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A sociological theory of career decision making - Coggle Diagram
A sociological theory of career decision making
The Centrality and Invisibility of Career Decision-Making
The Current Education and training policy discourses in Britain
Because the current education and training policy (a plan of action) discourses in Britain often focus uncritacally upon thoughts or ideas of markets that are driven by choices made by customers, the career decisions made by the young people who are those "customers" have become central or important to both the planning and the operation of those policies. Yet there is an almost total absence of attention, in either policy or research literatures, to the ways in which those 'customers' of education and training provision actually make career decisions. The literature which does exist and which will be summarised below, they all date back to the 1970's and early 1980's. Furthermore, with the exception of Roberts (1968, 1975) and Law (1981), that literature either ignores or fails to do justice to a sociological perspective. Sociologically-informed literature tends to concentrate on the patterned life chances and career trajectories or flights that are seen as both the result of the actual decison-making and/or social and structural determinants of it. Similarly, in the current sociological debates about the existence, nature & extent of a 'post-modern' world, the individual 'choice' of lifestyles (Giddens, 1991), is a central theoretical concern. For instance, in the field of health, Williams (1995) adresses choice of health-related lifestyle, including dimensions such as sporting activity, diet & smoking. He shows that much of the existing health literature focuses explanation either on structural factors, such as social class, or on belief systems supporting personal choice. More on explanations in the next part.
Williams, Bourdeu Hodkinson and Sparks
To reflect on WIlliam and his explanations in the previous part, he shows that much of the existing health literature focuses explanation either on structural factors, such as social class, or on belief systems supporting personal choice. In inter-relating these two different types of explanation, he turns to the work of Pierre Bourdieu to develop a new theoretical point of view. It is an argument or an opinion of both Hodkinson and Sparks (The authors of this book) that the field of occupational career choice presents a parallel polarity of explanations to those Williams found in health, and that a similar use of Bourdieu's work can help create a necessary third position, by developiing a sociological theory about how career decisions are made. Furthermore, occupational selection is an arena where an important aspect of lifestyle choice can be identified &empirally researched. Theorising about such career decisions can contribute to broader sociological questions of choice, structure & agency in ways that the authors (Sparks and Hodkinson) do not have space to explore here.
The differences in career paths of young people from different backgrounds
There are consistent differences between the career paths of young people from various backgrounds in plenty of socities. Twenty years ago, Ashton & Field (1976) identified three broadly different types of work in Britain:
Long-term career jobs - These were dominated by the missle classes
Working-class career jobs which included technical, clerical & and skilled manual occupations
Low-skill jobs including unskilled manual & shop work.
Since they wrote, there have been dramatic changes to the British educational system, to the labour market & the entry to work. But, despite these changes, recent research still affirm the general validity of the Ashton & Field hierarchy (Furlong 1992; Kerchhoff 1993; Roberts 1993), though the actual nature of careers has changed in all three levels with irregular labour, part-time working & rising unemployment. In effect the picture is now mroe complicated, with this largely class-based hierarchy overlain by Hutton's (1995) 40-30-30 society, where 'Only around 40 % of the workforce enjoy full-time life-time employment or secure self-employment, another 30 % are insecurely self-employed, involuntarily part-time, or casual workers. The ones at the bottom 30 %, the marginilised, are jobless or working for povery wages (having a very bad income).
The differences between experiences, attitudes & background of young people & deep-seated inequalites
Contributors in Bates & Riseborough (1993) explain that there are great differences between experiences, attitudes & background of young people across a range of post-16 education and training provision in Britain. Such studies confirm deep-seated inequalities in the British labour market & that entry into the different career trajectories was largely dependant on levels of qualification gained at 16+. This, in turn, was strongly affected by social class, which was itself a major indepenent factor in explaining career route or path. Gender marked out strongly the type of occupational area likely to be entered (Griffin, 1985) and the ehtnic origin further restricted opportunities for some groups (Blackman, 198; Cross & Wrench, 1991). Finally Banks (1992) show that geographical location was a great factor, due to variations in unemployment & job opportunities.
Existing theories of career decision-making
Osipow and McNeill - Three theories of career decision-making
As Osipow (1990) and McNeill (1990) make clear, there are three competing theories of career decision-making which are dominant within the career guidance community.
The three theories of career-decision making
Trait theory
sees the purpose of carrers guidance & career decision-making as matching a person to placement, by identifying traits of personality, skill & interest that are needed for certain specific jobs & seeing to what extent individual young people possess those qualities. This ends with what Kidd (1984) calls 'a process involving a matching of self & occupation'. Both she and Law (1981) critisie this model as at best oversimplified.
