Chapter 1

Career Choice – Concept, Scope, Significance and Research

Methodology.

Part A: Concept Scope and Significance:

1.1 Introduction
Career choice is one of the most important decisions a student or a
professional has to make. Whether that decision is to select a specialization,
organisation or a profession, it should be made after careful consideration of
the internal (including physical, emotional and intellectual demands) and
external environment (which might include one’s suitability to the type of
work). This choice is crucial as it shall drive what will be the individual’s daily
schedule for the rest of their life.Furthermore, it will have a direct impact on
their other aspects of life such as life style, self-satisfaction, work-life balance
and quality of life.

The career choice decision is also difficult not just because of the range of
career options available to an individual in the current environment, but
having an adequate understanding of a career without getting into it. Too
often, only after a person has made sustainable commitments in time,
energy, and money or has cut off other opportunities by taking steps to
enter a career, does he or she find that it is not what was expected
or wanted.

Another difficulty lies in having a clear perception, occupational

preference testing, guidance counselling, and experience in activities
related to the career are all resources for making this choice.

Making a career choice requires getting in touch with ourselves and

our surroundings. There are clearly two ways of looking at and assessing
options. On one hand it is about intuition and listening to the heart, which
helps us create a vision of what one wishes to accomplish in life and how we

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influence the world.On the other hand it is about the evaluation of the inner-
self and the environment and use the brain to evaluate what option is the
most suitable one. The former evaluation is usually made in a relaxing
environment both physically and mentally. The latter involves considering the
pros and cons of each of the options that come from first part. Having a work-
life balance involves determination and persistence while looking ahead and
at the same time being not hugely critical of the past and enjoy the
accomplishments and achievements.

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1.2 Concept of Career Choice

Brown (2002) proposescareer choice process to be the one involving

evaluating individual’s abilities, skills and values in the light of the occupations
available and how these align with the work values of the available
alternatives.

Gottffredson’s(1981)Developmental Theory of occupational aspirations

describes the affinity of individuals towards certain occupations. The concept
of self-realisation is key factor in career selection as most individuals want to
do jobs that tend to align with the perceived self-image they have.The key
variables that determine or help individuals perceive this image are social
class, ability, intelligence and experiences.

The basis of the Krumboltz(1993) Career Choice Theory (CCT) is based

on the fact that humans learn significantly from their environment and
experiences and how they have influenced them as an individual.These
experiences and influences may include a family, teacher, mentor, a hobby
or just observing others do a certain job. This eventually drives individual’s
choice of career.

Research within career choices of occupational groups like healthcare

professionals and accountants has been conducted (Carpenter and Strawser,
1970; Paolillo and Estes, 1982; Gul et al., 1989; Bundy and Norris, 1992;
Auyeung and Sands, 1997; Morrison, 2004; Aggrawal, 2008). Career
exploration is very crucial topic when it comes to career choices. Self-
exploration which is the exploration of the “self” and exploration of the
environment which is environmental exploration are part of career exploration
(Eddy et.al. 2008).

In self-exploration one explores one’s own interests, experiences and values

to understand one’s own need and calibre for the career match. Where as in
Environmental exploration; exploring the options in the market by seeking

3
information on organizations, jobs, occupations, and industries to make better
career decisions is involved (Zikic and Richardson, 2007).

4
1.3 Scope of Career Choice

The combination of exploring of one self and the environment provide

information about how the individual’s skills and abilities align with certain
occupations. This is often referred to as the Person – Environmental (P-E) fit.
The combination of self and the environment inform the individual about how
well the two align and this helps them develop the P-E fit and help advance
their career (Ballout, 2007). The independent-selfconsists of key internal
aspects such as abilities, motives, values and intelligence and they are unique
to every individual. The individual then behaves in certain ways due to these
characteristics. On the other hand, the interdependent-selflearns from a social
context i.e. the environment which is based on experience on observing
others and experiencing others’ characteristics and emotions (Eddy et al.,
2008).

In the UK career decision is getting good amount of media attention and

further discussions are about how personal life and family are likely to
influence it (Beauregard, 2007). These days the management graduates look
for the job style which goes well with their social and personal life.

It is the interaction of many factors and complex relationships that bring out
the career development. In this process the personal theories are being
developed by the individual. These theories are being used to respond to the
others around by the human being(Tanovaet al., 2008). The rhetorical-
responsive social constructionism given by the Shotter defines it as a way of
acting and talking that can influence the action of the people. He finds that
everyone writes their own individuality and interests as, knowledgeable,
reflexive and socially responsible agents, which influences this crucial
decision of career choice (Shotter, 1995).

Structural factors and the human agency both of these should be thoroughly
studied and understood by the researcher before working on career. The
structural aspect of individual hinders our understanding related to multi-

5
dimensionality and complexity if over-relied on,which is vital in the operation
at all levels like individual, environmental and relational while understanding
the career developmental process (Tanova et.al. 2008).Özbilginet al.(2005)
describe the interaction between contextual factors and specific
internal(individual) factors in the process of shaping the career.

The human agency and external and internal factors need to be understood
and taken into account while studying the career decisionmaking process
(Albert and Luzzo, 1999).

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1.4 Significance of Career Choice Decisions

Recent research shows that the younger generation are working to live their
life rather than living for the work (Williamson, 2006). Just because of that the
term career anchors has emerged which can be defined as ones self-concept
incorporating perceived career related talents, values, abilities motivations
and needs(Schein, 1996; cited by Beauregard 2007). Broadly these career
anchors are creativity, autonomy, security, stability, competency and
independence. An employee always wants to balance between his work and
personal life so that there is no need for him to keep hopping on the jobs for
his comforts. Individuals also liable to get influenced from their families’
choices related to their occupational choices. Family also affect the decision
to change their job or go for geographical transfers, or even to depart from an
organization forever (Beauregard 2007).

The career choices is the decision in the individual’s life that is influenced by
multiple factors which includes cultural values, family background, personal
attitude and career expectations and many more. (Özbilginet al., 2005;
Kyriacouet al., 2002; Ozkaleet al., 2004)

Career choice is the phenomenon which is very multifaceted and complex.

Furthermore it is hard to understand and predict if there are number of factors
that influence it in different ways. The occupational selection, or in other
words career choice, has many competing theories but the best to understand
is that it is the game between these three

• culture or the social world

• contextual factors of this structure
• Individual agency.

(Özbilginet al., 2005)

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To answer this question that ‘’why student choose to be……..’’ in number of
different fields like teaching medical and many other professions, numerous
research studies have been carried out (Chueneet al., 1999; Dockery and
Barns, 2005;Gallagheret al., 2008; KyriacouandCoulthard, 2000; Kyriacouet
al., 2002; Yong, 1995; Young 1995). Further the studies have been carried
out to study even the specialisation choice decision in some of the degrees
thinking that the result of these studies might help in employment
opportunities (Aggarwal, 2008; Auyeung and Sands, 1997; Kimet al., 2002;
Özbilginet al., 2005; Swensonet al., 1993; Tanovaet al., 2008; Sibson, 2011).

