articles - cdanz 11(3) spring.pdf · 2013. 6. 6. · zealand. interestingly their article...

S P R I N G 2 0 0 2V o l u m e 1 1 , N u m b e r 3

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10thANNIVERSARY

ISSUE

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10thANNIVERSARY

ISSUE

★ Reflections from charter subscribers and original Editorial Board members

★ Reflections from state and territory representatives

ARTICLES

★ Merging two worlds: Linking occupational and organisational career counselling Norman E. Amundson, Polly Parker & Michael B. Arthur

★ Fast Forward: Careers Research in New ZealandKerr Inkson, Dale Furbish & Polly Parker

★ Career theory building in the Australian Journal of Career Developmentduring its inaugural ten yearsLee-Ann Prideaux & Peter Creed

★ Training for career development professionals: Responding to supply and demand in the next decadeWendy Patton

★ The Systems Theory Framework (STF) of career development: History and future directionsMary McMahon

ISSN 1038-4162The Austral ian Council for Educational Research Ltd

PRINT POST PUBLICATION NUMBER PP381667/00531

A U S T R A L I A N J O U R N A L O F


CareerDevelopment

CAREERDEVELOPMENT. 23/5/06 12:28 PM

1A u s t r a l i a n J o u r n a l o f C a r e e r D e v e l o p m e n t Vo l u m e 1 1 , N u m b e r 3 , S p r i n g 2 0 0 2

CONTENTSEditor ial – 10th Anniver sar y Edition 2Wendy Patton; Rob Ware; Meredith Shears; and James A. Athanasou

Reflections from char ter subscr iber s and 7or iginal Editor ial Board membersMark Savickas; A.G. Watts; Norman Gysbers; and Col McCowan

Reflections from state and terr itor y representatives 13Judith Leeson, South Australia; John Carroll, Queensland; Janine Watt, Northern Territory; Peter Krausz, Victoria; Marijke Wright and Karel Wearne, New South Wales; Cathy Hughes and Ray Stacey, Tasmania; Carole Brown, ACT; and Judy Denham, WA

Ar ticlesMerging two worlds: Linking occupational and organisational career counselling 26Norman E. Amundson, Polly Parker & Michael B. Arthur

Fast Forward: Careers Research in New Zealand 36Kerr Inkson, Dale Furbish & Polly Parker

Career theory building in the AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT 46during its inaugural 10 yearsLee-Ann Prideaux & Peter Creed

Training for career development professionals: Responding to supply and 56demand in the next decadeWendy Patton

The Systems Theory Framework (STF) of career development: History and future directions 63Mary McMahon

ReviewsYour future – Ali Waugh 70How to succeed in your first job – Erica Smith 71Helping your new employee succeed – Erica Smith 71So you’re new again – Erica Smith 71Self-directed search – Robert Pryor 74

Career s ForumCareers digest 79Information and resources 82News 84News from the career associations 86Forthcoming conferences 86From the journals 86Monograph 87AJCD reviewers volume 11 87

AJCD113 9/11/05 4:22 PM Page 1

It has been an honour to guest edit this 10thanniversary edition of the Australian Journal of

Career Development. I began editorial work on thejournal late in 1996, serving my apprenticeship underits inaugural editor, Meredith Shears, and its initialdriving force, Rob Ware. In discussing the journalwith them, and in my own reflections on the challengeahead, I developed a vision for the journal that Iaimed to achieve during my tenure as Editor. Iwanted it to be firmly placed on the internationalstage – an international journal. I did not want tochange the delicate balance of the journal betweentheory, research and practice, however on so manyoccasions I had heard career developmentprofessionals from overseas who had come toAustralia to work with our career developmentprofessionals comment on how well we wereengaging in our practice here. We needed tocommunicate that work to the wider internationalaudience, and the journal was the ideal vehicle.

In discussion with Rob and Meredith, Irestructured the editorial support, with a broader mixof national and international advisers. Increasingnumbers of international researchers sought to sharetheir work in the journal, whether it be research orexperiences of practice. It was with some pride that inmy last editorial (Volume 9, No. 1, 2000) I noted thatthe journal was included in the Annual Reviewpublished in The Career Development Quarterly, thejournal of the National Career DevelopmentAssociation in America. Over recent years, the uniquestructure of the Australian journal has been used as amodel by the International Careers Journal developers(Michael Carroll, personal communication) and thenew journal of the National Institute for CareersEducation and Counselling (NICEC), Career Researchand Development (see paper by Tony Watts, this issue).

In planning this anniversary issue I sought to do a

number of things. First, I wanted to celebrate thehistory of the journal and provide new readers withthe opportunity to share in the journal’s history. Theissue begins with reflections from charter subscribers(Professor Mark Savickas) and from originalmembers of the editorial board (Tony Watts,Professor Norman Gysbers, and Col McCowan). Eachof these people has contributed enormously as advisersto, and advocates of, the journal. We are all indebtedto their decade-long support and I thank them fortheir contributions.

Second, I wanted Australian subscribers and careerdevelopment professionals to write their reflections onthe growth of the career development field inAustralia over the previous decade, and to reflect onthe place of the journal in that development. Eachstate and territory is represented in the contributionsin this section.

Third, I wanted the articles for this anniversaryissue to both review the previous decade of the journaland to identify key issues for the career developmentfield in the future. Mary McMahon’s article does thisexactly. Mary wrote an article on the context ofadolescent career decision-making in the first issue ofthe journal in November 1992. Since then, Mary andI further developed the model presented in this 1992article and developed a theoretical and practiceframework, the Systems Theory Framework. Maryreviews the development of this framework anddiscusses future plans.

Lee-Anne Prideaux and Peter Creed, twoAustralian researchers with developing profiles in thecareer development field, review the first 10 years ofthe journal. Their article offers suggestions about thedirection for theory building and for developmentresearch into the future.

A worldwide issue, and one particularly relevantin Australia, is the dearth of opportunities for training

2 A u s t r a l i a n J o u r n a l o f C a r e e r D e v e l o p m e n t Vo l u m e 1 1 , N u m b e r 3 , S p r i n g 2 0 0 2

EDITORIAL

10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION –

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF CAREER DEVELOPMENTFrom national to international – The Journal makes its mark

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career development professionals. This issue is raisedregularly in review papers and policy documents.Within a context where it could be argued that thereis a greater need and demand for career developmentsupport, I explore this issue and argue for additionaltraining programs and for these programs to addressthe full complexity of the role of a career developmentprofessional.

Kerr Inkson, Dale Furbish and Polly Parkerdiscuss developments in career research in NewZealand. Interestingly their article highlights a keyissue that is the focus of the article by NormanAmundson, Polly Parker and Michael Arthur – theseparation between career theory and research basedlargely in North American counselling psychology,and the work derived from organisational psychologyand sociology. ‘Despite the overlapping interest incareer, there has been little interaction or collaborationbetween those working in the two areas’ (Collin, 1998,p. 413). Amundson et al. propose a merger betweenthese two fields and suggest that this is possiblethrough a self-organising view of careers, andworking to facilitate active engagement by individualsin constructing their careers.

It is absolutely exciting to have such a large numberof contributors to these sections of the journal, frommany countries and from different perspectives andbackgrounds within career development. I thankthem all for their commitment to the field, acommitment that has been personally inspiring to meover the 20 years in which I have been a careerdevelopment professional. I hope you enjoy thisanniversary issue, and that it serves for you as alandmark for the journal, and for the careerdevelopment profession in Australia.

Wendy PattonQueensland University of Technology

REFERENCECollin, A. (1998). New challenges in the study of career.

Personnel Review, 27(5), 412–25.

A NOTE FROM THE

INAUGURAL TEAM

It was 1995 when I was at Swinburne University ofTechnology, and received a letter from the then

Vice President of the International Association forEducation and Vocational Guidance. In part the letterread: ‘We note that the AJCD is unusual in that mostprofessional journals are written by and for professorsand other researchers, while rank and filepractitioners have only a newsletter to read. Weconsider the AJCD to be an important vehicle for thecontinuing development of counsellors, and a modelfor journals in other countries.’ This is an abstractfrom one of the many letters Meredith and I receivedduring that establishment period for the journal. Theencouragement and praise from people like StuConger and Norm Gysbers during those early yearswere measurable outcomes for the hard workundertaken in launching an Australian journal.

However, to really appreciate the journal’sbeginnings you need to go back to 1990, where a smallgroup of Victorian career practitioners met to sharetheir concerns regarding the future of their profession.Present at that meeting were representatives from alleducation sectors including department repre-sentatives.

We asked some difficult questions about ourprofession:• How could we promote best practice and capture

new career development theory within anAustralian context?

• What was an effective strategy for unifying the 15or so career associations across the country?

• How could career practitioners best contribute tothe ‘clever country’ debate and maximise ourcredibility?

• How could we share our successes with aninternational professional community?The energy created at those early meetings to do

something significant resulted in an extraordinarymeeting where academics, politicians, practitionersand employers met to review career education inAustralia. It was a successful forum where the Federal


Editorial – 10th Anniversary Edition

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Minister for Employment, Education and Training,John Dawkins, declared, among other things, thatcareer education projects would receive fundingthrough the National Priority Reserve Fund, and thatis where the seed for a credible academic journal wassewn.

In November 1991, Swinburne received seedfunding via the National Association of GraduateCareer Advisers, but securing funding from theMinister was the first of many hurdles. This was aproject from scratch that required an editor, a boardwith international clout, a publisher and a buy-infrom all career associations across Australia. Under-pinning all these challenges was a very supportiveuniversity that could see the benefits in beingassociated with a successful project. Meredith’sappointment as Editor was also a pivotal point in thejournal’s development. Believing in the productalways enhances an idea and ACER remains a faithfulbeliever and supporter of the journal.

The journal’s future, I think, lies with extendingits readership to include other professional strands,such as outplacement consultants, HR specialists andlife and workplace coaches. I suspect new opportu-nities for dialogue between career practitioners,academics and other professional groups haveemerged, and the same questions asked 11 years agocould be revisited. This time, conversations andoutcomes could be recorded on-line and through thejournal in a more fluid and immediate format. Weneed to reaffirm the place of career guidance andeducation as a fundamental foundation stone tolifelong learning.

Rob WareDirector

WorkWare Solutions Pty Ltd

CAREER AND WORKPLACE

COACHING, CAREER

TRANSITION

New challenges confronted me in 1992 when Iwon the part-time paid position of founding

Editor of the Australian Journal of Career Development.Rob Ware, the driving force behind the establishmentof the journal, had spent considerable energydeveloping the concept for the journal and, with thesupport of the National Association of GraduateCareer Advisers, securing funding from the thenCommonwealth Department of Employment,Education and Training.

The focus was for a publication that met the needsof career practitioners, while maintaining the rigourof an academic refereed journal. A new format waschosen that included refereed articles, publicationreviews, and case studies of best practice. To keeppractitioners up to date with what was happening inthe field, the Research Digest section includedabstracts of research being undertaken. CareersForum was designed to include incisive debate onissues raised by the journal or issues practitioners wereconfronting, as well as brief reports of conferences andother events and a listing of forthcoming national andinternational conferences.

An exciting start to my work on the journal beganwith the Towards Effective Participation in WorkingLife conference coordinated by Col McCowan and histeam in April 1992. Delegates from around Australia,New Zealand, Singapore, the USA and the UKgathered at Bond University, where I was fortunateto address a plenary session of more than 300 delegatesabout the development of the journal and to havediscussions with other editors of internationaljournals, including Norm Gysbers and Tony Watts.

In the early days of the journal, we were constantlyevaluating our work through reader surveys andfocus groups and analysis of our subscriber database.To ensure that the journal was relevant and currentin terms of practitioner issues and theoreticaldevelopments in Australia, I attended many nationaland state conferences across Australia. There were(and still are) so many talented and dedicated career



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practitioners assisting people with their careerdecision-making processes around Australia. Many,however, do not feel confident in their ability to writeabout the innovative things they are doing. I thereforeran writing workshops to demonstrate the skillsneeded to transfer ideas from practice to paper.

An active Editorial Advisory Committee metregularly in the early days to assist with focus anddirection. The Editorial Advisory Board has alwaysmade a contribution and, under Wendy’s guidance, itsnew shape in 1997, to include representatives from allthe state, territory and national associations and theInternational Advisers, ensured a link between thejournal and practitioners across Australia and thewider international audience.

The journal is seen as an important source ofinformation on developments in the careers scene inAustralia. Many journal articles are referred to inreports of the international 12-country OECD Reviewof Information Guidance and Counselling Services

At the local level, Judy Eppinger, EditorialAssistant for the AJCD, brought both her expertisefrom many years work at the ACER and her amazingcomputer skills to the task of ensuring that the journalwas on time and relevant. The ACER staff wereextremely supportive of the journal and assisted withboth publishing and promotion.

It was with mixed feelings that I passed on theeditorial role. I very much enjoyed my time workingwith Rob and Judy and my national and internationalcolleagues, but I also realised that it was important forthe development of the journal for fresh input andnew perspectives from different locations throughoutAustralia. I was very fortunate to continue to work onthe journal with Wendy in the early days of its moveto Queensland. I knew the journal was in very capablehands and that Wendy would continue to produce ahigh quality publication that would nurture careerdevelopment theory and practice in Australia.

Meredith ShearsDepartment of Employment

Education and TrainingNorthern Territory

AJCD – A CHANGING

PERSPECTIVE

The 10th anniversary edition of the AustralianJournal of Career Development is a major

developmental milestone for career practice inAustralasia. It is pleasing to have been a small part ofthis history, first as an initial subscriber and second asan editor since Winter 2000.

Of course, I extend my congratulations to those whoinitiated this venture; to the publisher, ACER Press,which supported this initiative; to the hard-workingprevious editors; to the largely unseen team of senioreditor, publishing assistant, cartoonist and productioneditor; to all our colleagues on the editorial board; tothe anonymous academic referees who sacrifice theirtime to read and comment on articles; to all the bookreviewers, and the many contributors and friends of thejournal since its inception. Above all my thanks go tothose subscribers who place their faith in this journalas their means of professional development andcommunication.

When the journal commenced in 1992, Holland’stheory of vocational personalities dominated the field;the first edition of the Australian StandardClassification of Occupations had been in existence forfive years; there was still a national and publicemployment service in Australia; the AustralianAssociation of Career Counsellors was still relativelynew; many schools had a full- or part-time careersadviser; school work experience was common, butvocational education in senior high schools waslargely unheard of; occupational information wasalmost exclusively paper-based and there was nofederal computer-assisted guidance or informationsystem; most of our career theories and practices werederived from the US; there were hardly anyAustralian texts on career development and very fewformal postgraduate courses for career practitioners;the journal did not have a website and probably fewreaders even had an email address. In June 1992, ourlabour force was just over nine million and Australia’sunemployment rate of 11.1% was the second highestamong the eight major OECD countries. Some 6.4million persons aged 15–69, or around 53%, had nopost-school qualification. Almost one-quarter of the



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workforce was working part-time and 22% ofworkers were job mobile (i.e. they changed employeror business or locality over a one-year period). Well,some things have changed!

The AJCD has reflected many, though not all, ofthe subsequent changes. What will things be like in2012? Who knows? It is impossible to predictspecifically what the long-term future will be but, itseems reasonable to consider that there will be furtherchanges in careers, employment, education or trainingin Australia. Some of these changes might not beexpected or welcomed. Whatever the changes, it ishoped that the contents of the AJCD will provide youwith objective information, impartial comment andindependent reviews to assist you in your work. Thejournal will continue to maintain coverage of practice,policy and research in career education, careerguidance and counselling, career information,vocational rehabilitation, employment counselling,vocational education and work experience,indigenous issues, vocational psychology and careerdevelopment.

Leaving aside these bigger issues, the AJCD willturn its focus as much towards evidence-based practiceas is possible, trying to act in a small way as a catalystfor change in career services in Australia. The aim isfor your journal to evolve over time and to promote amultiplicity of theoretical perspectives in theprofession. I encourage all our readers to feel free tocontribute case studies, research, comments andarticles in order to maintain a healthy balance of theoryand application. The recent OECD review of careerguidance policies in Australia (http://www.oecd.org)called for a Clearinghouse for Research, and this is alsoa role that can be fulfilled partly by the journal.

From an editorial perspective, one technical changethat will be implemented for research articles is topromote greater transparency in research by encour-aging contributors to make available their coded data

or computer files or findings to the researchcommunity. Second, contributors will be encouragedto report their findings in terms of effect, sizes andconfidence intervals as well as statistical significance.This is because results may be statistically significant(e.g. due only to a large sample size) but really showminimal effects. Finally, I shall be encouragingcontributors to report the test–retest reliabilities oftheir findings. It is not sufficient to cite reliabilitiesfrom a test manual and to assume that they apply toone’s research sample. It is important to demonstratethe stability, dependability and consistency of ourfindings. These, however, are technical issues and ofinterest only to a small portion of our constituency.

It would be interesting in 10 years to be able to lookback and see how the journal has changed. In onesense I would hope that the 2002 and 2012 editions arenot immediately recognisable as the same journal –that is, the AJCD should be dynamic and evolve. Forinstance, I can imagine that electronic versions of thejournal will be available, that the content will be morediverse, that the title may change and that thepresentation will alter. Hopefully, it will still maintainsome continuity and consistency and an Australasianperspective, so that a reader will still feel that it is oneand the same journal as its predecessor in 1992. Maybeit will be like the philosopher’s axe – the philosopherhad an axe for 20 years and swore that it was the bestaxe he ever had. He changed the blade a few timesand he changed the handle a few times, but it was stillthe best axe he ever had.

James A. AthanasouUniversity of Technology, Sydney



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Career development theory plays a crucial role inproviding a substantive base for the practice of

career intervention. This role is vital today as rapidlychanging environments require that counsellorsinnovate their practice to better address the culturalcontext of careers as well as demonstrate theeffectiveness of career interventions. The continuingflow of research on vocational behaviour and itsdevelopment helps meet these challenges byexpanding the scientific base for the practice of careerintervention. However, having expressed this opinion,I recognise that many practitioners neither valueresearch on vocational behaviour nor utilise it in theirdaily work. Killeen and Watts (1983), who have longbeen concerned about relations between practice andresearch, concluded that counsellors consider researchas remote from practice and view it with ambivalence.Margaretha Lucas (1996), then director of training atthe University of Maryland Counseling Center, notedthat ‘Research in our journals tends to answer manyquestions, but few that are asked by practitioners intheir offices’ (p. 81). Practitioners such as Lucas havegood reasons for their ambivalence about careerdevelopment theory and research. Simply stated, themajor career theories and related bodies of researchon vocational behaviour generally lack utility for largesegments of the population, and even the concept ofcareer development itself may not be meaningful inthe lives of most people (Fitzgerald & Betz, 1994).

Only recently have career practitioners andresearchers begun to openly discuss this rift betweenknowledge production and use. Their conversationssuggest that career counsellors and career researchershave fundamentally different vocational interests.Career counsellors generally resemble the Social–

Enterprising–Artistic (SEA) type whereas careerresearchers generally resemble the Investigative–Artistic–Social (IAS) type. This marked difference invocational interests means that counsellors andresearchers display different personality types, pursuedifferent career goals and assume differentphilosophical stances while living in different languagecommunities that infrequently communicate witheach other.

Because I enjoy living in the worlds of bothpractice and research, my own vocational interest wassparked 10 years ago by a circular announcing thecreation of a new journal that might use a differentresearch dissemination model to bridge the gapbetween practice and research. In the advertisement,the Australian Journal of Career Development promisedto inform readers about what other career profes-sionals are doing, present the latest research on allaspects of career development, teach about issues inoccupational information and labour market trends,and provide training on how to improve the deliveryof career services. The overriding goal described inthe first issue was to provide a forum for careerpractitioners, one in which they could share knowl-edge, disseminate information and debate issues.Accordingly, the format differs from that oftraditional academic journals. In addition to researcharticles, AJCD publishes case studies, reviews ofmaterial relevant to career professionals, a researchdigest to give readable summaries of research relatedto practice, and a career forum to give readers anopportunity to discuss troubling issues and shareinformation from seminars, courses and conferences.Collectively, these five sections promised to provideconcrete assistance to career professionals as well as to


A PROMISE FULFILLED

MARK L. SAVICKAS, PROFESSOR, NORTHEASTERN OHIO

UNIVERSITIES COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, USA

Reflections from charter subscribers and original Editorial Board members

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raise philosophical questions related to careerintervention.

This promise sounded too good to be true. Couldwe actually have a research journal for career practi-tioners, one that would not soon die fromunderfunding? After all, other journals, such asCareers Today and Impact, have tried and failed. Or, ifAJCD succeeded, would it be swallowed whole byscientists seeking one more outlet for their researchon vocational behaviour? Well, the answer is in yourhands! After a decade, AJCD has flourished whileremaining true to its unique mission. This noteworthyachievement should be celebrated by all inhabitants ofthe career domain.

What makes AJCD so special to me is that it servesthe reader, not the writer. AJCD concentrates on thereader by emphasising knowledge dissemination andresearch utilisation. Most other career and counsellingjournals to which I subscribe seem to serve the writerby providing peer review, constructive criticism andcitation impact ratings. These journals play a criticalrole in sustaining vocational psychology and advanc-ing career counselling as a profession based onrigorous research. However, these journals do notcommunicate practice knowledge or help counsellorsutilise research. Practitioners need, and in AJCD have,a forum in which to communicate practice knowledgeand to translate research findings into pragmaticaction.

At the end of its first decade, AJCD is not remotefrom practice; it maintains the feel of the consultingroom, not the research laboratory. Now the challengefor AJCD becomes two-fold. It must hold itself and itsaudience together while at the same time advancingthe field of career intervention. In its second decade,AJCD can hold us together as a community ofpractitioner-scholars by continuing to restore commu-nication between practitioners and researchers,emphasising the incorporation of research findingsinto clinical practice. As it promotes dialogue betweenpractitioners and researchers, AJCD can advance thecareer field by championing a clinical science of careerintervention to augment the basic sciences ofvocational psychology and occupational sociology.This clinical theory and research should concentrateon producing and articulating practice knowledgewhich improves career intervention.

AJCD is uniquely situated to advance careerintervention theory and research because the fivesections in AJCD already emphasise practiceknowledge and research utilisation. In particular, thecase studies section, my favourite section, already usesthe premiere teaching and learning model forbuilding practice knowledge and promptingpractitioner self-evaluation. In the articles section, Ianticipate reading more reports of clinical qualitativeresearch on the process, content and outcomes ofcareer intervention, emphasising clinical significancenot statistical significance. In the research digestsection, I hope to read more accounts that sharpenclinical expertise and discuss best practice guidelines.And, finally, in the career forum section I wouldappreciate studies about AJCD itself, ones thatinvestigate how its approach to research disseminationinfluences the research consumption and utilisation ofpractitioners. This would include, as a legitimate areaof research, studies that investigate how the reviewsection in AJCD communicates knowledge products.But, before dreaming about the future, let us enjoy thepresent by celebrating the tenth anniversary of AJCDand congratulating its creators and contributors forfulfilling the promise they made a decade ago.

REFERENCESFitzgerald, L.F. & Betz, N.E. (1994). Career development in

cultural context: The role of gender, race, class, and sexual

orientation. In M. L. Savickas & R. W. Lent (eds),

Convergence in career development theories: Implications for

science and practice (pp. 103–117). Palo Alto, CA: Davies-

Black.

Killeen, J. & Watts, A.G. (1983). The place of research in careers

guidance. Careers Bulletin. Cambridge, England: National

Institute for Careers Education and Counselling.

Lucas, M.S. (1996). Building cohesiveness between practitioners

and researchers: A practitioner-scientist model. In M.L.

Savickas & W.B. Walsh (eds), Handbook of career counseling

theory and practice (pp. 81–88). Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.



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Journals have an important role to play in any fieldof knowledge or human endeavour. They act as a

mirror to the field, reflecting its preoccupations, itsvalues and its methods. They also act as a record ofthe field’s development, enabling it to maintain acumulative understanding of its growth andprogression.

The Australian Journal of Career Development in the10 years of its existence has established a strongposition in the field of career development. Its keystrengths, in my view, are three-fold.

The first strength is its focus on Australia(sometimes implicitly extended to Australasia). Thismakes it distinctive, and also provides it with acoherent and consistent perspective. Certainly thejournal has included contributions from othercountries, particularly New Zealand, but also Canada(Stu Conger, Sharon Crozier, Vance Peavy), the UK(Barrie Irving, myself) and the USA (Norm Gysbers,Martin Katz, Howard Splete, Donald Zytowski).Many of these contributions, however, have beendrawn from lectures given in Australia, and havetherefore maintained the focus on the Australiancontext. Some journals elsewhere focus on their ownnational contexts; others have a mix of national andinternational perspectives; two (the InternationalJournal for the Advancement of Counselling and theInternational Journal for Educational and VocationalGuidance) are explicitly international in orientation.

The second strength is the AJCD’s focus on career

development. A few other journals share this focus(notably the Career Development Quarterly and theJournal of Career Development in the USA). Many,however, cover career development issues as part of abroader terrain, for example vocational behaviour (theJournal of Vocational Behavior), or guidance andcounselling more generally (e.g. the British Journal ofGuidance and Counselling, the Canadian Journal ofCounselling and the Journal of Counseling andDevelopment in the USA).

The third, and perhaps the most importantstrength, is the AJCD’s focus on the links betweenresearch/theory and practice. Most journals in othercountries are addressed specifically to academics or topractitioners. In my view, the AJCD has been the mostsuccessful in spanning the two. Its refereeingprocedure makes it a legitimate outlet for academicpublication. On the other hand, its attractiveappearance, the limits on the length of articles, andthe attention to the need of career developmentpractitioners in its reviews and careers forum sections,all make it accessible and appealing to suchpractitioners.

In the UK, the National Institute for CareersEducation and Counselling (NICEC) held aninvitational policy consultation in autumn 1998 onDeveloping a Research Culture in Career Educationand Guidance. The report of this consultation(Jackson, 1998) noted the ever-more rapid changes inthe world of work, and the enormous challenges this



AJCD: AN INTERNATIONALPERSPECTIVE

TONY WATTS, Senior Fel low and Life President, National

Institute for Career s Education and Counsell ing, UK

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is posing to the career education and guidancecommunity in developing and responding to a swiftlychanging set of client needs. It pointed out thatinnovation in service delivery would be the hallmarkof successful provision in future, and affirmed thatdeveloping a research culture must be an integral partof this response. Among the 12 recommendationsfrom the consultation was a recommendation that thevarious bodies involved should explore the feasibilityof a cross-sectoral journal in the UK to include

coverage of research and theory. The AJCD wasexplicitly cited as a useful model. The result has beenthe launch of a new NICEC journal, Career Researchand Development. Its editorial team recognises,however, that the AJCD is a tough act to follow.

REFERENCEJackson, C. (1998). Developing a research culture in career

education and guidance. CRAC/NICEC Conference Briefing.

Cambridge: Careers Research and Advisory Centre.



THE VISION BECOMES AREALITY

NORM C . GYSBERS, Univer sity of Missour i-Columbia

In the early 1990s, it was my privilege to beinvited to speak at a conference at Bond

University. During that conference I met withseveral individuals including Meredith Shears andRob Ware to discuss the idea of a career develop-ment journal for Australia. As I remember, wediscussed many topics including procedures forsetting up and operating a journal, editorial boardmembership, the peer review process, and how toobtain manuscripts. I was honoured to be asked tobecome a member of the board of editors. Then, inNovember 1992, I received my copy of theinaugural edition, volume 1, number 1. What a joyit was for me to see that what had been a vision of

a number of dedicated professionals had actuallybecome a reality. As the 10 years of the AustralianJournal of Career Development have unfolded, thecontributions to the worldwide career develop-ment literature have been substantial. The issuesof the journal during this time have contained acareful blend of articles that have providedpractitioners and researchers alike with atreasure trove of relevant information andpractices. All those involved in the past andpresent work of publishing the journal are to becommended. A high standard has beenestablished, one that I am certain will continue tobe met in the future.