The
developmental model
of Gingsberg (1951) and Super (1953,1957, 1980) argues that there are developmental stages to decision-making, and that 'good' career decisions can't be made until the young person has developed his/her abilities and personal maturity far enough. One issue with this position is that an external expert (outside expert) has to decide what makes a good decision. Also, just like trait theory, the developmental model is restrictedly or merely psychological in it's focus, treating each person as a seperate entity and minimisnig the impact of social and contextual factors that influence and are a part of the decision-making process.
The third model is '
social learning theory
'. Like the others, it's rather old, and based on a largely discredited view of learning based on a sophisticated version of behaviourism (Krumboltz, 1979). This theory does speak about the interaction of social and cultural factors on decision-making and acknowledges that they become caught up or meshed in an individual's identity, as life develops and experiences are accumulated. However, social experiences are viewed as external influences (outside influences) on decisions, whereas our data otherwise suggest they are an integral part of the decision-making process itself. This view of two seperable elements, the individual and the external factors influencing the person, is one of the ways in which much writing about career decision-making is flawed or corrupted. Thus, Boreham & Arthur (1993) identify the information needs of young people and Taylor (1992) analyses or a range of external influences on decision-making
Are these three models the realistic ideal?
All these three models maintain a strong sense in which (i) decision-making is fundamentally (something basic) an individual process, (ii) it should and can contain large elements of technical rationality and (iii) that the main factors determining choice remain within the influence and if not actually in the control of individuals. All present a model of planned decision-making as the realistic ideal to be worked towards. However, Baumgardner (1977, 1982) and Miller (1983) argue that models of planned decision-making have no relation to the ways in which career decisions are actually made. Instead, they emphasise the importance or significance of happenstance ( an event that might have been arranged although it was really accidental), as people react to unexpected good opportunities. Robets (1968, 1975) in the only explicitly sociological analysis of career decision-making in the literature, argues that decisions are not determined by the individual but by 'opportunity structures' in the youth labor market and they are strongly affected by the nature of industrial organisaiton and employment. government regulation and social class. Law (1981) argues that what is needed is a new theory that tries to connect the external model of Roberts with the more sophisticated variants of psychological theorising in either the developmental or social learning models. However, his idea of 'community interaction' is somewhat lacking.
The improved theory of Sparks and Hodkinson: The Careership
The theory developed by Sparks and Hodkinson, which will be described below, tries to do three things that are greatly missing in the existing literature: (i) to combine social and cultural factors with 'personal' choices', (ii) to build in a more sophisticated model of learning and (iii) to unify individual preferences with opportunity structures in a way that integrates serendipity (Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery). These three are of significant importance, because of the different ways individuals are openly judged in the other theories. In Sparks and Hodkinsons model, individuals not stupid or pawns, yet the limitations on their decisions are realistically recognised. In their theory, three artificially- seperated parts are completely inter-related or connected to each other. They are pragmatically (guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory) rational decision-making, choices as interactions within a field, and choices within a life course consisting of inter-linked or inter-connected routines and turning points. They named the theory
Careership
as a shorthand title for the whole.
Power relations in the Training Credits Field
Employment training 'game' and fields
It is helpful to study career choice in the youth labour market through another of Bourdieu's concepts:
field
. Although bourdeu sometimes talks of a field as a market, but more often he uses the analogy of a game:
'We can indeed, with caution, compare a field to a game (jeu), but, unlike the latter, a field is not the product of a deliberate or intentional act of creation, and it follows rules or, better, regularities, that are not openly detailed and clear and codified.'
In the employment training 'game', stakeholders, such as young people, employers, parents, training providers and career officers are players, but, unlike an ordinary or normal game, different players are striving to achieve different ends. In addition, though there are official rules, 'it is the state of the relations of force between players that defines the structure of the field' (Bourdieu, in Bourdieu & Wacquant 1992). The 'players' are different and, for youth training, include the stakeholders mentioned above. Within the field, these players have different resources and power, which create the 'relations of force'.
Career-decision making and capitals
Hodkinson and Sparks data suggest that career decision-making depended on a complex pattern of stakeholder relations and their various comprehensions and reactions to the official regulations (rules). For Bourdieu, each stakeholder brings capital to the game and this can be economic, social, cultural or symbolic. The capital gives access to the power to affect the rules of the game. Capital is relative to the field in question:
'The value of a species of capital (a specific type of capital) hinges (hangs on) on the existence of a game, of a field in which this competency can be employed' (Bourdieu, in Bourdieu Wacquant , 1992). More on capitals in the next part.
