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This assignment alms to analyses the careers of three Individuals by exploring the personal and situational factors considered In Supper’s Archway Model as well as the Grumbler’s Theory, and discuss how these factors interact and affect career decision-making. The analysis is then applied to the discussion how to use the various types of intelligences in achieving career success and advancement. Interviewee 1 Name: Jane Chug Highest Educational Qualification: Honors In Accountancy Age: 40 years old Gender: Female Race: Chinese Nationality: Singapore Work experience: 21 years Past occupation: Accountant/ General Accounts Manager
Current occupation: Assistant Finance Manager Brief Background Jane is currently working as an Assistant Finance Manager with Eng Lee & Associates and has been there for almost 2 years. Being the mother of two children, Jane placed a huge emphasis on being able to spend quality time with her family. Thus, the major factors which influenced Cane’s career history is Job satisfaction and work life balance. When asked to classify herself under three of the six personalities and environments that Holland developed which suits her best, she chose Conventional, Social and Realistic. Career History of Individual:
Jane graduated at the age of 22 and started her firstborn as an assistant accountant with Panasonic where she was only in charge of only one of the subsidiary’s account. Due to outstanding performance, she was promoted several times within a span of 3 years. This was parallel to the company’s policy to provide opportunities for career development to retain talents. However, even with good promotion prospects, Jane does not hold much authority In decision-making. With meeting tight deadlines and superiors’ expectation the only challenges, job task were mundane and this resulted in a lack of motivation for her.
Although this job provided her the work-life balance she wanted, she did not enjoyed the nature of her work at all. Furthermore, the most pivotal reason for her exit was due to the clash of personal value. During the period of economic downturn, there was a change of the management. In order to present a positive financial results to the owners, Jane was ordered to manage the earnings accounts. This made Jane faced with an ethical dilemma. Coupled with her lack of job satisfaction, she decided to leave the job. Next, she moved on to her next career to work as an Assistant Finance Manager.
The Meany’s value is in line with her personal value. Moreover, her current nature of made Jane highly motivated by the new challenges available to her every day, and satisfied with her working environment and work life balance offered. Interviewee 2 Name: Sam Nag Highest Educational Qualification: Primary 6 Age: 55 years old Gender: Male Work experience: 38 years Past occupation: Construction Worker, Interior Design Contractor Current occupation: Taxi Driver Sam is currently working as taxi driver of Comfort and has been there for almost 17 years.
He is married with two children and has been the sole breadwinner of the Emily. Thus, the major factors which influenced Cam’s career history is Job stability, health and work life balance. Being part of a big family of 12 children, Sam, who was the 10th child, could only study up to secondary 3 before he was forced to drop out of school to support the family by working for his uncle. When asked to classify himself under three of the six personalities and environments that Holland developed which suits her best, she chose Conventional, Enterprising and Realistic.
Career History of Individual: Sam started working as a full time construction worker at the age of 18. He was working for his uncle and his other younger brothers were also working there, albeit with different tasks. Weighed down with the responsibility of taking care of them, he has no choice but bear with the harsh working conditions. Moreover, he knew that with his lowly education level, he could only take up Jobs of such nature. After several years, the physically-demanding Job finally took a toll on his body.
He then found out that this Job could only last him as long as his body could take it and that he needed a second Job. Furthermore, the low wage demand of foreign workers led to an influx f them, resulting in suppression of his wages. This made Sam to be worried about his Job stability. With the encouragement of family, Sam went into a partnership for interior designing. However, Just when the business was doing well, came the 1997 SEA economic downturn. This resulted in the failure of the business. Having filed for bankruptcy, Sam decided to take up the taxi driver vocational license course.
Subsequently, Sam has been on the road for 17 years as a taxi driver. Although this job still imposes physical strain on his body, the flexibility and stability of the Job was one that he valued. Name: Marvin Tan Highest Educational Qualification: ‘O’ Levels Age: 52 years old Work experience: 35 years Past occupation: Air Force Technician, Insurance Agent Current occupation: Remised Marvin has been working as a remised with DMS & Partners Securities since year 2002 till now. As a father of three, and also the sole breadwinner of the family, Marvin seeks Jobs that had stability and regular working hours.
When asked to classify himself under three of the six personalities and environments that Holland developed which suits him best, he chose Investigative, Conventional and Realistic. Career History of Individual: Marvin started working at the age of 17 due to family circumstances. He was enrolled into the first year of pre-university, only then when his father was forced into retirement at Journo shipyard, He realized that his family would not be able to afford the exorbitant university school fees even if he had made it through to university.
At the age of 17, he had to look for a Job in order to shoulder the responsibilities of supporting for the family. Since young, he had always wanted to be a pilot, but the process was a long and tedious one, so he decided to put his dream aside and be an air force technician instead. The benefit of being a regular is a stable income so that he could ease his father’s expenses burden, by seeing his younger brother and sister through their secondary school education.
