THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CAREER ANCHORS AND PERSONAL ITY

217 Pages·2008·0.85 MB·English

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CAREER ANCHORS AND PERSONALITY
PREFERENCES

by

MOIRA GUGU NGOKHA

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

in the subject

INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

at the

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

SUPERVISOR: PROF M COETZEE

JUNE 2008
STUDENT NUMBER: 626 386 0

DECLARATION

I declare that the dissertation entitled “THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CAREER
ANCHORS AND PERSONALITY PREFERENCES” is my own work and that all the
sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of
complete references.

…………………………………….. ……………………………
GUGU NGOKHA DATE
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

No dissertation is written by the hand of the researcher alone. This one is no exception. I
would like to thank some of the people whose hearts and hands have touched the pages of
my work. My thanks to:
My Head of Department Prof Dries Schreuder for granting me sabbatical leave. Prof
Frans Cilliers and Prof Maríe de Beer and Nomfusi Bekwa for their encouragement. My
supervisor, Prof Melinde Coetzee and for her patience, encouragement and endless
support, that turned what seemed like a mammoth undertaking into a delightful and much
valued experience. She showed me how to turn my procrastinations into tangible goals.
In every sense, none of this work would have been possible without her.
My wonderful family the Msibi Phakathi Family, especially Ma, Martha Boyce and Lil
Bro, Loyiso Boyce, for always being there when I needed them most, and never once
complaining about how infrequently I visited. They deserve far more credit than I can
ever give them.
My best critic and time-keeper, my husband, Cuamba, for his support, encouragement,
and companionship that turned my journey through studying into a pleasure; for always
reminding me to write at least a page a day, and for being everything I love and admire.
Chris Marais, Vasie Naidoo, Michelle May, Leona Ungerer, Antoni Barnard, Zodwa
Mhlanga, Bahia Singh, Wandie Vilana, and Keneuwe Shumba, and all my other
Colleagues in the Department and many other friends in and outside Unisa, for keeping
me motivated and focused.
The respondents, for their invaluable input and for sharing their time.
Iauma Cooper, for critically and professionally editing the manuscript, and encouraging
interactive comments.
All the people not mentioned by name, for supporting and assisting me in so many ways
during this study.
My Lord and Creator for giving me life and granting me an opportunity to be human.
iii
The relationship between career anchors and personality preferences

SUMMARY

The objective of the present study was to explore whether individuals’ career anchors are
dependent on their personality types. The Career Orientation Inventory (COI) and the
Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) were administered to a sample of honours students
in the subject field of Industrial and Organisational Psychology in order to measure the
relationship between the two constructs. For statistical purposes only the female
participants were included in the final sample analysis (N=117) because of the under-
representation of males. Statistically significant differences were established with regard
to the security/stability career anchor and the ESFJ, ENFP, ESFP and INFP personality
types. It is recommended that future studies include larger samples that are more
representative of all possible sixteen (16) personality types and a broader range of
occupations. The findings contribute new knowledge regarding the career anchors and
personality preferences of females pursuing further studies in the field of IO-Psychology.

Key concepts: careers, career anchors, career choice, career orientations, career
development, career satisfaction, personality, personality preferences
iv
Declaration Ii
Acknowledgements iii
Summary iv
Table of Contents v
List of figures xii
List of tables xiii

CHAPTER 1 SCIENTIFIC OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 BACKGROUND TO AND MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY 1

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT 3

1.3 AIMS OF THE STUDY 5
1.3.1 General aim 5
1.3.2 Specific aims 5
1.3.2.1 Literature review 5
1.3.2.2 Empirical study 6

1.4 PARADIGM PERSPECTIVE 6
1.4.1 Disciplinary context of the research 6
1.4.1.1 Personnel Psychology 6
1.4.1.2 Career Psychology 7
1.4.1.3 Analytical Psychology 7
1.4.1.4 Psychometrics 7
1.4.2 Relevant paradigms 8
1.4.2.1 Humanist paradigm 8
1.4.2.2 Psychodynamic paradigm 8
1.4.2.3 Functionalist paradigm 10
v
1.4.3 Theoretical models 10
1.4.4 Definition of concepts 11
1.4.4.1 Career 11
1.4.4.2 Career anchor 11
1.4.4.3 Personality 11
1.4.4.4 Personality preference 12
1.4.5 Central hypothesis 12

1.5 RESEARCH DESIGN 12

1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 13
1.6.1 Phase 1: Literature review 14
1.6.2 Phase 2: Empirical study 14

1.7 OUTLINE OF THE STUDY 17

1.8 CHAPTER SUMMARY 17

CHAPTER 2 CAREER ANCHORS 18

2.1 CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS 18
2.1.1 Career 18
2.1.2 Career success 19
2.1.3 Career development 20
2.1.4 Career decision-making 21
2.1.5 Career maturity 22
2.1.6 Career orientations 22