The role of supports and the barriers related to career in the SCCT (Social
Cognitive Career Theory) model was studied by Lent et al. 2002 (discussed in
detail in Chapter 3).They also focused on the factors important in the process
of career development.According to him financial, instrumental and emotional
support,together makethe support system and on other hand, barrier is made
of disapprovals and discriminations from the related people (Wong and Liu,
2010). In his other research he focuses on how the immediate surroundings of
the student can influence him. These surroundings are comprised of friends,
parents and can be the financial and social situation of the person (Lent et al.,
1998; cited by Wong and Liu, 2010). The parental influences are the most
powerful determinant in the process of career choice decision as there is a
silent effect on the offspring’s intention for the career. The effect can be seen
on the ways of actions, ways of achieving the goal and the final goals (Lent
and Brown 1996).

Between 1980 and 2002 around 29 different journals, many with high quality
of studies, related to the effect of family origin on occupational choice and
career development. There are many studies which examined the influence of
the parents on the career choice decision of their children. The vocational
behaviour of the young child is being affected by one of the multi
developmental context which is parental influence (Ferreira et al. 2006; cited
by Wong and Liu 2010).
.

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 Scottish School Leavers Survey (SSLS) data highlights the major catalyst in
initiating the choices process in students’ career
• around 2% students agreed that the main drives in the decision were only
their parents and
• 21% agreed that their parents actually participated in making this decision of
their career
(Biggartet al. 2010)

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1.5 Factors affecting Career Choice

Except a few studies there is very limited research done in the area of career
choices of management students and the factors affecting the career choices
of management students both in India and the U.K.

Therefore this topic is worth exploring as the management degrees are in

demand as the skilled market is growing globally to have a managerial career
in each field. There is very limited data related to the factors influencing
career choice of students in India (Simmering and Wilcox, 1995; Moy and
Lee, 2002; Sturgeset al., 2003; Özbilginet al.,2005; Pines and Baruch, 2007;
Aggrawal, 2008).

Within the studies that have been done to explore the factors influencing the
career choices of the management students, the three-dimensional framework
by Carpenter and Foster (1977) and Beynonet al. (1998) is the most widely
used model which describes three factors:
• Intrinsic factors, which include interest in the job and job satisfaction.
• Extrinsic factors, which include job availability and the scope and well paid
occupation and
• Interpersonal factors, which include influence of family and other social and
significant group.
(Aggrawal, 2008)

Evidence exists in the research area that shows that there are some other
factors that influence the career choices decision of the young people which
are widely known as political factors, economical factors, and socio-cultural
factors (Aggrawal 2008). Bai (1998) also found that the values of the
university management students who have the primary motivators like social
interest, rated money and power while looking for job are being influenced by
the market economy too.

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The researcher now highlights factors from various sources in various
domains/sectors and fields. These factors will then lead on to investigation of
the management students in the subsequent chapters. As would be noticed
the factors discussed are not stand-alone factors. They are very much linked
to each other and hence the discussion of the factors is almost intertwined
with the others.

Relations as factor

The relationships have been influencing the decision of career choice in one’s
life. Human functioning has many dimensions and the relationship constitutes
the major part of it. In recent years the interest to know and understand the
relationship between the relationships and the career is been shown by the
researchers (Aggrawal 2008).

Many investigations done within this subject focus on the aspect that the
relations and your associations strongly influence your career mobility and
progression.The role of relationships in forming the decision of career choices
has been ignored for many years. So there is a need to do the research in this
area and even explore further the different types of relationships that affect
this decision and why and how.

The relative influence of different relationships and the importance of those

relationships in making career choices like (mother, father, relatives,
colleagues, etc.) need to be explored in management students (Aggrawal
2008).

Cultural factors’ influence

The thought process and the behaviour of the person are directly influenced
by the culture he/she is surrounded by (Hofstede, 1980). Cultural values also
indirectly have an influence the relationships which in turn have an impact on
career choices (Auyeung and Sands, 1997; Özbilginet al., 2005).

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The first empirically measured I/C (Individualism Vs Collectivism) dimension,
by Hofstede (1980), describes that every individual relates himself to other
people, to the society or to the particular network of the individuals to which
they have emotional and cognitive attachment. Hofstede’s empirical index
explains the dimensions, developed countries like the UK, USAetc. group
towards individualistic side where as Asian countries like Japan, Taiwan and
India group toward collectivistic side. “Individualism” mentions the inclination
of the person towards reflecting on own ideas and interest and thus place high
value on individual actions and independence/self-reliance.

“Collectivism” mentions tendency of a person to include them as a part of

some larger group and give values to the interests of that group and its group
member(Aggrawal 2008).

Limited Research is investigated to find a link between differential roles of

mentor, colleagues, managers or peers in career decision-making. But all
related research investigates that there is a positive link between all of these
(family, individualism peer relatedness and collectivism. (Benet-Martinez and
Karakitapoglu-Aygun, 2003; Kwan et al., 1997)
.
Career orientation and career success

“Career success orientation” can be defined as the way the individual

perceive the career success or in other way their success at work that reflects
ones attitude, individual values and motivation both at work and social life
(Aggrawal, 2008). For explaining the career choices the occupational
perspective appears be very useful and important. Just because of
convenience people tend to follow the same path more often. Majority of
people stated the interest in and fascination to particular skill or job to be the
main factor in choosing the career choices or occupational choices.

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Impact of family values and work

Evaluative standards that participate in influencing an individual’s behaviour

and decisions to achieve desire goals in the life are known as values. These
days the concern is more on the quality of work life like flexibility in work,
schedules and shifts, developmental activities rather than just counting the
salaries, prestigious job title and status (Judge andBretz, 1992).

In couple of research related to European countries the importance is given to

the work-life balance. The young people chose their profession prioritizing
both work roles and family roles and also wants to maintain the balance
between both (Beauregard 2007).

Impact of expectations of work and family

In the career choices young people’s expectation related to how the work and
family will be managed and balanced plays important role. Most young
women consider the family responsibility while choosing the career and the
job (BadgettandFolbre, 2003; Beauregard 2007).The study of high achieving
girls in academic world reveals that both their education and career choices
and plans are certainly influenced by the society so that they can care for their
family in future(Marks and Houston 2002). So the girls go with the feminized
profession like nursing and teaching so that they can maintain the balance
between their work and personal life. In other research it has been found out
that the girls studying in the male domination courses of specializations such
as engineering or applied sciences were looked as to be unattractive matches
to most of the men and their family (Seymour and Hewitt, 1997). So it can be
said that that individual career choices decision or the occupation they pursue
is being influenced by the tradition in the local society though this situation is
mostly in under developed or some parts of developing countries
(Beauregard,2007).

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The main reason chosen in the career path were work overload, incorporating
families and leisure concerns in one of the study of Norwegian management
graduates (Kolvereid, 1996).
The job pursuing intentions is also contributed by the anticipated support for
the future family and work issues. The individuals will be more inclined
towards to the jobs that offer flexible career path specially those people who
are more inclined towards the family and the work-life balance(Honeycutt and
Rosen, 1997)

Work-life balance and career choices

The barriers to the family commitments or work-life balance are anticipated by

the individual that guide him in the decision of career choice and further which
company to join in selected field. These companies thus enjoy great
recruitment potential because of their employee support system.

Greenhaus and Callanan’s (1994) explain second stage of career

development model where finally individual becomes insiders on the company
and starts working there. In this stage every individual wants that the career
they choose is working how they anticipated in work and personal life
balance. It is very important for the young employee to have a balanced work
and personal life both before and after joining work commitment with
organisation(Sturges and Guest, 2004). After joining the work, 80% of them
still reported to be maintaining the balance and still thought it to be extremely
important.