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It was worth all those enjoyable hassles! My fuzzymemory doesn’t help but I do clearly remember the

tremendous efforts by Rob Ware and AnnaLichtenberg in those early stages of setting up theJournal. Rob had already set up a strong Victoriangroup of career associations and Anna led theNational Careers Forum (NCF). These and othercareer-related activities in the early 1990s saw a build-up of enthusiasm, interest and possibilities. TheAustralian Association of Career Counsellors(AACC) was developing, as were the graduate coursesat RMIT University with Ern Reeders and LesleyArmstrong, and at Edith Cowan University withAnna.

My contributions were from within the NationalCareer Education Taskforce and staging the firstmajor international career conference at BondUniversity (over 500 attendees from across the wholecareer field). The key presenters there became theinternational members of the first Editorial Board ofthe AJCD.

If we were to become a profession, we all realisedwe needed a regular flagship professional careerpublication. The closest in existence was the academic

Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, editedby John Carroll, where careers research featured.Deliberate decisions were made to have a publicationmore conversational in style, covering a range of needsand audiences in order to bring together the wholecareers field and provide a forum for a wide varietyof practice.

I clearly remember the long and intenseconversations with Rob and Anna in particular, wherelogistics, funding, possible locations and so on werediscussed. Rob led discussions with his ownSwinburne University, with Hop Harrigan at whatwas then known as DEET and John King and othersat the Australian Council of Educational Research(ACER). It was not easy, and much creative and hard-nosed thinking and lengthy negotiations had to go onbefore it could become a reality. Eventually it didhappen and Meredith Shears came on board as thefirst editor to turn it all into reality.

The early high quality work by Rob and Meredithhas been a key factor in the sustainability of the AJCD.The decision to make it a combination of researcharticles, case studies, book reviews, careers forum andresearch digest was another key factor.



AJCD:MEMORIES OF THE EARLY

DAYS

COL McCOWAN, or iginal member of the Editor ial Board and

Head, Career s and Employment, Queensland Univer sity of

Technology

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However, the stress didn’t end there. The numberof subscribers was not sufficient to make it viablecommercially. ACER and the then DEET engaged infurther discussion. There were many times in thesucceeding years when we thought it would fold andwe fought very hard to keep it alive. Continualconversations and options and possibilities werealways going on behind the scenes. It was great thatWendy Patton at Queensland University ofTechnology, with some early funding from theFaculty of Education, took the lead role and, morerecently, Jim Athanasou at University of Technology,Sydney.

The AJCD has been pivotal in the development ofthe career agenda and of career practitioners inAustralia. It has enabled a wide range of players toshare their knowledge and practice, interested peopleto link up with others, and displays of best practice tooccur. It has also been instrumental in developing anAustralian research agenda in career development.Subscribers and contributors have been able to sharea feeling of belonging to an important group doing itsutmost to improve the quality of all Australian lives.

For me, two issues still need addressing. One is thetimeliness of the journal in terms of a source ofcurrent practice. The build-up of articles, events andreviews eventually come to print reality some timeafter submission. Even the delay between submissionof proofs to ACER and it hitting the streets meanssome of the information is out of date. While theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment Review (2002) was going on, forexample, the journal could have had a significant rolein developing a buildup of interest and contribution.

This is difficult to do. Is it time to separate out theshort-term and long-term contributions into twoseparate but linked publications like other professionsdo? Is one a bulletin and the other a journal? We areone of the few countries where a governmentsupported bulletin does not exist to keep careerpractitioners across the whole range updated. TheVocational Education and Training agenda has such apublication. Should this be electronic? Would theestablishment of an Australian Career DevelopmentFoundation provide the much-needed succour?

The second issue to me is the lack of link with theAACC. Having tried in the early days to establishsuch a link, I understand the difficulties. The AJCD in

whatever form(s) it takes should be built automat-ically into the Association fees. The relationshipwould be symbiotic with terrific gains on both sides,particularly if national government saw the advan-tages and supported it. If the AACC continues tomove on the notion of becoming the ACDA, thenthere may be light at the end of the tunnel.

Dreams like the AJCD become reality because ofthe vision of some and the energy and unconditionalsupport of many, many people and organisations. Tokeep its vitality, these conditions need to be ongoing.It is my personal hope the AJCD meets its ongoingpressures successfully to continue to take its importantplace in the Australian careers field.

Many thanks and congratulations to all those whohave contributed so much to the AJCD over the last10 years.

REFERENCEOECD. (2002). OECD Review of Career Guidance Policies.

Retrieved September 30, 2002, from the OECD website

(http://www.oecd.org/EN/document/0,,EN-document-602-

5-no-21-32167-0, 00.html)



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CONGRATULATIONS TOAJCD ON ITS 10TH

ANNIVERSARY

JUDITH LEESON, National President,

Austral ian Association of Career Counsellor s

My own entry into the field of career develop-ment only just preceded the publication of the

Inaugural Edition, and I became a dedicatedsubscriber. Throughout its 10 years of publication Ihave found the AJCD a valuable source of informationand inspiration, drawing on the research-basedinformation to provide a sound basis for my careerdevelopment work with adults and adolescents,challenging my assumptions and beliefs, andproviding me with resources for further investigationand integration.

During this time AJCD has published many articlesby well-known Australian writers, reflecting theinnovative and creative career development researchand practice that have provided leading-edgesolutions, and high cost-benefits for practitioners andend users. It has been exciting to follow the work ofmany well-known contributors, to have theopportunity to hear their presentations at conferencesand workshops, and contribute to the debate oncontentious issues.

The AJCD has been instrumental in enhancing thedebate on the value of career development across thelifespan, and of the social and economic benefits offacilitating individual career self-management. Forthose practitioners who have largely worked withindividuals and groups who have experienced massive

changes in the workforce during their employment orperiods of unemployment there has been, from thefirst issue, a wealth of material on career developmentissues for adults experiencing global influences on theirlives that were never anticipated when theycommenced work. The issues of at-risk youth, womenreturning to the workforce, and other minority groupshave always featured in the AJCD to assist those whowished to work effectively in those areas.

The Australian Association of Career Counsellors(AACC) has a broad-based membership from teachersin secondary education providing career education totheir students, student advisors in the tertiary sector,private practitioners, human resources practioners ingovernment and the private sector, communityworkers, rehabilitation advisers and life skills advisersfor elite performers. As AACC’s National President Ihave been able to observe across Australia the growingconfluence of opinion on a number of issues in careerdevelopment. Many practitioners now accept thatcareer development is an over-arching framework fora number of specialised and developmentally appro-priate career activities including career education;vocational learning; career decision-making; planning,managing, implementing and enjoying a satisfying lifethat is rich with contribution to others; and a commi-tment to continual learning and skills development.


Reflections from state and territory representatives

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The Australian Journal of Career Development hassubstantially contributed to this evolution ofunderstanding about the critical importance of careerdevelopment to each individual and their communities.The journal provides access to all career practitionerswho care about the quality of their work with clientsand the unique relationship that exits between them. Italso provides the public, private and community sectors

with intelligent contemporary Australian research,invaluable resources and a rationale for investment.The publishers, the Australian Council of EducationalResearch, has been extremely fortunate in having threelong-serving editors, Meredith Shears, Wendy Pattonand James Athanasou, who have provided soundeditorial guidance and support to both the contributorsand the career development community.



QUEENSLAND PERSPECTIVE:1992–2002

JOHN CARROLL, Education Queensland

The year 1992 was a landmark year for the careerprofession in Queensland for at least three

reasons. First, there was a major reorganisation of theQueensland Education Department (now calledEducation Queensland), which reduced the numberof central office personnel supporting guidanceofficers in state schools with career programs andresources. Second, a major career conference washeld at Bond University and, third, the AustralianJournal of Career Development was born.

The new lean support machine for careerguidance within the Education Department had tobecome more resourceful, more entrepreneurial andmore self-sufficient to survive. The resultant servicehas evolved to a totally electronic system, currentlyfree to anyone who has access to the Internet, havingcome successfully through a valued free service forstate schools, and user-pays service for non-state

schools in the 1990s. The fallout from this journey hasbeen the reduction in the previously extremelyfruitful collaborations in the production of careerinformation materials with the then CommonwealthDEETYA (formerly DEET, DETYA, etc., nowDEST), and with the State Department of Employ-ment and Training (formerly DEVETIR, DEVET,DETIR, now DET), who were valuable partners inthe establishment of the JAC Program (now OZJAC,then what after myfuture?).

The Bond Conference, as many people still fondlyrefer to it, allowed local career professionals such asCol McCowan to show the rest of Australia what washappening in Queensland in the career field. Therewas a noticeable lift in the self-image of school-basedcareer people in Queensland, in particular, as theyrealised that there were many locals who were knownand respected on the national scene. The conference

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also helped to consolidate the growing influence of theAustralian Association of Career Counsellors(AACC). Time was ripe for the next step.

The arrival of AJCD, and its subsequentflourishing, served to reinforce the fact thatQueensland was able to hold its head up high inrelation to the quality and number of contributors. Iwas more than an interested observer at the time, as Ihad been editor of the only other Australian journalthat gave career practitioners the vehicle to publishAustralian research and practice to a predominantlylocal audience – the Queensland Journal of Guidanceand Counselling (which also went national in 1992 tobecome the Australian Journal of Guidance andCounselling).

The AJCD has given many practitioners andresearchers the opportunity to share their knowledgeand skills, and has demonstrated that Queensland canproudly point to a healthy share of contributors: in oneedition, almost every article came from the SunshineState (now the Smart State). Names such asMcCowan, McMahon, Patton, Gillies, Creed,Prideaux, Robinson and Hyndman have regularly

appeared as authors of papers, book reviewers, editor,editorial panellists, and as contributors to the careersforum. The journal also helped to bring togetherresearchers from the university and school sectors incollaborative projects and has fostered a healthyclimate for, and acceptance of, pure and appliedresearch as an essential part of the professional growthand development of career professionals.

Knowing the effort required to produce onejournal a year made me have great respect forMeredith and the original editorial team in producingthree copies a year. I had thought that a quarterlyjournal would be unsustainable in the long term, andI am very pleased to have been proven wrong.

As has been said many times, change is a constantin our lives, and some of the changes noted above haveencouraged resilience and ingenuity, as well asprofessional dedication to the advancement of ourprofession. I look forward to many more years ofprofessional growth of the journal as part of thisprocess of change, and for many more contributionsfrom fellow Queenslanders (including former‘Mexicans’!).



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My initial response to summarising thedevelopment of the career field in the Northern

Territory (NT) was one of disappointment andreflection of what might have been. As I allowedmyself to mull further over the changes, I realised thatwe have travelled on a roller coaster but overall careerservices have improved.

In education there has been a position allocated toevery large secondary school for the provision ofcareer information. This position has been used in avariety of ways depending on the context andpriorities of the school. In many instances the initialrole has altered dramatically and in some cases thereis little correlation between the initial intent for thepositions and how they are now used. However, thepositions remain which means that schools have anobligation to provide accurate and appropriate careerinformation. Who actually does it is a separatediscussion. Fortunately many of the non-governmentschools also have a person responsible for providingcareer information, in all an improvement from 1992when such positions did not exist.

The establishment and rapid expansion ofVocational Education and Training (VET) programshas further clouded the career field. For some,

VET = career. Many school personnel who wereproviding career information and personal counsellingare now also coordinating VET programs in theirschools. The situation has been further clouded by anational initiative that promotes the VET agenda butfails to promote the careers agenda with the samevigour. Student options and opportunities have grown,which is the most important outcome.

Many new initiatives have been trialled and/orintroduced. A new curriculum framework has fouressential learnings underpinning it which clearlypromote the skills and understandings in order tomake well informed life-long decisions. Additionally,the Real Game and the Be Real Game have beenpiloted with overall success. Initial training has alsobeen provided for school-based personnel whoprovide career services.

In the past 10 years the Northern TerritoryUniversity has restructured and reshuffled manytimes. During one of the restructures the CareersAdvisor position disappeared. Luckily it reappearedbefore long, but with a slightly different focus andnew title. There now exists an extensive service whichoffers a variety of support services to TAFE and otherhigher education students.



CAREER EDUCATION IN THENORTHERN TERRITORY:A 10-YEAR PERSPECTIVE

JANINE WATT, President, NT Division of Austral ian Association

of Career Counsellor s; Life Member, Career Educator s

Association of the NT

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Ten years ago Darwin had a very effective CareerReference Centre. This now has all but vanished asthe Commonwealth Employment Service (CES)disappeared, Centrelink and the JobNetwork wereborn and DEETYA/DEET/DEST refocusedresources. JobNetwork providers vary with theirsuccess and ability to provide accurate and appropriatecareers services. Unemployed people can access careercounselling through the Commonwealth Rehabil-itation Service (CRS) and government employees andtheir dependants through the Employee AssistanceService. Additionally the NT public service haspurchased Career Builder to assist employeescomplete a skills audit and job application. A series ofworkshops has also been offered to identified publicservants to assist them with their career planning.

There are few private providers of careercounselling in the NT. Most operate mixed businessesof personal and career counselling and/or training.The market is not very receptive to the idea of payingfor career counselling. The number of practitioners

has remained fairly stable during the last five years.Two career-related professional associations

continue to operate in the NT. The Career EducatorsAssociation of the NT (CEANT) has a membershipof approximately 40 people, mainly from theeducation sector but also from industryorganisations. The Australian Association of CareerCounsellors has a membership of 15 spread acrossthe NT. Many are also CEANT members with thosewho are not being drawn from the private sector.Professional development is offered annually byCEANT with the numbers of attendees rising overthe years to around 45.

Personally I have used the Australian Journal ofCareer Development to inform and guide manyproposals and arguments for improving careerservices in the NT. CEANT has a subscription andarticles are often discussed and shared. A number ofindividuals subscribe to it as a way of keeping abreastof what is happening in research, nationally andinternationally.



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The career field in Victoria over the last 10 yearshas been largely driven by Commonwealth and

state priorities in education, training andemployment. Part of the developments has includedthe ongoing debate on the professional nature ofcareer counselling and whether there should be anycompulsory credentialling and registration of careercounsellors. The Australian Association of CareerCounsellors (AACC) has been at the forefront of thesediscussions, especially as it has its own registrationsystem in place. The Australian Journal of CareerDevelopment has assisted in ‘professionalising’ the areaby encouraging publication of research and relatedarticles on Australian career development. This areaof regulation of the industry is fraught with issues,similar to the paths other professional industry bodieshave had to face, and it is possibly that the CareerIndustry Council of Australia (CICA) will achieveprogress in the debate and its resolution.

The career field in education has probably seen thelargest of developments in Victoria. Every school inthe state has a career practitioner, usually a teacherfrom other subject areas, with the responsibility ofimplementing career education and counselling inthe school. The amount of time the person has to

properly effect the role varies significantly betweenschool systems, and indeed can alter at each school onthe basis of local priorities. Generally speaking thetime allocation is low, with very few people in thestate able to work full-time in the career practitionerrole. With developments in the Vocational Educationand Training (VET) area, the career practitioneroften also has to coordinate the VET in Schoolsprogram, further diminishing the time available forother career work. The Career EducationAssociation of Victoria (CEAV) has been active in thisarea, often talking with the Department of Educationon this matter, but over the last 10 years there hasbeen little progress. Recently, developments that haveincluded establishing Local Learning andEmployment Networks (LLEN), ManagedIndividual Pathways (MIPs) career plans for all post-compulsory students, the Career Education QualityFramework, the new Victorian Certificate of AppliedLearning (equivalent to the VCE), and otherinitiatives, has meant a renewed priority for theimportance of the career field as central to all theseprograms. The news in universities and TAFEcolleges is even more varied, with few careercounsellors employed to handle the career needs of



DEVELOPMENT OF THECAREER FIELD IN VICTORIAOVER THE LAST 10 YEARS

PETER KRAUSZ, Fellow of the AACC, Victor ian Vice-President

and member of the National Executive Committee , Coordinator

of Career s and Training, The Grange P–12 College , Melbourne

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the huge numbers of students on campus.The changes to the Job Network and employment

provision, Rehabilitation, and other trainingdevelopments have provided some expansion of thecareer field and opportunities for career practitioners.Similarly, there has been some growth in privatepractice over the last 10 years. With the number ofcareers expos now established in Victoria and thegeneral increase in media coverage of the profession ofcareer counselling, the propensity for individuals toseek out professional career practitioners has grown,

albeit in a limited way. The recent AACC Conferencein Melbourne (April 2002) and the CEAV Conference(December 2001) have demonstrated that there arepositive signs in Victoria of a greater recognition ofthe career field and the importance of careercounselling/planning. As the AJCD celebrates its 10thanniversary, one hopes with some optimism that,through the journal and the developments bothnationally and locally in the career field, a new focusand priority exists for the status of professional careerdevelopment.



The Australian Journal of Career Development andthe Australian Association of Career Counsellors

(AACC) NSW Division actually share a 10th birthday!Ten years ago the AACC was still in its infancy as

a national body and the committee of the newlycreated NSW Division had, as its first project, thecoordination of the 3rd National Conference held inSydney at the Wesley Mission. We were still very new

to the skills of providing professional development formembers, let alone organising a large national event!Three of those original committee members were partof the 9th National Conference committee, again inSydney.

From the onset we were fortunate to have thewelcomed connection, through our membership, withour international colleagues from the USA. These

A HISTORY OF AACC NSWDIVISION IN TANDEM WITH

AJCD

MARIJKE WRIGHT, President, NSW Division,


KAREL WEARNE, Vice-President, NSW Division,


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connections enabled us to take advantage of practicaladvice in terms of provision of an excellent nationalconference which incorporated an internationalperspective on career development. There continuesto be a close liaison with Dr Deborah Bloch (currentlyon sabbatical at the University of Western Australia)and Richard Knowdell as well as the much-respectedRichard Nelson Bolles who was the keynote speakerat that conference in 1992.

This international collaboration subsequentlybroadened to the UK and Canada and more recentlyto Europe, and continues to be an important aspect ofthe professional development in NSW as it is forAACC nationally and the AJCD. Increasingly theexchange of ideas, information and strategies hasbecome more two way as some of our esteemed NSWmembers have shared their expertise at conferencesoverseas.

The AJCD and the AACC in fact share the wisdomof several Australian and international careerprofessionals who have constituted the EditorialCommittee. In this way the AJCD and AACC NSWhave reflected the Australian growth in careerdevelopment work within the framework ofinternationally recognised benchmarks.

The emphasis on professional development formembers throughout NSW and the raising ofawareness of the value of career counselling to alllevels of the community has been our dual focus.Establishing links with the media has assisted with theraising of the profile of the broad work of careerpractitioners as has the establishment of a CareerCounselling section in the Yellow Pages, which was afirst for NSW. Now the media often seeks out AACCNSW members for their professional comments onvarious aspects of the workplace dynamic.

Attempting to reach AACC members in theregions of NSW to provide them with access toprofessional development meant several ‘road showweekends’ in the first five years, with more

experienced practitioners volunteering their expertisegenerously. More lately, providing professionaldevelopment over a weekend in outer metropolitanSydney has successfully encouraged participationfrom the country regions.

Our desire to reach out to and educate thecommunity (including government) regarding thevalue of career development led to the establishmentof highly successful full-day Community Careersworkshops subsequently organised by other divisionsalso. In 1996 a full weekend was made available tomature aged and youth unemployed where they couldfreely access group training sessions. At the 9thNational Conference in Manly, a full day with varioustraining opportunities was again made available tounemployed individuals.

In the last 10 years, content and focus ofprofessional development has been responsive to boththe changing nature of the workplace and theimplications for career development as well as thespecialised sectional interests of our NSW member-ship. Professional development sessions have reflectedvarying themes such as the ever-popular ‘AssessmentTools’ sessions to ‘Soul Work in Careers’ and hasincluded a 1997–98 theme of ‘Technology Knowledgeand Skills’.

In the past few years the NSW Committee hasbeen at the forefront of the development of closerstrategic alliances with other careers practitionergroups in the various specialisations of the workplacenationally. A recent example of this closer union hasbeen the successful 2001 and 2002 combinedprofessional development sessions with the AustralianInstitute for Training and Development.

As the career profession has matured there hasbeen a parallel growth with the AJCD and the AACCNSW Division, both with a vision to enhance theprofessional development of career practitioners whohave responsibility to the development of theworkforce.



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The inaugural edition of the Australian Journal ofCareer Development published in November

1992 reported on the International/National ‘TowardsEffective Participation in Working Life’ conferenceat Bond University in April of that year. SixTasmanian school-based career coordinators bondedat Bond and pledged to enhance the profile of careereducation in Tasmania. Over the last 10 years thecareer field in Tasmania has expanded, principallythrough the formation and activities of the TasmanianDivision of the Australian Association of CareerCounsellors (AACC).

The early to mid-1990s was a productive time inTasmania. The Department of Education appointed aPrincipal Curriculum Officer for Career and WorkRelated Studies. Several professional developmentactivities and conferences for school careerpractitioners were funded. A Career and WorkEducation Policy was developed and subsequentlyendorsed by the then Minister for Education and theArts. Unfortunately however, reflecting thecomments of Col McCowan (book review, AJCD 5(1)p. 47) and Wendy Patton (AJCD 9(3) pp. 34–39),career education in Tasmania was overshadowed bythe development and implementation of VocationalEducation and Training (VET) in schools.

Meanwhile, membership of the AACC (TasmanianDivision) continued to grow and became more diverse,with a membership representing career developmentpractitioners in tertiary education, schools and colleges,private practice, Job Network, VET and vocationalrehabilitation. The Division was able to conduct twovery successful AACC national conferences in 1994and 2001. Lesley Armstrong’s regular contributions toAJCD in the area of organisational career developmentare, however, a reminder that this aspect of the careerdevelopment field is under-represented in Tasmania,with more needing to be achieved outside the schoolsector as well as more uniformly across all schoolsectors. Tony Watts’ ‘Careerquake’ (AJCD 6(2) pp.36–40), Barrie Irving and Sajida Raja’s article oncareer education in a changing world of work (AJCD7(3) pp. 28–31), and Wendy Patton’s recommendationfor expansion in career education or careerdevelopment work to cater for a larger number ofindividuals in diverse contexts (AJCD 10(3) pp. 13–19)highlight the need for career development programsin Tasmanian organisations to be developed tofacilitate individuals’ capacities to make multiplecareer decisions throughout the lifespan.

Contributors to AJCD over the last decade haveprovided Tasmanian career practitioners with a range



CAREER DEVELOPMENT INTASMANIA, 1992–2002

CATHY HUGHES, Career s Adviser, Scotch Oakburn College ,

Kings Meadows, Tasmania

RAY STACEY, Career s Counsellor, The Hutchins School, Sandy

Bay, Tasmania

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of practical strategies to enhance the quality of careerdevelopment services. For example:• Stu Conger outlined some easy ways to implement

hallmarks of a quality careers service (AJCD 4(1)pp. 3–7) and Brad Temple and Lesley Armstrong(AJCD 4(2) pp. 21–23) highlighted the need forstrategic planning;

• Rachel Abramson’s articles on establishing a careercounselling practice (AJCD 6(3) pp. 8–10 and 7(1)pp. 5–8) have assisted the small number of careercounselling professionals in private practice inTasmania;

• Joanne Earl, Jim Bright and Austin Adams’Australian evidence on what gets graduate résumésshort-listed (AJCD 7(1) pp. 15–19) has assistedTasmanian career practitioners in providing soundresearch-based advice on resume construction;

• James Athanasou’s article on job finding inAustralia (AJCD 3(3) pp. 51–54) has highlightedthe importance of developing clients’ confidence inaccessing the ‘hidden’ job market;

• Gloria Robinson’s article on mapping careereducation in schools (AJCD (6(1) pp. 3–7) andMary McMahon and John Carroll’s description ofthe development and implementation of careereducation program in a pre-school–12 co-educational school (AJCD 8(2) pp. 42–46 and 8(3)pp. 38–44) have provided guidelines to enableTasmanian school-based career practitionersdevelop whole-school career education programs;

• Cathy Hughes (AJCD 4(2) pp. 12–14) alsoencouraged career practitioners to consider socialjustice issues when developing career educationprograms;

• Mary McMahon and Wendy Patton (AJCD 4(2) pp.15–20) have encouraged practitioners to look to thedevelopment of a systems theory framework tohelp them in their work.Jan Lokan’s tribute to Donald Super (AJCD 5(2)

pp. 3–6) reminded us of Super’s vision and theimmense influence his work has had and continues tohave on the work of career development practitionersin all settings.

The role of career assessment was featured in aspecial feature of AJCD 4(3) (pp. 3–42) and in the newlook, new millennium edition (AJCD 9(1) pp. 25–29),Mary McMahon and Wendy Patton reminded us of

the shift towards the constructivist approach to careercounselling, the corresponding significance ofqualitative assessment and the importance of enablingclients to construct their own meaning of careerassessment data (quantitative or qualitative). R. VancePeavy (AJCD 9(1) pp. 17–24 and 10(2) pp. 15–20),Douglas Gibson (AJCD 9(1) pp. 35–39), Charles Chen(AJCD 11(1) pp. 14–21) and Mary McMahon, MandyAdams and Ros Lim (AJCD 11(1) pp. 22–31) havefurther highlighted the influence of the constructivistworld view and its application to the career field.Indeed, Tasmanian career practitioners haveidentified an urgent need for professional develop-ment in the practical application of the constructivistapproach.

In a nutshell, the career development field inTasmania has expanded and strengthened. TheAustralian Journal of Career Development has played avital role in enabling Tasmanian career developmentpractitioners from diverse contexts to gain excellentprofessional background material from the casestudies, articles and reviews to enable them to provideup-to-date and quality career development servicesfor their clients.



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Over the past 10 years a number of trends andimportant events in the career development field

in the ACT have occurred. These are highlighted by:• increased awareness of and demand for career

services particularly evidenced in the public sectorand largely induced by a climate of redundancyand redeployment;

• consequent creation of an environment in whichpeople in the ACT were more open to and in needof the services of career counsellors, leading to anincreased visibility and professional profile ofcareer coaches and counsellors. More of thesepractitioners are seeking formal qualifications;

• government commitment to redeployment andcareer counselling, evidenced by the establishmentof the APS Labour Market Adjustment Program(APSLMAP) in 1994 in response to proposed largenational retrenchments in the departments ofVeterans Affairs and Administrative Services. ANational Office was located in Canberra withregional offices in all states by 1996;

• establishment of the ACT division of theAustralian Association of Career Counsellors(AACC) in 1995 with a handful of members.Through the hard work of a number of committedpeople over the past seven years the division hasconsistently grown. Special mention should bemade of Narelle Milligan, Ian Denman, BethMcRae, Trish Carroll, Judith Bailey and Margaret

Bourke who over the years have made fantasticcontributions to the AACC;

• establishment of major annual careers events likethe ACT Careers Market and the Tertiary to Workcareers fair;

• growth in careers services delivered in workplacerehabilitation services;

• greater emphasis on individual responsibility forsetting direction of personal and professionaldevelopment and career direction; and

• movement from career counselling to careercoaching. The ACT has actively contributed to the career

development field at a national level, hosting thenational conferences of the AACC in 1998 and theNational Association of Graduate Careers Advisers atthe Australian National University in 2001.

ROLE OF THE AJCDThe role of the AJCD has been an importantcontributor to keeping abreast of international trendsand national developments as well as providing theopportunity to share information and ideas with otherprofessionals in the field. It has helped raiseprofessional standards and increased the credibility ofthe career development field.

With thanks to Glenda Gray, Kate Gemmell andSue Crawford.



THE LAST 10 YEARS:DEVELOPMENTS IN THE

CAREERS FIELD IN THE ACT

CAROLE BROWN, ACT Division,


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WHAT WE DID IN THE PASTIn the past some career practitioners placed a strongemphasis on one-on-one career counselling tofacilitate better self-understanding and to identifylikely satisfying work environments. Otherpractitioners placed a strong emphasis on beingkeepers and dispensers of scarce information andknowledge about learning and work options. Otherpractitioners used tests and assessments as jobmatching tools and took the role of expert adviser.