Resources are positively, negatively or neutrally charged depending on the context
To reflect on the capitals in the game, Okano (1993) explains this complex point by talking about resources. The same resource may be positive, negative or netural, depending on the context within which it is being 'used'. This means that dreadlocks may be a positive resource for a young person wishing to belong to a Rastafarian band, but negative in getting a job in a bank. For forestry work though, they may be neutral about this, and in other words, it will make nodifference to the result or outcome. In the transition to employment field, other players often possess more capital and can exercise more power than the young people, and it is the more resourceful players who determine the rules of the game (Bourdieu, 1984). For instance, employers have the power to hire and fire, while training and education providers understand the systems better than the young people and have contacts and access to networks that many young people lack or don't have. Some parents have access to work through their own networks, though others do not. Young people also have resources, and can exercise considerable influence on their own futures. But this influence can only be comprehended as part of complex interactions which are, in turn, located within local, national and sometimes global context involving instiitutional cultures and official rules for education, eomployment, school-leaving, benefit payments etc; which are in turn, located within the economic, social and cultural environment, with its strong historical dimension.
Alliances, negotiations, agreements and conflicts
Within such context it is helpful to see all the players making pragmatically rational decisions, from their own differing standpoints, within their own differing horizons and with their own differing objectives. For instance, young people may be be mainly converned with actually getting a job and/or training programme which they want, employers may primarily be worried with the labour requirements of running a business profitably (they don't want to lose money, but earn it instead) and training providers may be most concerned with creating viable (able to work as intended or able to succeed) teaching groups (capable of life or normal growth and development). The outcome of all of this is a fluid mixture of alliances, negotiations, agreements and conflicts.
Career-decision making and serendipitous
Career decision-making can only be viewed as part of such interations in the field. It is not just that choices have to be modified as the result of those itneractions. Rather, the decisions themselves that are affeected by the habitus, are forumulated and modified through such on-going interactions. Sometimes choices are considered because they become available within the field. Sometimes, as when a parent aranges a job for their child with an employer they know, upportunities are created through such interactions. Sparks and Hodkinsons research focused on youth training in Britain. But, nonetheless, Ann Brown, 1994-95 President of the American Educational Research Association actually describes how she came to study psychology at university. Her account or story illustrates a pragmatically rational decision which depended partially on a serendipitous opportunity (Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery), created by a fortune interaction with an admissions tutor. The tutor and Brown were both being pragmatically rational within overlapping horizonz for action. This is her story:
'In high school, I specialised in 18th century literature and 19th century history, and was on my way to study history in college. Why switch? I saw a TV programme on animal learning, on how animals learn naturally in their environments, an introduction to ethology. I looked up animal learning in my handy guide to universitties and found that to study learning, you needed a degree in psychology. So prepared, I set out for an interview, having seen one TV programme and read Freud's Psychology of Everyday Life on the train getting there. By chance, the head of department was an expert in 18th century literature. We discussed poetry for 2 hours. I got a scholarship to study psychology! (Brown, 1994)'.
It's the integration of pragmatically rational decision-making within a socially and culturally grounded habitus, with interactions within the education/employment field, which allows us to combine Robert's ideas about opportunity structures and Baumgartner's identifcation of non-planned decision-making responding to happenstance, while avoiding determinism.
Transformations, turning poiints and routines
The current literature on the transition to work
Within current literature on the transition to work, a common concept is that of 'career trajectory' (Furlong, 1992. Banks (1992) argue that there are patterns to career progression (success) which they describe as trajectories. These are largery dependent on the background characteristics of the young people studied, such as social class, gender, ethnicity, geographical location and level of academic achievement. They could have added historical context as well to this list since its also apparent (evident) that the likely trajectory through education, training and employment for a white working-class male would have been quite different in 1955 as compared with 1995, because of changes in educational and training provision and in the labour market (Ashton & Maguire, 1986).
Career trajectory (Karriärbana = Career path)
'Career trajectory' imples (it means) a small determinism about choices that are made and that the pathways embarked (go on board) upon are somehow set and predictable, at least to an extent or degree. Trajectory is a mathematicl mehaphor, which imples (means) that if we know the starting-point , the angle and the velocity (speed), we can predict where the end-poiint will be and what point will have been reached after intermediate (middle) periods of time. Within the concept of trajectory is a sense in which the future progression (success) of a young person is both knowable and known. Strauss (1962) suggest that we often describe this 'knowability' according to either two metaphors:
The first is that of the career ladder. From this point of view, those early decisions around the trasition to work are the lower rungs of the ladder. As our lives develop, we gradually climb in a direction that is clear and predictable to a knowledgeable outsider. Though plans and directions can change, these are seen as occasional aberrations (something that is different) when a person changes track, stepping (or falling!) from one ladder to another.