In the third stage career establishment and achievement is targeted. In this

hierarchical ladder is followed with lots of changes which undergo
continuously Greenhaus and Callanan’s (1994). Many of young generation
individuals have seen their parents still losing their job after long hours of job,
good experience, loyalty to the organisation and lots of hard work with
fulfilment of all commitment efficiently. This observation has made them to
change their thought process. As result they are not willing to sacrifice their
comforts, leisure and family time. This cohort believes to maintain proper

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balance between both work and personal life and not just achieving career
goals by ignoring family and social life(Beauregard, 2007).

Management trainees are so much mentally balanced that they keep full
knowledge of the work and life balance barriers. They want to exert or exploit
themselves to the fullest before they step into family life so that they can grow
in the organisation and make full use of the time. Once their family
commitment starts they work for reasonable hours and proper timed shifts and
try to work which can not affect their personal life Sturges and Guest (2004).
In this way they balance between early stage and later stage of their career
and lead more balanced lifestyle. They know which time to devote to which
world means work world or personal world and how to manage time for both
the related parties. As they “work to live not live to work” (Sturgesand Guest,
2004: 10)

According to Greenhaus and Callanan’s (1994) model in the third stage

individual works at that level where his competency is demonstrated, he has a
position and authority in the organisation. He has more access to career
developmental opportunities now as he has authority in the organisation
which as result increased network and opportunity search base. Opportunities
not only on work field but also related to family and non-work commitments.

As family structure impacts career advancement of an individual so personal

life should be well managed too. At the time of exploring career opportunities
individual with family always prioritise that there should be very less chances
of relocation for the new job as it is hard to uproot family from one place and
then get transferred to other place,especially in that case where children are
school going or partner is also working. In cases like that individual will want
to have flexi practice in that company so that he have to travel to the base
when-ever it is required and not disturbing the family.

Many changes in the working women work pattern are also noticed in the
process of considering and choosing careers and also available choices for
them (Marks and Houston, 2002). They seem to have more aligned approach

15
towards work and life balance. Rather than one aspect dominating the other.
They believe to integrate their choices regarding and related to the work and
their personal life (Sanders et al., 1998).

Marriage and career choices

According to Human capital theory by (Becker, 1975) on the role of marriage

there are three theoretical perspectives which determine career advancement.
This theory describes that men who are married got too many commitments
than a single men especially one with children too. Married men especially
with children go for the jobs of less commitment so that there should be less
pressure on them from work side and they can successfully maintain the
balance between work and personal life. For this decision they need to pay in
less wages or salary jobs. Same in case of women, who got less commitment
in their personal life are more successful in their career as they can choose
jobs which need more time commitment as result they are paid more and their
career graph goes on increasing as result to those ladies who got lot of
commitments in their personal life like children, some old people to look after
at home (Tharenou, 1999).

Other view in this is spouse support by (Kanter, 1977) which says that men
who got spouse support can go for the more commitment and time consuming
jobs as they got someone to take care of their family kids, old people at back
home so they are stress free from one side and can get involved in their work
commitment as much as they want to as compare to the men who are single
or single parent as they have to maintain the balance between both equally as
they need to do all their household chores and other personal commitments
for themselves. But this spouse support view gets little inapplicable in the
cases where the spouses are working too especially for full time. In many
research it is been seen that women are more likely to support their husbands
or partners in their career by taking full charge of household and other
personal commitments that going for their own career growth but if the pair
believes that his salary will be enough for fulfilment of their demands. If pair
thinks that there should be more finances for the family then the career

16
choices ads other career related decisions will be taken accordingly like both
will work and balance between work and life equally (Tharenou, 1999).

Social expectations theory by Landau and Arthur (1992), had found the men
as a primary earner of the family is believed to advance further in the career
is believed by everyone in the family so he gets lot of support from every
possible side. And as primary role of women is to manage family and other
personal commitments and isthought in most of the countries that career
should be their second preference in life. Even in the dual-career couples
preference is given to the men’s career as compare to women’s career like if
any time cut need to be made or change in work woman need to do that.
Even in some research it is being found that male managers were offered
more salaries and payments than female managers and the reason behind
came to be that females cannot give their best as compare to males as
personal and family life to be their first duty their mind is somewhere there
and not at its best at workKirchmeyer (2002).

In the research related to marital stability and career advancement found that
married men were highly paid and on high positions and their career graph
rose very steeply as compare to single men and when the same study made
on women there was no significant difference seen in the earning and position
of married and unmarried women(Han and Moen, 1998).

Tharenou(1999)highlights that men who have a stay-at-home wives progress

further in their career as compared to married men with both partners working.
It is same in spouse support theory same here single men has no support to
for his household and personal commitments so they can’t put their full
percent at the work. Spouse support theory at other end describes that single
women are more competent and successful in their career and at work as
compare to working mums or working married women as single women has
no household commitments so they focus fully on their career and being a
women they cope up their day to day house hold chores very easily rather
than like single working men lack behind due to personal or household
commitments. And where married working men are more successful at their

17
work on same hand married women are not that fruitful at work due to their
personal commitments. Main reason behind is that single women can devote
her full time or as much as she like for the job but married working women
cannot devote as much time as single women due to her other commitment
and if the married women is mother too then her time gets more bifurcated.

Married women can enjoy better career and full advancement in her career
graph if her husband or partner is not employed or is working from home for
some part time job commitment Some of Tharenou’s (1999). This means that
men can provide full support and resources for their wives as they have no
external job commitment or they are not much and time demanding.
Assuming rest everything is supporting then spouse or partner is preferable
than to be single if it come to be successful career and career advancement.
The reason behind can be any of these conforming social expectation,
spousal support or better financial support. So in every sense married men
enjoy better progress in their career and personal life as compare to single
men.

Family influences and Career Life Cycle

Influence of personal life and family on career choices id getting lot of

attention through media these days. (JP Morgan Fleming, 2003). Preference
of the graduates is that there work style should be matching their life style so
that in future there are minimum chances of disturbance. Employees younger
than age 40 and both from generation X and generation Y puts family in
priority. These days’ individuals as an employees want to work for their livings
rather than living for working. (Williamson, 2006). Career anchors of an
individual can be defined as his self-concept which joins career related
talents, motivations, values, needs and abilities. (Schein, 1996). These five
main career anchors creativity, autonomy, security, stability and
independence fits in all these technical, functional and managerial
competences. Life style has major role in selecting career anchor and values
and does not move frequently. Many researches have shown that life style

18
has been identified as major career anchor to make a balance between work
and personal life.

There are countless ways in which personal life of an individual and their
family affects his career choice which one is going to follow throughout his life.
Every family and individual has his or her values, expectations and attitudes
which keeps him influenced all through his choice related to his occupation
choices. Many individuals in this generation have priority for the family over
work which is all guided by family values. If talked about career opportunities
that is the prospect an individual purposes and advances to grow in the
organisation or the field chosen by the individual. Every individual wants that
these work commitment to be impacted by family commitments and there
should be flexible working practices which can help to maintain work and
family balance. Not just in early stage of career choices but their life and work
balance can affect the decision of the work in later stages too to change the
job, change the entire field, sometimes change geographical places or leave
the entire career and plunge. New employees of this generation want to
combine work and life outside work world in perfect and comfortable ratio for
all employees, family and organisations.

Greenhaus and Callanan (1994) found five career development stages.