WHAT WE DO NOWToday workers in the career field have a variety ofofficial roles. These include:• coordinating learning and work transitions;• coordinating and/or participating in stakeholder

career-related activities;• coordinating work-related placements or visits;• coordinating the tracking of individual progress

through and after transitions;• coordinating a career resource centre or access to

career resources;• teaching/facilitating career education/career

planning/career development in classes/groups;• career counselling – one-on-one and/or small

group; • career coaching – one-on-one skill development

towards specific goal achievement.

An examination of these official roles reveals heavyemphasis on coordinating information and resources.Recently, career development resourcing has focusedon improving career information access, quantity andquality. As such the earlier role of keeper anddispenser of information is largely redundant, havingchanged to knowledge and option broker.

Education, human resources and careerdevelopment are all people development businesses,not knowledge businesses, as the current focussometimes suggests. Unofficial career developmentroles, such as encourager, motivator, supporter,mentor, listener, advocate and believer will always beimportant. The most important book for anyone tostudy and understand is their own book. Helpingpeople develop growing self-understanding anddiscovering ingredients that will make their lifepersonally satisfying and fulfilling is highly skilledand important work for career practitioners. Thiswork has been under-resourced in recent times, due tothe emphasis on providing access to careerinformation and learning options.

AND THE FUTURE?Interpersonal and counselling skills need to bebalanced against coordinating and informationbroking skills. The focus needs to shift towardsfacilitating broader and deeper personalunderstanding about why and what particular life and



CAREER DEVELOPMENT INWESTERN AUSTRALIA:

PAST, CURRENT, FUTURE

JUDY DENHAM, Austral ian Association of Career Counsellor s,

Western Austral ia

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work ingredients would bring a greater sense ofpurpose and fulfilment into a person’s life, and thenfacilitating related option and action strategyexploration. This individual meaning making isespecially important for those who are ‘at risk’,‘anxious’, ‘fearful’ and/or ‘unmotivated’. Careerpractitioner training and professional developmentneeds to support this shift in role focus.

Career professionals also have the opportunity tomake a difference by becoming positive role modelswho ‘walk their talk’. By continually broadening anddeepening our self-understanding, exploring changingoptions and strategies, and acting to make appropriatechanges to our thinking, feeling and behaviour, we canprovide a role model of how to live fulfilled, satisfyinglives that are true to our personal purpose.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENTIn Western Australia, Edith Cowan University offersa four unit Graduate Ceritificate in Career Educationand a Master of Education (Career Education).Emphasis is being placed on flexibility to cater forprior learning, work-based learning and adaptationto meet the needs of career practitioners working withdifferent target groups. The practical counsellingskills unit and work search units can be run on an ‘asneeds’ basis anywhere in Australia. Other units areoffered in distance mode. For experienced careerprofessionals, not having an undergraduate degree is

no longer a barrier to university studies in the careerfield. Many school-based career teachers havecompleted the Graduate Certificate in CareerEducation. Industry-based career professionals oftentake a combination of career units as part of anassortment of Training and Development qualifi-cations within the Faculty of Adult and ContinuingLearning, which is also the faculty for the careerqualifications.

Career professional groups such as the AustralianAssociation of Career Counsellors and the CareerEducation Association of Western Australia supportthe work of career practitioners in many ways. Theyprovide ongoing professional career process andknowledge development, and encourage inter-personal support to nurture ourselves, so that whenwe work we are energised and focused on those wholook to us for support. The opportunity to give andreceive personal career counselling, and supervision,from other practitioners is also a valuable ongoingactivity. Regularly receiving personal career coun-selling and participating in supervision enables us toreview how closely we are ‘walking our own talk’ asrole models and career professionals.

The Australian Journal of Career Developmentprovides important professional development supportby encouraging ongoing learning through contri-bution and sharing of career research, theories,policies, practices and experiences.



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Life at the beginning of the 21st century looks verydifferent than it did 20 years ago. Socially, we

find ourselves facing complex choices amid changingassumptions about relationships, sexuality, deviancy,crime, health, drugs, and life and death themselves.Economically, we see turmoil, and a marketplacepersistently redefined through technology andglobalisation (Herr, 1999). Politically, we are trying tocome to grips with new realities, including thegrowing presence of terrorism in all its forms. Thesemany changes threaten to overwhelm us. Certainly,

they suggest the emergence of a changed world for thepractice of career counselling, and for the assumptionsthat we bring to that practice.

In the midst of these disruptions, the psychologicalcontract between employers and workers hasfundamentally shifted (Cappelli, 1999). Manyemployers have flatter organisational structures, moreemphasis on productivity, less job security, and oftenhigher levels of stress and burnout (Feller, 1995). Moreworkers are finding themselves left outside of theinstitutional arrangements among companies, unions


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MERGING TWO WORLDS:LINKING OCCUPATIONALAND ORGANISATIONALCAREER COUNSELLING

NORMAN E. AMUNDSON, POLLY PARKER AND

MICHAEL B . ARTHUR

This article proposes a merger between the traditionally separate worlds of occupationaland organisational career counselling. It is suggested such a merger can be achieved througha self-organising view of careers, and of helping people exercise greater influence over theirown career directions. This view is supported by describing the combined application of‘intelligent career’ theory and ‘active engagement’ practice, and by illustrating that applicationthrough a complementary career counselling tool called the Intelligent Career Card Sort.Thearticle proceeds with a brief report on how a related approach might be used within ‘careercommunities’, where these are self-organising phenomena in which people find careersupport.The conclusion invites career counsellors to develop a career community of theirown, in order to pursue the proposed merger of counselling approaches.

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or professional associations through which muchemployment occurs. Some who are left outside findthat they cannot access the current marketplacebecause of lack of skills or other barriers (Reid, 1996).As life has changed, so too has the context for careercounselling. One outcome is that we can no longercontinue to separate personal from career concerns(Amundson, 1998). A related outcome is that peopleare being challenged to accept greater responsibilityfor their own career choices. They need to becomedirectors as well as actors in their own life/careerdramas (Arthur, Inkson & Pringle, 1999).

A further outcome, and the focus of this article, isthat we can no longer afford to separate occupationaland organisational career counselling. So far, thesetwo approaches to counselling have existed as largelyseparate worlds. Each approach has developed its ownculture, professional associations and methods, andoperates largely independently of the other. Yet, froman occupational perspective, we can no longer assumethat once someone chooses an occupation he or shewill pursue it over the course of a lifetime. Similarly,from an organisational perspective, we can no longerassume that employment security in the sameorganisation is possible, or preferable. The regularmovement in and out of jobs is a reality, and involveschange, sometimes dramatic change, in people’s careerdirections. Career counsellors need to be able to helpclients direct their own careers across bothoccupational and organisational arenas, and inkeeping with the pace of environmental change.

In this article we make the case for a mergerbetween the worlds of occupational andorganisational career counselling. We draw on ourown personal experiences in stepping outside our owntraditional worlds of occupational career counselling(Norman) and organisational career counselling(Michael, Polly) as well as our exposure to theconnected worlds of family and crisis counselling (inwhich we need to know even better when to makereferrals). We illustrate our argument by drawing onrelevant theory and practice we have found helpful inour collaboration.

A SELF-ORGANISING WORLDAs we have searched for an integrated theory of careerwe have come to similar conclusions from differentdirections. The chaotic economic situation suggests

that people can no longer depend on educational andwork organisations to direct their career planning.People need to play a greater role in shaping their owncareer development, in both the accumulation ofrelevant competencies and the representation of thosecompetencies in the world of work. There is acontinuing tension between leveraging pastexperience and positioning for future opportunity.This tension is nicely captured in the idea of self-organising, whereby individuals and groups cometogether in the pursuit of mutual interests. This ideahas been characterised by Cilliers (1998) as follows:

The capacity for self-organisation is a property of

complex systems which enables them to develop or

change internal structure spontaneously and

adaptively in order to cope with, or manipulate, their

environment. (p. 90)

Self-organising suggests a two-way process,whereby people, as the underlying elements in aneconomic system, are not only influenced by but alsoinfluence the system in their career behaviour. Theprinciple is consistent with contemporary ideas insocial psychology that people enact their careers(Weick, 1996) and in sociology that people helpstructure the environment in which they participate(Giddens, 1986). The common thread is that peoplemake sense of the world of work through subjectiveinterpretation of their own career experiences. Inliving through the complexity of economic life, theydraw new insights and formulate new strategies thatmake sense of this complexity. Careers associated withthis self-organising ideal have been variouslydescribed as ‘boundaryless’ (Arthur & Rousseau,1996), ‘portfolio’ (Handy, 1990) or ‘protean’ (Hall,1992; Hall 1996).

A self-organising view of career behaviour invitesa new focus on employability rather than employmentsecurity (Kanter, 1989). Yet, if employability is tomean more than rhetoric, people need to be moreempowered to manage their own career situations.Recent writing suggests a shift toward ‘transactional’rather than ‘relational’ employment contractprinciples (Rousseau, 1995) and an associated ideal of‘free agency’ in career behaviour (Pink, 2001). Freeagency, however, may not be enough. There is alreadyevidence that people form broader kinds of relational


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attachments that endure as employmentarrangements change (Higgins & Kram, 2001).

Clearly, a self-organising perspective invitescounsellors to help people take more responsibility forthe direction and evolution of their own careers,spanning the work experiences they pursue and themeaning, motivation, learning and relationships theydevelop. This perspective also encourages people totake responsibility for their definitions andinterpretations of career success, according to theirown internal criteria.

A THEORY OF ‘INTELLIGENTCAREERS’ Management theorist James Brian Quinn (1992) hasprovided an influential view of what he called the‘intelligent enterprise’ in the emerging, knowledge-driven, economy. Quinn anticipated this kind ofeconomy in arguing that the collective, unfoldingtalents of a company’s people were more importantthan its physical assets. His ideas relate closely to ideasthat see a company’s success stemming from itscultivation of distinctive, internal ‘core competencies’.These can in turn be seen to stem from the internalculture (shared values, beliefs and sense of purpose),overall know-how (accumulated worker skills andexpertise), and business networks (relationships withsuppliers, customers and collaborators) that thecompany is able to nurture (Hall, 1992).

Arthur, Claman and DeFillippi (1995) haveexamined Quinn’s framework to consider how peoplecould engage with and contribute to the above kindof competencies on their own terms. How couldpeople provide value to organisations while takingcharge of their own careers? How could careers bemore individually negotiated in both the individual’sand the organisation’s best interests? They haveproposed the following ‘intelligent career’ framework,whereby people might interact with, but notsubordinate their careers to, the culture, know-howand networks of successive employing organisations:• ‘Knowing-why’ competencies refer to themes of

motivation, values, meaning and identity. Thesecompetencies incorporate attitudes toward homeand family, and other non-work aspects of life thatinfluence career choice, adaptability and com-mitment.

• ‘Knowing-how’ competencies incorporate career-relevant skills and knowledge. These competenciesdraw on both formal and informal learning, andincorporate both explicit and tacit knowledge, eachof which can contribute to organisationaleffectiveness.

• ‘Knowing-whom’ competencies refer to therelationships inside and outside of the organisationthat may support its functioning as well as theunfolding career of the individual. These contactsinclude relationships with family, friends, alumni,and professional and social acquaintances.The intelligent career framework is a holistic one.

The three ways of knowing interact with one anotherin a unique way for each person, reflecting the person’sown subjective interpretation of his or her careersituation. Moreover, as people build their careers, theycan look to enlarge each of the three ways of knowing.In the process, career development that does not reflectgrowth in all three areas is likely to be unsatisfactorybecause of the resultant imbalance. For example, in oneproject we were working with people in a bank whowere frustrated with their career trajectories. A closerlook revealed that many of them found much(knowing-why) enjoyment in their positions and hadvaluable (knowing-why) job skills. However, they wereunable to engage in effective (knowing-whom)relationships with colleagues, managers or clients. Thislack of meaningful connection with others limited theireffectiveness as well as their future career prospects.

Interactions among the three ways of knowing takevarious forms (Inkson & Arthur, 2001). Many careerdevelopment theorists discuss the importance ofidentifying (knowing-why) passions as a precursor tocareer development. A strong sense of knowing-whycan provide the energy, purpose and motivation todrive both (knowing-how) skill development andengagement in new (knowing-whom) relationships.The same type of interactive effect can be found if welook at the other two ways of knowing. For example, indeveloping stronger knowing-how skills people canfind new (knowing-why) identification with theirwork as well as nurture new (knowing-whom) linkswith mentors and other workers. In building freshknowing-whom relationships, people can help to createnew (knowing-how) skill-building opportunities andrefine or reaffirm their (knowing-why) motivation.


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Another way to view the ways of knowing is asinvestments. Through our careers, we invest inourselves, and we also invest in the employers whoprovide us with work. However, these investmentsare much more than instrumental. As human beingswe invest our (knowing-why) enthusiasm for, andidentification with, the work that we do, and build(knowing-whom) attachments to other workers. Our(knowing-how) skills and knowledge are often tacit,and dependent on shared understanding. Thus,forestry workers or bankers or engineers who havesuddenly been displaced can experience dramaticlosses not only in income, but in their sense of self-worth, companionship and relevance.

THE PRACTICE OF ACTIVEENGAGEMENTAn emphasis on the unique, subjective side of people’sunfolding work experiences lies at the heart of a self-organising perspective. With this in mind, careercounsellors may be expected to benefit from strategiesthat help people to discuss and elaborate on inherentlypersonal career conceptions. One framework for doingso involves the general principles of ‘active engagement’(Amundson, 1998). These principles are as follows. 1 Establish a ‘mattering’ climate

Create a counselling climate where people believethat they ‘matter’, that they are of interest andsignificance to the counsellor (Schlossberg, Lynch &Chickering, 1989). A sense of mattering iscommunicated through words and actions. Smallsteps such as going out to meet a client, or listeningto a story without interruption, communicates to aclient that he or she matters.

2 Rethink conventionsThere are many unwritten rules about how coun-selling should progress (Amundson, 2002). Theserules define roles, timelines, the organisation of thespace, the materials used in counselling, and so on.Although many of these conventions serve apurpose, they may also require evaluation to ensurethat they do not constrain the counselling relation-ship in a way that diminishes a person’s uniqueness.

3 Negotiate the helping relationshipClients and counsellors may have differing expec-tations about the counselling process. Theseexpectations need to be clarified and to be made

explicit. Once this is done, a foundation isestablished from which there is an opportunity tonegotiate and build both a distinctive and acollaborative counselling relationship.

4 Integrate personal and career issuesAs already mentioned, the counselling processneeds to be holistic. Broad exploration of knowing-why and knowing-whom competencies, inparticular, can involve a wide-ranging discussion.This does not call for career counsellors to becomepersonal therapists, but it does signal the need fora sensitivity to underlying issues, and appropriatereferrals when issues surface that may be beyondthe career counsellor’s expertise.

5 Celebrate imagination, creativity and flexibilityThe traditional conditions for the establishment ofthe counselling relationship include genuineness,unconditional positive regard and empathicunderstanding (Rogers, 1980). Also of importanceis the ability to be imaginative, creative and flexiblein the counselling process, and thereby help clientsto claim greater ownership of their own careersituations.

6 Use activities that address the physical, conceptual andemotionalCounsellors can rely too heavily on verbalexchange. People learn in different ways, and it isimportant to tap into different learning styles.Experiential learning approaches provide opportu-nities to engage with a client’s own learning style(Rennie, 1998), as well as to adjust to the distinctiveneeds of the client.

7 Create memorable and transformative experiencesWhen people are involved in experiences that aretruly engaging and memorable they are more likelyto make significant life/career changes (Pine &Gilmore, 1999). In both individual and groupsituations, counsellors can enhance the career coun-selling process through the creation of experiencesthat are novel, informative, relevant and involving.

8 Focus on short-term goalsThe career counselling process is strengthenedthrough a series of ‘success’ experiences. In orderto achieve this, it is important to ensure that thereis a balance between long-term and short-termgoals. One possibility is to break goals down intosmaller steps that are achievable in an appropriate


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time period. It is also important to identify factorsthat may support or hinder the attainment of thesegoals.

9 Support actions within and between sessionsActive involvement is an important part of thecounselling process and is reinforced when expressedat every level. The aim is to support clients to movefrom being passive responders to being activeparticipants in their career choices (Goldman, 1990;McMahon & Patton, 2002). Mutually determined‘homework’ assignments can maintain and extendclient involvement between formal counsellingsessions.

10 Position for new and emerging possibilitiesCurrent economic thinking challenges the tradi-tional goal-setting process. Rather than following alogical and sequential pathway, clients have to beready to engage with new and emerging possi-bilities. Mitchell, Levin and Krumboltz (1999)suggest that readiness to recognise and create careeropportunities is supported and encouraged by skillsand attitudes in curiosity, persistence, flexibility,optimism and risk-taking.

These principles may be used in a wide range ofcounselling situations. However, we will apply themhere to one particular approach, namely the‘intelligent career’ theory previously described.

INTEGRATING THEORY ANDPRACTICEThe use of card sorts provides a mechanism to applya number of the above principles. Card sorts providea tactile approach to identifying personal agendas andvalues which affirms a ‘mattering’ climate. Card sortsalso provide a mechanism for negotiating with clients,and in helping them to make choices that will guidetheir future actions (Amundson, 1998). They can alsohelp people engage with their internal, subjectiveselves which provide the basis for self-organising tooccur (Carr, 1992). However, card sorts have oftenbeen used in conjunction with relatively staticoccupational or organisational counselling assump-tions, about choosing a line of work or a place of workthat matches personal values, rather than as tools formore dynamic adjustment to changing personal andemployment realities. How can the advantages of acard sort be combined with the broader set of activeengagement principles, and in particular those

concerned with celebrating imagination, creativityand flexibility, to provide transformative experiences,and to support clients’ moves from interpretation toaction?

Our response to the above question has been todevelop a card sort reflecting the intelligent careerframework, and to further utilise active engagementprinciples in related counselling activities. Thecentrepiece of this approach is the Intelligent CareerCard Sort (ICCS), first developed in 1995 (Parker,1996) and later refined through a number of differentresearch projects (Arthur, Amundson & Parker, inpress; Parker, 2002; Parker & Arthur, 2000; Wnuk &Amundson, in press). The most current versioncontains 115 cards that are in three colours todifferentiate across the three dimensions of intelligentcareer theory. There are 40 blue knowing-why cards,38 yellow knowing-how cards and 37 green knowing-whom cards. The card sort is also available onlineover the world wide web.1

The range of items on the knowing-why cards, inaccordance with active engagement principles, invitesresponses to both personal and lifestyle issues. Theitems on the knowing-how cards invite responses tothe applicability of people’s skill investments in bothoccupational and organisational arenas, as well aboutthe learning contexts and processes in which clientsengage. The knowing-whom cards cover relation-ships with both organisational and occupational peersas well as with other connections outside workplacewhere people might find career information orsupport.

In using the ICCS, participants are instructed toidentify and rank their top seven selections in each ofthe three ways of knowing. During this processparticipants’ curiosity is often aroused about thechoices and trade-offs they are making. Once the cardsort is completed, that curiosity is encouraged ineliciting a participant’s subjective career data. Keywords on selected cards provide an opportunity toprompt participants to explore the underlyingmeanings they associate with each card. Thequestioning process may be detailed but also flexible.Patterns across the card selections can also beidentified, and statements elicited that help to


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1. More information on the ICCS may be found at the website

www.intelligentcareer.com

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emphasise a client’s strengths. At the same time,intuition can be encouraged by asking the client whatlinks, surprises or apparent omissions he or she seesacross the cards selected. The client’s answers mayreveal patterns within and/or across the three ways ofknowing. The emerging patterns can be furtherexplored by developing appropriate metaphors,thereby providing a visual way for working withsome of the issues that are identified (Inkson &Amundson, 2002).

Action planning with the ICCS involves all threeways of knowing. Some action plans are specific toone area while others will cut across all three domains.As mentioned earlier, in deriving these action plans itis important that at least some plans are both specificand achievable in a relatively short time span. It isthrough the actions that people take that their self-organising career takes shape.

AN EXAMPLE: KAREN2

The case of Karen provides a brief illustration of howthe ICCS counselling process works. Karen was a 30-year-old former teacher who had recently taken alocal government position as an education policyanalyst. In other words, she had undertakensimultaneous changes in both occupation (out ofteaching) and organisation (out of the school that hademployed her). She had experienced careercounselling earlier in her life as a high school andcollege student, and had perceived it as ‘helping mefind a job for life’. She took the ICCS during the firstthree months of her new position, stating that ‘I likemy new position but I wouldn’t wish to be doing thesame thing for ever’. Her ICCS selections are shownin Table 1. Some highlights from counselling sessionswhen she spoke about those selections are providedbelow.

Knowing-why: In talking about the card ‘I like togain a sense of achievement from my work’, Karenemphasised that for her a sense of achievementinvolved ‘internal feelings’ of comfort and pride,rather than of climbing any organisationalhierarchy. She liked supporting other people, butwas happy to work alone, doing ‘good qualitywork and running things myself’. When she talked

about the card ‘I like to make a contribution tosociety’ she described how her experience withpeople who hadn’t succeeded in high school hadinfluenced her, observing that ‘helping people feelbetter about themselves makes our society a betterplace’. When Karen spoke about the card ‘I want toplan and organise my work’ she described how sheliked to have ‘a sense of control’ over her work andto have others trust her to ‘carry through anddeliver’.Knowing-how: When talking about the card ‘I seekto learn how to work more effectively with otherpeople’ Karen described an ‘analytical’ side of hernature, and was clear about the importance ofhaving ‘good quality relationships’ in both her


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2. Karen’s name and certain features of the case have been

disguised to preserve anonymity.

TABLE 1: ICCS selections for example client Karen

Knowing-why:I want stability in my present locationI like to gain a sense of achievement from my workI like to make a contribution to societyI want employment to support my lifestyleI enjoy working in a supportive atmosphereI want to be challenged in my workI want to plan and organise my work

Knowing-how:I seek to learn from the projects in which I participate I seek training and development for a future jobI pursue skills and knowledge specific to my occupationI am learning at the forefront of my field of interestI seek to learn how to work more effectively withother people

I seek to become a more strategic thinkerI learn through being open to fresh ideas

Knowing-whom:I maintain or develop relationships with familyI work to sustain my relationships with school or college friends

I work to keep my old friendsI maintain or develop relationships with people outside my workplace

I try to develop new friendshipsI build relationships with people inside my occupationI work with people who can learn from me

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work life and her personal life. She had previouslytaken a time management course at her owninitiative. In talking about the selection ‘I seektraining and development for a future job’ sheobserved she tried to ‘think of my current workand then how that will lead into futureemployment for me’. The card ‘I am learning at theforefront of my field of interest’ elicited fromKaren the thought that her career field was nowthe broader one of education, rather than school-teaching, and that succeeding in it would involve‘actively pursuing new knowledge and being veryconscious of what I am doing and why’.Knowing-whom: Principal themes in Karen’sknowing-whom card selections were the impor-tance of friends and family, and a clear separationbetween work and social connections. However,she was beginning to reconsider some of herassumptions as she adjusted to her new position.The card ‘I try to develop new friendships’ broughtout the statement that she maybe didn’t investsufficient time or energy to find new friends. Thecard ‘I build relationships with people inside myoccupation’ brought a similar concession that ‘Idon’t do too much of that either’. The card ‘I workwith people who can learn from me’ drew out anexample from her teaching experience of howwilling Karen was to spend time helping others.Karen’s case reflects a person still in transition.

However, it was a transition where previousoccupational and organisational investments helpedher make sense of her new career situation. She wasclaiming greater responsibility for her own career andthe work experiences that would help her succeed,and on her own terms. The ICCS exercise helped hermake clearer links across the three ways of knowing,for example between her (knowing-why) motivationto contribute to society and her (knowing-how)investments in new skills and experiences. It alsoappeared to help her begin to consider broadening herexisting set of (knowing-whom) relationships, to findand to give more support in what she saw as her newcareer field, namely education, not teaching.

TYING IN OTHER APPROACHESThe intelligent career framework may also be usedwith other approaches already popular in eitheroccupational or organisational career counselling. The

framework provides a way to integrate these into acomposite picture of the client’s career situation, andfor better integration of different elements offeedback into the client’s future action (Fig. 1). Forexample, one such exercise is the PatternIdentification Exercise (Amundson, 1998), developedto help clients develop an in-depth description ofpositive and negative aspects of their interests, notnecessarily work-related. The links this providesbetween client knowing-why and knowing-how datamay be integrated into a larger picture wherecomplementary knowing-whom issues can beaddressed.

More broadly, the intelligent career framework canbe employed to tie together traditional occupationalcounselling approaches that have been used to predictthe link from (knowing-why) interests, values,temperament or personality type to (knowing-how)occupational capabilities. The Strong InterestInventory, the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey andthe Myers–Briggs Type Indicator are three of manyapproaches that provide these kinds of data. The sameframework can then be used to tie in other exercisesconcerned with, for example, asking a client to gatherfeedback from relevant others about his or her talents(knowing-whom to knowing-how), or about tem-perament (knowing-whom to knowing-why). Theframework may also be used to invite a more dynamicinterpretation of, for example, when (knowing-why)interests were formed and how enduring they may bein changing career circumstances.

The framework can fill a similar function fororganisational counselling, covering the issuespreviously mentioned as well as specific organi-sational data generated through performanceappraisals from (knowing-whom) managers aboutworker (knowing-how) job performance and linkingback to (knowing-why) worker motivation.Following a similar path is 360 degree feedback data,but it comes from a surrounding group of workersrather than an individual boss. Finally, and in thespirit in which we offer this article, the frameworkmay be use to help a client tie together disparateelements of feedback from both occupational andorganisational counselling sources, and within asingle interpretive scheme. This kind of integrationmay be pursued with or without the ICCSmethodology previously described (See Fig. 1).


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FIG. 1 THE INTELLIGENT CAREERFRAMEWORK

BRINGING IN COMMUNITIESThe discussion thus far builds on the individual’scapacity to develop the three ways of knowing.However, individuals are social beings, and typicallyboth need and benefit from the experience ofcommunity in their lives and careers. The concept of‘career communities’ offers a way to consider how thenotion of self-organising careers can be extended toincorporate community investments. Career commu-nities may be defined as ‘self-organising, member-defined social structures through which career actorsdraw career support’ (Parker, 2000, p. 92).

Individuals may participate in multiple careercommunities at any one time. Occupations andorganisations provide natural meeting-grounds forpeople to identify and form allegiances with oneanother. However, so too do the geographic regionsin which people live and work, and the industries inwhich work gets done. Religious and politicalattachments, shared educational or militaryexperiences, ‘virtual’ connections over the world wideweb, and family or extended family connectionsprovide further channels through which communitysupport can be found. Temporary projects cangenerate a sense of community that persists long afterthe project itself is over (Parker & Arthur, 2000).

Ideas on work-related communities can also belinked directly to the three ways of knowingpreviously described. For example, Wenger (1998,p. 72) describes communities of practice as

functioning through three interdependentdimensions. One is a spirit of joint enterprise, whichmay be seen to draw on member’s knowing-whycareer investments. Another is a shared repertoire,which may be seen as constituted from member’sknowing-how investments. The third is mutualengagement, which may be seen to both draw on andpotentially enhance member’s knowing-whominvestments. Moreover, just as intelligent careers stemfrom the subjective self, career communities stemfrom the inter-subjective common ground that theirmembers find with one another (Parker, 2000).

The theoretical links between individual andcommunity have led us to experiment with a secondapplication of the ICCS in eliciting inter-subjectivedata. Members of a career community are asked tocomplete the ICCS, and then asked to discuss acomposite profile of the seven most important cardselections in each of the knowing-why, knowing-howand knowing-whom arenas. Space constraints preventfurther elaboration here, but the purpose is to getcommunity members to talk about these selections,why they are mutually important, and what theysuggest about how community members can help oneanother in their careers.