This second metaphor for career development, according to Strauss, is that of cooking an egg. Whether we poach it, fry it, boil it or scrame it, it will always be recognisably an egg.
The second metaphor is seen in studies which emphasise (more importance is put on it) the segmented (one of several parts or pieces that fit with others to constitute a whole object) nature of career progression (success) due to factors such as class, gender or ethnicity. Working-class males, let us say, can develop in a variety of ways, but their central 'working-class maleness' will always allow the expert outsider to predict the range of opportunities and types of trajectory that they will follow. Though such patterns may be a reality in many socities, we have seen that Tait (1993) wanrs of the dangers that researchers describing such patterns may, wittingly or unwittingly (knowingly or unknowingly), be themselves creating the very social reality they analyze. Though or even if this is true, it does not invalidate (cancel) the commonly-held view that life changes in large populations are indeed strongly patterned by social class and other factors (Furlong, 1992; Banks, 1992; Kerckhoff, 1993; Roberts, 1993). However it is a fallacy (false reasoning) to apply models based on the explanation of patterns in large populations to the itnerpretation of the actions of single individuals. There can be a logical circularity ( The fact of constantly returning to the same point or situation) about trajectory models which Strauss helps us to challenge. Because the patterns resulting from behaviour can be measured, it is sometimes assumed that they are a sufficient (enough) explanation for the individual behaviours that they are made of (consist of). Having made that assumption, individual behaviours, based on class, gender and ethnic identity are then assumed to 'explain the patterns with which we started.
Turnings points
For the individual , Strauss (1962) claims that neither the ladder nor the egg metaphor for career development is appropriate:
'Development, then, is commonly viewed either as attainment (the act of achieving an aim), or as sets of variations on basic themes. In either case, you as the observer of the developmental pattaren are omniscient (all-knowing); you know the end against which persons are matched, or you know the basic themes on which variations are composed (created). Neither metaphor captures the open ended, tentative (unsettled in mind or opinion), exploratory (serving in or intended for exploration or discovery), hypothetical, problematical, devious (characterized by insincerity or deceit; evasive), changeable, and only partly unified character of human courses of action'
He goes on to talk about career development as a series of
'turning-points'
. 'These points in development occur when an individual has to take stock (inspect), to re-evaluate, revise (change), resee and rejudge' . Strauss claims that turning points are found in all parts of our lives, including occupational career. In many (plenty) careers there is a pretermined structure to these turning-points, some of which involve formalised status-passage. However, even within organisations where official structures resemble (look like) ladder-like trajectories, many individuals fail to match or fit in with the predetermined norms. Strauss describes, for instance, the issues of pacing (speed) and timing, and of mismatch between personal motivations and official structures.
Transformation of identity
In many life course studies, similar notions (thoughts or ideas) or turning-points are often used. Denzin (1989) calls them 'epiphanies'. Working in Finland, Antikainen (1996) talk about life-changing learning events, while Alheit (1994), writing about youth unemployment in Germany, talks of 'biographical discontinuity'. In all cases, the central idea is the same. At a turning-point a person goes through a significant or great transformation of identity. Careership can be seen as an uneven pattern of routine experience interspersed (blend in) with such turning-points. Within each turning-point, career decisions are pragmatically rational and embedded (inserted as an integral part of a surrounding whole) in the complex struggles and negotiations of the relevant field.
Different types of turning-points
None of the studies in the previous part tries to classify different types of turning-point. In Hodkinson, Hodkinson and Sparkes data, it was possible to discern (detect) three different categories, though many turning-poiints are a combination or mix of two or even all three types:
The first category is
structural
and such turning-points are determined by external structures of the institutions involved. One such structural change comes at the end of compulsory schooling, when young people have to choose whether to stay in full-time education or leave. Another would be at the compulsory retirement age.
Other turning points are
self-initiated
(self created), that is, the person concerned is instrumental (Important in making something happen) in precipitating (to make something happen suddenly or sooner than expected) a transformation, in response to a range of factors in his/her personal life in the field.
