Disengaging From Unattainable Career Goals and Reengaging in More Achievable Ones

an article by Peter A. Creed and Michelle Hood (School of Applied Psychology and Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia) published in Journal of Career Development Volume 42 Number 1 (February 2014)

Abstract

Participants were 181 university students who completed measures of career development (self-efficacy, perceived barriers, distress, planning, and exploration) and goal adjustment capacity (disengagement and reengagement).

We expected
     (a) that when contemplating unachievable goals, those with a higher capacity to adjust their goals (i.e., to disengage and reengage) would report less distress, more career planning, and more exploration; and expected
     (b) that the relationships between goal adjustment and the outcome variables (distress, planning, and exploration) would be moderated by self-efficacy and perceptions of barriers.

We found that those with a higher capacity to adjust their goals by disengaging and reengaging reported more exploration. Less distress was associated with disengagement, but not reengagement, whereas more planning was associated with reengagement, but not disengagement.

Additionally, we found moderating effects for self-efficacy and perceptions of barriers; that is, having higher levels of efficacy and perceiving fewer barriers protected when goal adjustment capacity was lower.

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Career Development Strategies as Moderators Between Career Compromise and Career Outcomes in Emerging Adults

an article by Peter A. Creed and Trinette Hughes (Griffith University, Australia) published in Journal of Career Development volume 40 Number 2 (April 2013)

Abstract

The authors surveyed 130 first-year university students (80% female; mean age 20.5) and assessed:

1. the level of career compromise they reported between their ideal and enrolled university programs,
2. their career-related strategies,
3. their perceptions of employability, and
4. their career-related distress.

The authors tested a model that proposed that career compromise would predict perceptions of employability and career distress and that the effects of compromise would be moderated by the career-related strategies.

Two strategies, seeking career guidance and self-presentation, moderated the relationship between compromise and career distress.

There was no moderated effect for perceptions of employability, although compromise was directly associated with these perceptions.

Thus, while compromise may be a normal aspect of career development, it was associated with more career distress when career development strategies were low and associated directly with more negative employment perceptions.

Practitioners might assist with career compromise by enhancing career development strategies.

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