For example, a group of sexual abuse counsellorsdiscovered through this process that, although they allworked out of the same office, an organisationalcareer perspective carried little importance for them.The same group found an occupational careerperspective somewhat more helpful. However, thereal strength of the community stemmed from theirshared ideological commitment to make a differencethrough their support for disadvantaged women insociety. In turn, the members were eager to supportone another’s learning so that this kind of differencecould be better achieved (Parker & Arthur, 2000). Aself-organising perspective suggests we will see moreof this kind of community in the future, driven by itsmembers’ own energy, supporting their own over-lapping career agendas, and providing continuity inpeople’s careers even as employment arrangementschange.

CONCLUSIONCareer counsellors face a fundamentally differentenvironment from the one they faced for most of the20th century. Contemporary employment arrange-


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Knowing Why

Influenceof mentors,friends Influence

as mentor,friends

Interests, values

Performance appraisal

360feedback

Work-basedcontracts

Knowing Whom Knowing How

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ments are less secure, involve fewer chances forupward mobility, and place greater emphasis on theindividual to take charge of his or her own careerdirection in keeping with, and with a degree ofinfluence over, the changing employment context. Theresult is that neither occupational nor organisationalcareer counselling is likely to be sufficient, and that theseparate worlds that the two approaches to counsellinghave occupied can be usefully merged. Moreover, ifpeople are to benefit from such a merger, it is likely tobe through a ‘self-organising’ approach that leavesthem more empowered to take personal control overtheir careers.

We have suggested the intelligent career frame-work, with its interdependent themes of knowing-why, knowing-how and knowing-whom, as a basisfor integrating the two approaches identified. Inconjunction, we have suggested the technique ofactive engagement as a complementary way ofproviding counselling support. We have furtherdescribed and illustrated a tool, the ICCS, as one wayto bring theory and practice together. Other tools mayalso be adopted and integrated within the sametheoretical and applied guidelines.

Self-organising does not imply an absence ofcommunity, and we have further described the conceptof career communities and a technique for high-lighting and harnessing the kind of mutual supportthat career community members can give each other.This kind of support can meet an important socialneed, and provide continuity in people’s careers, asemployment arrangements change.

A final reflection on the recommendation to mergetwo worlds of career counselling concerns our owncollaboration. As we have proceeded we have oftenstruggled to understand one another’s separateperspectives, and to reach agreement on why andwhat to write. We leave it to readers to decide if ourshas been a worthwhile venture. For those who mayanswer affirmatively, we invite you to join our ownfledgling ‘career community’ of like-mindedcounsellors. We will be delighted to hear from you!

REFERENCESAmundson, N. (1998). Active engagement: Enhancing the career

counselling process. Richmond, BC: Ergon Communications.

Amundson, N. (2002). Coloring outside the lines: Boundary issues

for counselors. Journal of Employment Counseling, 39, 138–44

Arthur, M.B., Amundson, N.E. & Parker, P. (in press). The

Development and Application of the Intelligent Career Card

Sort, to be published in Danish, in a book provisionally titled

The compass of career. Copenhagen: Civiløkonomerne (The

Danish Association of Business Economists).

Arthur, M.B., Claman, P.H. & DeFillippi, R.J. (1995). Intelligent

enterprise, intelligent career. Academy of Management

Executive, 9, 7–20.

Arthur, M.B., Inkson, K. & Pringle, J.K. (1999). The new careers:

Individual action and economic change. Thousand Oaks, CA:

Sage.

Arthur, M.B. & Rousseau, D.M. (1996). The boundaryless career:

A new employment principle for a new organisational era. New

York: Oxford University Press.

Cappelli, P. (1999). The new deal at work: Managing the market-

driven workforce. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Carr, S.C. (1992). A primer on the use of Q-technique factor

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Development, 25, 133–138.

Cilliers, P. (1998). Complexity and postmodernism. New York:

Routledge.

Feller, R.W. (1995). Action planning for personal

competitiveness in the broken workplace. Journal of

Employment Counseling, 32, 154–163.

Giddens, A. (1986). The constitution of society. Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press.

Goldman, L. (1990). Qualitative assessment. The Counseling

Psychologist, 18, 205–213.


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Hall, D.T. (1996). The Career is dead: Long live the career. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Hall, R. (1992). The strategic analysis of intangible resources.

Strategic Management Journal, 13, 135–144.

Handy, C. (1990). The age of unreason. Boston: Harvard Business

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Herr, E.L. (1999). Counseling in a dynamic society: Contexts and

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Counseling Association.

Higgins, M.C. & Kram, K.E. (2001). Reconceptualizing

mentoring at work: A developmental network perspective.

Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 264–288.

Inkson, K. & Arthur, M.B. (2001). How to be a successful career

capitalist. Organizational Dynamics, 30(1), 163–176.

Inkson, K. & Amundson, N. (2002). Career metaphors and their

application in theory and counselling practice. Journal of

Employment Counseling, 39, 98–108.

Kanter, R. (1989). When giants learn to dance: Mastering the

challenge of strategy, management of careers in the 1990’s. New

York: Simon and Schuster.

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and Vocational Guidance, 2, 51–66.

Mitchell, K.E., Levin, A.S. & Krumboltz, J.D. (1999). Planned

happenstance: Constructing unexpected career opportunities.

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Parker, H.L.P. (1996). The new career paradigm: An

exploration of ‘intelligent career’ behaviour among MBA

graduates and students. Unpublished Masters thesis. The

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doctoral thesis. The University of Auckland, New Zealand.

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community. In M. Peiperl, M.B. Arthur, R. Goffee & T.

Morris (eds), Career frontiers: New conceptions of working lives

(pp. 99–121). London: Oxford University Press.

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is theatre and every business a stage. Boston: Harvard Business

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INTRODUCTIONThe past few years have seen growing interest incareers research in New Zealand. For example, thefirst-ever conference of New Zealand careersresearchers, held in Wellington in November 2001,attracted 24 local participants, all currently active inresearch. This conference provided an excellentopportunity for researchers to present their work andto network. It also showed that, for whatever reason,New Zealand research has some distinctive, perhapseven idiosyncratic, foci in terms of theory, applicationand methodology.

The purposes of this paper are:1. to describe the New Zealand context for research,

in terms of both its national historical–economiccontext and in terms of prior research traditions;

2. to share with readers some of the publishedresearch and research in process and itsapplicability inside and outside New Zealand;

3. to facilitate contact between New Zealandresearchers and readers of this journal;

4. to consider possible future research developments.

CAREER CONDITIONS SPECIFIC TONEW ZEALANDIn considering the local context for careers research,we need to bear in mind some special features of NewZealand society and work settings which ‘make adifference’ to careers work. For example: • New Zealand is a small country with population

concentrations in a few urban centres. However, asignificant portion of the economy is produced by


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FAST FORWARD:CAREERS RESEARCH IN

NEW ZEALAND

KERR INKSON, Massey Univer sity

DALE FURBISH, Auckland Univer sity of Technology

POLLY PARKER, Univer sity of Auckland

This article describes and discusses developments in careers research in the past few yearsin New Zealand. While detailing some important mainstream research in the ‘careerdevelopment’ tradition, it focuses on research conducted largely in New Zealand businessschools, which may have been prompted by the country’s rapid deregulation in the 1980s and1990s. Particular attention is paid to the destabilisation of careers and the development of‘boundaryless’ and other new forms of career.This work provides a framework enabling usto understand career adaptation, and ‘mobile career’ phenomena such as careers based onproject work and the role of overseas experience in career development.

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natural resource development outside the urbancentres. The consequences of this economic patternmay have discernible influences on New Zealandcareer development.

• New Zealanders recognise a self-deprecatingquality as part of their national character. Labelledthe ‘tall poppy syndrome’, the impact of thisavoidance of recognition for high achievement isnot understood as an influence on career patterns.

• New Zealand employment practices and attitudesabout employment seeking may contain paradoxes.Many job vacancy advertisements in New Zealandare placed by third party employment consultan-cies. Yet a large number of successful job applicantsgain employment as a function, at least to a degree,of informal contacts. The realities of employmentpractices throughout job strata from unskilled toprofessional are yet to be thoroughly investigated.

• New Zealand is a country of a number ofdistinctive cultures. The population is still predom-inantly European, but around 15% are Maori, 6%from the Pacific Islands, and growing numbers arerecent immigrants, many of them from China,Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and other Asiancountries. While it is generally assumed thatunderstanding the influence of culture on career isimportant, there has been a lack of broadsystematic investigation about culture and careersin New Zealand. Research about career diversityin New Zealand’s specific national, cultural andethnic groups is badly needed.

Deregulation in New ZealandThe most dramatic ‘special feature’ of New Zealandaffecting careers, however, is the major restructuringthat has taken place in the economy and in employingorganisations in the years since 1985. Economicrestructuring to encourage ‘market forces’ becamefashionable around the world in the Reagan–Thatcher 1980s. Arguably, restructuring affectedNew Zealand more dramatically than any othercountry outside the Communist bloc. With strongprotectionist policies and extensive regulation andownership of industry by the State, New Zealand hadfor 50 years from the late 1930s been one of the mostcontrolled economies in the world.

In the ‘old’ New Zealand, workers who wanted tocould have stable or upwardly mobile careers in

government departments or inefficient localindustries. For example, a research study of seniorpublic state sector officials documented a near-perfectrealisation of the organisational career ideal – total jobsecurity, and total insulation of positions fromencroachment by outsiders (Smith, 1974).Unemployment was virtually zero for over 40 years,and the more transient could walk out of jobs theydidn’t like in the certain knowledge that anotherfactory would be sure to hire them. Careers in NewZealand, whether occupational, organisational or adhoc, at least seemed secure.

New Zealand’s shift to free-market economics hasbeen described by historians such as Kelsey (1995) andBelich (2001). By the early 1990s, New Zealand wasthe third freest economy in the world. In response,many companies went out of business, or down-sized,outsourced, moved manufacturing offshore, andbecame more flexible. Jobs disappeared. In a few shortyears the railway system, for example, shed nearly20,000 of its 25,000 employees. Meantime, centralisedarrangements for wage-fixing were replaced by indi-vidual worker–employer contracts. The collectivismsymbolised by trade unions declined and indiv-idualism flourished. Suddenly it seemed that thesecure national and organisational structures, on thecertainty of which so many citizens had built theircareers, were crumbling. By the early 1990s, unem-ployment in New Zealand had climbed to over 10%.

Careers were seriously destabilised. One benefi-ciary was the careers advice industry, which wassuddenly boosted by the presence in the workforce ofsuch groups as long-term unemployed, displacedgovernment bureaucrats and redundant companymanagers. In recent years, the profession has beenboosted by the demand for outplacement services, andthe numbers of self-employed career advisers hasgrown substantially, mirroring trends to self-employment in the workforce in general. In a surveyof New Zealand career practitioners, Furbish (2002)found that 28.6% were self-employed.

MAINSTREAM CAREER RESEARCHAND EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALANDResearch can be conducted in a variety of settings andpurposes. One gauge for estimating the amount ofresearch conducted on a topic is to review titles ofdissertations submitted as part of postgraduate


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university study. The New Zealand NationalBibliographic Database (Te Puna) is a searchableonline database that identifies titles of postgraduateresearch submitted to New Zealand universities.Submitting the term ‘career’ to the Te Punadissertation database yielded 53 relevant titles. Whilethis method does not provide an exhaustive listing, theresults can be considered a relatively good estimate ofthe quantity of career-related postgraduate researchconducted in New Zealand.

An examination of research topics conducted aspart of postgraduate study also suggests additionalinformation about trends. The earliest date ofpostgraduate research identified from the Te Punasearch was 1982. The bulk of the postgraduateresearch was conducted at the University of Auckland(22 entries) and Massey University (17 entries). Whenthe department sponsoring the postgraduate researchwas identified, it was found that departments ofpsychology accounted for the largest number of careerresearch topics (23 entries) followed by education (14entries) and business (13 entries).

The concentration of postgraduate careers researchin departments of psychology is largely accounted forby the number of dissertations submitted by Mastersdegree students at Massey University. Massey has astrong program in applied psychology. The primaryconcentration of the research topics appears to relateto organisational issues related to career. Similarly, anumber of the research outputs sponsored by schoolsof business have investigated issues related to careerpatterns and influences within organisationalperspectives. Research that focuses on careers withinorganisational contexts is useful. However, researchconducted by career practitioners on topics emergingfrom practice issues has been largely absent hereprobably because until 1996 no tertiary qualificationsdesigned to train career practitioners existed in NewZealand.

Since 1996, two programs focusing on careerpractice have been available. Auckland University ofTechnology established a Graduate Certificate inCareer Development and WelTec in Wellington, aDiploma in Career Counselling. Both curriculacontain research requirements at the undergraduatelevel. It is anticipated that research outputs of theseprograms will contribute to practitioner focused NewZealand career knowledge.

A career-oriented academic journal is notpublished in New Zealand. Over the years, the AJCDhas frequently published articles by New Zealandauthors. The earliest was an article by Hammond,Cuthall and Dempsey (1993) commenting on the pay-for-service concept of career counselling in Australiaand New Zealand. Gunn, Carpenter, Left andFatialofa (1996) described a computer informationsystem that they designed to assist clients to engage ina structured exploration of career and reflect onpersonal prospects. Lips-Wiersma (1997) examinedthe career implications of spiritual belief systems.Carpenter and Inkson (1999) presented a study on theconsciousness of the new careers environmentpossessed by seventh formers. Inkson (1999) reportedon two studies that examined the career implicationsof overseas experiences. Humphries and Carr (1999)presented results of a survey examining careerdevelopment programs in organisations. Lysaght,Tuck and Adair (1999) investigated the concept ofadolescent employment commitment as a function ofparental employment status, gender and ethnicidentity. Elkin and Sutton (2000) explored the role ofNew Zealand school career advisers. Reid andMelrose (2000) described a model for a universitycareer centre. Gatenby and Humphries (2000) lookedat the shifting discourses around the notion of careerand women’s aspirations. McCowan, McKenzie,Medford and Smith (2001) presented an overview ofcareer guidance and counselling policy and practicein Australia and New Zealand.

RESEARCH IN THE BUSINESSSCHOOLSAccording to a recent review of career studies:

There are two main areas of scholarship dedicated to

both the study and the practice of career. The first is

concerned with career choice, education and

counselling. It has been fed by considerable research

effort and theory, based largely in North American

counselling psychology … The second area,

influenced by organisational psychology and

sociology, and concerned with organisational careers

has contributed to the instrumental practice of career

management and career development in organ-

isations. Despite the overlapping interest in career,

there has been little interaction or collaboration


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between those working in the two areas. (Collin,

1998, p. 413).

Those in the second of the two traditions identifiedby Collin mostly work in the academic departments ofbusiness schools, and tend nowadays to be interestedin careers between as well as within organisations(Hall, 2002). The business school perspective offers ameans for locating careers research usefully withinframeworks for developing more productiveworkforces and understanding how career behaviourcreates the dynamic from which organisations andindustries obtain their energy and their humancapital. Much careers research since the 1970s has hada business school genesis, but has been ignored by the‘mainstream’ first tradition identified by Collin. InNew Zealand, significant recent research has beenconducted in business schools, yet is largely ignoredby a recent review paper on Australian and NewZealand careers research (Prideaux & Creed, 2002).

The deregulation of the economy and therestructuring of New Zealand organisations appearsto have stimulated much research by academicsworking in the country’s business schools. Forexample, 20 of the 24 New Zealand participants in the2001 career research conference were not, as mighthave been expected, members of academic orgovernment institutions in the education andcounselling area, but academics in the business schoolsof universities.

Although this business school dominance may owesomething to the origins of the organisers and biasesin their networks, it does seem that business schoolresearch on careers in New Zealand has in recentyears achieved some momentum. For example, theannual colloquium of the European Group forOrganization Studies (EGOS) – the main Europeanforum for academic research and debate onmanagement – has a careers ‘stream’. At the 2001 and2002 colloquia of EGOS, no fewer than 10 of the 45papers accepted had New Zealand authors. NewZealanders have also contributed many papers inrecent years to the Careers Division of the USAcademy of Management. Australia has not, as far aswe know, been represented in these fora.

What is going on here? What are the distinctivecontributions that a business school backgroundenables researchers to make to the understanding of

careers? And why should New Zealand prove anespecially fertile arena for research designed toimprove this understanding?

The Business School View of CareersCareers became a special interest of business schoolsin the 1970s, when they were seen as a way of linkingindividual and organisational development. Fromhere it was but a short step to the companyexpropriation of individual careers in ‘careermanagement’ – part of a developing model of ‘humanresource management’ whereby companies managetheir workforces in line with strategic companyobjectives, principally by cultivating incentives forloyalty and a strong corporate culture encouragingindividuals to make a long-term career commitment(Beer, Spector & Lawrence, et al., 1985). In the post-war years the human resource idea of careers ascompany resources was practised enthusiastically bymany large and medium-sized organisations. Thegiant Japanese zaibitsu offering ‘lifetime employment’in return for unwavering lifetime loyalty illustratesperhaps the most extreme example. But in the 1980sand 1990s, in the newly fashionable ‘market’economies of the West, delayering, downsizing,outsourcing and contracting became dominant trends,and employees found that their supposedlypredictable organisational careers were seriouslydestabilised. It became apparent that new models ofcareer development were required.

The year 1996 saw the landmark publication ofMichael Arthur and Denise Rousseau’s Theboundaryless career, a new business-orientedperspective connecting inter-organisational careers tothe new types of networked organisation, industryregions such as Silicon Valley, and to short-termproject opportunities. Boundaryless careers, saidArthur and Rousseau, were becoming normative, andit behoved both business companies and career actorsand their advisors to learn new principles for a newenvironment. And so a new business school basedcritique of the old business school conventionalwisdom about careers was born.

RESEARCH ON THEDE-STABILISATION OF CAREERSIn the early 1990s, business school academics in NewZealand began to report some of the effects of


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deregulation on careers. A retrospective study ofmanagers’ careers (Cawsey & Inkson, 1993) showedthat there had been relative stability in the early 1980s.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, that control was lost.Managers’ job changes became more frequent, lesspredictable and more inter-organisational. Managersbecame more reactive, changing jobs because ofrestructuring or lack of choice, rather than for careeradvancement. A number of organisations that hadreported flourishing career development practices inthe late 1980s (Holdsworth, 1989) had abandoned theprograms by the early 1990s (Inkson & Elkin, 1995).

In 1995, Michael Arthur of Suffolk University,Boston, editor of both Handbook of career theory (1989)and The boundaryless career (1996), visited theUniversity of Auckland for six months. Arthur wasfascinated by the potential impact of the ‘NewZealand Experiment’ (Kelsey, 1995) on careers. Withlocal academics Kerr Inkson and Judith Pringle, heconducted an intensive study of the careers of 75representative members of the New Zealandworkforce through the ‘deregulation years’1985–1995. This study eventually resulted in thepublication of The new careers (Arthur, Inkson &Pringle, 1999).

The new careers presents career case material toshow that for many career actors in today’s worldcareers were likely, especially in their early stages, toinvolve substantial changes in occupation,organisation and direction. They were, in the wordsof one reviewer, ‘about swift swerves, unexpectedagency, and enacted opportunities’ (Weick, pers.comm. with Sage Publications, 1999). For those whoappeared to have maintained career satisfaction andsuccess, themes such as exploration, adaptability andan ongoing attitude of learning are emphasised. Thetheme of ‘career improvisation’ was strong, while‘career planning’ was downplayed, and the metaphorof improvisational theatre (compared with classicalscripted theatre) was used to demonstrate thetransition from ‘industrial state’ careers to ‘neweconomy’ careers. Finally, the book developed theconcept of ‘career capital’ – the stock of motivation,values, skills, experience, reputation and networksthat each person uses as investment capital inconsecutive career opportunities, and the ways inwhich these are exchanged with employingorganisations and other institutions, including

occupations, industries and families. The suggestionhere was that whereas individual careers are oftenseen as by-products of larger economic, industrial andorganisational forces, in a very real sense there is areciprocal relationship, where career-pursuingindividuals ‘enact’ the institutions that are theenvironments and reference points for their careers.

The new careers research stimulated furtherdevelopments. Much of it had been based around theconcepts of knowing-why, knowing-how andknowing-whom as a framework of careercompetencies (Arthur, Claman & DeFillippi, 1995).Inkson and Arthur (2001) used the framework tofurther develop principles of ‘career capitalism’advantageous in 21st century careers. Inkson (2000)spelled out the implications of the research forgraduates embarking on their careers. Inkson, Arthurand Pringle (1998) applied consideration of their Thenew careers data to the issue of career development forolder workers. Based on ‘new career’ theories, Parkerand Inkson (1999) and Inkson (in press) developedcritiques of the commitment-based human resourcemanagement model. Carpenter and Inkson (1999)investigated the sensitivity of male and female schoolleavers to the coming ‘new careers’ environment, andconcluded that female students appeared to be betterprepared in terms of career orientations.

In parallel with The new careers study, Polly Parkerof the University of Auckland and Michael Arthurdeveloped the Intelligent Career Card Sort (ICCS)based on the career competencies framework, as ameans of providing individuals with insight into theirown competencies. Parker also applied the ICCSsuccessfully in studies of the career behaviour of MBAstudents (Parker, 1996) and of the role of ‘careercommunities’ in facilitating members’ careers (Parker,2000; Parker & Arthur, 2000) In a more recentapplication, Parker and Arthur (2002) have appliedthe ICCS to the issue of career counselling for dual-career couples.

CRITIQUES OF ‘NEW CAREERS’THINKINGThe ‘new careers’ environment and theories invite avariety of responses, ranging from optimisticexhortations to individual career actors to promotetheir careers as personal ‘brands’, to radical critiquesof the forces of capitalism and globalisation, which


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have exacerbated major career problems of lowersocioeconomic and other disadvantaged groups. Forexample, Pringle and Mallon (2001) have begun todevelop a critique of ‘new careers’ ideas based onconcerns about the model’s potential neglect ofmarginalised groups and its cultural bias.

Working independently, Waikato Universityacademics Suzette Dyer, Beverly Gatenby and MariaHumphries have developed a substantial critique ofcareer rhetoric, including the global move to greaterflexibility in organisations, which they say producesdownward pressures on income, job security andemployment conditions. Career theories (such as‘boundaryless’ or ‘new’ careers) and associatedpractices can be criticised as socialising workers toaccept the inevitability of these pressures (Dyer, 1998;Dyer & Humphries (in press).

CAREERS AND INTERNATIONALMOBILITYBecause of New Zealand’s geographical isolation,international travel has always been important in itspeople’s careers. This is most clearly demonstrated bythe overseas experience (OE) phenomenon. Workingfrom the reported OE experiences of the members oftheir The new careers sample, Inkson, Arthur, Pringleand Barry (1997) compared ‘the Big OE’ with themore internationally fashionable, company-sponsored‘expatriate assignment’. They suggested that OErepresents a potentially superior model of careerdevelopment because its open-ended form makes it agood analogue for 21st century careers. A larger studyof the role of OE in career development is now beingconducted by Kerr Inkson, with Barbara Myers ofAuckland University of Technology, using a sampleof 50 OE experiences recounted to interviewers byreturned New Zealanders. Initial analysis confirms,to an extent, the unplanned, unfocused, spontaneousnature of most OE, shows the main types of OEstructure, and indicates that virtually all subjectsreport considerable serendipitous career benefits fromOE (Inkson & Myers, 2002).

In a related project, Sheena Hudson of WellingtonInstitute of Technology is studying the career impactof Voluntary Service Abroad (VSA) by means of alongitudinal study of volunteers assigned to projectwork assisting development in developing countries(Hudson, 2002). Julia Richardson of Otago University

is examining broader issues of expatriation,particularly in relation to the new literature onboundaryless and protean careers, through a study ofthe experiences of expatriate academics in a number ofcountries, including New Zealand (Richardson &Mallon, 2001).

An even more significant career-relatedphenomenon is the so-called ‘brain drain’, throughwhich many talented New Zealanders (as well asAustralians) emigrate permanently, or extend theirOE to take advantage of better career opportunitiesoverseas. ‘Brain drain’ is compensated in part by‘brain gain’. Many recent immigrants from Asia andEastern Europe to New Zealand hold overseasacademic and employment qualifications that are notrecognised (or valued) in New Zealand (Chan, 2001).Research is badly needed on the career decision-making of all those involved and the policies andpractices of government and local organisationsseeking to stem the drain and benefit from the gain. Agroup headed by Kerr Inkson of Massey University iscommencing studies aimed at capitalising on workalready done by Wilson (2001) on the attitudes ofexpatriate new Zealanders to ‘return home’.

Systematic research into the New Zealandemployment practices could provide the basis forproviding better assistance to employment-seekingclients. Nithya Tharmaseelan of Massey University iscommencing a thesis on the career experiences ofAsian immigrants through the transition from theircountry of origin to New Zealand.

Mary Mallon of Massey University is researchingthe construction of career and career success ofscientists in New Zealand’s Crown ResearchInstitutes, including their perceptions of internationalmobility and of New Zealand’s role in the globaleconomy (Duberley, Mallon & Cohen, 2002). DeborahJones of Victoria University of Wellington isinvestigating the relationship between nationalidentity – in terms of such factors as ‘Kiwi ingenuity’and national loyalty – and career choice (Jones, 2001).

Other studies touching on career mobility havebeen initiated or completed by Bronwen Boon ofOtago University, whose thesis on the working lives ofworkers in the Queenstown tourism industry focuseson lifestyles and career progressions of boundarylessworkers who develop intercontinental careers aroundseasonal pursuits such as skiing. Candace Harris of


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Massey University is researching travel amongwomen in business – a career issue because of the waythat travel inevitably separates work from family anddraws attention to career-relevant issues of identityand work–life balance.

CONTRACT WORKERS ANDPORTFOLIO CAREERSA significant feature of the new careers environmentis the increased use of contractors, ‘temps’, part-timersand other external resources to complete project and‘fill-in’ work, assisting companies to become moreflexible. But how does one develop a career from asequence of temporary assignments or insecurecontracts? Mary Mallon of Massey University hasextended her UK work on health industry contractorsto similar groups in New Zealand (Cohen & Mallon,1999; Mallon, 1999; Mallon & Walton, 2001). Thisresearch demonstrates the ambivalence of contractorsin terms of the increased challenge and variety of theirnew career forms as against the increased sense ofinsecurity. Inkson, Heising and Rousseau (2001) havecompleted a study of the work orientations of self-employed ‘leased executives’ that argues that theseworkers’ careers are built on principles of interprojectlearning. Parker (2002) reported on the creativityunderlying the composition of contractors’ careers.

GENDER AND DIVERSITY INCAREERSA number of recent and current New Zealand studiesseek to develop career theory and research on specificgroups. Gatenby and Humphries (1999, 2000) havecritiqued the gendered nature of careers. HeatherCarpenter of Massey University is studying the careerresilience and proactivity of older workers, who in thenew environment perhaps stand to lose more thanother groups, and Sarah Piercy of Waikato Universityhas developed a model of how people makeretirement decisions.

Deborah Jones and Sarah Proctor-Thomson ofVictoria University of Wellington have collectedinformation on the career paths of 20 older womenprofessionals (Proctor-Thomson & Jones, 2001). SallyBoyd is investigating students’ decision-makingconcerning tertiary study (Boyd, Chalmers &Kumekawa, 2001). Lynette Reid is commencing athesis on the influence of Maori tribal affiliation and

other factors on the careers of Maori people in NewZealand.

QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGY ANDCAREER DISCOURSEA noticeable feature of the research reported here isthat nearly all the studies are based on narrativemethodology, that is, simply asking career actors toreport their career histories and experience, normallyin one-to-one interviews but occasionally in groupsettings. Various forms of content and discourseanalysis have been used to analyse the data. The use ofsuch methodology is perhaps a demonstration of NewZealanders’ pragmatism, a desire to be close to theirsubjects and a rejection of the type of classicalpositivist methodology that erects barriers of abstractconcepts and quantitative analysis between researcherand researched. In a similar manner, Inkson (2002)and Inkson and Amundson (2002) advocate the use ofmetaphor to convey the essence of career concepts incareers discourse. The ICCS mentioned previously isa particular method devised to elicit the subjective (orinternally prescribed) career using a card sort (Parker,2000).

NEED FOR CAREER PRACTICERESEARCHMcCowan et al. (2001) identified a number of issuesthat impact on career practice in New Zealand. Theissues seem to reflect five broad categories: careertheory, employment practices, counselling techniques,cultural influences and training/professional develop-ment of career practitioners. Each of these areassuggests a fertile ground for research enquiry thatwould advance the existing body of knowledge aboutNew Zealand careers and advance the state of careerpractice in New Zealand.

Most theories of careers and career counselling inuse in New Zealand have been developed in the USA.Rigorous investigations into the applicability andadequacy of them for understanding career develop-ment in New Zealand have not been undertaken.There is reason to expect differences in New Zealandthat may result in unique career circumstances. Just asmost theories of career development were formulatedin an overseas context, so were most models of careercounselling. Again, their effectiveness and applicabilityhave not been systematically investigated in New


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Zealand. Related counselling tools and resources alsohave overseas origins, and research into thosedeveloped or adapted to New Zealand is still needed.

Evaluative study of career programs is alsorequired. Little is known about which programswork and which do not. Few funding resources areavailable to implement and study career counsellinginterventions and career programs. Significantopportunities exist to contribute to the understandingof program effectiveness.

A final career-related issue for investigation is thetraining and professional development of New Zealandcareer practitioners. Career practice is a relatively newprofession in New Zealand. The distinctive qualitiesthat have established career practice as a profession haveonly existed since 1996. Although most New Zealandcareer practitioners hold career specific academicqualifications or training (Furbish, 2002), questionssurrounding the provision of education and training topractitioners have not been investigated. Career servicesshould be available throughout New Zealand. Yet,strategies for ensuring that practitioners throughout thecountry possess qualifications and resources has notbeen systematically studied.

CONCLUSIONThe deregulation of the New Zealand economy since1985 has provided a unique context in which anynormative view of career was seriously challenged.Therefore, studies of career and career processes holda great deal of interest and relevance not only forindividuals enacting their careers, but also for thoseprofessionals who directly or indirectly influence thecareers of others.

In this paper we have reported on the quantity andbreadth of careers research currently being conductedin New Zealand. The amount appears dispropor-tionately large for a geographically isolated countrywith a small population. We suggest that this is duein part to the community of career scholars here.While most of the research emanates from theuniversities’ business schools, the range of explorationreflects the diversity of interests existing amongst theresearchers as well as some particular features of thiscountry and its people. For example, the ‘tall poppysyndrome’ and the widespread acceptance andunderstanding of the benefits of OE are unique to thispart of the world.

In outlining the current body of knowledge pertain-ing to careers research in New Zealand, areas for futuredevelopment have become clearer. We hope that thismay facilitate future research possibilities and interest.Furthermore, the need for stronger links between theresearchers and practitioners becomes apparent so thatthe benefits for career actors may be more easilyrealised. As the nature of career continues to change,our need to understand the dynamics of careers shouldencourage further growth in career research.

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Looking back through the first 28 issues that makeup the inaugural 10 volumes of the Australian

Journal of Career Development, one is struck by thediversity of subject matter. There is a wealth ofinformative material reported from a range ofperspectives. This attests to the wide appeal of thiseclectic publication. People interested in every aspectof career development, from career guidancepractitioners to researchers and policy makers, havebeen well catered for. The current paper sets out totake a slice of this considerable body of work andfocus on those articles that contributed to theadvancement of career theory in this country.

The articles selected for this review were restrictedto empirical research studies that were designed withan explicit theoretical basis. These studies wererequired, first, to exhibit sound methodology and toclearly describe the systematic collection and analysisof data, and, second, they were required to include aninterpretation and discussion of the evidence gatheredto support or disprove the hypotheses and/orquestions posed. Twenty-six articles were selected inall. This selection included 17 cross-sectional studiesthat used survey designs, four studies that usedqualitative designs, two that utilised combinations ofqualitative and quantitative designs, and three


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CAREER THEORY BUILDINGIN AJCD DURING ITS

INAUGURAL 10 YEARS

LEE-ANN PRIDEAUX, Gr iffith Univer sity, Gold Coast

PETER CREED, Gr iffith Univer sity, Gold Coast

This paper reviews the inaugural 10 volumes of the Australian Journal of Career Developmentto examine the journal’s contribution to the advancement of career development theory.Twenty-six articles that met sound scientific methodological and reporting criteria wereselected for review.These articles were strongly represented by cross-sectional analyses, andincluded survey, qualitative and combination designs.There was a clear preference for Holland’smodel; studies examining gender differences were strongly represented; and there was a focuson career counselling and guidance research.The authors call for a more Australian-centredresearch agenda, including one related to indigenous and ethnic minorities.

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longitudinal studies. The majority of articles clearlymet the selection criteria set, although four of the 26chosen omitted to lay down specific research questionsor hypotheses (Dixon, 2001; Hyndman & Patching,1995; Jones, Holder & Robinson, 2000; Lysaght, Tuck& Adair, 1999). However, since fundamental aimswere nominated, which effectively guided theresearch process in all cases, these four studies wereretained for the present review.

It is important to point out at this juncture that theselection process was unavoidably a subjective one,and thus choosing papers that make a contribution totheoretical advancement was a precariousundertaking. As indicated above, it was not a clear-cut decision in some cases. In these instances, thequestion of whether theoretical advancement wasexplicitly present or absent ultimately guided thechoice of articles to be reviewed. Some examples ofthe types of papers that were not included are outlinedbriefly below. This will allow the reader some insightinto the reasons for rejecting articles, which, whilegenerally informative in a practical sense, were notconsidered as contributing to theory in the strict sense.

A study by Hesketh and Whiteley (1995) providesa good illustration of an important piece of researchthat did not meet the criteria for inclusion. It reportedon the results of a questionnaire that was not based ontheory. These authors surveyed two cohorts of Year12 students on three occasions to track the experiencesof these young people during their quest for tertiaryadmission. This study provides worthwhile insightinto the needs of students during these system-drivendecision points and also highlights changes that couldassist them during this challenging stage of theircareer development. Nevertheless, since the study wasnot theoretically driven and the questionnaire usedwas not theoretically based, it was not included in thereview process. There were many other papersrejected on this basis, despite their soundcontributions (e.g. Kennedy & Harvey, 2001;McMahon, Carroll & Gillies, 2001; Smith, 2001;Vanden Heuvel & Robertson, 1995, 1996).

Some papers began with informative reviews ofrelevant career literature but went on to adopt adescriptive format, which, although enlightening, didnot expand upon theory as such. For example,Gursansky and Kennedy (1998) provided an excellentreview of the development of the case management

mode of service delivery in Australia. However, thispaper was mainly concerned with describing criticalissues centred on case management practice, includinga description of policy and how this impacts uponhuman services. A paper by Hutton (1996) providedan informative description of a framework to guidecareer development counselling of adults. Theframework was formulated upon a theoretical basisbut much of the paper involved discussion about itspractical application and, thus, was not deemed to beprincipally aligned with theoretical expansion.

Case studies and studies of a purely exploratorynature were excluded at the outset, as they did nothave a theory building focus. Literature reviews werealso not included because it was considered repetitiveto review previous reviews. Reports that utilisedgovernment survey data or Australian Bureau ofStatistics data were also excluded due to their non-theoretical basis. Likewise, reviews of psychologicalinstruments, including those elaborating upon theapplication of theory-based measures (e.g. Goddard,Simons & Patton, 2000; Hutchinson, 1999; Hutton,1995; Zytowski, 2000), were not selected. Reviews ofcareer software were excluded. There were severalexcellent policy reviews (e.g. Patton, 2000; Sweet,2001) and reviews of career services and careerinformation provision (e.g. Doig, 1994; McCowan &Hyndman, 1998; Patton & McCrindle, 2001) that wereput aside. Descriptions of guidance procedures (e.g.Gow, 1996; Peavy, 2001), even though some werebased on career development theory (e.g. McMahon& Carroll, 1999), were also not covered in the presentreview.

Hence, what follows is an attempt to synthesise andreview the theoretical contributions made by researchpapers that met the arguably strict criteria describedabove. These papers will be discussed in sections thatreflect the theory being tested or the content of theevidence gathered. Moreover, within these groupings,the material will be covered chronologically. Thereview is organised in this way to clearly depict thespecific domains of career development theorisingthat have received research attention in this journalacross its first decade of circulation. Following thissystematic treatment of the papers, we will endeavourto pull together the evidence for the contribution bythe AJCD, and make recommendations for futuretheory building efforts.


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HOLLAND’S THEORY OFVOCATIONAL CHOICEThe career theory that attracted the most researchscrutiny was that of Holland (1997). Indeed, seven ofthe papers selected for the present review wereconcerned with this traditional trait-and-factorapproach. First, Wheelan and Knowles (1993) foundevidence for the developmental nature of careerchoice amongst a sample of females who attended asingle-sex school in Melbourne. They were assessedon Holland’s Self-Directed Search (SDS; Holland,1971) during their final year of schooling in 1985 (N = 99), and again in 1991 (N = 40) after they had leftschool. A second sample of Year 12 students (N = 87)was also assessed from the same school in 1991. Thelongitudinal data showed changes in vocationalpreferences from school to post-school, while thecross-sectional comparison between the two Year 12cohorts indicated little broadening of vocationalchoice by the young women despite school-specificefforts to encourage them to consider more diversecareer options.

Clayton and Fletcher (1994) also employed the SDSin their examination of a sample of Year 10 students(N = 89) from a co-educational school in Perth. Theseauthors explored vocational typology in relation tocareer maturity (as measured by the Australianversion of the Career Development Inventory (Lokan,1984)). No significant differences were found in levelsof career maturity amongst Holland’s workpersonality types when educational achievement wasused as a covariate in the analyses.

In two studies relating to the theory of vocationalchoice, Care (1994, 1995) assessed high schoolstudents’ career interests using the Career AssessmentInventory (Johansson, 1986). In the first study, over4500 Year 10 male and female students attending avariety of Australian schools were tested to determineif their measured interests were in accord withexpressed interests. Care (1994) found that interestsdiffered between gender, that sex stereotyping ofoccupational choices was evident, and that differencesbetween expressed and measured interests weredemonstrated in the non-traditional areas. In thesecond study, Care (1995) examined the efficacy ofassessing vocational interests and aptitudes within thecareer guidance process. Care used a sample of 335Year 10 female students attending single-sex schools.

She concluded that interest measurement was indeeda useful tool because ‘the majority of students followthe directions implied by their Year 10 interests’ (p.13),while also endorsing the assessment of aptitude tocheck that interests are matched by ability levels.

Watson, Stead and Schonegevel (1998) reported onan informative study that was conducted in SouthAfrica. This investigation tested the applicability ofHolland’s theory in terms of its structure. Theseauthors speculated that, since the hexagonal model ofvocational types proposed by Holland was based on‘white Westernised males’ (p.22), it might not transferto black disadvantaged students. Data gathered from529 students aged between 16 and 19 did not supportthe accepted Holland arrangement of typologies, withthe resultant model depicting a misshapen polygonrather than a hexagon. Watson and colleaguesrecommended Holland’s model be used with cautionand that further study of its viability within differentcultural contexts be undertaken.

Finally, there were two studies that investigated thecareer interests of adults. Hosking and Athanasou(1997) conducted structured interviews and assessedjob satisfaction and career interests in employed adults(unskilled/semi-skilled workers, N = 120; skilledworkers, N = 54) to determine if those whose interestswere congruent with actual occupations had higherjob satisfaction than those whose jobs were notcongruent with interests. No significant differenceswere revealed between congruence scores of the twogroups of workers. Furthermore, findings did notsupport Holland’s propositions about congruence andsatisfaction since ‘interests did not appear to be a keyfactor for many people’s perceptions of their jobs’(p.25). These authors concluded that career guidanceneeds to explore a variety of avenues in addition tointerests in order to assist clients to make appropriatecareer-related decisions.

The second paper using adult samples (Goble,2001) compared the six Holland types on the fiveglobal factors of personality using the 16PF (Cattell,Cattell & Cattell, 1993) in a sample of 122 universitystudents. The interest profiles obtained from theVocational Preference Inventory (Holland, 1985) werenot found to relate to the personality factors asexpected, although a discriminant function analysiscorrectly classified 77 students according to theircourse of study (i.e. engineering, fine arts,


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management or commerce) based on their interestprofiles. This study called for an examination of bothinterests and temperament when guiding careerchoice.

SELF-EFFICACY/SELF-CONCEPTTHEORYTwo articles specified theory bases in regard to self-efficacy or self-concept. In the first instance, Tuck,Rolfe and Adair (1995) aimed to build upon self-efficacy theory by exploring the relationship betweenhigh school students’ levels of confidence for a varietyof career decision tasks and indecisiveness in terms ofgeneral decision-making ability. Questionnaires wereadministered to a sample of Year 11 students(N = 341) attending six different types of schools inNew Zealand. Results on the Career Decision Profile(Jones, 1989) and the Task-Specific Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale (Osipow, Temple & Rooney, 1993) led tothe conclusion that a disposition to experiencedifficulty in making decisions (i.e. indecisiveness)moderated the relationship between career self-efficacy and career decidedness. Tuck and colleaguesrecommended that future research into the self-efficacy construct be undertaken to determine if it isorganised hierarchically with a general self-efficacyfactor supported by a number of specific factors, orwhether it is made up of a ‘set of contextuallydetermined relatively uncorrelated beliefs’ (p.63).

Keevers and Bradley (1999) examined the impactof a career development program on changes toadolescent self-concept (Super, 1990). The study wasbased on the premise that adequate career educationwas vital, not only to assist students in terms of theircareer development, but also as a means by which self-concept is refined. A pre-test, treatment, post-testdesign was employed to test the development of self-concept, as measured by the Piers–Harris Children’sSelf-concept Scale (Piers, 1984), before and after theYear 9 students had been exposed to an interestclarification and exploration intervention. Studentswere randomly assigned to three groups, two of which(group 1: N = 20; group 2: N = 16) gained an interestprofile via the Career Interest Test (computer edition;Athanasou, 1994), while the third (group 3: N = 19)was given no treatment. The first two groups alsoundertook subsequent career exploration tasks basedupon their interest profiles for one lesson per week for

a series of five to eight weeks. Group 1 was given threemore weeks to do this than group 2. Significantlyhigher self-concept scores were recorded at post-testfor the students in group 1 only. This suggested thatclarification of interests and the provision of sufficientopportunities to engage in career exploration activitieswere beneficial for self-concept development.

GENDERTen articles chosen for the present review wereprimarily concerned with gender issues. Two of theseexplored gender in terms of stereotypical perceptions.First, Watt and Bornholt (1994) were interested inwhether Year 10 boys and girls differed in relation totheir judgements about their talent for mathematics,and whether this was associated with selecting higherlevel mathematics subjects at school or their intentionto pursue mathematics-related post-secondarycourses. As predicted, the females in the study did notdiffer from males as regards academic performancein mathematics; however, they perceived themselvesas being less talented and were less likely to participatein mathematics than the males. Second, in a morerecent study, Stent and Gillies (2000) tested 240 Year12 students from three diverse Queensland highschools. These authors found a more positive picturefor females: the traditionally male, white collaroccupations were viewed as gender-neutral by themajority of females in the study (N = 174). Inaddition, these young women were found to beexploring a wider range of occupations, over andabove traditionally female careers, regardless of theirgender-role identities.

Three studies were concerned with differencesbetween boys and girls in relation to various aspectsof career development. Carpenter and Inkson (1999)surveyed 125 Year 12 students in New Zealand todetermine the degree to which they were aware of the‘new career paradigms’ (p. 23). This paper providedan excellent review of changes taking place in theworld of work (such as fluid organisational structures,careers that necessitate the development andconveyance of a range of skills, and the need forworkers to assume responsibility for their ownemployability). Findings demonstrated that theadolescents were generally cognisant of the newcareers environment, although the young womenwere more willing to ‘accept changing career realities’


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(p. 30) than the young men. The authors interpretedthis gender difference in the context of femalesocialisation, which includes a focus on flexibility inorder to balance a range of roles.

Lysaght and colleagues (1999) examined gender,ethnicity and the role of parents’ employment statuson the work commitment of 668 Year 12 students inNew Zealand. Overall, no gender differences werefound, and parents’ employment status was unrelatedto commitment to work. However, students withMaori or European descent were less committed thanstudents from Asian and Pacific Islanderbackgrounds. According to Lysaght and colleagues,this study contributed to the body of evidenceaccumulated during the last decade that attests topositive changes in work attitudes for New Zealandwomen.

Albion (2000) also explored gender differences in asample of 347 Year 11 and 12 Queensland high schoolstudents who were administered the Career DecisionDifficulties Questionnaire (Gati, Krausz & Osipow,1996). There were no discrepancies according togender on the overall level of difficulty studentsreported in making career decisions; however, girlswere more motivated and flexible in their attitudestoward career decision-making than boys. This notionwith regard to girls adopting a more adaptableapproach to career development appears to mirrorfindings discussed above (Carpenter & Inkson, 1999).

Finally, five studies were specifically concernedwith the career development of women. Gool andPatton (1999) conducted a sensitive qualitativeinvestigation of young Aboriginal women’s views ontheir options for employment and influences on theircareer paths. Their findings highlighted distinctivefactors that impact upon this population. Theseincluded a sense of group identity, the stronginfluence of family, the importance of social exchange,a passion for working towards the emancipation ofAboriginal culture and the formidable spectre ofracial prejudice. Recommendations for careercounsellors who work with indigenous young peoplewere both informative and of practical value.

A second qualitative study was conducted byPoole, Nielsen and Skoien (1995). This researchexplored the career development of 14 adult femalesin senior positions to determine the constraints andcompromises they may have experienced. Five career

path issues were identified in all. These included self-confidence and self-promotion, which were viewed asimportant to attaining seniority. Maintenance andupgrading of skills was seen as critical. Gender-basedconstraints, such as insufficient career networks,having to leave a successful position in order torelocate for the sake of a partner’s career, and aninequitable share of household duties, were key issuesfor these women. The authors concluded that ‘priorityneeds to be given to re-balancing domestic, work andleisure pleasures and responsibilities so that constraintand compromise …’ (p. 37) are reduced.

Sources of support, role demands and role strainwere the subjects of three further studies on women’scareer development. Horrigan, Poole and Nielsen(1996) designed a questionnaire to assess the perceivedimportance that various sources of support had on theadvancement of respondents’ careers. The women inthis sample (N = 136) nominated females andcolleagues outside of the workplace as importantcareer-related supports significantly more than themen in the sample (N = 43). Once again, the situationthat men, on average, have fewer externalresponsibilities, such as domestic duties, was used toexplain why women consider family and colleaguesbeyond their workplace as important sources ofsupport for their career development.

Two subsequent studies investigated how womencope with the demands of juggling work-related andhome-related roles. Gill and Muller (1998) found‘significantly greater role strain and psychologicaldistress in late career mothers compared with earlycareer mothers’ (p. 31). Women who had children ata later stage of their career development were morelikely to be experiencing role overload. It appearedthat when children are young, women experiencemore interference from work within their home lives,which has a greater impact on those with high levelsof demand for work commitment. This paperconcluded with an appeal for more research in thisarea in order to ‘promote equitable treatment ofwomen in the workplace’ (p. 32).

Alderton and Muller (2000) also examined the roledemands of women. They compared younger andolder women’s sense of personal control and its impactupon role strain for a group of 153 ‘multiple-rolewomen working and studying at postgraduate level’(p. 38). This investigation supported previous findings


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with regard to the role strain experienced by workingstudents and established that younger women reporthigher levels of role strain than older women. Themajor contributor to the reduction of role strain wasa perception of control over the situation.Furthermore, 63% of the sample reported that theyendured all or most of the responsibility for householdduties and that longer working hours and parenthoodevoked more role strain. Implications outlined at theend of this paper offer some worthwhile recom-mendations for those seeking to assist multiple-rolewomen working in organisational settings. The paperalso offers useful suggestions for women who findthemselves having to juggle study and full-time workcommitments with parenthood.

CAREER COUNSELLING/CAREEREDUCATIONThe following four papers examined the provision ofcareer counselling and career education in Australia.One study (Hutton, Lockhart & Cobain, 1993)surveyed 278 counsellors, providers, clients andstudents to gather data on the expectations that thesedifferent stakeholders have of career counselling.Contrary to the hypotheses posed, the respondents’views concerning the desired qualities of thecounsellor (e.g. personal commitment, warmth,expertise) and the counselling process (e.g. instructionon job seeking, decision-making, realism) weregenerally similar. The model preferred by theparticipants was a client-centred, humanistic

approach as opposed to a testing with follow-upguidance format. There was also an overall desire forcareer counselling to be provided for a longer periodthan three sessions. These authors appealed for careercounsellors to have specialist skills, as they viewed‘career counselling as a separate discipline frompersonal counselling’ (p. 31).

Hyndman and Patching (1995) adopted aqualitative approach to investigate the way in whichcounsellors interacted with their clients during theprocess of a typical career counselling session.Transcripts provided by nine school counsellors, froma variety of secondary schools in regional NorthQueensland, were carefully analysed, to specify howmuch the counsellor and student spoke in eachsession, how many times the topic of conversation waschanged and by whom, what type of sentence modewas used (question or answer) and how many openand closed questions were posed and by whom. Whattranspired from this innovative examination was aclear picture of a process dominated by the counsellorin which the student in the majority of cases was givenlittle opportunity to contribute. Results were discussedin light of a need for practitioners to augment thistraditional trait-and-factor approach because it ‘mayneglect the true needs of the client’ (p. 39). Theseauthors recommended a more contemporaryapproach whereby the client and counsellor adopt astance of shared responsibility rather than theoutmoded ‘superordinate–subordinate one’ (p. 39).

In another qualitative study (McMahon & Patton,1997), 55 children and adolescents from five differentyear levels spanning primary and secondary schoolwere interviewed. Their perceptions on the degreeto which school influences career development weresought. The study found that all age groups wereable to make connections between what they learn atschool and how this influences their thinking aboutcareer. However, these links were made in relationto the basic subjects such as maths and English andnot with regard to other aspects of their lives atschool, such as how personal interaction in theclassroom may prepare them for intercom-munication in the world or work. The need forcareer education to be included in the P–12curriculum, so that students in Australia may begiven extensive and tangible assistance toward theircareer development, was highlighted.


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Finally, Dixon (2001) reported on a three-tieredstudy to investigate teachers’ (N = 336) bias towardacademic rather than vocational courses. The authoremployed a repertory grid technique (Kelly, 1995),survey design, and semi-structured interviews.Findings showed that career and vocationalprogramming was viewed by teachers as additional totheir specific subject area and that these aspects ofstudents’ education lacked status from theirperspective. Moreover, the teachers in this studyperceived ‘vocationally orientated courses to be relevantto a world quite distinct from life at school’ (p. 24).

FINAL SCHOOL YEARS ANDTER/SUBJECT SELECTIONStudents nearing completion of high school were thefocus of the last three studies reported. Hesketh andWhitely (1996) gathered information from 423 Year12 students who had just completed their High SchoolCertificate examination. Data were collected fromthese same young people again during the followingJanuary, approximately one month later. The aim ofthis study was to assess how accurately studentsestimated their Tertiary Entrance Rating (TER).Students are required to make estimates of their TERas this is a crucial component to the tertiaryapplications they need to make at the end of Year 12in readiness for their post-secondary plans. This studyuncovered the array of difficulties associated with thiscompulsory process. The problems highlightedranged from the complexity of the scaling systemwhereby students’ ‘performance on locally assessedcourses’ (p. 37) are ranked across all statewide results,to the problem young people have in terms of self-assessment. Indeed, Hesketh and Whitely pointed outthat many might underestimate their TER as a meansof guarding against disappointment while others mayoverestimate due to an unrealistic sense of optimism.There were significant discrepancies revealedbetween estimated and actual TER ranks. Males werefound to estimate a higher TER than the females, butactually received a lower TER. Additional analysesalso revealed that those who were more likely tooverestimate their TER scores were also more likelyto have lower actual TER scores, whereas those withhigher TER scores were more likely to underestimatetheir TER. These findings have obvious implicationsfor policy review.

In another study, a large sample of Year 11 students(N = 1580) were surveyed by Haeusler and Kay (1997)to discover the reasons they gave for selectingparticular subjects to study during their final twoyears of schooling. The questionnaire incorporated sixtypes of influences generated in the literature. Thesewere ‘advice from others, future educational oroccupational plans, interest, peer pressure, actual orperceived performance and timetable requirements’(p. 34). As would be expected, reasons that wererelated to obtaining work or placement for futurestudy were considered most important overall.Interestingly though, when selecting creative arts andsocial science subjects, course content was perceivedas the most important reason for these types ofchoices. When choosing subjects like mathematics,physics and chemistry, students highlighted the desireto ‘scale up’ (p. 32) their TER score as the mostimportant reason for these subject choices.

The last study to be reviewed here provides atimely example of how sound research methodologyand adequate reporting can advantageously buildupon prior findings. Jones and colleagues (2000)investigated the links between the subjects chosen forYears 11 and 12 and how adequate this academicpreparation is for the skills required of first yearuniversity students. The 463 students surveyed wereenrolled in a pharmacy degree program. This science-related course attracted a majority of high achievingstudents who had studied the more challengingstreams of science and mathematics as senior schoolsubjects. These more difficult bands of subjects werechosen to maximise TER scores and thus the chanceof being accepted into the pharmacy degree.However, those who did take on these more challeng-ing subject areas were shown to have lower literacyskills and thus found it hard to contend with thedemands of first year university. These authors calledfor career practitioners to be aware of the possiblenegative impact of this maximising strategy, asstudents may be disadvantaged by not developingadequate communication skills, which are essentialfor progress in a science-related degree.

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THEAJCDIn its advice to authors, the AJCD makes it clear thatthe journal has a ‘research, policy and practice’ focus,


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and that it targets an audience of professionalpractitioners across a range of educational andcommunity settings. It is not an easy task to meet theneeds of a research community, policy makers andpractitioners in the field in the one journal. In relationto the research contribution of the AJCD, the currentauthors selected 26 papers that met sound criteria forreporting research. Using these criteria, many papersincluded in the AJCD were not included in thisreview. While many of the papers that were notincluded added to our career understanding andpractice, their presentation did not conform to thestrict criteria chosen by these authors.

There are implications here for Australianresearchers who need to ensure that research papersmeet guidelines for scientific methodology andreporting. In relation to the methodologies utilised,the vast majority of studies were cross-sectional innature; only three papers (of 26) used a longitudinaldesign. While single-time observations can answeruseful questions, more longitudinal research isrequired to allow comment on causal relationships inthe Australian context.

In the papers reviewed, there was a strong focus ona small number of career theories (mainly Holland);gender differences were explored as a primary focusin more than one-third of the papers; and careercounselling and guidance research was wellrepresented, using both adolescent and adult samples.A number of areas were noticeable for their absence.For example, there were very few studies thatexamined career-based interventions, despite ongoingcalls for better delivery of career-related material inAustralia (see Prideaux & Creed, 2002), and there waslittle reference to career decision-making, whichforms the basis for career choice.

There were only two papers that examined careerdevelopment issues for indigenous people (Gool &Patton, 1999; Lysaght et al., 1999), which is a smallreturn for peoples who have such obvious educationand occupational difficulties. These two papersprovided an explicit cross-cultural examination. Career-related constructs were tested in Australian (and NewZealand) conditions, but the results were generally notreported in a cross-cultural paradigm. Local researcherswere prepared to accept that mainstream US constructs,theories and perceptions would translate withoutdifficulty into an Australian (or New Zealand) context.

