HCM) Approach

“…Therefore, undergraduates who have a good understanding of their personality are more determined and adaptable in career choice and career advancement. (Gunkel et al, 2010).…”

“…Employers could also benefit from the results of this study. Information on how individuals approach career planning and careers based on different personality traits is helpful to organisations, particularly in hiring and selecting employees, employee deployment, and the succession planning process (Gunkel et al, 2010).…”

“…For example, Barrick, Mount & Gupta (2003) pointed out that there are personality traits that predict the success of jobs and others that are related to certain occupations. The Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality is used in the current study because of its stability, validity, and universality, which characterises the personality dimension, is established as the model most commonly used in empirical studies (Gunkel, Schlaegel, Langella & Peluchette, 2010). FFM was also known as the Big Five model.…”