The relationship between personality preference and career anchors amongst police officers within

168 Pages·2009·0.44 MB·English

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY PREFERENCE AND

CAREER ANCHORS AMONGST POLICE OFFICERS WITHIN THE

WESTERN CAPE

VANESSA VAN SITTERT

Mini-thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Magister Artium
in the

Department of Industrial Psychology
at the

University of the Western Cape

Supervisor: Karl Heslop

November 2006
DECLARATION

I declare that the relationship between Personality Preference and Career Anchors

amongst Police Officers within the Western Cape is my own work, that it has not been
submitted for any degree or examination in any other university, and that all the
sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by complete
references.

VANESSA VAN SITTERT NOVEMBER 2006

Signed …………………………….

i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to the people who offered support and

encouragement to see my research through to the end.

To my Lord and Creator for the ability to persevere and health He has blessed me
with in order to complete my thesis.

My family, especially my mother, for their support and understanding along the long
and sometimes challenging road to completing my studies.

To my supervisor, Karl Heslop for his assistance, guidance and willingness to share
his knowledge, as well as his constant encouragement.

To Nanette Tradoux and Babette Barnard at Psytech for allowing me the use of
psychological instrument required to gather my data.

To the SAPS, especially the staff and police officers at the Police Training College in
Philippi, who made this study possible.

To Dr L. Bosman for his initial assistance with my thesis.

ii
ABSTR  ACT

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY PREFERENCE AND

CAREER ANCHORS AMONGST POLICE OFFICERS WITHIN THE

WESTERN CAPE

The objective of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between the
personality preference and career anchors of police officers. The idea that personality
relates meaningfully to the kinds of careers people choose and how they perform in these
careers, has a long history in career psychology. A large body of empirical evidence
suggests that the career choice behaviour of individuals can be predicted through
personality assessment (Tokar, Fischer & Subich, 1998). Increasing research is being
done on the role of personality in adapting effectively to new career demands.

The operating environment of the South African Police Service is both challenging and
demanding; often putting the life of the active police officer in great danger (Marks,
2003). This begets the question why any person would choose the career of being a police
officer, what type of personality preference would the person choosing such a career have
and what career anchors would have an influence in this choice of career. It is
anticipated that the results of this study can provide more clarity and assist police officers
in planning their career.

iii
A convenience sample of (n=84) police o fficers, attending the Police Academy for
training purposes, was selected to participate  in this study. The Jung Type Indicator (JTI)

was used to measure the personality preferences of police officers, and the Career

Orientation Inventory (COI) of Schein (1993), was used to determine each respondent’s
dominant career anchor. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) program. Cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated to assess the
internal consistency of the measuring instruments. In addition, Pearson Product-Moment
Correlation coefficients and Multiple Regression Analysis was used to assess whether
relationships exist between the variables.

To determine the proportion of variance in the dependent variable, which is career
anchors, that are predicted by the independent variable, a stepwise multiple regression
analysis was also conducted. The results revealed that a significant relationship exists
between personality preference and career anchors. As indicated, this study was
conducted amongst members within the South African Police Service and all information
dealt with was handled with the highest level of integrity and police officers’ were
ensured that their responses would be treated with absolute anonymity and
confidentiality.

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KEY WORDS  
Career anchors, personality preference,  personality characteristics, career, career

orientation, career motivation, Police service, Jung Type Indicator

v
List of Figures, Dia grams and Tables

Page No.

Diagram 2.1 The Formation of the Career Anchor Pattern …………………………...37

Diagram 2.2 Overlap of MBTI dimensions and the Big 5 factors ………………….. 65

Table 2.1 The four personality preferences. ………………………………………..22

Table 2.2 Likes and Dislikes associated with Personality Preference..…………....23

Table 2.3 Comparison of Theories of Career Orientation ………………………...32

Table 4.1 Descriptive Statistics and the Cronbach Alpha Coefficients for the Jung
Type Indicator .............………………………………………………...91

Table 4.2 Descriptive Statistics and the Cronbach Alpha Coefficients of the
Career Orientations Inventory……….…………………………….….92

Table 4.3 Product –Moment Correlation Coefficients between the JTI
and the COI …………………………………………………………..93

Table 4. 4 Multiple Regression of Personality Types and the COI ……………..…94

Table 4.5 Manova: Biographical Variables and Career Anchors ………………….96

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Table 5.1 Occupational groups and caree r anchors of a sample of business and
professional women …..……………………………………………….119

Figure 1.1 Outline of Schein’s Career Anchors …………………………………….6

Figure 4.1 Gender ………………………………………………………………….86

Figure 4.2 Race …………………………………………………………………….87

Figure 4.3 Home Language ……………………………………………………… ...88

Figure 4.4 Education ……………………………………………………………….89

Figure 4.5 Rank …………………………………………………………………….90

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Table of C  ontents

Declaration (i)

Acknowledgements (ii)

Abstract (iii)

Lists of Figures, Diagrams and Tables (vi)

CHAPTER 1

1.1 Introduction and Problem statement …………. ………………………………. ..1

1.2 Eight personality types as designed by Jung Type Indicator ……….…………....4
1.3 Defining career … ………………………………………………………………..5
1.4 Types of career anchors ……………………………………………….……….....6
1.5 Motivation for this study..………………………………………………………...7
1.6 Objectives of the Study .............……………………………………………….....8
1.6.1 Primary Objectives ………………………………….…………………....8
1.7 Hypotheses ………. ……………………………………………………………...8
1.8 Overview of the Chapters....……………………………………………………....9

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………..10
2.2 Personality ………………………………………………………………………10
2.2.1 Police Personality ………………………………………………………..11
2.3 Trait Theories of Personality ……………………………………………………12
2.3.1 Allport’s Trait Theory ...…………………………………………………13
2.3.2 Cattell’s Theory ……..………………………………………………….14
2.3.3 Goldberg’s Theory ……………………………………………………....16
2.4 Evaluating Trait approaches to Person ality .…………………………………..18
2.5 Personality Type Theory … .….……………………………………………….19

2.5.1 Personality preferences ………………………………………………..19

2.5.2 Myers Briggs Type Indicator vs the Big 5……………………………..25

2.6 Career Psychology……………………………………………………………..26
2.6.1 Careers…………………………………………………………………27
2.7 Super’s Theory…………………………………………………………………28
2.8 Occupational choice as matching process……………………………………...29
2.9 Theories of Career Orientation…………………………………………………30
2.10 Schein’s Career Anchor Theory……………………………………………......33
2.10.1 Development of a Career Anchor……………………………………...36
2.10.2 Technical / Functional competence……………………………………………38
2.10.3 General managerial competence……………………………………………….42
2.10.4 Autonomy/ independence………………………………………………………46
2.10.5 Security / Stability……………………………………………………………...49
2.10.6 Entrepreneurial creativity………………………………………………………53
2.10.7 Sense of service / dedication to a cause………………………………………..55
2.10.8 Lifestyle………………………………………………………………………..57
2.10.9 Pure challenge………………………………………………………………….58
2.11 Vocational choice: The motivation to become a police officer……………….60
2.12 Empirical studies……………………………………………………………….63
2.13 Summary……………………………………………………………………….68

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 69
3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….69
3.2 Research design ……………………………………………………………….69
3.2.1 Population……………………………………………………………...69
3.2.2 Sample……………………………………………………………….....70
3.2.2.1 Sample size …………………………………………………… 71
3.3 Procedure………………………………………………………………………..72
3.4 Measuring Instruments………………………………………………………….73