Only one paper directly addressed this issue (Watson etal., 1998), in a South African sample, and demonstratedthat US-centric theories do not translate smoothly intothat culture. Creed, Patton and Watson (2002) haverecently shown that career-based differences also occurbetween Australia and South Africa.

The AJCD is in an ideal position to foster careerresearch that tests cross-cultural and ethnicboundaries within Australia (and New Zealand), aswell as test the efficacy and utility of theories for localpopulations of those developed elsewhere for otherpeople and conditions. There is no evidence in thepapers reviewed here for an Australian-centred careerfocus, which is especially disappointing given thatalmost all of the articles reviewed were by Australian(and New Zealand) researchers using local samples.Fostering contributions that begin to fill this gap is thekey recommendation of this review.

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It is unarguable that the demand for careerdevelopment support is greater than ever before.

The rise in practice of and concern for careerguidance in the latter part of the 20th century is duemainly to the complex changes in the traditionalemployment system, and consequent changes in ournotions of career, education, and career guidance,changes which have also highlighted the need for are-examination of career guidance practice (Herr,1992; Watts, 1996). Watts emphasised the need forcareer guidance provision and the concept of career tochange as they presently are ‘creatures of the

industrial age’ (p. 4). Collin and Watts (1996) assertedthat individuals need to regard themselves as self-employed, with career needing to be viewed as alifetime progression of learning and work, somethingthat is owned by the individual, viewed subjectivelyand not objectively. Within this framework, a careeris no longer tied to only those occupations that offervertical movement through an organisation; it is aconcept that is open to all individuals.

Such a new meaning for career places newdemands on the role and function of career guidance(Herr, 1997). First, career guidance does not occur in


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TRAINING FOR CAREERDEVELOPMENT

PROFESSIONALS:RESPONDING TO SUPPLY

AND DEMAND IN THE NEXTDECADE

WENDY PATTON, Queensland Univer sity of Technology

In a changing context of career and career work, the need for appropriately prepared careerdevelopment professionals to support the complexity of career decision-making across thelife span is greater than ever before.This article will describe the changing nature of careerwork and the changing role of career personnel. It argues for an increase in trainingopportunities for individuals involved in this field, and suggests the need for changes in thenature of the training programs offered.

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a vacuum; it is intricately linked to the contexts inwhich individuals operate and in which the processoperates. Second, the economic value of careerguidance is being increasingly acknowledged(Killeen, White & Watts, 1992; Krumboltz, 1996).Watts (1996) asserted that the function of careerguidance in this context is as a market maker: theeducation, training and labour markets can workmore effectively if all players are informed of theoptions and movements within each market. Third,career guidance remains a vital ingredient to fulfillinghuman development, and only partly because of therelationship between economic development andhuman development. Watts describes careercounselling as one of the four ligatures necessary tofacilitate the new concept of career to all individuals.He emphasises that careers are now based on a seriesof iterative decisions and individuals may needcounselling at all of these decision points as theyexplore complex new pathways within the workforceand between education, training and the labourmarket. The appropriate take up of these newpathways depends heavily on sound career decision-making. This is a complex activity and individualsneed access to appropriate information about jobs andcareers, courses, training and the labour market,which they can apply to their own skills, abilities,interests and circumstances. In addition they needopportunities, where necessary, for support tofacilitate their processing of information and relatedskills.

As such, career guidance needs to be available forall at multiple points throughout the life span. Ittherefore needs to be available across a range of sectorsand at multiple sites. Acceptance of this need callsthen for an appropriately trained cohort of careerdevelopment facilitators.

Recent Australian and New Zealand reports havehighlighted the need for comprehensive careerdevelopment programs for people of all ages;however, these reports have also highlighted thedearth in provision of career guidance and theconcomitant lack in provision of training of careerpractitioners (McCowan & Hyndman, 1998;McCowan, McKenzie & Medford, et al., 2001). Thisdilemma between the need for services and the lackof appropriate and comprehensive training isrendered more complex with findings from studies

indicating that participants perceive that careercounselling is narrow and simplistic, and reporting ageneral lack of interest in the profession of careercounselling (Heppner, O’Brien & Hinkelman, et al.1996; Warnke, Kim & Koeltzow-Milster, et al., 1993).Prieto and Betsworth (1999) emphasise the need fortraining providers to provide a training experiencewhich reflects the vitality and complexity of theprofession, and which is supportive of thedevelopment of trainees’ self-efficacy in conductingcareer counselling. Research by Patton (2000) notedthe benefit of a university training program in thereported preparedness of graduates to undertakecareer guidance activities.

The present article will describe the changingnature of career work and the changing role of careerpersonnel. It will then emphasise the need for changesin the training programs offered, in addition to theneed for an increase in appropriate training forindividuals involved in this field. It will examine thesituation in Australia and New Zealand and highlightthe direction in which the field will need to develop sothat supply of adequately trained career personnel willbe available to serve the increasing demand forservice.

ROLE OF CAREER PERSONNELContinuing change in the workplace has placedconsiderable pressure on the role of career personnel.Practitioners involved in career work are now foundin a range of sites, including schools, universities andother education institutions, libraries, employmentoffices and human resource departments. Change inthe conceptualisation of career practice has alsoprompted a change in the language describing therole. In Australia, the then National Board ofEmployment, Education and Training recognised themultiplicity of tasks incorporated with the role andused the term ‘careers coordinator’ as a descriptor(National Board of Employment, Education andTraining, 1992). This term was chosen to illustrate themultiple tasks that constitute the role. Traditionalterms of ‘counsellor’, ‘educator’ and ‘informationprovider’ connote a process of an expert ‘doing toothers’. The emphasis on the individual becoming onewho manages their own career reinforces the need toreconceptualise the role and the language used todescribe it. Building on the increasingly cited


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relationship between career development and lifelonglearning (Cornford, Athanasou & Pithers, 1996;Mirvis & Hall, 1996), Patton and McMahon (1999)support the use of the term ‘career developmentfacilitator’, which provides a sense of unity betweenthe tasks involved in career practice, and grounds thiswork solidly within a lifelong learning frameworkand connotes a different role for the counsellor aseducator, and the client as learner.

A number of observers have commented on theincreasing changes in the role of career andcounselling personnel in schools. The 1994 AmericanSchool Counselor Association position statement onthe role of the school counsellor focused heavily on theexpanded competencies that school counsellors mustpossess in order to assist all students (preschool,primary and secondary) with their career develop-ment needs (American School Counselor Association,1994). Similarly, in Australia, Burnett (1997) reportedthat guidance counsellors believed that careers workwill be a greater demand on their time in the future.

Fall (1994) discussed the need for schoolcounsellors to have curriculum expertise, and Rollin(1990) emphasised that, in addition to the core skillsof counselling, guidance practitioners require coreskills of decision-making, time management,information management and organisation, andprogram development skills. In reviewing the rangeof ‘guidance occupations’ in European countries,many of which incorporate career practice, Watts(1994) identified the following main tasks undertakenby personnel: information management (educationand training, careers and occupations, labour market,support services); work with individuals (assessment,information giving, counselling); work with groups(teaching, group counselling, facilitating self-helpgroups); placement (coaching, liaison with providers,placement in training, education or employment);follow-up; networking (supporting parents andteachers, advocacy, feedback to providers); andmanaging (internal programs and external). In 1996,Collin and Watts suggested that career guidance alsoneeds to forge close links with financial guidance,relationship counselling and stress counselling.

In the USA, the National OccupationalInformation Coordinating Committee (NOICC)developed the National career development guidelines(1989) which outlined the following processes of the

career guidance and counselling program: outreach,counselling, assessment, instruction, career infor-mation, work experience, consultation, referral,placement and follow-up. The diversity of tasks forpersonnel that emanate from this list of processes oftenleads to ambiguity about the role of career personnelon the part of the school administration, teachers,parents and students, the key clients of the program.Indeed, this ambiguity is often felt by career personnelthemselves (Cunanan & Maddy-Bernstein, 1994).

In Australia, the breadth of the career coordinatorrole was identified in a review of responsibilitiesconducted by the National Board of Employment,Education and Training (1992) in formulating theNational training framework for career coordinators. Thisdocument identified six general units of competence:Professional Knowledge and Practice, whichunderpins and overlaps all other units; CareerEducation and Career Guidance; Counselling andCareer Counselling; Curriculum and ProgramDesign; Organisation, Management and Consultation;and Information and Resources.

Crozier and Lalande (2000) identified 10 domainsof career counsellor expertise, suggesting that careercounsellors could be expected to operate at differentlevels on a continuum of practice in each of the 10domains. The domains include client assessment,conceptualisation of client needs, individualdifferences, career theory, client goals and actionplans, intervention skills, technological knowledgeand skills, labour market knowledge, ethical careerpractice and professional identity and attitude.Further, Flores and Heppner (2002) emphasised theneed for career counsellors who work with culturallydiverse groups to be competent in multiculturalcounselling and career counselling.

TRAINING OF CAREER PERSONNELThe need for systemic programs to implement careerguidance initiatives is supported by all careerprofessionals. However, such programs require acompetent workforce. The dearth of training provisionfor career development practitioners in Australia hasbeen well documented (McCowan & McKenzie, 1997;National Board of Employment, Education andTraining, 1992; Splete & Hutton, 1995), and overseas(European Centre for the Development of VocationalTraining, 1993; Inkson, Furbish & Parker, 2002; Rollin,


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1990; Splete & Grisdale, 1992; Splete & Hutton, 1995;Watts, 1994; Watts & Van Esbroeck, 1998). An audit oftraining of career personnel in Australia (NationalBoard of Employment, Education and Training, 1992)concluded that ‘Nationally, systems ignore the trainingof career coordinators …’ (p. 28). The review byMcCowan and Hyndman (1998) highlighted the ad-hoc nature of training in Australia for the provision ofcareer services. More recently, the AustralianGovernment response to the OECD NationalQuestionnaire on Policies for Career Information,Guidance and Counselling Services (Department ofEducation, Science and Training, 2002) noted thatmany career development practitioners havebackgrounds in education, psychology, humanresource management and social work, but no formaltraining in career development. This conclusion issimilar to that drawn by Watts (1994) in his overviewof occupational profiles of vocational counsellors inEurope. He noted the great variation in the extent oftraining required of career personnel in differentpositions, ranging from a degree in education orpsychology followed by postgraduate training to notraining at all. The differences are related in part tovarying definitions – for example a work placementofficer may be termed a career worker – however,Watts predominantly attributed the difference to thenotion that career guidance may not be seen as aspecialist activity in its own right, and that for peopleemployed as psychologists, teachers, or administrators,career guidance is often viewed as an adjunct to theprimary role.

The competencies, tasks and role statementsreviewed have identified a complex array ofknowledge, attitudes and skills as necessary for careercoordinators. The need for appropriate training mustnow be seen as imperative. That this need is perceivedworldwide is also evidenced by a joint AmericanAssociation for Counselor Education and Supervisionand National Career Development AssociationPosition paper on Preparing counselors for careerdevelopment in the new millennium (2000). This paperidentified the increasing complexity associated withcareer decision-making and emphasised neededchanges in definitions. The paper also identified anumber of principles to guide curriculum change incareer development training, and a set of recommen-dations for counsellor educators.

In Australia and New Zealand, formal training incareer development has been limited. The lack ofconsistency in national training in career developmentled to the National Training Framework in Australiain 1992 (described previously). However, there hasbeen no systematic development of the frameworkover the last decade, although training programs inexistence have often used it as a guide in theirdevelopment. More recently, the development ofquality standards for career practitioners has beentransferred from the agenda of the National CareersTaskforce to the Ministerial Council on Employment,Training and Youth Affairs Taskforce on Transitionfrom School (Department of Education, Science andTraining, 2002), continuing a narrow focus in relationto career development practice.

In relation to formal training, currently a smallnumber of tertiary institutions have developedprograms designed to specifically train careerpractitioners (two in New Zealand and four inAustralia; see McCowan, et al., 2001). In addition anumber of private colleges also offer courses in careercounselling. Complementing this formal training isthe work of a very active professional association scenein both countries. Each state in Australia has at leastone specific professional association which focuses oncareer education or career counselling. In addition theAustralian Association of Career Counsellors isactively engaged in the development of professionalstandard guidelines and the provision of professionaldevelopment opportunities nationally and through itsstate branches. As career professionals are engagedacross many sectors, including education, employ-ment services, government departments and privatecompanies, vocational education and training, andprivate practice, a new alliance of career-relatedassociations was begun in 2000 to attempt to act as anational representative body of career practitionerorganisations. The Careers Industry Council ofAustralia (CICA) has a vision to promote a careerdevelopment culture within the Australian com-munity. In New Zealand the Career PractitionersAssociation of New Zealand (CPANZ) is the firstprofessional association dedicated to career practi-tioners. The association also maintains professionalstandards in that members must possess formalqualifications and engage in ongoing professionaldevelopment. In addition, the New Zealand


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Association of Counsellors has addressed theparticular professional development needs of careercounsellors.

TRAINING – WHAT SHOULD BEINCLUDED? The dearth of available training and formal qualityprofessional standards for career practitioners remainsan issue of national and international concern. Ofequal concern is the need to ensure that the trainingoffered meets the needs of an increasingly complexrole. In addition to the need for a broader focus interms of content, there is an increasing awareness ofthe need to take a more holistic and integratedapproach to career development.

In relation to content, a number of sourceshighlight requisite areas. Patton and McMahon (1999)highlighted the need for multicultural learning; asound knowledge of career development theory andcounselling theory and practice; an ability to usetechnology; an appreciation of, and skills in, a range ofquantitative and qualitative assessment methods; anda knowledge of the employment market and socialand economic trends. Overall Patton and McMahon(1999) asserted that ‘an essential part of careercounsellors’ training, therefore, is to investigate theirown individual experience and learning and uncoverbeliefs, values, and attitudes that could affect the(career) counselling process’ (p. 202). The ACES/NCDA position paper (2000) recommends thatcounsellor educators:• recognise that changing contexts and clients

require the centrality of career development incounsellor preparation;

• recognise the value of congruence and lifedevelopment models of career and life roles;

• recognise the need to continually update knowl-edge on career development theory and practice;

• pursue the links between career development andmulticultural counselling, and between careerdevelopment and personal counselling (includingcareer and mental health issues, and integratingcareer and other life roles);

• teach the importance of understanding career issuesof unique populations (for example re-entry women,females and males, lesbians and gay men, personswith disabilities, unemployed youth, homeless youth,and older adults);

• recognise clients’ needs for holistic counselling andprovide opportunities to explore meaning andpurpose in relation to life roles and career decisions;

• teach the importance of technology in careerguidance and counselling;

• ensure career development courses are taught byexperienced personnel;

• teach competencies and standards identified byrelevant professional organisations;

• ensure content and process are a consideration ofthe training program, and that principles ofsystems theory and organisational change areintegrated into the career development curriculum(pp. 10–11).

TRAINING – PROCESSThe negative perception of career counsellor trainingreported earlier emphasises the need for a morecreative approach to career development training. Inorder to facilitate a positive experience, Heppner andcolleagues (1996) suggested that training programsneed to incorporate a range of learning experiences,employ teaching staff with demonstrated commit-ment to career development, and use creative andholistic approaches to teaching. Heppner andcolleagues (1994) suggested that training incorporateapproaches that include guided imagery, metaphor,career genograms and collage and other art mediums,primarily qualitative methods. They believed thatsuch approaches will ‘encourage vocational educatorsand counsellors to shift the career counsellingparadigm from assessment, match and terminatesessions to dynamic creative and challenging inter-changes’ (p. 79). These approaches also lendthemselves to training with large and small groups.

Peavy (1992) suggested that the goals of careercounselling need to be embodied in curriculum, andthat there needs to be a ‘caring curriculum’ (p. 225)with a focus on critical self-reflection. Users of suchholistic learner centred approaches, which maximiselearner development and facilitate a working allianceapproach to learning and counselling, have reportedpositive outcomes (e.g. Warnke, et al., 1993). Further,Patton and McMahon (1999) have emphasised thatpreparation of career development facilitators needsto embody experiential learning approaches. Inpresenting seven points to illustrate the value of theseapproaches in the preparation of career development


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facilitators, Patton and McMahon suggest that theseapproaches are empowering for learners and can betransferred to practice. In particular, experientialapproaches encourage learners to understand theirown career development experiences and thereforeuse knowledge and understanding of previousexperiences as a base through which to understandthe complex components of career developmentlearning.

CONCLUDING COMMENTSThere is a growing awareness of the centrality ofcareer in people’s lives (ACES/NCDA, 2000).Providing assistance to individuals as they constructthe place of career in their lives is increasinglynecessary at all stages of the lifespan. As such, there isa need for appropriately trained career developmentpersonnel. The paper has identified this need withinthe context of changes in career and the world ofwork. In particular, it has presented information thatsuggests a mismatch in Australia and New Zealandbetween demand and supply. It has argued for agreater number of training opportunities, and theneed for these various opportunities to payappropriate attention to content and process in orderto prepare professionals for the complexities of thecareer development role.

REFERENCESAmerican School Counseling Association. (1994, June). The

emerging role of the school counselor. Washington, DC: The

ASCA Counselor.

Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, and

National Career Development Association (2000). Preparing

counselors for career development in the new millennium.

University of South Carolina and University of Georgia:

Author.

Burnett, P.C. (1997). The future face of school guidance and

counselling: What will it look like in 25 years? Australian

Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 7, 23–33.

Collin, A. & Watts, A.G. (1996). The death and transfiguration

of career – And of career guidance? British Journal of

Guidance and Counselling, 24(3), 385–398.

Cornford, I., Athanasou, J. & Pithers, R. (1996). Career

counsellors and the promotion of lifelong learning. Australian

Journal of Career Development, 5, 43–46.

Crozier, S. & Lalande, V. (2000). Critical issues in the supervision

of career counselling professionals. In International Career

Conference 2000 proceedings. Perth: Career Education

Association of Western Australia.

Cunanan, E. & Maddy-Bernstein, C. (1994). The role of the school

counselor. Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in

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Australian Government response to a national questionnaire on

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Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

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(1993). The development of a European dimension in the

training of guidance practitioners. Berlin, Germany: Author.

Fall, M. (1994). Developing curriculum expertise: A helpful tool

for school counselors. The School Counselor, 42, 92–99.

Flores, L.Y. & Heppner, M.J. (2002). Multicultural career

counselling: Ten essentials for training. Journal of Career

Development, 28(3), 181–202.

Heppner, M., O’Brien, K., Hinkelman, J. & Flores, L. (1996).

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Mirvis, P. H. & Hall, D. T. (1996). New organisational forms

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the European Union. Brussels: VUB Press.


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Since the 1980s, rapid changes in the world of workhave challenged traditional conceptualisations of

career and career development. Corresponding withthese changes, the capacity of career theory to provideadequate explanations of career and careerdevelopment has been challenged. In addition, theability of traditional career practice to address thecareer development needs of clients in the new worldof work has also been questioned. It was against thiscomplex and rapidly changing context that theSystems Theory Framework of career development(STF) was created (McMahon, 1994; McMahon &

Patton, 1995; Patton & McMahon, 1997; Patton &McMahon, 1999). First presented in the inauguraledition of the Australian Journal of Career Developmentas a contextual model for understanding adolescentcareer decision-making (McMahon, 1992), the STFhas undergone continued refinement and haspromoted research and development in theory andcareer practice.

It is timely in this 10th anniversary edition of theAJCD to overview the development and futuredirection of the STF of career development. First, theinternational context surrounding career theory


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THE SYSTEMS THEORYFRAMEWORK OF CAREER

DEVELOPMENT:HISTORY AND FUTURE

DIRECTIONS

MARY MCMAHON, School of Education,

Univer sity of Queensland

Since the 1980s, rapid changes in the world of work have challenged the capacity of careertheory to provide adequate explanations of career and career development and the ability oftraditional career practice to respond to the varied career development needs of clients in thisnew work environment. It was against this complex and rapidly changing context that theSystems Theory Framework of career development (STF) was created.This article will reviewthe history and development of the STF since its first publication as a contextual model in theinaugural edition of the Australian Journal of Career Development in November 1992.

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during the 1990s will be outlined. In particular, debateabout the convergence of career theory and theemergence and influence of the constructivist worldview will be discussed. Second, the history anddevelopment of the STF will be presented, itscontribution to the debate at theoretical and practicallevels elaborated and its future directions outlined.Finally, international response to the STF will bereported.

INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT DURINGTHE 1990SIn what may be considered a comparatively shorthistory, the field of career development has witnesseda proliferation of theoretical propositions and models(Patton & McMahon, 1999). While this array oftheoretical positions has contributed to our overallunderstanding of career behaviour, in its breadth ofcoverage, career theory has also been the subject ofmuch criticism. For example, it has been criticised asbeing inadequate and incomplete and lacking incomprehensiveness and coherence (Brown, 1990) andfailing to account for diversity within the population.In addition, career theory has been criticised for itsfocus on intra-individual issues to the detriment ofcontextual issues (Collin & Young, 1986) and for beinghampered by an overlap in conceptualisation of manyelements (Borgen, 1991; Osipow, 1990). Integral to thiscriticism was recognition of the complexity of careerdevelopment and the consequent need to use a largenumber of constructs and therefore perhaps morethan one theory to account for it. Increasingly it wasrealised that a more integrative theoretical picture ofcareer development was needed, and the concept ofintegration or convergence emerged.

The International Convergence DebateIndeed, so pervasive was debate around the issue ofconvergence that in 1992 it became the specific focusof a conference from which papers were published(Savickas & Lent, 1994). Essentially discussion at thisconference centred around the convergence anddivergence of existing theories. Questions were raisedabout whether career development theory needs to orcan provide one comprehensive theory thatsynthesises and incorporates all others (unification ofexisting career theories) or whether it needs aframework that is able to blend theoretical concepts

and methods (convergence). The conference, inrecognising the worth of the extant theories, did notadvocate unification of theory through the creation ofa ‘single, monolithic theoretical approach’, rather it‘sought to nurture consideration of cross-theoreticallinkages’ (Savickas, 1994, p. 5).

Increased Influence of the Constructivist World View Dawis (1994) claimed that theories representincomplete pictures of reality as they focus on ‘onlythose aspects of special interest to the theorists’ (p. 33).This is particularly evident in theories that reflect thetrait and factor traditions of career theory (e.g. Brown,1996; Holland, 1992). Such narrowly focused theorieshave led to criticisms that traditional career theoryattended to intra-individual issues rather than broadersocial and environmental issues and that it ispredominantly psychological and as such has paid littleattention to input from other disciplines. Increasinglytheorists have recognised the need to address a broadrange of contextual issues in career work with clients.For example, theories such as Super’s (1980, 1990)lifespan life-space approach and Vondracek, Lernerand Schulenberg’s (1986) developmental–contextualmodel represent attempts to account for a wide rangeof influences on career development. Such theories arereflective of a move toward and greater acceptance ofcontextualism in the career field.

While there was little agreement at the conferenceabout the value or future of convergence, there wasagreement on the importance of context in careerdevelopment work with clients. This is indicative ofthe increasing influence of the constructivist worldview that presents an alternative to the traditionalpositivist trait and factor approach to careerdevelopment which spawned what has been describedas a matching or person–environment fit approach incareer practice. With its origins in differentialpsychology, the matching approach essentiallyinvolves assessment of personal traits and matchingthem to factors required for successful job perform-ance, that is, matching individuals with jobs. Thus thetrait and factor approach has been criticised for over-simplification and its failure to acknowledge contextcreated a void that invited contribution from theconstructivist world view. Constructivism, with itsemphasis on holism and connectedness, hasinfluenced discussion on convergence.


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HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENTIt was against this background of debate onconvergence and the emergence of constructivism asan influence in career development thinking that theSTF was created. Many authors agreed that theorylinkage could be facilitated through the developmentof a conceptual tool such as a framework, anddevelopmental contextualism, learning theory,person–environment transaction, work adjustmenttheory, developmental systems theory and systemstheory were identified as concepts that could facilitatebridging frameworks for career development(Savickas, 1995).

The perceived benefits of developing a conceptualtool such as a framework are reflected in theadvantages identified by Patton and McMahon (1999)in using an STF approach to integrate career theoriesand integrate theory and practice. Specifically theyclaim that:1. the important contribution of all career theories

can be recognised;2. an STF can place extant theories in the context of

other theories, and their interconnections can bedemonstrated;

3. a systems theory perspective recognises thecontribution to career development theory andpractice of other disciplines;

4. systems theory brings to career development acongruence between theory and practice and newapproaches for use in career practice;

5. the emphasis in career development is placed onthe individual and not on theory. Therefore,systems theory can be applicable at a macro level oftheory analysis, as well as at a micro level ofindividual analysis;

6. a systems theory perspective enables practitionersto choose from the theory that is most relevant tothe needs and situation of the individual;

7. systems theory offers a perspective that underliesthe philosophy reflected in the move from positivistapproaches to constructivist approaches(pp. 166–168).These advantages concur with arguments

proposed for convergence (see Savickas & Lent, 1994)and attest to the importance of the advent of the STFin the field of career development.

The publication of the STF represents a ‘landmarkwork’ (Blisard, 1998) that not only parallelled

international debate on convergence but alsoadvanced it by presenting the first, and to date only,unifying meta-theoretical framework within whichto locate and use the extant theoretical insights oncareer development.

Contribution at a Theoretical LevelIn so doing, the STF facilitated ‘cross-theoreticallinkages’ (Savickas, 1994, p. 5) sought by theconvergence conference and also addressed many ofthe concerns expressed about convergence. As anoverarching framework focusing on all parts as wellas the whole, new or revised theoretical developmentsmay be accommodated along with existing theories.The STF does not compete with or devalue existingtheory. Rather, the STF and extant theory arecomplementary and co-exist compatibly as the STFprovides the breadth necessary to unite the theories,while the individual theories provide the depthneeded to account for specific concepts. In addition,the STF allows for relevant constructs and meaningsfrom other disciplines to be incorporated or applied.

During the debate on convergence, Krumboltz(1994) used a map analogy to describe theory as ‘a wayof explaining what we observe’ and ‘a way of makingsense of our experiences’ (p. 9). Further, he suggestedthat a theory is constructed to serve the purposes of itsusers, specifically ‘understanding a complexphenomenon, making predictions about the future, orchoosing courses of action’ (p. 9). Further, theoryserves to provide researchers and practitioners with aframe of reference with which to approach a client,an observation or a research question, and as a basisof research and further theoretical support and/orrefinement (McMahon & Patton, 1995). Krumboltzalso identified five criteria that he claimed a usefultheory must meet. Specifically he claimed that a usefultheory must permit us to describe occupationalbehaviour accurately, empower people to takeresponsibility for their own lives, address the fullrange of circumstances that affect career satisfaction,relate to theories in other domains, and change andevolve in response to newly discovered anomalies.While the STF is a meta-theoretical frameworkrather than a theory, it is worth considering thecontribution of the STF by these criteria.

In its responsiveness to the convergence debate, theSTF does, as Krumboltz (1994) suggests, provide a


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way of making sense of experiences and explainingwhat we observe. Specifically, the debate onconvergence emerged out of the complexity of careerdevelopment and the realisation that no single focustheory was adequate to explain such a complexphenomenon. Thus the STF provides a frame ofreference with which practitioners may approachtheir client work and a framework by whichindividuals may account for and enhance theirunderstanding of their own career development.Although the STF does not assist prediction in thetraditional positivist sense, its use can facilitate clientsthrough a process of identifying patterns, themes andmeaning in their lives that provide the clues to theirfuture direction. Thus it is clear that the STF in itscomprehensiveness, its focus on the individual, and itsability to be customised clearly meets Krumboltz’scriteria of a useful theory.