According to him career choice decisions of an individual if influenced both in
present and in anticipation. Development of the occupational self-image is
one of the task for the preparation of the work where and when individual
analyse his strengths, weaknesses, values and preferences. Brown(2002)
describes choosing a career is the attempt of the estimation of ones values,
skills, efficiency and abilities required for particular career and to grow well in
that career according to the career path individual has anticipated following
throughout his life.

Family influence for the career choice of children or how to combine personal
and professional life is also influenced by the occupational choices made by
the parents and also how much time they give to both lives and in what
pattern. These patterns followed by family members keep guiding children

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throughout their career whenever they found themselves stuck in the same
situations. Research by Corcoran and Courant (1987) has shown that most of
daughters have chosen similar field or similar working style as her mother use
to do in his work. In many culture these family influences is considered to be
respect to parents or the family. As it is believed by every one that elder
members or the parents have lot of life experience and even labour market,
so all suggestions are always considered by the children and then choose
their career path. Career is not that easy to change so in many countries
children are themselves willing guidance from their family, teachers and other
influential people in their relations so that they can choose which is best for
them. In research also it is being proves that family values and attitudes are
main or primary determined in the career choice of the individual (Corcoran
and Courant, 1987).

Family influence patent itself unconsciously to the children in all their crucial
decisions. Psychoanalytic theory says that in the occupational choice heritage
of the family also plays vital part. Children are born and brought in that culture
and seen every one working in particular area and also gets that in genies too
like son of gold smith will be having some inculcated skills related to that
profession. Being a part of new generation he might want to get a qualification
in some ornament art and design and then pursue his career. This can be
best examples of that situation where a dream is passed to the children by
their parents. Occupation of parents can have both positive and negative
effect on one side it can be like child want to be like his father or like her
mother as they think them to be their idol and on other hand they don’t want to
be absent either physically or mentally avoiding what they think was not right.
(Pines andYanai, 2001: 172)

Values and career choices

Values play major part in the career choices of the individual. They play a vital
role to influence an individual’s behaviour which helps him to achieve the
desired goals and desired aim in desired state (Rokeach, 1979). Values
based information specifies that there are different types of values some

20
which strengthen the profile in the workplace and some help in the decision of
the career choices process. Research shows that these values are shifting
more towards the work and life balance which shows concerns for the flexible
work, easy cooperating schedules, respect for non-work activities organised
by the company stress free work and life balance rather than prestige job
titles, high salaries and demanding work hours as factors that define the
career success of the individual.

In European countries than other part of the world work and family balance is
of high importance that any other achievement in the career(Lewiset al.,
2002). In the America the research found that employees prioritise their work
and life balance influences their occupational choices (Lewiset al.,2002). This
help then to place work and personal life on same value rather than one or
other. But these career choices shift influenced by the values etc. is mostly
stuck to the western world. One of the research in china shows employees do
not show their concern on the work and life balance the reason discussed
came to be the population of ample supply of the labour on that country. And
employees there do not choose the career or the job that allows lot of time for
non-work activities and interests. (Shenkarand Ronen, 1987; Bu andMcKeen,
2001). Thought and values there shows that duty is higher than enjoyment
and indirect help family to enjoy life and affect their well-being and standard of
living Bu and McKeen (2001). These values were formed due to people seen
their predecessors with lack of the opportunities and lack to excel due to
many reasons of economic and political factors, so now employee at every
level wants to work wants high profile job, big fat salaries at any cost though
that is theirs personal life or family life. Hui and Tan (1996).

There is very small number of employees those expect their work to adjust
according to their family life and these employees are from new generation
and some got some of theirs studies from western world that is why got some
generational values changed related to work and life balance. These changes
in the values happened due to influence of their friends and teachers during
their exposure to the western culture.

21
Attitudes and values related to family and work balancing get influenced by
number of factors, in which major are family origin and trends in the labour
market.

In the high school the rate of students getting influenced by the family is much
higher and has shown positive attitude to their family. (Sanders et al., 1998).
This influence continues when real time comes of choosing career as
maximum women are working these days so according to the experts time will
come that children will be less influenced for their career by their family.
Children will be structuring their own values and attitudes as the structure of
the families is changing very rapidly or will be altering the values and attitudes
they had developed in the family as part of it.

Career advancement

The employee needs to regard balanced lifestyle not just at the start of work
but after starting their job as well. Most of them have been found still
considering this decision of maintaining of balancing work and personal life
(Sturges and Guest 2004; cited by Beauregard 2007)

Over two decades the young generation is seeing their parents getting very
less reward and even facing the corporate restructuring followed by job loss
even after lots of hard work, long working hours no flexibility in the job pattern
and loyalty and as the result new generation is not ready to make all these
sacrifices again in term of family time, quality of work life and leisure of the life
for the sake of earning (Loughlin and Barling 2001). Advancing into positions
is no more any attraction to the new generation employees rather than they
prefer work-life balance (Beauregard2007).

In the early stage of the work the graduates wants to exploit themselves to the
fullest with long working hours and heavy workloads but this is very short term
process later they always wanted to maintain the work-life balance for long
term it does not mean working for less time but according to the managed
time according to Sturges and Guest 2004 (cited by Beauregard2007)

22
Career advancement can be obstructed by family demands and structure,
sometimes in dual earned o give priority to the family rather than uprooting
spouse/ children it can be sorted by flexi working practice or family leave.
Decisions related to expatriate assignment are too highly influenced by the
person or family(Greenhaus and Callanan’s 1994). Even access to the future
opportunities get constrained by the family and the non-work commitment in
number of ways like restricting job search field and even area, its timings, and
many more. (Beauregard 2007)

Impact of Children on career advancement

Commitment towards family especially children impedes career of women.

Stoner and Hartman (1990) describes that career strategies need to be
worked if working couple need to have children that how the adjustments will
be made from both side. Research shows that 80% women believe that their
career has been spoiled or was hindered because of their family and children
commitment. Having children was associated to great progress for the men
and great loss to the women working in same company. This is just due to
different role of the both in their personal life as women first duty is believed to
be managing family and home. Where men arose in their career because of
they were in eustress to make more money for better future of their kids.

On the other hand women need to quit the job to look after the kids and
family. Even in the work life it is been seen that after having kids increase in
the pay or the salary was being seen or in other words working men with kids
were paid more. But for women the working women with kids were paid
comparative less that the women who have no kids and even more if they are
single. Kirchmeyer (2002). Bulk of child care, family and other household
responsibilities was the main reason for this partiality for the women as they
need to be more intensive for all these duties than men. (Vanier Institute,
2000). So where men are thought to be ‘stable family man’ and eschewing
their responsibilities towards kids. On the same women energy mind and time

23
thought to be diverted from work to the kids and responsibilities related to
them though contributing less at work.

It has been proven that women of preschool kids are not able to work as
single women or women without kids and even do not have sufficient time and
energy to devote at the work (Stoner and Hartman, 1990). Whenever new
addition to the family in form of kids happen any one of the parent need to
reduce the working time and keep their career goals to the side, in most cases
women need to quit. But the reason behind is medical somewhere too as after
delivery she need some rest and need to nurse the little baby if the baby is
breast feed (Becker and Moen, 1999; Han and Moen, 2001).