Marvin left the air force after 12 years as he felt that the way the organization worked did not really suit him, and thus decided to carve out a career for himself. During the arrears as a technician, he also picked up the habit of reading the newspapers daily, which got him to realize that his interest is in analyzing shares and stocks. Moreover, he also felt that he has a knack of analyzing the stock market. His ultimate objective was to be a remised but he opted to apply as a dealer first because he wanted to learn the ropes of the industry, and to also build a clientele.
Moreover, a dealer would have a basic pay which incentive him back then because he had to raise 3 children. While waiting for a reply to his applications, he was also keen to know more about the insurance industry. He took the relevant papers to gain additional knowledge, and ended up as an insurance agent for half a year. Companies who were hiring dealers back then were looking for university graduates and moreover, Marvin found that the insurance industry was not suitable for him so he was only left with the choice of being a remised.
After so many twists in Margin’s career path, he finally got accepted into summit securities at the age of 30, and has been working as a remised since then. Personality, Mr.. Tan feels that he is relentless, passionate and has a high level of self- efficacy. Supper’s Archway Model Supper’s Archway Model shows that individual’s self concept may change in the synthesizing and compromising process of the interaction between relevant psychological, personal and societal elements, which in turn influences the choice ND development of the individual’s career.
For Jane, the extended 5 life stages by Super (1957) suggests that Jane is in the implementation stage, where career prospect should be high on Cane’s priority list. With the various advancement opportunities available to Jane, this should have encouraged her to continue employment with Panasonic. However, her decision to switch companies proved otherwise. Having an independent and ambitious personality, she is competitive and works well where there are many opportunities to succeed. She craves for more decision making autonomy than what she held at Panasonic.
Even though Jane is able to complete her Job-tasks well, the lack of challenges fails to motivate her to put forth her best efforts. This resulted in her resignation as the extrinsic motivation of promotion was unable to compensate the lack of intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, Cane’s family has instilled a strong notion of honesty and ethics and this personal value has been something she tried to uphold her whole life. The ethical dilemma she faced was undo by her strong sense of personal values.
Moreover, the education she received emphasized on the fact that accounting figures speaks the truth. Staying on will mean that there will be a huge conflict of value between her and the company. This shows that Jane has a high level of career maturity from a young age, due to her strong self-concept of who she is and what she likes. Hence, the change from her previous Job at Panasonic to her current one shows that Jane seeks to live out her vocational self concept through the choice of her Job in order to attain Job satisfaction which she valued.
It is shown work satisfactions are dependent on the degree to which an “individual finds adequate outlets for abilities, needs, values, interests, personality traits and self-concepts” However, the theory fails to recognize which of the constructs involved in this proposition is theoretically most significant to career satisfaction which ultimately affects the choice of Cane’s career. For Sam, he was brought up in a traditional family which value kinship deeply.
Being responsible and favoring Job stability, this should have resulted in Sam continuing his work with the interaction between psychological, personality and societal elements that influences his self-concept revealed the reason behind his Job switch. With only a remarry 6 qualification in hand, his aptitude significantly limited Sam to only a few number of occupation. Together with the societal factor of family, which is to take care of his siblings and carrying on the burden of earning money for the family, made him accept the fact of working in the harsh environment.
However, the physical strain on his body spark the thought of a career change. Moreover, the looser foreign policy passed by the government created an influx of foreign workers, most notably threatening his Job stability and suppressing of his wages, created the motivation of him switching Jobs. Coupled with his risk-taking personality, the need of getting a higher income for his growing family and his interest for interior designing refined Cam’s self concept and prompted him to enter into the partnership.
In Cam’s case, although the refining of his self concept has provided reasons for his subsequent career choice, it is important to note that Sam does not have much control over the formation of his self-concept, with only control over how to translate it into occupational choices. Furthermore, Supper’s Archway model should be complemented by his Life-career Rainbow to better illustrate Cam’s career hoicks. His life and career may be viewed as an attempt to live out a self-concept through the blending of a selected number of life roles, each of which makes different demands on energy and time.
For Marvin, being only an ‘O’ levels’ holder, his aptitude limited his Job choices and he could only settle between what interest him and his educational qualifications, with his family in mind at the same time. Even though Marvin has always wanted to be a pilot since young, he was not able to realize his dream due to his family circumstances and opted to work something close o it instead, as an air force technician, compromising between individual and social factors; his self-concept and reality. As Marvin matured and the burden of supporting his family lightened, it got him pondering on what was best for his career.
Over a span of 12 years, there was a gradual change in Margin’s self-concept and perspective due to several factors such as realizing that repairing airplanes was not what he wanted to do for the rest of his life, and the protocol was not something that suited him. Having been reading the newspapers for several years, he developed a rowing interest in the stock market, and believed that he has a knack for it. Having an inquisitive personality, he decided to applied to be a dealer instead of being blinded by his primary objective to be a remised.
