THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYEE WELLNESS AND CAREER ANCHORS by

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
EMPLOYEE WELLNESS AND
CAREER ANCHORS

by

MATHILDE DE VILLIERS

submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree

MASTER OF COMMERCE

in the subject

INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

at the

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

SUPERVISOR: Prof M Coetzee

FEBRUARY 2009
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere thanks and deepest gratitude to the following
people:

• The Lord, my Creator and Saviour, who gave me the strength to persevere
and complete my dissertation;
• Professor Melinde Coetzee, my Supervisor, for her patience, valuable input
and persistent enthusiasm;
• My husband, Fred, for always believing in me and allowing me all the time in
the world to finish what I needed to get done;
• My mother, Herma, for her continuous interest, assistance, love and patience;
• Monica Coetzee, for her statistical assistance;
• Karen Breckon, for editing the manuscript; and
• Renée Kruger, for assisting with the layout of text, figures, diagrams and
tables.

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DECLARATION

I, Mathilde de Villiers, declare that this dissertation entitled THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN EMPLOYEE WELLNESS AND CAREER ANCHORS is my own work,
and that all the sources that I have used or have quoted from have been indicated
and acknowledged by means of complete references.

_____________________
Mathilde de Villiers 28 FEBRUARY 2009
Student no: 31946461

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SUMMARY

The general aim of this study was to investigate whether a relationship exists
between employee wellness (specifically sense of coherence, burnout, sources of
job stress and work engagement) and career anchors, and to determine whether
gender, race, employment and age groups differed in terms of the employee
wellness and career anchors variables. The study was conducted among a random
sample of 90 employees in a typical South African work context.

The data was collected by means of the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ),
Maslach’s Burnout Inventory (MBI), Sources of Job Stress, the Utrecht Work
Engagement Scale (UWES) and the Career Orientations Inventory (COI).
Supporting evidence indicates significant associations between employee wellness
and the career anchors variables. The results also showed significant differences
between the career anchors of males, females, blacks, whites, permanent staff,
contract staff and age groups. The findings contribute valuable new knowledge to
the wellness and career literature and organisational practices related to employee
wellness and career decision making.

KEY TERMS
Employee wellness, sense of coherence, burnout, sources of job stress, work
engagement, career, career anchors, career decision making.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i
DECLARATION ii
SUMMARY iii
KEY TERMS iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

CHAPTER 1 SCIENTIFIC ORIENTATION TO THE RESEARCH 1

1.1 BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION 1
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT 3
1.2.1 Research questions with regard to the literature review 5
1.2.2 Research questions with regard to the empirical study 5
1.3 AIMS 6
1.3.1 General aim 6
1.3.2 Specific aims 6
1.4 THE PARADIGM PERSPECTIVE 7
1.4.1 The intellectual climate 7
1.4.1.1 The salutogenic paradigm 7
1.4.1.2 The humanistic paradigm 8
1.4.1.3 The functionalist paradigm 8
1.4.2 The market of intellectual resources 9
1.4.2.1 Metatheoretical statements 9
1.4.2.2 Theoretical models 11
1.4.2.3 Conceptual descriptions 11
1.4.2.4 Central hypothesis 13
1.5 RESEARCH DESIGN 13
1.6 RESEARCH METHOD 14
CHAPTER LAYOUT 17
CHAPTER SUMMARY 17
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CHAPTER 2 EMPLOYEE WELLNESS 18