Many working women agreed to that their career was spoiled not just because
family and kids’ commitment but also the pre-assumption of the managers or
the organisation management that they are not going to be that efficient at
work. As result new working mums were excluded from after work meetings
and extra work commitments by the management assuming that they won’t be
able to do that. Some companies have odd working timings or long work
hours so the family commitments are seen to be obstruction for the work by
the management therefore ladies who just started their married life and who
can have kids in coming years are not preferred, as they are seen as an
obstruction to the smooth running of the company.

Flexible working conditions on career choices

Person out of his family spends more time at the work place so the major
issues that pop up are about the working condition of the job or in
management language ‘quality of work life’. This issue plays major role in
deciding the field one opts as his/her career. In terms of working style it
isaboutplace and time spent by the people who give value to the family and
emotions. But 61% of HR experts believe that employees get reluctant to avail
this practice as they think that this might linger on their growth or the
promotion. Still, HR oriented people think that face to face dealing helps to

24
build the network, which further helps to the growth of the employee
(Management Services, 2004).

The study done by Cohen and Single (2001) in the top five accounting firms
revealed that the likelihood of leaving the firm is higher in employees
participating in flexible working as compared to the ones that are not. The
non-face-to-face practice like teleworking leads to the professional isolation
which obstructs the professional development of the employee both by the
experts and by non-experts like peer mentoring, informal learning, networking
and dealing etc. mentoring (Cooper and Kurland, 2002).

In the developing countries the part-time work is always considered to be

stigma and those employees are thought to be less committed to the work by
all insiders and outsiders of the company unless huge progress in the work is
being shown. So as a result person shows that this practice can obstruct his
growth (Higgins et al., 2000; Raabe, 1996; cited by Beauregard 2007). In
some countries the other thought in the society is that the flexi work is always
opted by the ladies due to their involvement in the child care and family make
up responsibilities so the men try not to participate in such practices so the
avoid negative judgement from others. (Mueller and Yoder, 1997)

The above dissection was proved to be right in one of the study when the men
employees missing from the work for caring their sick child were rated low as
compared to the women employees who were absent for the same reasons in
the firm (Butler and Skattebo 2000). Hence this factor plays major role in
deciding the career or the job field by both the genders in different ways as if
there is flexi work involved in the job or not. As on one side where the women
will go for flexi jobs,on the other side men employees will avoid those jobs or
the practices as an option and will try to be present on the work place during
its job timings (Beauregard 2007).

Though these days there are many companies which are providing
employees with flexi working which includes flexi-timings and flexi-place which
are availed by many employees but still there are good numbers of

25
employees which do not want to avail these facilities. As they think if they will
avail these facilities then that can hinder their career and the management of
the company or the boss will not prefer them for the assignment. Research
found that according to HR experts, employees think that because of no or
less face to face contacts, other employees or the management feel that there
is some sort of less effort from the side of that person (Management Services,
2004).

In similar research it was found that employees using flexible working are
thought to leave company soon that those who are not using this facility.
Electronic and teleworking are proved to be creating professional isolation,
which restricts personal network, informal learning, peer employee mentoring
and impedes career and professional development of an employee (Cooper
and Kurland, 2002). Flexible working is always seen as stigma and
employees availing it are thought to be less committed to the work and are not
thought to be the best person when it comes to the promotion by the
management. Most of the employees themselves think that employee availing
this facility seems to be not very loyal to work and want to avoid work.

Part-time working in an organisation is considered to be leading to less

commitment to the organisation so such employees do not get the same
importance/value from the employers as the full time workers. Furthermore for
the full-time staff as well, working reduced hours is usually not available,
especially for senior management or professionals. Such staff is usually not
looked as suitable for promotion as well (Higgins,et al., 2000; Raabe, 1996).
This has led to an observation that staff considers working flexible/reduced
hours as detrimental for their career progression and working arrangements
within the organisation (Houston andWaumsley, 2003; Lewis, 1997).

Somehow being present at the work-place in most organisations is (still)

considered as a mark of commitment, productivity and performance(Bailyn,
1997). According to Raabe (1996) organisations link time at work with quantity
and quality of the output. This is based on the assumption that if managers
are available for referrals, coordination, and control it will lead to better output.

26
The senior staff tends to look at staff who tend to work lesser hours or flexible
hours or the staff who are not very visible at work place as less committed
and less productive and hence less important (Lewis, 1997). This according to
Burke (2001) leads to individuals working long hours and more visible as
more committed and hence likely to considered for career progression routes.

Turnover and career exit

Some employees are far sighted so keeping their future prospects in

consideration they always want to join those fields and companies which
demonstrate support for their employees’ family commitments and their
personal lives. So when they choose their career they look for those career
choices which are more family friendly. If the job is not family friendly it will
make them taking turnover for the organization and may be leave the stream
forever. The companies which are family friendly makes the employee
attachment and loyalty more towards them and intention of the turnover is
reduced (Beauregard 2007).

The positive relationship is being found between the employees commitments

toward the organization and the organization‘s support for non-work
responsibilities of the employees (Sturges and Guest, 2004). The employees
who were provided full support by their supervisor for his family issues were
reported with lower intentions to leave the organisation (Allen, 2001; Aryeeet
al., 1998; cited by Beauregard 2007). Very less negative career concerns
emerge with the workers who get chance to avail flexible working practice and
other family friendly programs (Allen, 2001; Thompsonet al., 1999)

In relation of women employees they always choose those careers in which

they can spare ample time to the family especially when they have younger
kids, this includes their maternity leave and other related leaves,so the
employees get greater satisfaction and less intent to quit who perceive the
organisations values (Lynesset al., 1999)

27
Research has also proved that the employee retention and the provision of
voluntary reduction of the working hours has a relation one more thing that
adds up is that some organisations provide the financial assistance with the
child care too. It shows that the organisation and the employee shares same
values related to the family or the personal life and encourages the work-life
balance both for the short term and long term. Therefore the people try to
make their career more towards to these fields and organisations (Aryeeet al.,
1998).

Career satisfaction and subjective career success

Career satisfaction can be measured by the means of reactions to the career

expectation and experiences like employee motivation, satisfaction and
employees’ promotion leading to rewards like status, pay and promotion if
looked from side of employees’ (Beauregard 2007). The employees expect
something from his work life and family life and if these expectations are not
met then this gap can drive an employee to the dissatisfaction and grievance
like that if these expectations are met and there is no gap left then it can lead
to the positivity in the employee leading to satisfaction, no-stress and
confidence which will further lead to the organizational loyalty and
performance (Beauregard 2007).

Kirchmeyer (2002) discovered that the women workers perception to the

career success changes after having children, as they get more inclined
towards their responsibilities for their family. Even some change in the
performance is being seen in the male employees who face difficulty in
balancing the work and personal life. The changes seen are like stress,
dissatisfaction leading to low level of individual career success (Peluchette,
1993).

Thus it is clear that if the employee the career success it is very important that
the career choice he/she makes in life should be done very carefully keeping
his/her future in mind to avoid turnovers that lead to the career dissatisfaction.
The other part of family effect is that the single hand earner employees are

28
 always more stressed and dissatisfied as compared to the dual hand earner
partners as the financial burden gets divided between the partners and the
sense of fulfilment can be achieved very quickly with fewer efforts
(Schneerand Reitman, 2002).

Gender and Career Choices:

If it comes to the self-actualization and to go for acceptable career choices,

there is more scope and opportunities in the new labour market and especially
within the same organisation for both genders without any bias.