2.2 MODELS OF CAREER DECISION-MAKING 23
2.2.1 Super’s life-span model of career development 23
2.2.1.1 Growth (Birth to age 12 to14) 24
vi
2.2.1.2 Exploration (Adolescence, age 14 to 25) 24
2.2.1.3 Establishment (Early adulthood, age 25 to 45) 24
2.2.1.4 Maintenance (Middle adulthood, age 45 to 65) 24
2.2.1.5 Decline (Old age from 65 and above) 24
2.2.2 Holland’s theory 26
2.2.2.1 Realistic personality 27
2.2.2.2 Investigative personality 27
2.2.2.3 Social personality 27
2.2.2.4 Conventional personality 27
2.2.2.5 Enterprising personality 28
2.2.2.6 Artistic personality 28
2.2.3 Derr’s career orientation theory 32
2.2.3.1 Getting ahead (GA) 32
2.2.3.2 Getting secure (GS) 33
2.2.3.3 Getting free (GF) 33
2.2.3.4 Getting high (GH) 33
2.2.3.5 Getting balanced (GB) 33
2.2.4 Schein’s career anchors 36
2.2.4.1 Talent-based anchors 40
2.2.4.2 Need-based anchors 41
2.2.4.3 Value-based anchors 43
2.2.4.4 Additional anchors identified by other authors 44
2.2.5 Super’s, Holland’s and Derr’s Theories on career choice and
decision-making 45
2.2.5.1 Super’s views on career choice and career decision-making 45
2.2.5.2 Holland’s views on career choices and career decision-making 47
2.2.5.3 Derr’s views on career choices and career decision-making 48

2.3 PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF CAREER ANCHORS FOR
CAREER DECISION-MAKING 50

vii
2.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY 52

CHAPTER 3 PERSONALITY PREFERENCES 53

3.1 PARADIGMATIC AND CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS 53
3.1.1 Freud’s psychoanalysis theory 53
3.1.2 Jung’s analytical theory 54
3.1.2.1 The structure of personality 55

3.2 JUNG’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY PREFERENCES 58
3.2.1 Attitudes of consciousness 58
3.2.1.1 The Extroversion-Introversion attitudes 59
3.2.2 Functions of consciousness 61
3.2.3 Jung’s eight personality types 62

3.3 MYERS-BRIGGS PERSONALITY TYPE THEORY 62
3.3.1 The Perceiving (P) and Judging (J) functions 63
3.3.1.1 The Perceiving (P) functions 64
3.3.1.2 The Judging (J) functions 65
3.3.2 The sixteen personality types 66

3.4 VARIABLES INFLUENCING THE EXPRESSION OF 69
PERSONALITY PREFERENCES 69
3.4.1 Demographic influences 69
3.4.2 Environmental influences 69
3.4.3 Cultural influences 70
3.4.4 Lifespan development

3.5 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRAIT AND TYPE THEORY 71

3.6 PRACTICAL APPLICATION IN CAREER CHOICE 72
viii
3.7 IMPLICATIONS FOR CAREER-DECISION MAKING 75
3.7.1 Extroversion (E) or Introversion (I) 76
3.7.2 Sensing (S) or Intuition (I) 76
3.7.3 Thinking (T) or Feeling (F) 77
3.7.4 Judging (J) or Perceiving (P) 78

3.8 INTEGRATION 80
3.8.1 Theoretical relationship between career anchors and
personality preferences 82
3.8.2 Implications for career choice and decision-making 84

3.9 CHAPTER SUMMARY 84

CHAPTER 4 EMPIRICAL STUDY 86
4.1 DETERMINATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE SAMPLE 86
4.1.1 Population, sample and participants 87

4.2 CHOOSING AND MOTIVATING THE PSYCHOMETRIC
BATTERY 87
4.2.1 Career Orientations Inventory (COI) 88
4.2.1.1 Theoretical basis for the development of the COI 88
4.2.1.2 Rationale of the COI 89
4.2.1.3 Scales of the COI 89
4.2.1.4 Administration of the COI 90
4.2.1.5 Scoring and interpretation of the COI 91
4.2.1.6 Validity and reliability of the COI 91
4.2.1.7 Motivation for choice 92
4.2.2 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) 92
4.2.2.1 Theoretical basis for development of the MBTI 93
4.2.2.2 Rationale of MBTI, Form G 93
4.2.2.3 Scales of the MBTI 94
ix
4.2.2.4 Administration of the MBTI 96
4.2.2.5 Scoring and interpretation of the MBTI 96
4.2.2.6 Validity and reliability of the MBTI 96
4.2.2.7 Motivation for choice 98
4.2.3 Limitations of the psychometric battery 99
4.2.4 Ethical issues 99

4.3 ADMINISTRATION OF THE PSYCHOMETRIC BATTERY 100

4.4 SCORING OF THE PSYCHOMETRIC BATTERY 101

4.5 STATISTICAL DATA PROCESSING 102
4.5.1 Frequency distribution tables 103
4.5.2 Internal consistency reliability analyses of the COI scales
(Cronbach alpha coefficient) 103
4.5.3 Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) 104
4.5.4 Box M test 105
4.5.5 Statistical significance 105
4.5.6 Post hoc tests 107

4.6 FORMULATION OF THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESES 107

4.7 CHAPTER SUMMARY 108

CHAPTER 5 RESULTS 109

5.1 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 109
5.1.1 Reporting and interpretation of frequency distribution tables
of biographical variables 110
5.1.1.1 Participants’ gender 111
5.1.1.2 Participants’ racial groups 112
x