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

Abstract

Increasingly, graduates are taking much more time in the transition from school to work. Recent research suggests that the ability to adjust quickly plays a key role in the transition process. This is even more important today given the tough labor market realities such as exacerbated unemployment levels and global competitions for the few available job openings. Yet new graduates often lack experience and certain skills that employers look for. Those unable to maneuver through the School-To-Work Transition (STWT) quickly may experience further challenges in their career development process. Using a sample of 516 students in their final semester of their university studies in Ugandan and Kenya, the present study examines the role of psychological resources, namely psychological capital and the mechanisms (i.e. Career Engagement-CE, Perceived Employability-PE) through which it works to affect students' readiness for STWT as well as positively evaluating their career success. The major findings of the study reveal substantial positive direct effects of psychological capital on perceived employability, readiness for STWT, and career satisfaction. The double mediation results show that psychological capital indirectly affects the readiness for STWT via career engagement and internal PE, while psychological capital indirectly affects career satisfaction via career engagement and external PE. The implications of these results are discussed.

Positive Psychological Attributes and Entrepreneurial Intention and Action: The Moderating Role of Perceived Family Support

“…The present study focuses on evaluating entrepreneurship education that was offered to students in their final semester. This may be effective given that students at this stage are already engaged in the school-to-work transition ( Baluku et al, 2020 ), and hence able to consider entrepreneurship actions as employment alternatives. On the other hand, entrepreneurship education offered at the start of the university education may offer educators to support incubation of students’ entrepreneurial ideas for a longer period.…”

“…Entrepreneurship is increasingly becoming an important career path for many individuals around the world, especially when placed in the context of income inequalities and extremely high youth unemployment rates, especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa ( Ackah-Baidoo, 2016 ; Sulemana et al, 2019 ), Although a majority of the start-ups are small in size, entrepreneurship is at least a means to obtaining a job and earning livelihoods ( Gindling and Newhouse, 2014 ; Falco and Haywood, 2016 ). In countries like Uganda, a large percentage of graduates cannot be absorbed into available job openings ( Baluku et al, 2020 ). Consequently, governments and their development partners have placed special emphasis on entrepreneurship education as a strategy for boosting business start-ups, job creation, and alleviating poverty.…”

“…In East African countries, such as Uganda, where entrepreneurial intentions are often found to be extraordinarily high, there is a lack of understanding on why entrepreneurial intentions do not translate into actual entrepreneurial behavior ( Gielnik et al, 2014 ). This is especially important not only for these countries themselves, but also for the research community as the level of industrialization is typically low in such economies, and finding jobs in the industry is rather uncommon ( Falco and Haywood, 2016 ; Baluku et al, 2020 ). This creates a substantially higher demand for entrepreneurs to succeed creating jobs for themselves as well as for others.…”

The Effect of Adversity Quotient on Psychology Capital and Performance: Evidence from Indonesian Teachers

“…Carmona-Halty, Schaufeli, and Salanova (2019) prove that Psycap affects academic performance in the educational field. Other studies revealed that PasyCap is related to career outcomes (Baluku et al, 2021) and organizational citizenship behavior (e.g., Chamisa, Mjoli, & Mhlanga, 2020; Waters et al, 2020). The recent studies also claimed that PsyCap influences innovative behavior (Slatten et al, 2020; Wang, Chen, & Zhu, 2021).…”

On Psychological Capital Affects Organizational Citizenship Behavior Through Affective Commitment

“…Scholars claimed that PsyCap influences performance (e.g., Imran & Shahnawaz, 2020;Rodríguez-Cifuentes et al, 2020;Alias et al, 2020, Ali et al, 2021. Moreover, PsyCap has significantly affected career outcomes (Baluku et al, 2021), innovative behavior (Slatten et al, 2020; Wang, Chen, & Zhu, 2020), and job satisfaction (Burhanuddin et al, 2019). Moreover, PsyCap reduces anxiety, depression, and stress (Rodrigues et al, 2017).…”