2.1 PARADIGMATIC AND CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS 18
2.1.1 Paradigmatic foundations: salutogenic paradigm 18
2.1.2 Conceptual foundations of wellness 19
2.1.2.1 Employee wellness and health 19
2.1.2.2 Sense of coherence (SOC) 21
2.1.2.3 Burnout 22
2.1.2.4 Stress 22
2.1.2.5 Coping 24
2.1.2.6 Work engagement 25
2.1.2.7 An integration of the conceptual foundations of wellness 25
2.2 THEORETICAL MODELS 26
2.2.1 Jahoda’s positive mental wellness model 26
2.2.1.1 Benefits / usefulness of the model 27
2.2.1.2 Limitations of the model 31
2.2.2 Adam’s, Bezner and Steinhardt’s perceived wellness model 31
2.2.2.1 Benefits and disadvantages of the perceived wellness model 31
2.2.3 Antonovsky’s sense of coherence (SOC) model 31
2.2.3.1 Usefulness of the sense of coherence model 32
2.2.4 Maslach’s burnout model 33
2.2.4.1 Usefulness of Maslach’s model of burnout 34
2.2.5 Harter, Schmidt and Keyes’ model of employee engagement 34
2.2.5.1 Elements of employee engagement 35
2.2.5.2. Factors influencing employee engagement 37
2.2.5.3 Benefits and disadvantages of employee engagement 37
2.2.5.4 Usefulness of the model 37
2.2.6 Integration of models 37
2.3 VARIABLES INFLUENCING EMPLOYEE WELLNESS 42
2.3.1 Cross-cultural influences 42
2.3.2 Gender influences 42
2.3.3 Age 43
2.3.4 Person influences 43
2.4 IMPLICATIONS FOR EMPLOYEE WELLNESS PRACTICE 44
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2.4.1 Globalisation 45
2.4.2 Work conditions 46
2.4.3 Supervisor / Management behaviour 46
2.4.4 Trust 47
2.4.5 Focus areas of the industrial psychologist in the workplace 47
2.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY 48

CHAPTER 3 CAREER ANCHORS 49

3.1 PARADIGMATIC AND CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS 49
3.1.1 Paradigmatic foundations: career psychology 49
3.1.2 Conceptual foundations 50
3.1.2.1 Career 50
3.1.2.2. Career orientations 52
3.1.2.3 Career characteristics 53
3.1.2.4 Career planning, development and management 55
3.1.2.5 Career decision making 57
3.2 THEORETICAL MODELS 58
3.2.1 The social cognition career theory (SCCT) 58
3.2.2. Super’s career development theory 62
3.2.2.1 Contributions and limitations of Super’s model 63
3.2.3 Schein’s career anchor model 63
3.2.3.1 Technical / functional competence 68
3.2.3.2 General managerial competence 68
3.2.3.3 Autonomy / independence 69
3.2.3.4 Security / stability 70
3.2.3.5 Entrepreneurial creativity 70
3.2.3.6 Sense of service / dedication to a cause 71
3.2.3.7 Pure challenge 71
3.2.3.8 Lifestyle 72
3.2.3.9 Further division of career anchors 72
3.2.3.10 Benefits and disadvantages of the career anchor model 74
3.2.4 Integration of career models 74
3.3 VARIABLES INFLUENCING CAREER DECISION MAKING 77
3.3.1 Race / ethnicity 77
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3.3.2 Gender influences 78
3.3.3 Age / career life-span stages 78
3.3.4 Person influences 80
3.3.5 Marital status 81
3.3.6 Educational levels 81
3.4 IMPLICATIONS FOR CAREER DECISION MAKING PRACTICE 82
3.5 INTEGRATION: THEORETICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
EMPLOYEE WELLNESS AND CAREER ANCHORS 83
3.6 SUMMARY 86