The question of equality is the main driving force for the gender study
especially related to work or occupation. It’s been seen from ages that women
are categorised in for different work and men in different jobs and just
because of these studies and training of both become entirely different.
Where work for men is considered to be crucial for the family support on the
other side work for the women is thought to be optional so the career stress is
more on the career of the men of the males of the family. Different studies
have found that knowledge or specific skills are not related to the career and
occupational choice of the men but the consequent behaviour, belief and
attitude are the main reasons behind the this gender differentiation.

Skills, competency and education showed way less influence in this study as
compared the belief, behaviour and attitude which was all over in the society
and was regulation the participation and prohibition of the men and women in
different sphere of life especially work. There are some points which effect the
gender differentiation in the career choices:
• Women need to be employed in the service sector so that any industrial event
like staff reduction , lockouts, strikes etc. may not affect the working as they
seems to have smooth and stress free work.
• Women are getting good education now a days because of the changed
structure of the family which lead women to have good career path and
position leading to good career life or occupational life.

29
• As there are lot of changes in the labour market related to the gender
segregation so it on other side opens gates to men to join service, education
and health related fields which were mainly owned by the women.
So it can be said that changes in the labour market can have both positive
and negative effect for both the genders. So all in all grabbing a job is all
related to the skills competency and efficiency of an individual.

Individual’s expectation of how he is going to balance personal life and work

in future somewhere influence their career choice. Women consider this
factor the most as physical presence commitment towards family and kids is
more for woman than for man of the house. In one of research it has been
found that there was social pressure on the education and career plans of the
girls for their future as everyone expect them to care for the family first and
after that give priority to the work (Marks and Houston, 2002).

Even in their dating and marriage proposals it is being seen that what
profession is she and is that going to work with family life or will she be able to
purse oth with a balance. That is why in many countries girls with either part
time work or girls into teaching or other flexible work are preferred. This is why
some sectors became male dominated and some female dominated. Male
dominated sectors include science and technology, construction and electric
engineers and female dominated sectors include nursing, teaching and
banking etc. Therefore this is pre-decided by the family that in which
professions a girl can go so that she won’t face problem in her future. In the
other survey of the attitudes most young men reported that women in
disciples like engineering, applied sciences and other male dominated
streams are considered to be unattractive due to the future commitment
women (Seymour and Hewitt, 1997).

Badgett and Folbre (2003) in their research found that individuals who are not
from traditional gender occupation stream were rated as less romantic
partners. This disadvantage in social circle and reduced chances to have
smooth and romantic life moulds individual’s self-career choice towards the
occupations which are gender defined in term of roles. These penalties also

30
restrict individual, especially women in other related career decisions like
demographic area, seeking of further opportunities and further development in
the career (Tharenou 2003).

In case of men who had chosen self-employment found to be unattractive to

the women due to heavy work load imbalance which seems to be barrier in
healthy personal life to them. Even the anticipated support physically and
mentally seems to be less by self-employed men. This acted as a deterrent in
choosing self-employment to the men. Honeycutt and Rosen (1997) found
that individuals who preferred family and work life balance are more inclined
to the company jobs especially in those companies who offers flexible career
path with flexible working style.

These policies of company act as proxy for the organization to attract sensible
employees who know value of both company and personal life. As it is being
proved, employees who had satisfied and stress free personal life turned to
be more productive and efficient to the company. This theory is also the same
vice versa that employees having good and comfortable work environment
turned to be less stressed and as result give nice stress free life to the family.
Casper and Buffardi (2004) found that companies offering flexible work
schedules and dependent care assistance employees are more loyal towards
their company and the turnovers of employees is really low.

Lundgren and Barnett (2000) observe that majority of those working reduced
hours are women and this is due to their greater involvement in household
activities and looking after the children. Butler et al. (2002) confide in this
observation and further add that they are more likely to go for ‘family-friendly
working practices. This then relates to them having less bright career
opportunities or career growth as compared to men.

Mueller and Yoder (1997) observe that men also being involved in such
practices can have detrimental effect on their career as this might be
considered to be against their gendered social norm. Therefore, men
according to Powell (1997) are reluctant to participate as they fear being

31
perceived to be deviating from being the bread-winners, which is socially
stereotyped with male genders. This observation was confirmed by Allen and
Russell(1999) in their research discovered that men taking parental leave of
absence were not likely to be considered for rewards by the organisation as
compared to the ones who did not take it. In another research by Butler and
Skattebo (2000) it was observed that men who missed work due to sick family
received lower performance ratings and less likely to be recommended for
bonuses as compared to women taking the same leave.

32
 Gender Cultural
Career Career
satisfaction Orientation

Labour Family values

Turnover and work
Influencing
Flexible Work-life
Working Factors Balance

Children Marraige

Career
Expectations
Advancement
Values Family

Figure 1.1: Factors influencing Career Choice (Created by author from

previous discussion)
 Part B: Research Methodology

1.6 Significance of the Study

The concept of the career choice can be unfolded if the both key components can be
studied that means career and the choices. The career is the target and the focus of
many studies (Hughes 1937 and Goffman 1968; cited by Özbilgin et.al. 2005).

The objective and the subjective processes together make the concept of the career
choice. The objectivity describes the availability of the alternatives and the
subjectivity describes the act of preference. But to understand the concept of career
choices then it is crucial to understand the dynamics of choosing a career. To study
different career routes available and the preference of an individual to choose one of
those choices. There is always supply and demand of particular skill, so to forecast
that when the duration will be completed of the course and the individual will be
ready to serve the market then there will the demand of the same skills he has been
getting skilled at. (Özbilgin et.al.2005)

Issues affecting to the management study and the meaning of studying career
choices of management students both form the subject of the study. Management
barely has history of just two decades. There is extraordinary nature of the
management study as it has global popularity with over 100,000 students pursuing
management degrees every year worldwide (Wong and Liu 2008). The related
research like motivation to undertake management study and the process and keys
of the management studies have been carried out in the western European and the
North American areas. The key competencies that the management degrees provide
are motivation, knowledge, skills and confidence and many more which are all
necessary for the work. As the management degrees are necessary and vital for
many careers these days (Sturgeset al. 2003), so it is very important to study the
career choices of the management students.

Management degrees have many benefits at-most it improves one’s human capital,
and improves their career prospect and employability. It gears up their career
advancement, built their confidence in themselves and might facilitate career change

34
that’s why many management thinkers suggest studying this area (Wong and Liu,
2008).

One of the research in the UK shows that during the management degrees the
female students achieved self-confidence leading to the career success and on the
other hand the male got rewarded with better occupation, better job position and
better pay scale (Simpson 2000).

Furthermore, many students do not start to assess ‘real’ career opportunities until
fairly late in their education. Some students do not consider alternatives as they are
either not aware or are very strongly influenced by other students/peers. This study
would give individuals, parents, educators and the industry an idea as to where
students place their trust in career selection process and how this is different within
UK and Indian context.

35
1.7 Selection of the Topic

There are couple of independent studies done in India and the UK but there seems
to be no comparative study related to the career choices of the management
students between India and UK. Therefore the main motive of this research is to find
out the difference between the career choices decision of the graduates of the UK
and India. As both the countries are very different in their culture so the influencing
factors will work differently

In India the culture is still little closed in the backward areas but the metros and the
big cities are open. The culture of India is very influential for the family side kids
believing that the parents and other elders in the family have lot of life experience so
they can suggest the best career to them thinking the long run or the future in their
mind.

