Practice and research in career counseling and development--2006.

Turner et al. tested the effectiveness of the Integrative Contextual Model of Career Development (ICM; Lapan, 2004) for Native American adolescents. The six career development skills were career exploration, person-environment fit, goal setting, social/personal/work readiness, self-regulated learning, and the utilization of social support. The six intermediate vocational outcomes assessed were academic achievement, self-efficacy expectations, positive self-attributions, vocational interests, vocational identity, and proactivity. Results indicated that the variate composed of the six ICM skills could predict 79% of the variance in the variate composed of five of the six ICM outcomes. This means that the six ICM skills are important individually and collectively in developing Native American adolescents' educational and vocational self-efficacy, identity, and interests, as well as their positive attributions and proactivity.

For African American college students, influential factors regarding their career development were investigated by Falconer and Hays through a focus group approach. Categories of factors included continuous connections with teachers, positive influence of peer group, struggles with family and community career expectations, and strong beliefs in the efficacy of mentors and networking. Results indicated clearly that support systems were very influential in the career and academic development of this group of African American college students. H. D. Harrison, Wubbenhorst, Waits, and Hurt examined workforce development among African American churches in Memphis, Tennessee. Findings are presented from a survey of 166 Black churches concerning awareness of and knowledge about community workforce activities and assets, as well as the church's role, interest in, and available resources relating to workforce development. A comparison group of 44 other faith-based organizations (i.e., churches and other faith-based nonprofit organizations) was used. The survey results demonstrated a number of findings about this particular faith community that could be generalized to other communities. This study also provides researchers with a review of the history and role of the Black church as a community-service organization with specific reference to programs and services relating to workforce development.

Lim, Winter, and Chan used two cases--one from Algeria and another from India--to illustrate the importance of cultural sensitivity in successful interviewing within the hiring process. They asserted that career professionals need to be aware of the potential impact of discrimination caused by cultural misunderstanding. Effective strategies suggested include establishing rapport with the candidates, building a relationship, and choosing culturally appropriate interview styles.

Flores, Berkel, et al. conducted a meta-analysis of publications from 1969 to 2004 regarding racial/ethnic minority (REM) vocational behavior. Publication trends, article content and type, samples, and leading author and institutional contributors were reported in the review. Flores, Berkel, et al. indicated that because of the growing number of the REM individuals in the United States, more research studies regarding these individuals are needed to avoid potential biased understanding of their career development and psychology of work. Within the 29 categories investigated, the most frequently addressed content areas in the REM career articles were contextual factors, racial bias/discrimination, gender differences, and assessment. Because most of the studies relied on student samples (i.e., 55% of the samples), Flores, Berkel, et al. reminded future researchers to pay more attention to the career behaviors of the REM community-at-large.

Global/International Perspectives

Hughes and Thomas attempted to validate the Australian version of the Career Development Inventory (CDI) in Thailand. Of the original four scales (Career Planning [CP], Career Exploration [CE], World of Work Information [WW], and Decision Making [DM]) in the CDI, only the CP scale, with Item 5 deleted, was found to be suitable for the proposed cross-cultural investigation. They asserted that a more comprehensive investigation of career maturity in Australia and Thailand would require the local development of Thai scales that correspond to the WW, DM, and CE scales of the CDI.

In Asia, Lai, Peng, and Chang explored career-choice behavior of students in the Nursing College in Eastern Taiwan. The results indicated that 65.4% of the nursing students reported that they would not choose nursing as their career. Factors significantly related to this decision were lack of clinical ability, degree of stress during clinical practice, and lack of support from the nursing staff.

The construct of Lent, Brown, and Hackett's (1994) Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) was also tested globally. Tracey, Lent, Brown, Soresi, and Nota tested the interest structure of adolescents in Italy, and results indicated that there was less stability in the occupational percepts of Italian middle school students over time. The results, however, showed change in the direction of greater adherence to Holland's (1985) RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) circular structure. They also found that deviation from the circular model was related to subsequent career exploration and initial levels of career exploration and parental authoritativeness were predictive of later circular structure, especially in middle school students.

Sultana and Watts reviewed the public employment career guidance across Europe in the following three categories: (a) career guidance elements within personalized employment services; (b) specialized career guidance provision; and (c) other relevant provisions, such as labor market information and the delivery of services to students. For the process of personalized employment services, Sultana and Watts indicated the following four elements: (a) relationship-building counseling skills, (b) diagnostic/assessment skills, (c) ability to make occupational/educational suggestions, and (d) the ability to support action planning. These four elements were found to be necessary for providing professional services. However, their delivery was predominantly managed as an administrative operation rather than a counseling one. Nevertheless, the process varied depending on the manner in which the encounter between employment service staff and the client was conducted. For example, the interview might have taken place over a desk in Greece rather than with the individuals sitting side-by-side in Germany, or advisors might have entered data about the client into the computer during the interview rather than handwriting the data. The staff also provided specialized career guidance for individuals with problems such as disabilities, addiction, homelessness, child care, or debt. The staff members were usually graduates who had a different status within the staff hierarchy. They were all psychologists, for instance, in Finland and Switzerland. In some countries, the roles of guidance counselors and placement officers, however, became blurred (e.g., Denmark). Generally speaking, training provision for those in guidance roles was being enhanced in Europe. Other services, in addition to personalized employment and specialized career guidance, were mainly related to providing information such as producing and analyzing the Labor Marketing Information.

Sultana and Watts also provided four trends: toward self-service provision, toward tiering of services, toward decentralization, and toward outsourcing. Sultana and Watts indicated that the first two trends were more directly related to service provision, and the other two trends were more broadly structural in nature. Across all countries, a major shift was the trend toward self-help services. For example, Finland introduced an "e-strategy" policy to facilitate the blending of self-help strategies into their portfolio of services. Web-based job-search facilities such as registration for entering one's curriculum vitae and labor market information were developed. Regarding the trend of tiering of services, a model with three levels of services was established in Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. These three tiers consisted of self-service through the use of resource centers and a Web site; group-based services and/or brief staff-assisted services; and intensive case-managed services, including individual counseling. Decentralization was another trend for future career guidance services. In at least nine European countries, public employment services were gradually decentralizing their services to regions and provinces and were using local management for the design and implementation of employment policies. The trend of decentralization could result in stronger ownership and customization of services. However, decentralization could also produce some difficulties in the employment and career counseling field. Nevertheless, in several countries, the central office support for local offices to implement nationwide standards could enhance coherence at a national level. Outsourcing was another shift that was found to be related to decentralization. Rather than operating as large and self-sufficient organizations, many opted instead to develop and manage specific relations with other agencies to deliver services. Collaboration, devolution, and competition were three different types of outsourcing. The trend of outsourcing was unavoidable because the labor market had become so complex, no single service provider could possibly deliver the range of expertise required.