This is because he recognized the importance of learning the ropes of the industry as a dealer in order to be a good remised. Moreover, he wanted to build a clientele and that the incentive of a stable pay would be able to support his family. He also recognized that the insurance industry was growing which encouraged him to gain additional knowledge while waiting for a reply to his applications. Eventually, Marvin took up the opportunity to be a remised as his educational qualification was not enough to land him a Job as a dealer.
This transition has proven the career adaptability Marvin has, whereby he has successfully adapted to a completely different and unfamiliar environment. Moreover, the takeover of his previous company, which took place n 2010, meant that Marvin also had to adapt to the new work protocol and hierarchy. It is also apparent own interests and strengths. Starting from a client base of null, Marvin has been a remised for the past arrears, weathering through all obstacles, simply because he as been doing what he like.
Marvin had no regrets when it came to the crunch, leaving his comfort zone, the stable pay he got as an air force technician, to take up a new challenge and to improve on himself, for his interest had spurred him on. Supper’s model mentioned that the degree of satisfaction people attain from work is proportional to the degree to which they have been able to implement their self- concept, which is relevant in Margin’s case. Essentially, Supper’s theory addresses the entire span of a person’s life. However, the five developmental stages that Super 1957) had developed are not completely applicable in Margin’s case.
Although Marvin had an aspiration during the growth stage that lasted to the age of 14, it was short-lived. His exploration stage, from age 15 to 24, was cut short as he had to find a job after his father was forced to retire. Marvin did not have the chance to plan for his preferred occupation. The establishment stage, took place late at when he was 30 instead of 25 years old, as he had to serve a minimum bond of 10 years before he could leave the army. Grumbler’s Theory Grumbler’s theory also known as the Social Learning Theory of Career Decision
Making, explores the concept of triadic reciprocal interaction, which is the interaction between heredity and environmental attributes, and the importance of instrumental & associative learning and how they in turn influence an individual’s work behavior. The 4 major factors that influence one’s career development include genetic endowment, environmental conditions, learning experiences and task approach skills. For Jane, she was born in a family where both her parents worked as an Accountant. Inherited with their genes, Jane was born a fast learner with a acute sense towards numbers.
Moreover, after observing the success her parents had as an Accountant, provided her an associative learning experience, where she also want to pattern her own behavior after. This resulted to her taking up Accountancy during her university. Having attained good results in her course and the good reviews she had during her internship, this provided her an instrumental learning experience. The interaction between these factors reinforced her self-concept and formed self statements of evaluation of her interest and efficacy expectations in the field of accounting which led to her taking up her first Job as an Assistant Accountant in Panasonic.
Although this theory did not played an important part to show the development of her career, this provided the reason of Cane’s initial decision to work as an Accountant. For Sam, he possessed an innate artistic ability for designing. His knack at designing was affirmed by the various awards he received by taking part in designing competition during his secondary school days. However, faced with environmental conditions such as the lack of Job opportunities available to him and his family encouragement to Join the construction industry, Sam believed that this as the best choice and started work with his uncle as a construction worker.
Physical exertions at the construction ground provided a form of instrumental learning experience that served to educate him about the limitations of his physical and events played a big role in shaping Cam’s eventual occupation. The economic downturn in 1997, which led to his eventual bankruptcy, provided an instrumental learning experience which made him realized the risk he was exposed to by operating a business of this nature and the lack of work life balance as a result of his hectic schedule. To add on, the nature of his business requires him to travel around Singapore in order to meet his customers.
This allowed him to find out his talent in remembering road names. Moreover, the relatively stable “rice-bowl” and flexibility nature off taxi-driver affiliates with his value of stability and work life balance. The interaction between his genetic endowment, environmental conditions and learning experiences lead to his eventual career as a taxi-driver. For Marvin, being able to stay in the industry for arrears and more, and to build a clientele from nothing, can only prove how trustworthy and discerning he is in analyzing the stock market.
Although Marvin was not given the chance to further his studies, he had the determination to pursue his interest and succeed in it. Having borne as the eldest child in the family, environmental circumstances determined his first Job, but he was not entirely satisfied with what he had at that time. The nature of the Job provided Marvin an instrumental learning experience which reminded him that the nature of the Job was not suitable for him and thus, decided to leave after serving his bond in order to pursue the interest and innate ability he had discovered n himself in the field of stock analyzing.
This theory has influenced Margin’s career decisions as we can see that an action plan was established to first become a dealer to support his family and build a clientele, before applying to be a remised. He had also recognized the growing demand of the insurance industry, thus identifying it as an alternative if he had failed to become a dealer, which was what happened eventually. He then worked as an insurance agent for half a year before leaving his post for what he had always wanted to do, to be a remised.