Not only does the STF provide ‘cross-theoreticallinkage’ (Savickas, 1994, p. 5), it also provides linkagebetween the dominant world views influencing careerwork. With the individual as the central focus,constructing his or her own meaning of career,constructs of existing theories are relevant as theyapply to each individual. The STF encouragespluralism in that each individual’s career is the primeconcern.

Contribution at a Practical LevelIn addition to its contribution to career developmentat a theoretical level, the STF also provides a frame-work through which to understand career practice.For example, the STF may be used to analyse thecareer development of individual, career counsellingrelationships, supervision and training or careerprograms within organisations such as schools. Onceits constructs are understood, the STF may becustomised for individuals and organisations. With itsemphasis on the individual, holism and connect-edness, the STF harmoniously accommodates theconstructivist approaches to career practice while notexcluding positivist traditions. For example, many ofthe intrapersonal influences of the STF, such aspersonality and interests, lend themselves to measure-ment by traditional assessment instruments. However,the STF clearly illustrates the need to consider theseinfluences in conjunction with influences from theindividual’s social and environmental/societal systems,

and in the context of past, present and future. Thusthe STF values the contribution of both world views.Given that the traditional matching approach of thelogical-positivist world view still dominates careerpractice and that the STF clearly emanates from theconstructivist worldview, the STF’s capacity toaccommodate a broad continuum of practice under itsmantle represents one of its practice strengths.

A long-term criticism of career developmenttheory is its failure to adequately address the careerdevelopment needs of groups other than ‘White,Western able-bodied middle-class males’ (Patton &McMahon, 1999, p. 88). While not denying thatfurther research is needed, the STF provides amechanism for engaging with clients from thesegroups. For example, its application to the careerdevelopment of women (Patton, 1997), Aboriginalpeople (Sarra, 1997), and Chinese students (Back,1997) has been described. Further, its application tocontextual issues such as rural location (Collett, 1997)and socioeconomic disadvantage (Taylor, 1997), andto particular settings such as organisations (Dunn,1997) and schools (Patton & McMahon, 1999), has beendescribed. Indeed, it has been suggested that the STFmay be useful across cultures (Lim, 1997; UnitedNations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganization, 2002). While the individual is centralto the framework, the framework may be customisedto accommodate clients whose career developmentoccurs within collective cultures. Essentially, the STFprovides a map to guide practitioners while the detailand reality of the map is provided by clients who areencouraged to tell their career stories.

Future DirectionsIn a comparatively short time since its publication asan international text in 1999, the STF has provided astimulus for further research. For example, the STFhas been influential in research and theory develop-ment being conducted by Bright and Pryor (2002).McMahon and Patton have examined practicalapplications of the STF by investigating its use as atool in counselling and teaching (e.g. McMahon &Patton, in press). In addition, its potential as aqualitative assessment process has stimulated researchin an area that has traditionally been under-repre-sented in the career assessment literature (McMahon& Patton, 2002; McMahon, Patton & Watson, in press).


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A qualitative assessment process based on the STF,My System of Career Influences (McMahon, Patton &Watson, unpublished data) has been trialled andresults will be reported in the near future.

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITIONSince its publication, the STF has gradually gained ininternational reputation and acceptance as evidencedin recent publications by the United NationsEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(2002) and the American organisations theAssociation for Counselor Education and Supervision(ACES) and the National Career DevelopmentAssociation (NCDA) (ACES/NCDA, 2000). In theirjoint publication of a position paper on counsellortraining, the ACES/NCDA cited Patton andMcMahon (1999) in recommending that new andemerging theoretical innovations and convergences beintegrated into counsellor training and that theprinciples of systems theory be used to infuse andintegrate career development into all aspects ofcounsellor education programs.

More recently, the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (2002) produceda handbook on career counselling as ‘a practicalmanual for higher education institutions wishing tostart a career-counselling centre or to strengthen theirservices in this area’ (p. 1). It cited Patton andMcMahon (1999) along with other significant careerdevelopment texts as contributions to the currentunderstandings of career counselling and recom-mended the STF as ‘an example of a framework thatmay be useful across cultures’ (p.6).

Recognition of career development and systems theory:A new relationship (Patton & McMahon, 1999) as a

leading career development text is evidenced by itsprescription as the text for several postgraduatecourses in Australia, Canada and the USA andfurther attests to the international acceptance andstanding of the STF. Indeed, the authors were invitedto teach online career development units for auniversity from the USA that sets their book as a text.

CONCLUSIONIn its brief history since moving into the internationalcareer development arena, the influence the STF ofcareer development has grown. Significantly, it stillremains the only attempt of its kind to provide a meta-theoretical framework of career development. Itsacknowledgement as a significant theoreticalcontribution to the international career developmentfield represents a huge step forward from its humblebeginnings in the AJCD. Indeed, it represents one ofAustralia’s most important career development exportsand flags Australia as a significant contributor in careerdevelopment theory, research and practice. While thisarticle has chronicled the development and 10 yearhistory of the STF of career development, the next 10years will attest to its ongoing influence and durability.

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Savickas, M.L. & Lent, R.W. (1994). Convergence in career

development theories. Palo Alto, CA: CPP Books

Super, D.E. (1980). A life-span, life-space approach to career

development. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 16, 282–298.

Super, D.E. (1990). A life-span, life-space approach to career

development. In D. Brown & L. Brooks (eds), Career choice

and development: Applying contemporary theories to practice (2nd

edn), pp. 197–261. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Taylor, R. (1997). Career development, socio-economic

disadvantage and participation in higher education. In W.

Patton & M. McMahon (eds), Career development in practice: A

systems theory perspective (pp. 59–70). Sydney: New Hobsons

Press.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization (2002). Handbook on career counselling. Paris:

Author.

Vondracek, F.W., Lerner, R.M. & Schulenberg, J.E. (1986). Career

development: A life-span developmental approach. Hillsdale, NJ:

Erlbaum.


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New Hobsons Press has recently released a seriesof four industry-specific career guides – the

‘Your Future’ series. The publications cover nursingand health science, arts and media, business and law,and engineering, science and IT. All four bookletshave assumed an attractive magazine format and theample use of colour and photographs will certainlyappeal to the series’ intended teenaged audience.

The guides adhere to a generic format – anoverview of careers in each field of study, followed bybrief interviews with mainly young practitioners. It ispleasing to note that the magazines feature peoplefrom a range of ethnic backgrounds (includingindigenous Australians), and that an effort has beenmade to ensure that women are well represented in

the sections dealing with male-dominated industriessuch as engineering.

The publications conclude with an Australia-widedirectory of university courses in each field of studyand a list of available scholarships. I find it puzzlingthat TAFEs are not covered in this section, and thatmany of the scholarships mentioned are forpostgraduate studies.

Year 10, 11 and 12 students will find this series ofmagazines useful and very readable, and they will bea welcome addition to the secondary school careerslibrary.

Ali WaughCareers Coordinator

St Peter’s College, Cranbourne


REVIEWS

YOUR FUTURE

YOUR FUTURE IN NURSING AND HEALTH SCIENCENew Hobsons Press (2001). Sydney. 56 pp.

YOUR FUTURE IN BUSINESS AND LAWNew Hobsons Press (2001). Sydney. 56 pp.

YOUR FUTURE IN ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND ITNew Hobsons Press (2001). Sydney. 54 pp.

YOUR FUTURE IN ARTS AND MEDIANew Hobsons Press (2001). Sydney. 54 pp.

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These three books form a series which sets out to assistnew workers and their managers in organisations.The authors, both academics at Louisiana StateUniversity, use their experience working with anumber of organisations to pinpoint typical problemsand inappropriate behaviour patterns associated withnew starters (or ‘new hires’ as they call them) andsuggests a 12-step plan for succeeding.

In the context of the current Australian debatearound ‘employability skills’, a sort of extension of theMayer key competencies, these books are quite timely.The focus on college graduates also fits with therecent extension of work-readiness imperative fromschool-leavers to university-leavers, through ‘graduatequalities’, the university version of key competencies.The books make a strong point that the first year in anorganisation is crucial and that bad impressions maytake many years to erase.

Because each of the three books follows a verysimilar pattern – and in many places even uses thesame words – this review will discuss one book indetail and the other two only briefly. The first book,How to succeed in your first job, will be used for thedetailed discussion as the other two derive from it.

The book is based on the premise that a newcollege graduate will normally make many mistakesas he or she fits into the employing organisation. Toavert this, 12 steps are proposed, most of which relateto generic rather than technical skills. Each step isdiscussed in a separate, short, chapter. The steps aregrouped into four areas, each with three steps. Thefour areas are:• individual focus;• people focus;• organisation focus; • work task focus.


Reviews

HOW TO SUCCEED IN YOUR FIRST JOB

HELPING YOUR NEW EMPLOYEE SUCCEED

SO YOU’RE NEW AGAIN

HELPING YOUR NEW EMPLOYEE SUCCEEDHolton III, E.F. & Naquin, S. (2001). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. 84 pp.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN YOUR FIRST JOBHolton III, E.F. & Naquin, S. (2001). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. 86 pp.

SO YOU’RE NEW AGAINHolton III, E.F. & Naquin, S. (2001). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. 78 pp.

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The twelve steps are as follows:1 Adopt the right attitudes.2 Adjust our expectations.3 Master breaking-in skills.4 Manage the impressions you make.5 Build effective relationships.6 Become a good follower.7 Understand your organisation’s culture.8 Adapt to the organisational system.9 Understand the art of being new.

10 Develop work smarts.11 Master the tasks of your jobs.12 Acquire the knowledge skills and abilities you

need.The book argues that most graduates are focused ontheir task skills whereas organisations are mostfocused on having the ‘new hire’ fit in. Thusgraduates should re-focus on three main goals:earning acceptance, earning respect and earningcredibility. While this seems like advocatingconservatism, argue the authors, it is important to fitin first and then, once credibility is gained, newmethods and bright ideas can be proposed.

Each chapter begins with a scenario, example ordiscussion which is followed by tips and ideas of theparticular ‘fitting-in’ skill which is the topic of thechapter. For example, the chapter dealing with step 5(‘Build effective relationships.’) gives the scenario of anew graduate sitting alone in an office, trying to meeta deadline. It argues that time also needs to be devotedto social relationships with work colleagues.

The second book, Helping your new employeesucceed, turns the first book around by adapting thesame 12 steps into processes that a manager shouldutilise to help his or her ‘new hire’ settle in to theorganisation. Some helpful advice is given and sometypical complaints of managers about new staff arediscussed in the conclusion, with some tips as to howmanagers can pre-empt such problems developing.

So you’re new again reminds people who move jobsthat they are back to square one in their neworganisation. While they carry skills and knowledgewith them, they are new in the sense of having noknowledge of the new organisation. In some sensetheir expertise is a handicap because, until theircredibility is earned, nobody wants to know about theway they did things better at their previous company.

The books give some good advice and present

many insights that, as an experienced worker andcareer-changer, I can recognise both in myself and incolleagues. The insights also accord to some extentwith my own research into school-leavers in their firstyear of employment. However there are someproblems with the books, some, but not all, of whichrelate to their inapplicability across contexts.

The books are very simplistic and, although it isstated that they are based on many years’ experienceworking with organisations, there is actually verylittle evidence presented. There are not enoughscenarios and case studies, and by the third book theseare getting especially thin on the ground. (In one case,the same anecdote is repeated in book 3 as book 1,when clearly an identical incident cannot havehappened in both contexts.) While an experiencedreader can provide examples from his or her ownexperience to make connections with the issues in thebooks, a real college graduate might not be able tounderstand some of the issues. Moreover there is verylittle reference to published literature, although theauthors are obviously aware of literature about, forexample, organisational culture. Although the booksare not meant to be scholarly, I feel that, aimed atcollege graduates and managers as they are, a littlemore weight could have been added to the argumentsthrough use of published literature or, indeed,reference to the authors’ own research andconsultancy findings. The books are also quiterepetitive not only between each other but also withineach book.

Certain assumptions are made about collegecourses and college graduates which are certainly nottrue in Australia and I doubt whether they hold in theUSA either. First, it is assumed that college graduateshave not worked before, and yet nearly everyuniversity student (even if we are assuming thetraditional graduate who went straight to universityfrom school) has been working part-time for years bythe time he or she leaves university. More attemptscould have been made to refer to previous workingexperience. Second, it is assumed that all collegedegrees are vocational. The books often refer to taskskills having been learned at college. This would notbe the case for many graduates. Third, certainassumptions are made about university life anduniversity learning which may not be true. The bookcomes from a position that university culture is


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diametrically opposed to workplace culture, butwithout real evidence for this.

Finally, I did not agree that task skills are asunimportant as the authors suggest. I feel theirassertion could actually be counter-productive as newworkers could follow the advice given and over-focuson employability rather than on technical skills. Toooften in current literature it is assumed that employeesvalue generic rather than technical skills when in factthe case is that they take technical skills for granted,but soon notice when they are absent.

There are some particularly useful tools in thebooks. How to succeed in your first job contains a ‘quickstart learning tool’ interview protocol and worksheetswhich are supported by a web resource. The interviewquestions, even if used only for reflection rather thanas questions asked of colleagues, would be veryhelpful for new employees and even existing workers.Helping your new employee succeed has points forreflection at the end of each chapter which couldprovide food for thought for managers. So you’re newagain includes an inventory to track success atadapting to a new organisation. It appears somewhatsimplistic but the headings ‘reality shock’, ‘sensemaking’ and ‘adaptation’ will be a useful reflectivetool.

In terms of utility I think How to succeed in yourfirst job would be useful for careers counsellors inschools, university and private practice. It providesgood background material and help to highlightcommon problems. Because of the lack of examples, Iam not sure that it would be helpful to all collegeleavers as private reading. It would need illustrationand working through, especially for school leavers.Helping your new employee succeed would be a good,short, aeroplane read for a manager and could be usedin part of a management training course, especiallyfor front-line managers. So you’re new again could bequite a valuable book for an experienced workerchanging companies after a long period of time. Itcould be particularly useful as a tool in redundancytraining.

The books all suffer from the usual American faultof assuming everybody works in white collar jobs inlarge corporations. If used as the basis for a trainingcourse in the Australian context, more exampleswould need to be included from small companies andsome of the steps might not quite fit.

Erica SmithCharles Sturt University


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Ifirst used the Self-directed search (SDS) in 1975 andhave continued to use it for vocational assessment

and counselling purposes up until the present. TheSDS has proved itself to be one of the most researchedand most useful of vocational interest measures in awide range of countries. Form R represents thesecond Australian edition of the SDS. The SDSmaterials include • Assessment booklet: sections include occupational

daydream, activities, competencies, occupationsand self-estimates. This is the booklet that theperson completes either alone or under thesupervision of a test administrator.

• Australian manual: sections include an outline ofHolland’s theory, development of SDS,administration and scoring, psychometric data,interpretation and uses of the inventory. Alsoincluded is a ‘Some Common Questions’ sectionwith answers from John Holland.

• Occupations finder: contains listings of occupationaltitles under three letter Holland codes along withAustralian Standard Classification of Occupations(ASCO) numbers and Australian QualificationsFramework (AQF) skill levels.

• Alphabetical occupations finder: contains listings ofoccupational titles with the same information as for


Reviews

SELF-DIRECTED SEARCH – FORM R

(SECOND AUSTRALIAN EDITION)

AUSTRALIAN MANUALMeredith Shears & Adrian Harvey-Beavis. ACER Press (2001). Camberwell.

78 pp. $60.50

OCCUPATIONS FINDERJohn Holland, Meredith Shears & Adrian Harvey-Beavis. ACER Press (2001). Camberwell.

16 pp. $27.50 (for 10)

ALPHABETISED OCCUPATIONS FINDERJohn Holland, Meredith Shears & Adrian Harvey Beavis. ACER Press (2001). Camberwell.

15 pp. $38.50 (for 10)

ASSESSMENT BOOKLETJohn Holland, Meredith Shears & Adrian Harvey Beavis. ACER Press (2001). Camberwell.

15 pp. $30.50 (for 10)

YOU AND YOUR CAREERJohn Holland, Meredith Shears & Adrian Harvey-Beavis. ACER Press (2001). Camberwell.

7 pp. $16.50 (for 10)

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the Occupations finder. The difference is that thetitles are arranged in alphabetical order.

• You and your career: this is a short handbook for testtakers explaining the personality types, givingadvice on decision-making, along with a listing offurther information sources.

The first thing to say about the SDS-R is that it is agenuine adaptation to Australian conditions and notjust some minor changes in wording. Shears andHarvey-Beavis have undertaken substantial researchusing Australian secondary school and tertiarystudent populations to validate the changes that theyproposed to the items in the Assessment booklet. Thisitself is laudatory; however, as a test constructormyself, I was particularly pleased with the detail andtransparency in indicating item changes. For previoususers of the SDS such information is especiallyhelpful.

The research appears to have been undertakencompetently and thoroughly. All the informationrequired for a professional use of the SDS-R isprovided. There is normative data, reliability results,scale distributions, factor structures and samplesummary distribution breakdowns by age, gender andethnic background Almost inevitably the validity dataare rather thin. The fault may however be venial.Since the SDS-R is still basically a permutation ofearlier versions, under a validity generalisationassumption, it does appear reasonable to enlist all ofthe previous validity research to support the currentAustralian version. The Australian authors suggest asmuch by citing so much of Holland’s earlier researchand they are, in my view, quite justified in doing so.The interpretive information is helpful with keyconcepts such as congruence, consistency and differ-entiation all being clearly explained. The chapter onthe use of the SDS-R in career assistance is useful withthe diagnostic scheme for career problems and usewith different groups.

However, I found the discussion of problemprofiles a little superficial. My own experiencesuggests that more attention needs to be given to theeffects of problems such as adjustment difficulties,depression, compulsive behaviour, malingering, socialdesirability and denial. It might also have been ofassistance to SDS-R users to have included illustrativetest score profiles and case studies illustrating theinterpretive concepts. It also appears that the support

for the hexagonal model predictions from theavailable data may not have been very convincing.Thus in discussing the issue the authors do not presentthe general population data but without any apparentrationale provide a figure with scale intercorrelationsfor the female sample (figure 6, p. 19) only.

In Chapter 9, Holland answers questions about theSDS. There is no doubt that he is good at defendinghis ideas and he does deal with some very substantiveissues such as the number of interest dimensions, sex-fairness, self-administration, use of raw scores, traits,and the stability of measures. However, he fails toaddress a range of other issues which I think are ofconsiderable importance and which representlimitations for the use of any form of the SDS:1 The names of some of the scales are either

uninformative (e.g. Realistic) or unhelpful (e.g.Conventional). I have yet to have a client whorevelled in the news that their personality type wasprimarily conventional.

2 The Realistic scale is too inclusive and represents adisproportionate section of the labour market (over40%) in comparison to the five other scales. Thiscan be easily confirmed by referring to the SDS-ROccupations finder which devotes at least twice asmany pages to Realistic occupational titles as anyof the other five scales.

3 The bias in the Holland measures is not, as mostdiscussion suggests, gender biased, rather it isprestige biased. As with most American psychol-ogy the focus is on above-average populations.Even the populations used for the Australianadaptation were unrepresentative of the labourmarket and biased toward academia. To do theAustralian authors justice they may reasonablyrespond by indicating the practicalities of gatheringdata with student samples and the problems oftrying to assess adult populations. Most testconstructors would agree. Further, the authors mayargue that the SDS-R is most likely to be used withstudent populations, hence the relevance of thesampling. I have no problem with this either,except that it confirms the limitation on the use ofthe SDS-R. This is a major reason why theRealistic scale has not been at least bifurcated intoa technological and outdoor categorisation. FormE of the SDS is supposed to address such apopulation but those of us who have used it with


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below-average ability populations have found it amonumental failure (but that is a topic for anotherreview).

4 The Holland classification is still perceived by itsauthor as an indication of personality type whilealmost every other author views it as vocationalinterest taxonomy.

The SDS-R Occupations finder has deleted obviousAmerican titles. Linking the titles to ASCO codes isvery useful and one which, from my research onoccupation listings users, was frequently requested bythem. However, this strength also has a limitation inthat ASCO is very limited in the number anddifferentiation of its computer technology andespecially Internet occupations information and titles.Shears and Harvey-Beavis have made some attemptsto redress this by including titles such as web pagedeveloper; however, overall there does appear to be acomparative lack of new technology occupation titlesin the Occupations finder.

In terms of the titles themselves it was verypleasing to see included gambling related occupationssuch as lotteries agent, which are frequently under-represented in occupations listings. Further, theauthors also have endeavoured to diversify the ASCOsales occupation titles which again appears quitesensible. My only quibble with the titles included isthat some appear too specific such as parasitologistand neurophysiological technician.

Those considering training, and counsellors ineducational institutions, are likely to welcome thelinking of occupational titles with AQF levels.However, I did note a problem in relation to this thatASCO places occupations in one part of theclassification only and the authors appear to havefollowed this practice. Some occupations such asphotographic developer and printer traverse at leastthree AQF levels and yet in the Occupations finder thelevel allocated is only the one equivalent to group 7 inASCO. This could mislead some occupation seekers.Notwithstanding these minor problems, overall theAustralian revision is a very good piece of work.

The SDS-R Assessment booklet follows the standarddesign of previous versions. However, I am not surethat hot pink was the best colour choice for the covers.I realise that two greens and dark blue had been usedpreviously and the authors may have wanted todifferentiate this version from the others. My

principal concern is that some users may get theimpression that it is ‘sexist’ in the sense of applyingmore to females than to males. I suspect that at leastsome younger males users may be given such animpression by the colour. While this may not happenmuch, if it happens at all for the sake of a colour, itcould have been avoided.

In terms of instructions I do not think that enoughattention is drawn to the distinction between interestsand abilities. This distinction becomes crucial whenassessing people with disabilities since they willautomatically impose ability constraints on theirinterests, thereby masking at least some of theiractivity preferences. With such clients this can be avery important loss of information.

In terms of specific items it is not clear to me whystudy items are included in activities. If you want toassess study preferences, then have a separateassessment domain. For example, there is a crucialdifference between woodwork and study woodwork(the actual SDS-R item). Further, some items are verygeneric (e.g. ‘work in an office’) and could apply tomost of the Holland types. Moreover such an itemsounds more like an environmental item than aspecifically activity item. My own developmental workwith the Occupational Search Inventory indicates thatsuch a distinction is meaningful and important for atleast some clients. In addition the wording of someitems appears unnecessarily complicated. For example,‘I can repair or re-upholster furniture’ would besimpler as ‘I can repair furniture’.

In the ‘Self Estimates’ section the authors haveretained ‘ability to understand others’ in preference to‘friendliness’, which almost all respondents indicatedas above average whether their other scores wereSocial or not.

A useful inclusion is a duplicate summary page, tobe given to the client and one left on file, or to be usedfor more than one occupation search combination. Alisting of fairly standard career information sources isincluded. The Internet is mentioned as a source butno actual websites are listed. I surmise that this isbecause of the volatility of website information whichwould require very frequent revision and wouldcreate problems for large print run printed materials.

You and your career is a booklet to help thosecompleting the SDS-R by themselves to understandand utilise the results. It explains the three-letter code,


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aspects of the types including characteristics such asvalues, life goals and competencies, information aboutthe Holland hexagon and a step-by-step outline ofusing the SDS-R data in career decision-making. Theexplanations are generally clear and the advice andsuggestions provided are balanced and sensible. Thereis not so much information that the career decision-maker would become discouraged and not so little asto leave the person feeling vocationally stranded.

My critical observations of this booklet are few.First, no concise and clear definition of each of theHolland types is provided. Indeed the SDS-R usermay feel some chagrin at being informed, after havingindicated in the Assessment booklet that he or she likedmathematician as an occupation, that he or she is thetype of person who likes occupations such asmathematician. Some test takers may find suchcircularity frustrating and uninformative. Second, thecontent assumes a fairly standard profile with adifferentiated three-letter code. For conciseness theauthors did not have any choice but to do this.However, those with atypical response patterns mayfind the advice given misleading or beside the point.

There is a section at the end of the booklet whichgenerally addresses this issue and wisely suggests theperson seek professional advice.

In summary, the SDS-R represents an excellentadaptation to the Australian vocational context of oneof the most widely used of all vocational interestinventories. If readers have used the SDS in the past,then this new form will further enhance their careerassessment. The most important limitations of theSDS-R are those inherent in the raw material that theAustralian authors were called upon to adapt.Therefore they cannot be reasonably expected toredress them without constructing an entirely new setof test materials. The Australian Manual contains themost complete information that I have ever read inany test manual about how the authors went abouttheir adaptation. The SDS-R represents a significantcontribution to vocational assessment in this country.

Robert PryorCongruence Pty Ltd

Vocational Capacity Centre, School of Psychology

University of New South Wales


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Reviews

BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEWThe Australian Journal of Career Development has the following books available for independent review. Readersinterested in reviewing a text should consider the guidelines for reviewers and contact the Editor for a review copy.The texts are provided on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis and requests should be forwarded to the Editor, [email protected]. Provide a mailing address to which texts may be sent.

GUIDELINES FOR REVIEWERSReviews should include a brief overview of the content and a critical analysis, including the publication’s relevanceto career practitioners. They should be around 750 words but you should feel free to extend this if required.

In return for your efforts as a reviewer, you are welcome to keep the copy of the book you are reviewing. Reviewsare required within six weeks of receipt. Submit the review as an e-mail attachment (Microsoft Word).

TEXTS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW

NETTING A JOB IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALANDS. Rawling, Newcastle: Global Exchange, 2001, 112 pp.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMSW. Patton & M. McMahon (eds), Melbourne: ACER Press, 2001, 196 pp.

THE NEW CAREERS. INDIVIDUAL ACTION AND ECONOMIC CHANGEM.B. Arthur, K. Inkson & J.K. Pringle, London: Sage, 1999, 181 pp.

THE HIDDEN JOB MARKETPauline Charleston, Marrickville, NSW: CHOICE Books, 2002, 174 pp.

WORKING WITH MEN IN THE HUMAN SERVICESBob Pease & Peter Camilleri (eds), Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2001, 248 pp.

AJCD113 9/11/05 4:22 PM Page 78

CAREERS DIGEST

CAREER DEVELOPMENT FORMEANINGFUL LIFE WORK

This above all, to thine own self be true.

(Shakespeare)

I think there is a ‘sweet spot’ that each of us has. It’sthe kind of work we want to perform, the kind ofwork that makes us proud. But finding that sweetspot requires deep self-knowledge. You start bylooking at the work you are drawn to. You try it, youevaluate the experience, and you evolve as youdiscover more about it. I think of this process asdevelopmental self-interrogation. You’re working ona mental model of yourself – always (Larry Smith,quoted in Warshaw, 1998).

The attacks of 11 September 2001 prompted manypeople to ask ‘What am I doing with my life?’(Cannon 2002, p. 44) and ‘Am I really living the waythat I want to live?’ (Boyatzis, McKee & Goleman2002, p. 87). Some individuals have responded bychanging to careers that have more meaning for them;for example, one woman left a secure job inmanufacturing to help homeless women in theChicago area (Cannon, 2002). Although the traumaticand shocking events of that day caused manyindividuals to stop and take stock of their careers,others have been quietly seeking more satisfying andmeaningful work lives for a number of years. Anarticle titled ‘Boomers Trade Security for Freedom’,published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on 19 March2001, for example, began with the statement ‘Manybaby boomers, unfulfilled by corporate jobs at whichthey’ve worked for years, are deciding to give up the

great pay and benefits to do what they want to do’(Hudson, 2001, p. 8). These examples supportemerging perspectives that view work as an expressionof meaning. Many individuals are no longer satisfiedwith working for a living but instead want to work atliving (Boyatzis et al., 2002). Career developmenttheory and practices that foster the development ofmeaning in work are reviewed in this Digest.