If it comes to the teacher the culture teaches that the teacher is considered to be “
the Sage “ or “the Guru” who is so respectful and even used to be worshipped in old
days. So in the career choice decision his role can be very influential in this country.

U.K is fully developed western country the thought process is very different everyone
is free to take one’s own decision. The career choices decision in this country is the
result of the demand of the market if this decision is being influenced then it is the
friends mostly, as the student wants to be in his comfort zone while looking for the
work, The effect of the parents and other family members is also seen but it’s just up
to the suggestion line, the teacher influence is also be seen but in just some areas
as the teacher is considered to be “the Guide on the Side” in this country.

The research can show the effect of the thought process of the developing country
and the fully developed country on the one of the very important decision of the
student’s life. Both the countries have their positives in their culture but the results
can really clarify the real and the strongest affect from both the cultures.

36
This research could prove to be very useful for both the countries as the best of the
both cultures will be identified and work can be done on the weak areas for the better
career decisions and better future of the students.

37
1.8 Objectives of the Study

The comparative study of the two countries will be done related to the career choices
of the management graduates and also the analysis of various theories and models
and factors influencing the career choice among the management graduates in both
the countries. Furthermore the process of career choices will be studied to make
some suggestions for the future counselling in this crucial decision of their life. The
main objective of the study is in following four points.

• To study the concept of career choice among management students in India and the
UK.
• To analyse various theories and models and factors influencing of career choice
among management students in India and the UK.
• To analyse the factors influencing of career choice among the management
students in India and U.K.
• To suggest measures for providing career counselling to management students for
making better career choice.

38
1.9 Assumptions and Limitations of the Study

Like any other research this study had its own limitations. The first one was the
sampling technique. The study could not cover all management students within UK
and India due to volume. One could not use probability sampling either due to above
reason and additionally not all universities that were approached were willing to
share information or allow access. The other reason for this was the both time and
financial constraints. The author tried to make the questionnaire available online as
well to cover wider audience. The researcher had to restrict to one city in UK and
one city in India.

The second limitation is the sample size itself. The number of universities/colleges
offering management courses is limited in Cardiff as compared to Pune. Due to this
fact the numbers of responses from UK were less as compared to India.

Thirdly, the author intended to use mixed methods approach but due to geographic
distances and lack of access mono-method approach had to be adopted. In order to
enhance the validity of the findings the research did triangulate the data findings with
the literature to cover limitations of mono-method approach.

Finally, as the numbers of factors that influence career choices are too many and too
complex i.e. they are very closely inter-related, the research could not investigate all
the factors. The key factors, which were considered to be significant from
management students’ perspective, were considered. These factors were identified
at the literature review stage of the research.

There are certain assumptions as well for the study:

• Students are keen to have control on their career choices.
• At some point before/during their studies they have considered the issue of career
choice to be one of the most important factors in determining their future.
• The respondents of the questionnaires gave honest and informed answers.

39
1.10 Hypotheses of the Study
The vital part of every research is the hypothesis which gives the frame to the study,
so it is very important to understand the word hypothesis first. According to the
Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary the Full Definition of hypothesis is:
• “an assumption or concession made for the sake of argument : an interpretation of a
practical situation or condition taken as the ground for action
• a tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical
consequences
• the antecedent clause of a conditional statement”
A good hypothesis is which
• Clearly states in appropriate terminology;
• testable;
• relationships between variables is stated;
• Focused in scope.
Hypotheses are of different types simple, complex, empirical, null, alternative, logical
and statistical hypothesis. The proposed study is based on the following hypothesis
one which is null hypothesis and other is alternative hypothesis.

• Ho: There are no significant differences in career choices and in factors (potentiality
and placement) affecting among the management students in India and the U.K
• H1: There are significant differences in career choices and in factors (potentiality and
placement) affecting among the management students in India and the U.K

40
1.11 Work plan of the Study

As management degrees are expanding, there are lot of branches of management

stream to be explored with further related parts of it. The study is restricted to the
process and factors influencing career choice among management students only.

The process of career planning and development of the career are not included in
the study since the study focuses only on management students it cannot be
generalized to career choice among the student community in general.

The study is limited to the city of Pune in India Cardiff in the U.K. As such the
findings from the study cannot be generalized to the entire population of India and
the U.K. The research part done in India does not include every course related to
management in those institutes. Same in the U.K Cardiff area only two universities
management related students are studied and not all courses are being studied in
the research which can be one of the limitations in this research.

41
1.12 Scope of the Study

As mentioned in the previous section the researcher had to define the scope of the
study in order to make it doable. From a topic perspective the study concentrated
only on career choices amongst management students. The scope had to be
restricted to two cities in the countries of study. This was done in order to keep the
costs of the study within limits. The study concentrated on Cardiff in the UK and
Pune in India.

1.13 Statement of the Problem

Having been within the management higher education for a few years and
furthermore a student of management as well the researcher was always intrigued
by the percentage of students opting for management qualifications. Management
qualifications are amongst the most sought after courses world-wide. The key reason
behind this is that they are not sector/size/geography specific. The management
concepts are easy to translate across cultures. Furthermore organisations are
becoming more and more international so domestic cultures and organisational
cultures are merging. Once you have a management qualification you qualify to
choose careers in various sectors, geographical locations and size of organisations.

There is no set process involved in making career choices for any individuals but
there are factors that influence these choices. The range factors as highlighted
earlier can possibly fall into three broad categories proposed by Carpenter and
Foster (1977) and Beyonet al. (1998), which are Intrinsic (interest and job
satisfaction; Extrinsic (job availability, scope and salary) and Interpersonal (family,
social influence etc.). Another research categorises the influence into three
categories of environment, opportunity and personality.

During initial investigation it was noticed that some students do not begin exploring
career possibilities even after graduating. Before graduating students do not even
consider enough alternatives in career selection to justify making informed decisions.
Culturally the two countries under investigation i.e. UK and India are very diverse.

42
The employers could examine where, why and how to invest resources to train and
educate students. If career planning is implemented in within universities the
students are more likely to follow a career plan and at the least make a better
informed decision. The findings of this study could be used to inform sources of
influence such as parents or mentors to counsel and discuss with students and come
up with a comprehensive career plan. Therefore this study is likely to make
significant contribution to the students, the influencers and the employers. Hence it
was considered to be the area of investigation for this research.

43
1.14 Type of Data

Management research has been facing a lot of controversy over years about the
most appropriate approach to its study as an academic discipline. There are different
thoughtstowards management research and different approaches to research
methodology within management research. The big divide is between scientists and
the social scientists, which are considered to be the two paradigms of research.
Management research falls somewhere in the middle due to both aspects involved in
running organisations. There is no one best approach for management research due
to the number of variables involved and complexity of their relationship to each other
and the subject and the problem itself. This has thus led to proposing an approach
referred to as the Third paradigm, which is referred to as the pragmatist approach.
This involves a compromise approach based on options and available resources to
decide the appropriate research methodology.

Gill and Johnson (2010)support the above observation by stating that Research
never follows a clear-cut sequence or a pattern but it is a complex process of
interaction between the conceptual and empirical world. They further add that in
research induction and deduction could be happening at the same time. Any
research study might not have clearly defined sequence of procedures, but it is likely
to include things like:
• identifying the research topic,
• defining research problems,
• determining the way of conducting the research,
• collection of research data,
• interpretation and analysis of the collected data
• and finally the writing up and dissemination.

