Abstract:
With the traditional one-way hierarchical organization career path being replaced with non-linear or multi-directional career paths, how an individual could maintain continuous career development within a dynamic and discontinued employment context is a consistent theme of this thesis. Through an internet-mediated quantitative research method among recent alumni of Massey University, this current study explores three core aspects of recent tertiary graduates’ career development: the extent to which they hold new career attitudes (protean and boundaryless attitudes), endorse career adaptability and implement career self-management behaviours. By also considering these graduates’ gender, age range, ethnicity, highest qualification, the college from which they graduated and location after graduation, this New Zealand based empirical study questions if such demographic elements could affect graduates’ career attitudes, career adaptability and career self-management behaviours.
The findings reveal that although recent tertiary graduates’ levels of endorsement of new career attitudes and career adaptability has increased to a considerable extent, these graduates are not practising career self-management behaviours to a similar high level. Demographic elements are implied to be an issue when considering the above three aspects of their career development, but are evidently not crucial; and are still worth more investigation in future empirical career studies. The practical value of this study lies in its implications for both individual graduates and institutions to maintain congruence in both attitudes and actions when developing individual careers.