THE WORK–MEANING CONNECTIONSeveral years ago, a Wall Street Journal/ABC News pollreported that nearly 50% of all those working in theUSA would choose a new type of work if they had thechance (Warshaw, 1998). Why do so many people feeldissatisfied with their work? The answer is complexand multifaceted. We live in an age where work hasbecome ‘more personal than ever – when who you areis what you do – a deeper source of personal satisfactionthan ever’ (ibid., online, n.p.). Many are re-examiningtheir careers in light of the growing realisation thatwork should be more than a job. Instead of listening tointernal signals, many individuals make choices aboutwork and careers on the basis of external criteria suchas income potential, status and the opinions of others.Although they may achieve success in these careers,they may be unhappy and dissatisfied because theirwork is not aligned with who they are, their ‘core self’(Clark, 2000). Others may select careers based on theiraptitudes – things they are good at doing – but just likeexternal criteria these aptitudes may not reflect their‘deep interests’, that is, the things that really make themhappy (Webber, 1998).

Examining the terminology used to describe workcan help unravel some of the questions about choosingwork that is meaningful. Although the term ‘career’ is


CAREERS FORUM

This section of the journal is set aside to provide a forum for the sharing of relevantinformation and stimulating discussion and debate. Ideas about successes and problems inpractice can be exchanged. Where applicable, the contributors would welcome returncorrespondence, either directly or through Careers Forum.

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used most frequently, the term ‘vocation’ is moreprofound because it has to do with doing work thatmakes a difference and that has meaning. The Latinword vocare, which means ‘to call,’ is the root of theword ‘vocation’. A vocation is a calling that one has tolisten for. It is not immediately recognisable and one hasto be attuned to the message for it to be heard (Webber,1998). Finding meaningful work, therefore, involveslistening for those internal signals that signify ‘deepinterests’ and then allowing the interests to lead to workthat is aligned with a ‘core self.’

JOB SATISFACTION AND CAREERHAPPINESSTraditional vocational or career guidance grew out ofthe needs of the modern industrial era and focused onmeasuring individual differences or traits and thenusing this information to match people to occupations.Part of this tradition was measuring job satisfactionthrough a positive evaluation of individuals’ attitudestoward their jobs. Career satisfaction measuresconcentrated on correlating external job factors withglobal measures of satisfaction (Henderson, 2000a;Savickas, 2000). Job satisfaction also depended on anindividual’s ability to recognise and follow his or herinterests (Henderson, 2000b). According to Henderson(2000a), when ‘the popular literature began suggestingdeeper meaning in work … these traditional studiesand assessment techniques began to have an emptyring’ for both individuals and career developmentprofessionals (p. 6).

In response to the need to address the evolvingconcept of meaningful work, a new construct knownas career happiness has emerged (Henderson, 2000a,2000b). As defined by Henderson (ibid.) and a numberof colleagues (see the Winter 1999–2000 issue of CareerPlanning and Adult Development Journal), careerhappiness results when individuals find or developcareers that allow them to express their core identitiesand values, that tap into their true essence. Accordingto Henderson (2000a), ‘Career happiness appears tohave emerged more from philosophy, mythology, andpsychology, than from the existing job satisfactionliterature’ (p. 6). Theories underlying the constructinclude the following (adapted from Henderson,2000a, p. 6):• concept of true self and its potential (Maslow and

Kierkegaard);

• concepts of innate self and potentiality related toprocesses for psychological healing (Jung and CarlRogers);

• mythological processes for self-discovery and self-expression in career and life stage developmentthat honour life journeys of profound purpose andmeaning (Joseph Campbell);

• concept of serendipity that enables individuals totake advantage of unexpected or chance events(Bandura);

• optimal experience as critical determinants ofpersonal happiness (Csikszentmihalyi).Career happiness is connected to human

development and is influenced by developmentalprocesses (Harris, 2000). Career happiness may result‘when career activities, challenges, and environmentssupport, gently challenge, and resonate withfundamental developmental tasks’, but as anindividual grows and changes, activities that onceresulted in career happiness may not continue to bemeaningful (ibid., p. 28).

A study (Henderson, 2000b) of eight people whoexperienced career happiness revealed that the partici-pants had the following personality traits: a positivesense of self, self-determination, energy, strength ofcharacter, positive and productive relationships withothers, and a positive relationship to the world. Workenvironments contributed to their career happiness byproviding freedom and autonomy, challenges, apositive social atmosphere and the opportunity to makepersonally meaningful contributions.

DEVELOPMENTS IN CAREERDEVELOPMENT THEORYA number of recent developments in careerdevelopment theory support the concept ofmeaningful work.

Constructivism The search for meaningful work is connected toconstructivism with its emphasis on deriving meaningfrom experience. As a part of their career develop-ment, individuals can construct careers that arepersonally meaningful and self-managed. To havemeaningful careers individuals will need to reflect ontheir experiences and make the changes necessary tokeep their careers aligned with their values andinterests (Patton, 2000; Savickas, 2000).


Careers Forum

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Career AdaptabilityCareer adaptability emphasises making careerchanges without great difficulty to fit new orchanging circumstances. It involves both an ability tocope with the predictable tasks of career developmentsuch as preparing for and finding a job as well as afuture orientation that allows individuals to improvethe match between their internal job description andthe external world on a continuing basis (Plimmer etal. 2000; Savickas, 1997). It ‘involves planful attitudes,self- and environmental exploration, and informeddecision-making’ (Savickas, 1997, p. 254).

Planned HappenstancePlanned happenstance is a theory that helpsindividuals develop skills to recognise, create and usechance in career development. Closely related to bothconstructivist notions of career development andcareer adaptability, it requires individuals to exercisecuriosity to explore new learning opportunities, topersist despite setbacks, to meet changing attitudesand circumstances with flexibility, to optimisticallyview new opportunities as possible and attainable, andto take risks by being proactive in the face of uncertainoutcomes (Mitchell, Levin & Krumboltz, 1999).

Connecting Spirit and WorkThe idea that work has a dimension that is spiritual orcarries with it a sense of harmony is connected tomeaningful work (Bloch, 2000). When individualsconnect what they really like to do with what they dofor pay, and when they are absorbed in that work,they have achieved a connection between their spiritand their work. Career development plays a role inthis process by helping individuals discover theirneeds, interests and values and understand the natureof work and occupations, and then by assisting inbringing the two areas together. Meaning lies in howthe two areas are merged (Bloch, 1997). Bloch (1997)suggests the practice of intentionality – a process ofusing the mind to influence events outside one’s self –as a way of creating career changes that will lead tomore meaningful work.

CONCLUSIONAchieving meaningful life work is a process thatinvolves aligning one’s work with one’s true essenceor core self. It is an ongoing process that involves self-

reflection to discover the deep passions within andthen exploring how to bring those passions or intereststo bear in meaningful ways in work (Clark, 2000).Career development theories such as constructivism,adaptability and planned happenstance support thedevelopment of careers that are purposeful andmeaningful. As described in the literature reviewedfor this Digest, career development for meaningfullife work has a middle-class orientation. The conceptsdiscussed do not address gender, class or race, andthey also reflect ‘Western’ culture in their emphasison the individual.

AcknowledgementThis project has been funded at least in part withFederal funds from the US Department of Educationunder Contract No. ED-99-CO-0013. The content ofthis publication does not necessarily reflect the viewsor policies of the US Department of Education nordoes mention of trade names, commercial products,or organisations imply endorsement by the USGovernment.

REFERENCESBloch, D.P. (1997). Spirituality, intentionality, and career success:

The quest for meaning. In D.P. Bloch & L.J. Richmond (eds),

Connections between spirit and work in career development:

New approaches and practical development. Palo Alto, CA:

Davies-Black.

Bloch, D. (2000). The Salient Beliefs Review: A new instrument

for connecting spirit and work. Career Planning and Adult

Development Journal, 15(4), 71–81.

Boyatzis, R., McKee, A. & Goleman, D. (2002). Reawakening

your passion for work. Harvard Business Review, 80(4), 86–94.

Cannon, A. (2002). Left a good job for meaning: Some have

responded to September 11 by trading stability for fulfilling

careers. U.S. News & World Report, 18 February, 44–45.

Clark, J. (2000). From career angst to bliss: An explorer’s tale.

Career Planning and Adult Development Journal, 15(4), 93–103.

Harris, A.H.S. (2000). Using adult development theory to

facilitate career happiness. Career Planning and Adult

Development Journal, 15(4), 27–36.

Henderson, S.J. (2000a). Career happiness: More fundamental

than job satisfaction. Career Planning and Adult Development

Journal, 15(4), 5–10.

Henderson, S.J. (2000b). Follow your bliss: A process for career

happiness. Journal of Counseling and Development, 78,

305–315.


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Hudson, R. (2001). Boomers trade security for freedom. St.

Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch, 19 March, 8.

Mitchell, K.E., Levin, A.S. & Krumboltz, J.D. (1999). Planned

happenstance: Constructing unexpected career opportunities.

Journal of Career Counseling and Development, 77, 115–124.

Patton, W. (2000). Changing career: The role of values. In A.

Collin & R.A. Young (eds), The future of career. Cambridge,

UK: Cambridge University Press.

Plimmer, G., Smith, M., Duggan, M. & Englert, P. (2000).

Career adaptability, well-being, and possible selves. Career

Planning and Adult Development Journal, 15(4), 83–91.

Savickas, M.L. (1997). Career adaptability: An integrative

construct for life-span, life-space theory. Career Development

Quarterly, 45(3), 247–259.

Savickas, M.L. (2000). Renovating the psychology of careers for

the twenty-first century. In A. Collin & R.A. Young (eds),

The future of career. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University

Press.

Warshaw, M. (1998). Get a life. Fast Company no. 15 (June–July

1998), 138+.

http://www.fastcompany.com/online/15/getalife.html

Webber, A.M. (1998). Is your job your calling? Fast Company no.

13 (February 1998), 108+.

http://www.fastcompany.com/online/13/hbrplus.html

Susan ImelERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and

Vocational Education


Careers Forum

INFORMATION AND RESOURCES

AUSTRALIA’S NEW ONLINE CAREEREXPLORATION SERVICEThe Minister for Education, Science and Traininglaunched ‘myfuture’, Australia’s new online careerexploration and information system, on 22 July 2002.

Available free on the Internet, ‘myfuture’ isdesigned for all Australians wishing to explore theirskills and interests, identify possible career paths,develop their career plan and research options forfurther study and training.

It is a one-stop-shop and, for the first time, brings

together information about the labour market,education, training and jobs in Australia.

One of the unique features of ‘myfuture’ is thatusers are able to create an individualised profile. Userscan match their interests, values, skills, aspirationsand abilities to possible occupations and can re-enterthe site at any time to access and update their profilesas their skills develop or interests change.

While potentially useful for young people makingdecisions about subject choice, vocational pathwaysand employment, ‘myfuture’ may also assist adults

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returning to the workforce or changing careerdirection. Career counsellors, teachers and parentswill also find the service of value.

Go to www.myfuture.edu.au, Australia’s new one-stop career information site. For further informationcontact Ms Robyn Bergin, Director of CareerEducation, phone (02) 6240 8477 or by e-mail([email protected]).

SMART STARTSmart Start 2003 has a contemporary, magazine-likedesign with ‘real-life’ stories of how young peoplehave managed after high school. This edition alsoincludes two new chapters called ‘Your Life’ and‘Where to Live’ which enjoyed consistent popularitywith high school students.

The publication covers study options includinguniversity, TAFE, college, apprenticeships andtraineeships. It also covers travelling, volunteering orentering the workforce together with vitalinformation about money matters, workers’ rightsand responsibilities, the emotional pressures of leavingschool, preparing for an interview and job suitability.Complex issues such as HECS, government assistanceschemes and scholarships are covered in an accessibleand easy-to-read format.

Smart Start 2003 lists the addresses and contactdetails of Australian higher and further educationinstitutions and a listing of employers recruitingschool leavers. Smart Start 2003 is available frombookstores and newsagencies for $14.25, and NewHobsons Press also sends copies free of charge to everysecondary school in Australia.

Megan JohnstonNew Hobsons Press,

[email protected]

DIRECTORY OF HIGHER ANDFURTHER EDUCATION COURSES2003The annual Directory of higher and further educationcourses 2003 is a comprehensive guide that lists coursesoffered by every higher education institution in thecountry. University, TAFE and private colleges arelisted with full-time, part-time and external coursesincluded under 300 subject headings, separated intoundergraduate and postgraduate study.

Over 17,000 courses are listed. There are articles on

admissions procedures, finances and the AustralianQualifications Framework. Courses are codedaccording to course length and mode, and addressesand contact details of higher and further educationinstitutions are listed.

CAREER AND TECHNICAL REFORMSAND COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOLREFORMS IN HIGH SCHOOLS: IMPACT ON EDUCATIONALOUTCOMES FOR AT-RISK YOUTHThe National Centers for Career and TechnicalEducation have just published Career and technicalreforms and comprehensive school reforms in high schools:their impact on educational outcomes for at-risk youth byMarisa Castellano, Samuel Stringfield and James R.Stone III with Morgan Lewis (Highlight Zone no. 8).

This review examines the research on currentreforms in light of a growing number of at-riskstudents in public high schools, the changing needs ofthe workplace, and new ideas about preparingstudents to be productive and successful workers. Thelarger review upon which this paper is basedencompasses broad areas of education research:student risk factors; secondary vocational education,now known as career and technical education (CTE);and the interplay of CTE with broader whole-schoolreforms.

The review includes a summary of eight strategiesto improve secondary school performance through acareer focus and an extensive bibliography. It isavailable at no cost as a PDF file. Send requests [email protected].

ACTU WORKSITE – TOP FIVERIGHTS FOR YOUNG PEOPLEThe Australian Council of Trade Unions ‘Worksitefor Schools’ website offers a new on-line publication,Top five rights for young people, from Corrs ChambersWestgarth Lawyers. Published online and free todownload, the guide gives some hints on youngpeople’s rights in the workplace:• appearance, hair styles, body piercing, jewellery,

uniforms, proper dress;• remuneration, how wages are set, timesheets, pay

slips;• health and safety;• hours and teen lifestyle, rosters, public holidays;


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• fair go, freedom from discrimination, harassmentand bullying, equal opportunity.

Source: www.worksite.actu.asn.au

TELEWORKING IN NEW SOUTHWALESTeleworking. New South Wales, October 2001 (Cat. No.1373.1) was released in April 2002. It is the firstAustralian Bureau of Statistics survey to lookspecifically at the issue of teleworking. Thepublication contains data on the frequency andcharacteristics of teleworkers in NSW, such as age, thesector of employment, the facilities used forteleworking, and the reasons for not teleworking ornot teleworking more often.

DO-IT-YOURSELF SURVEY PACKAGEThis package is an online ‘point and click’ tool forpublicly funded vocational education and trainingorganisations. The National Centre for VocationalEducation and Research has developed and designedthe package to make it easier for TAFE organisationsto collect, store and report information in a way thatis consistent with the national Student OutcomesSurvey.

Use of this web-based tool is permitted free ofcharge to TAFE institutes/colleges, state/territorytraining authorities and the Australian NationalTraining Authority for Educational Quality AssurancePurposes (EQAP).

Non-TAFE registered training organisations(RTOs) in receipt of public funding can use the toolfree of charge, but only for publicly funded trainingactivity. Use of the DIY Survey Package by non-TAFE RTOs is currently on a trial basis, to bereviewed in October 2002. To access the package ifyou are already registered, visit: http://www.hrworkbench.com/ncver/qs.asp.

For information about how to register, visit http://www.ncver.edu.au/statistics/surveys/diy/index.htm

NEWS

VANCE PEAVYVance Peavy’s untimely death on 1 July meant the lossof a friend and mentor to many in the field of careerdevelopment in Australia and to counselling inCanada. Vance died in hospital, having had a suddenheart attack while at the home of friends. LynneBezanson and Barbara MacCallum circulated thefollowing announcement.

There is a plan at the University of Victoria to have

a public celebration of his life early in September.

NATCON is being approached to secure a time for

a Retrospective on Vance’s life at a main assembly of

NATCON. The family is establishing an R. Vance

Peavy Memorial Scholarship in Career Counselling

and have honoured the Canadian Career

Development Foundation by asking the Foundation

to administer it.

In their message they stated:

It is a very sad day for all of us. At the same time,

many of us carry with us insights and life lessons

learned from Vance. I am recalling training with

Vance many years ago in HRDC and Vance

challenging us all to examine our assumptions about

clients we served. Was our operating assumption that

‘Clients are able’… or ‘Clients are unable’? He

offered that this assumption would affect absolutely

everything we did and every life we touched…

Lynne Bezanson and the Staff of CCDFBarbara MacCallum and the Board of

Governors of CCDF

YOUNG ACHIEVEMENT AUSTRALIASTUDENTSYoung Achievement Australia (YAA) will have topstudents at the Marmon Group Global Trade Institute(MGGTI) 2002 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, from 19 to25 June. The MGGTI provides high-achievingstudents the opportunity to learn extensively aboutentrepreneurial studies, international business, globaleconomics, business ethics and management practices.

Kate Layman, the 2000 National SecondaryStudent Business Person of the Year from WesternAustralia, and Hugh Podmore, the 2001 National


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Secondary Student Business Person of the Year fromthe ACT, have been awarded scholarships to attendthe Institute as two of 100 students from around theworld. Kate and Hugh are being recognised for thehard work and commitment they have contributed totheir YAA student companies, and their resultingoutstanding accomplishments.

YAA provides hands on, industrial strengthprograms to develop the capabilities, capacities,understanding and enthusiasm in young Australiansfor business enterprise, innovation andentrepreneurship. YAA has assisted over 150,000young Australians since 1977.

In Chicago, Kate and Hugh are participating inseminars, workshops, sports and other MGGTIprogramming with students from around the world.They study the following areas:• understanding global trade;• building character, teamwork skills and

confidence;• discovering new and innovative business practices;• finding inspiration to convert ideas into action; • networking with future trading partners,

entrepreneurs and leaders.YAA is an affiliate of Junior Achievement

International which is a worldwide youth organisationreaching 112 nations including the USA. Its enterpriseprograms reach close to six million young people in allgrades. Since 1919, 50 million young people around theworld in all time zones have benefited from JuniorAchievement International programs.

For further information about YAA, contactSally O’Regan, ph. 0413 488 319, e-mail [email protected].

JOB AGENCY SUPPORTS MIGRANTCOMMUNITIESIPC Employment is tapping into the multiculturalcomposition of Sydney by providing specialist trainingand job placement services to the city’s burgeoningmigrant community.

Established in May 1998, IPC Employment wasformed when the Commonwealth EmploymentService was replaced with Job Network. Theimportance of catering for non-English speakingbackgrounds in all facets of the employment processhas been critical to IPC Employment’s strategy.

Adam Swist, regional manager of IPC

Employment’s western region, says the company’s 41-office network infrastructure has an emphasis onproviding flexibility to employers within migrantcommunities. Complementing the job matchingservice and intensive assistance services is a three-week search job training program offered by IPCEmployment.

For more information, contact Kim Reeder, [email protected].

AWARD WINNER – JOHN D.KRUMBOLTZThe American Psychological Association willrecognise careers researcher and theorist John D.Krumboltz, PhD with an Award for DistinguishedContribution to Knowledge at its Annual Conventionin Chicago, 22–25 August. The Monitor onPsychology (May 2002) reported:

Krumboltz, professor of education and psychology

at Stanford University is being honoured for his

clinical and research contributions to psychological

knowledge. He is a fellow of the American

Association for the Advancement of Science and

APA. His PhD in educational psychology and

counselling is from the University of Minnesota. He

has worked as a high school counsellor and algebra

teacher, as a research psychologist for the U.S. Air

Force, and taught educational psychology at

Michigan State University before moving to

Stanford. During sabbatical years he accepted

yearlong invitations as a visiting senior research

psychologist at the Educational Testing Service, as a

Fellow at the National Center for Research in

Vocational Education at Ohio State University, and

as a visiting colleague at the Institute of Psychiatry at

the University of London, as well as the National

Institute for Careers Education and Counselling in

Cambridge, England.

He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and spent

a year as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies

in the Behavioral Sciences. On three occasions he has

received the Outstanding Research Award from the

American Personnel and Guidance Association (now

the American Counseling Association). In 1990,

APA’s Division 17 (Counselling) gave him the Leona


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Tyler Award, the nation’s foremost award in the field

of counseling psychology.

NCVER APPOINTS NEWMANAGING DIRECTORDr Tom Karmel has been appointed as the newManaging Director of the National Centre forVocational Education Research (NCVER). CurrentlyActing Group Manager, Research, Analysis andEvaluation Group, of the Commonwealth Departmentof Education, Science and Training, Dr Karmel has alsoheld senior positions in the fields of higher educationpolicy, research and statistics with the CommonwealthGovernment as well as senior roles with the AustralianBureau of Statistics and the Bureau for Labour MarketResearch. Dr Karmel will join NCVER in mid-August.

NEWS FROM THE CAREER ASSOCIATIONS

CAREER PRACTITIONERSASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALANDDale Furbish, the President of the CareerPractitioners Association of New Zealand (CPANZ),has reported that the association is pursuing AffiliateMembership status with the Australian Association ofCareer Counsellors and the Graduate Career Councilof Australia. CPANZ has a total membership of 385,comprising 66 Associate, 283 Professional and 36Subscriber members.

CPANZ is providing input to the recently formedcore group to review the Ministry of Education’sguidelines for Career Education in New Zealandschools. For further CPANZ information contactwww.cpanz.org.nz, e-mail [email protected].

FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES

MELBOURNE, 18–20 NOVEMBER 2002The Vital Partnership – The triennial conference ofAustralia’s combined peak bodies for graduate careersand employment,Web: http://www.gradlink.edu.au/gradlink/casconfrm.htm

ADELAIDE, 14–16 APRIL 2003Call for presenters’ submissions for AustralianAssociation of Career Counsellors’ Conference.Applications required by 5 October 2002. E-mail: [email protected]

BERN, SCHWEIZ, 3–6 SEPTEMBER2003International Association for Educational andVocational Guidance Web: http://www.svb-asosp.ch

CORUNA, SPAIN, 15–17 SEPTEMBER2004Guidance, career development and social inclusion.Spanish Association on Guidance andPsychopedagogy. E-mail: [email protected]

FROM THE JOURNALS

I N T E R N A T I O N A L J O U R N A L F O RE D U C A T I O N A L A N D V O C A T I O N A LG U I D A N C E , VOLUME 2, NO. 1, 2002, Educational and Vocational Guidance in Oceania: Introduction.

James A. Athanasou

Career Development in the Pacific Islands: Key Issues

Influencing Educational and Vocational Achievement. James

A. Athanasou & Janette Torrance

A Review of Career Development Research in Australia and

New Zealand from 1995–2000. Lee-Ann Prideaux & Peter

A. Creed

Theoretical and Practical Perspectives for the Future of

Educational and Vocational Guidance in Australia. Wendy

Patton & Mary McMahon

Using Qualitative Assessment in Career Counselling. Mary

McMahon & Wendy Patton

J O U R N A L O F V O C A T I O N A LB E H A V I O R , VOLUME 61, NO. 1, 2002 Educational Aspirations: The Contribution of Personality, Self-

Efficacy, and Interests. Patrick J. Rottinghaus, Lori D.

Lindley, Melinda A. Green & Fred H. Borgen

Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment to the

Organization: A Meta-analysis of Antecedents, Correlates,

and Consequences. John P. Meyer, David J. Stanley, Lynne

Herscovitch & Laryssa Topolnytsky


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Which Dominates? The Relative Importance of Work-Family

Organizational Support and General Organizational

Context on Employee Outcomes. Scott J. Behson

Career Commitment: A Reexamination and an Extension.

Laurel R. Goulet & Parbudyal Singh

Employees’ Sense of Community, Sense of Control, and

Work/Family Conflict in Native American Organizations.

Sue Campbell Clark

Variations in Human Capital Investment Activity by Age.

Patricia A. Simpson, Martin M. Greller & Linda K. Stroh

B R I T I S H J O U R N A L O F G U I D A N C EA N D C O U N S E L L I N G , VOLUME 30,2002Does the Covert Nature of Caring Prohibit the Development of

Effective Services for Young Carers? Pauline Banks, Nicola

Cogan, Sheila Riddell, et al.

From Supportive-Listening to a Solution-Focused Intervention

for Counsellors Dealing with Political Trauma. Avigdor

Klingman

Some Ethical Dilemmas in Counselling and Counselling

Research. William West

Audiographic Communication for Distance Counselling: A

Feasibility Study. Kate Collie, Davor Cœubranic & Bonita C.

Long.

Online Counselling: Learning from Writing Therapy. Jeannie

Wright

Characteristics of Students Receiving Counselling Services at

the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Alan J. Flisher,

Jeremy P. De Beer & Frank Bokhorst

On the Experience of Shame in Multicultural Counselling:

Implications for White Counsellors-in-Training. Woodrow

M. Parker & Robert C. Schwartz

J O U R N A L O F C A R E E RD E V E L O P M E N T , VOLUME 29, NO. 1,2002Home and Career Development: A Life History of Elia Hill

Swann, 1878–1961, with Implications for Counseling.

Katherine K. Ziff

The Role of Stress and Negative Emotions in an Occupational

Crisis. Merja Hutri & Marjaana Lindeman

Transitions in Leisure Careers and Their Parallels in Work

Careers: The Effect of Constraints on Choice and Action.

Fiona A.E. McQuarrie & Edgar L. Jackson

Imprisonment and Career Development: An Evaluation of a

Guidance Programme for Job Finding. Gemma Filella-Guiu

& Angel Blanch-Plana

C A R E E R D E V E L O P M E N TQ U A R T E R L Y , VOLUME 50, NO. 3,2002,Coincidence, Happenstance, Serendipity, Fate, or the Hand of

God: Case Studies in Synchronicity. Mary H. Guindon &

Fred J. Hanna

Special Section: Challenges for Counseling in Asia

Introduction. Frederik T.L. Leong & Mark Pope

Career Counseling in Japan: Today and in the Future. Ryoji

Tatsuno

The Past, Present, and Future of Career Counseling in Taiwan.

Doris H.F. Chang

The Evolution of Career Guidance and Counseling in the

People’s Republic of China Weiyuan Zhang, Xiaolu Hu &

Mark Pope

Career Counseling in Hong Kong: Meeting the Social

Challenges. S. Alvin Leung

Family Ties and Peso Signs: Challenges for Career Counseling

in the Philippines. Rose Marie Salazar-Clemena

Career Guidance in Singapore Schools. Esther Tan

From Colonialism to Ultranationalism: History and

Development of Career Counseling in Malaysia. Mark Pope,

Muhaini Musa, Hemla Singaravelu, Tammy Brigaze &

Martha Russell

Challenges for Career Counseling in Asia: Variations in

Cultural Accommodation. Frederick T.L. Leong

MONOGRAPH Convergent and Discriminant Validity of Five Interest

Inventories. Mark L. Savickas, Brian J. Taber & Arnold R.

Spokane

AJCD REVIEWERS

VOLUME 11Jill Lummis, Bob Pithers, Ian Cornford, Geof Hawke,Shirley Saunders, Richard Goddard, Ellen Gibson,Edward Slack, Cynthia Glydden-Tracey, FrankNaylor, Judith Leeson, Kathryn Dixon


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★ Reflections from charter subscribers and original Editorial Board members

★ Reflections from state and territory representatives

ARTICLES

★ Merging two worlds: Linking occupational and organisational career counselling Norman E. Amundson, Polly Parker & Michael B. Arthur

★ Fast Forward: Careers Research in New ZealandKerr Inkson, Dale Furbish & Polly Parker

★ Career theory building in the Australian Journal of Career Developmentduring its inaugural ten yearsLee-Ann Prideaux & Peter Creed

★ Training for career development professionals: Responding to supply and demand in the next decadeWendy Patton

★ The Systems Theory Framework (STF) of career development: History and future directionsMary McMahon

ISSN 1038-4162The Austral ian Council for Educational Research Ltd

PRINT POST PUBLICATION NUMBER PP381667/00531

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