Each method of research design has its own advantages and disadvantages and at
the same time there are different options of data that can be collected and analysed
for a research study.

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There were two types of data used for the research; secondary data and the primary
data.

Secondary data

In describing the core elements of management research, Gill and Johnson (2010,
p154) stress the importance of in-depth comprehensive review of the existing
literature to the research process and describe this to include, “…a critical review
which demonstrates some awareness of the current state of knowledge on the
subject, its limitations and how the proposed research aims to add to what is known.”

In order to formulate the underlying research questions to be examined and further

development of specific research methods to be used in data collection, it is crucial
to conduct a comprehensive review and critical appraisal of the relevant literature.
The literature review for this research involved systematic searching of a number of
academic databases such as Business Source Premier along with online sources
such as Google Scholar using a list of key words and phrases. This provided the
research almost all key resources and materials that were broadly linked to the
current study in hand.

The relevant articles, journals, books and other texts obtained through this
comprehensive search were analysed, annotated and classified. Most of the sources
used for this research were peer reviewed and scholarly. Once the article/text was
found, the author read it and highlighted the key sections relevant to this study. The
sources were then indexed (numbered) in line with the headings and sub-headings
within the thesis. This was done so that the articles that were relevant to specific
section being written were only evaluated rather than all articles. The reference list
and bibliography of the articles was also used to lead onto further sources of
literature which could be relevant to the study. This literature review was an ongoing
process right through the research and was continuously updated as additional
relevant material was published.

Review of the literature highlights gaps that currently exist in knowledge and thus
identification of the aim and objectives of research.

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 Primary Data

The Primary Data is “data collected or produced by researcher specifically to

address the research problem at hand” (Malhotraet al., 2012, 40).

The research uses survey approach to investigate the career choices amongst the
students in India and UK. The method of conducting the survey was a questionnaire.
The questionnaires were chosen as the method due to the following reasons:

• This allowed the researcher to target a sample within the population for conducting
the research i.e. colleges/universities based in Pune, India and Cardiff, U.K.
• It gave the researcher to enhance the external validity of the findings by covering
wider number of respondents.
• It was considered to be a cost effective way of collecting data from wide number of
audience in a timely manner.
• The results allowed comparisons to be made between respondents and across
questions.

In most cases the questionnaire was self-administered. The key advantage of this
was if any respondent did not understand any question then clarification could be
sought on the spot and also it is more likely to have better response rate and also
the chances of incomplete questionnaires are reduced. According to Nardi (2006)
highlights that questionnaires can be distributed to large number of participants in
one location, such as a classroom. This is what was done for data collection. On
several occasions the researcher approached the lecturer conducting a class to give
first/last 10 minutes of the lecture for data collection for the study. This was clearly
the most cost effective and less labour intensive for the sample size selected for
investigation.

Statistical analysis of the responses to the survey was done using SPSS and
observations were then made relating to objectives of the research.

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1.15 Population

The target population was the students on management programmes within Cardiff,
UK and Pune, India. The respondents were from various educational institutes in
Pune. There are only two main universities in Cardiff so the management students
here were approached for the data collection.

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1.16 Selection of Sample

The research design is used to justify decisions and choices relating to research
Procedure (Sekaran, 2003). The five aspects i.e. the research purpose, theoretical
framework, research questions, methods, sampling strategy need to align based on
the above justification. As highlighted above questionnaires were used for this study
as primary data collection method. The questionnaires were distributed in two
geographic locations, Pune, India and Cardiff, UK.

The researcher approached the core course lecturers in both locations and
requested access to the lecture/seminars. The research was introduced in the
beginning and the questionnaires were distributed in the class room. The
participation in the research was voluntary. Clearly the number of management
institutes and therefore students pursuing management courses in Pune, India was
significantly higher than that in Cardiff, UK. Therefore the volume of responses in
India was more than the responses in the UK. Convenience sampling was used
when choosing colleges in India. The researcher had to rely on personal contacts to
gain access into colleges. For UK there are only two universities based in Cardiff so
both were approached and data collected from management students at both
universities. The researcher approached each of these classes twice in order to
enhance the number of responses.

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1.17 Details of Questionnaire

The questionnaire used was anonymous. The first part of the survey was used to
collect the demographic information about the respondents. The information about
the course of study and specialisation if any was recorded as well. The reason(s) for
selecting specialisation was also investigated. The educational information about the
parents and siblings was also requested.

For the latter part of the questionnaire the respondents were asked to scale some
standard career choice decisions based on the influencing factors emerging in the
literature. There were 22 such statements measuring how individuals identify their
ideal career. The researcher used 5 point Likert scale for the same ranging from
Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. Likert scale is one of the more popular
measuring instruments for measuring attitudes. According to Oppenheim (1966) it
offers a reliable ‘rough’ ordering of people with regard to particular attitude or
assertion. The statements used for Likert scale were carefully designed to be free
from bias so that the results are clear and free from error. The survey was designed
so that it could be completed in about 10-15 minutes.

A pilot run of the survey was conducted both in India and the UK with some random
students who were not a part of the study sampling frame. The result and feedback
from the two pilot runs was then collated and the finalised questionnaire was then
circulated. The questionnaire used for both India and UK was almost identical. The
only change was the language of instruction where Welsh language had to be added
for UK. The respondent filling the questionnaire and returning to the researcher
physically/email was considered to be voluntary informed consent for involvement in
the research.

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1.18 Analysis of Data

Prior to starting the analysis of the data, the steps suggested by Kent (2001) were
followed. These include, editing, coding and entering data into the analysis package.
The editing was done to confirm completeness and accuracy of the responses. Each
valid questionnaire was then coded and the participants’ coded responses were
entered into an excel spreadsheet. This was then transferred into the analysis
package, SPSS. Another check was done to ensure all data entered was accurate
and ready for doing the analysis.

The analysis was divided into two categories, descriptive statistics and inferential
statistics. The descriptive statistics were used to highlight the demographic variables.
The inferential statistical evaluation started with factor analysis of the 19 variables
related to career choice (The Kiser Mayeir – Olki measure and Bartlett Test of
spheriaty were used to test suitability and feasibility). This was then followed by total
variance evaluation (Eigen value) and scree plot. Finally Independent samples test
including T-test for equality of means was used to investigate significance of the
difference between the variables for two groups.

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1.19 Layout of the Thesis

Chapter 2: This chapter highlights the literature evaluated for the research. The
chapter is divided into four sections, the first reviews couple of books that were
related to the choice. The second section presented the discussions from key
articles reviewed. The third section highlighted previous research in the area and
finally other studies related to current investigation were discussed.

Chapter 3: This chapter is mainly discussing various theories of Career Choice. This
included overview of various theoretical approaches to career choices, which were
broadly divided into psychological theories and sociological theories. The chapter
further highlighted other theories which tend to have an influence on career choices.

Chapter 4: This chapter provided data collected through questionnaires from both
UK and India. The chapter was broadly divided into two sections. The first one
presents the analysis of descriptive statistics and the second section delved deeper
and presented findings from the inferential statistical analysis.

Chapter 5: This is the last chapter and concludes the current thesis. The objectives
of the research are revisited. Major findings of the thesis are presented. Some
suggestions are highlighted that come out of the thesis. The chapter is then
concluded by revisiting the limitations and suggesting scope for further research.

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