Finally, turning-points are
forced
on some, by external events and/or the actions of others. A common example is redundancy (becoming jobless)
Planned and unplanned turning-points
Some turning-poiints can be planned and foreseen (you can predict it). Others cannot be predicted and as Strauss makes clear, some can only be recognised with hindsight (understanding the nature of an event after it has happened). This illustrates one of the fundamental (basic) weaknesses of the trajcetory model of career development and a technical view of career decision-making, for in both a high degree of predictability is assumed.
Turning points and the habitus
As a decision is made within a turning-point, the habitus of the person is changed. Sometimes this change resembles (looks like) an incremental (increasing) development, as when a school pupil changes into a university student, but still on the same career pathway into, for instance, dentistry. On other occasions, a turning-point results in a much more dramatic transformation, as when Ann Brown was transformed from a student of history into a budding psychologist. Such transformations can either be comfortable or traumatic, for instance when forced redundancy (jobless) or severe injury forces a subject (a person) into an identity with which they are uncomfortable.
The impact of turning-points on habitus varies
The impact of turning-points on habitus varies. For instance, Alheit (1994) talking about redundancy (jobless), suggests that 'the loss of work may then be more than a "smooth" briographical discontinuity, such as the death of a close relative; instead if may be chaining together of different discontinuiity experiences, which can then be coped with invidivudally in very different ways' (p.6, original emphasis). This is plausible (reasonable) with the proviso (A statement in an agreement, saying that a particular thing must happen before another can) that the relationship between different experiences and different identities will vary from person to person. For some people, a loss of a job may be more all-enveloping (To cover or surround something completely) than certain bereavements (The death of a close relation or friend).
Turning-points and routines
Most studies using the idea of turning-points and epiphanies (A moment when you suddenly feel that you understand, or suddenly become conscious of, something that is very important to you) (Strauss, 1962; Denzin 1989; Antikainen et al., 1996) concentrate on the turning-points rather than the interspersed (place at intervals in or among) periods of routine. Yet turning-points are inseparable from the routines that follow and precede (to be or go before something or someone in time or space) them, and those routines and those routines are of central importance to career transformation. There are several different types of routine and Hodkinson, Hodkinson and Sparkes have identified five so far, in the Training Credits study and elsewhere, though sometimes more than one type iscombined and the distinctions (difference) between them are artificial.
Routines
Some routines are
confirmatory
. Confirmatory means that they reinforce (make stronger or strenghten) a career decision already made, so that the new identity develops broadly (In a general way, without considering specific examples or all the details) in the way in which the subject (the person) hoped and intended. Such confirmatory routines are part of the development of identity and habitus, and the divide between routine and turning-point is largely arbitrary (Based on chance rather than being planned or based on reason). It is the combined effect of the two which is very important.
Another type of routine is
contradictory
. This time, the persons experiences undermine (to make someone less confident, less powerful, or less likely to succeed, or to make something weaker, often gradually) the original decision, as he/she becomes dissatisfied and either begins to regret an original change or, alternatively decides that the current experience is no longer adequate or appropriate. Laura, one of the subjects of Hodkinson, Hodkinson and Sparkes, went through two contradictory routines, in a shop and later in a nursery school. In both cases, after a very short confirmatory period, her experiences made her less and less satisfied with her lot (fate or destiny) and she resigned (quit her job). The result of such contradictory routines is to undermine the identity assumed at the previous turning-point. The result can be either a self-initiated further turning-point, a change in job location whilst continuing a career, or the development of coping strategies such as a focus on home or leisure interests to deflect attention away from dissatisfaction with work.
Other routines are
socialising
and these routines confirm an identity that was not originally desired. Helen for instance wanted to be a car body sprayer, but was made redundant (jobless). When she first took another placement in a record shop she saw it as a stop-gap and still intended to recommence (start up again) her car spraying career as soon as the opportunity arose. However, 6 months later she had become socialised into seeing herself as a shop assistant, intending to continue car spraying only as a hobby. It was the turning-point combined with the socialising routine that followed it that brought about her transformation of identity. Bates (1990, 1993) describes a similar process as a group of young women were socialised into the role of caring for the elderly and their original ambitions to work with children were cooled (they fade it away).
Other routines are
dislocating
. In these cases the person lives with an identity they do not like, neither becoming socialised to accept it, nor feeling able to initiate a transformation, perhaps because they hanker (to have a strong desire for something) which is no longer accessible to them. This can happen, for instance, as a result of traumatic illness or accident, when the person continues to see the previous activity as desirable, even though it is not impossible to attain (achieve).
Evolutionary
routines occur when a person gradually (step by step) changes, outgrowing their original career identity, in ways that are not especially contradictory or painful. Such routines may result in an eventual transformation, with or without a contributing turning-point.