CHAPTER 4 EMPIRICAL STUDY 87

4.1 DETERMINATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE SAMPLE 87
4.1.1 Composition of the gender groups in the sample 89
4.1.2 Composition of the race groups in the sample 89
4.1.3 Composition of the age groups in the sample 90
4.1.4 Composition of the sample in terms of employment status 91
4.2 MOTIVATION OF THE PSYCHOMETRIC BATTERY 93
4.2.1 Antonovsky’s orientation to life questionnaire (OLQ) 94
4.2.1.1 Development of the OLQ 94
4.2.1.2 Rationale of the OLQ 94
4.2.1.3 Description of the OLQ 95
4.2.1.4 Administration of the OLQ 95
4.2.1.5 Interpretation of the OLQ 95
4.2.1.6 Validity and reliability of the OLQ 95
4.2.2 Maslach’s burnout inventory (MBI) 96
4.2.2.1 Development of the MBI 96
4.2.2.2 Rationale of the MBI 97
4.2.2.3 Description of the MBI 97
4.2.2.4 Administration of the MBI 97
4.2.2.5 Interpretation of the MBI 98
4.2.2.6 Validity and reliability of the MBI 98
4.2.3 The Utrecht work engagement scale (UWES) 99
4.2.3.1 Development of the UWES 100
4.2.3.2 Rationale of the UWES 100
4.2.3.3 Description of the UWES 100
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4.2.3.4 Administration of the UWES 101
4.2.3.5 Interpretation of the UWES 101
4.2.3.5 Validity and reliability of the UWES 101
4.2.4 Career orientations inventory (COI) 102
4.2.4.1 Development of the COI 103
4.2.4.2 Rationale of the COI 103
4.2.4.3 Description of the COI scales 103
4.2.4.4 Administration of the COI 104
4.2.4.5 Interpretation of the COI 104
4.2.4.6 Validity and reliability of the COI 104
4.2.5 Motivation for choice 105
4.2.6 Ethical considerations 105
4.3 ADMINISTRATION OF THE PSYCHOMETRIC BATTERY 105
4.4. SCORING OF THE PSYCHOMETRIC BATTERY 106
4.5 STATISTICAL PROCESSING OF THE DATA 106
4.5.1 Cronbach’s alpha coefficients 107
4.5.2 Pearson-product moment correlation coefficient 107
4.5.3 Levene’s test for equality of variance 108
4.5.4 T-tests 108
4.5.5 Analysis of variance (ANOVA) 108
4.5.6 Statistical significance 109
4.6 FORMULATION OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESES 110
4.7 CHAPTER SUMMARY 111

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CHAPTER 5 RESEARCH FINDINGS 112

5.1 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 112
5.1.1 Reporting of item-reliability and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients
(OLQ; MBI; UWES AND COI) 112
5.1.2 Interpretation of item-reliability and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients 114
5.1.3 Reporting and interpretation of means and standard deviations 115
5.1.3.1 Means and standard deviations: Orientation to Life Questionnaire
(OLQ) 115
5.1.3.2 Means and standard deviations: Maslach’s Burnout Inventory (MBI) 116
5.1.3.3 Means and standard deviations: Utrecht Work Engagement Scale
(UWES) 117
5.1.3.4 Means and standard deviations: Career Orientations Inventory (COI) 117
5.2 CORRELATIONAL STATISTICS 119
5.2.1 Reporting of Pearson-product moment correlation coefficients
(MBI; OLQ AND UWES) 119
5.2.1.1 Relationship between UWES and MBI variables 120
5.2.1.2 Relationship between UWES and OLQ variables 121
5.2.1.3 Relationship between MBI and OLQ variables 122
5.2.2 Interpretation of Pearson-product moment correlation coefficients
(MBI; OLQ AND UWES) 124
5.2.2.1 Relationship between UWES and MBI variables 124
5.2.2.2 Relationship between UWES and OLQ variables 125
5.2.2.3 Relationship between MBI and OLQ variables 126
5.2.3 Reporting of Pearson-product moment correlation coefficients
(Sources of Job Stress and UWES) 126
5.2.4 Interpretation of Pearson-product moment correlation coefficients
(Sources of Job Stress and UWES) 128
5.2.5 Reporting of Pearson-product moment correlation coefficients
(Sources of Job Stress and MBI) 129
5.2.6 Interpretation of Pearson-product moment correlation coefficients
(Sources of Job Stress and MBI) 130
5.2.7 Reporting of Pearson-product moment correlation coefficients
(Sources of Job Stress and OLQ) 131
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