An industrial psychological study establishing the relationship between career self-management and job performance

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Individuals in South Africa are constantly confronted with career relatedchallenges. As a result of high unemployment, affirmative action, theoutsourcing of work and other changes in the economy, only the very bestemployees with relevant skills and qualifications can survive in thecontemporary work place. Career self-management therefore cannot beneglected or left to the employer, but should be undertaken by each individualon a continuous basis.An unavoidable question, with which any individual will be confronted at somestage during the process of career management, is: 'Will career managementnecessarily have a positive effect on job performance?The essential question of this study is whether there is a statisticallysignificant relation between career self-management and job performance. Inan effort to investigate and understand this relation more efficiently, aliterature study was first undertaken concerning both the independentvariable, namely career self-management, and the dependent variable,namely job performance. This was followed by an empirical investigation.Career self-management may be defined as the process by which individualstake well considered, informed, suitable decisions about their working lives.The process of career self-management consists of different components,namely career exploration, career goal setting, the development of careerstrategies and career evaluation.Career exploration includes self-exploration as well as exploration of theenvironment. Self-knowledge focuses on the acquisition of knowledgeregarding internal aspects such as values, personality, aptitude, interests,weak points and strong points. Environment exploration, on the other hand,includes the acquisition of knowledge and information about the workingenvironment.Career goal setting is the second component in the career self-managementprocess, and involves the setting of challenging but realistic career goals bythe individual for the short, medium and long term.The individual develops career strategies in order to realise career goals.Various types of career strategies may be distinguished, such as competencein the current position, extended involvement at work, development of skills,participation in organisational politics and the utilisation of opportunities by, forexample, the creation of networks, self-nomination and visibility.After sufficient time has elapsed for the implementation of the strategies, theindividual has to compare the identified goals with achieved goals and adjustthe original career plan accordingly. These adjustments will in turn requirefurther career exploration and the process will be repeated.The dependent variable, namely individual job performance, may be definedas the way in which a job or task is executed by an individual, group ororganisation.An individual's job performance mainly depends on two aspects, namelyability and motivation (attempt). Ability refers to the individual's potential tosuccessfully complete a task or job. Motivation is an internal driving forcewhich moves an individual and which directs his/her behaviour in such a waythat goals may be achieved.The empirical part of the study investigated the statistical relationship betweenthe two constructs on a test sample, consisting of 307 individuals from 5different sectors (mining sector, real estate sector, health care sector, banksector, and production sector). The career self-management of theseindividuals was tested by means of two questionnaires, namely the CareerExploration Survey and the Career Strategies Inventory. Their jobperformance was measured by the Job Performance Questionnaire, whichwere handed to their managers/supervisors to complete.Statistical analyses showed that no statistically significant relationship existsbetween career self-management and job performance. Further statistical analyses also showed that there is no relation between any of thecomponents of career self-management (career exploration, career goalsetting, and development of career strategies) and job performance.The research results suggest that career self-management does notnecessarily lead to improved job performance, even though an individual maymanage his/her career constructively.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University