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Career Orientations, Work Experiences and Health Ronald J. BURKE Recent definitions of careers (Hall, 1976; Schein, 1978) have emphasized ways in which individuals change as they acquire additional work experiences. Schein (1978) coined the term career anchor to describe a constellation of self-perceived attitudes, values, guide future career choices and directions. Schein has developed an interview format for assessing career anchors and identified five career anchors in his research with Sloan School graduates. One of Schein’s students, DeLong (1982) has developed a questionnaire measure of ten career orientations (or career anchors, in Schein’s terms). Driver (1982) has proposed a career concept model based on the premise that people develop relatively stable cognitive structures concerning their careers. The key aspects of this structure being the permanence of career choice, the direction of career movement, and the time of choice in one’s life. Four basic concept types emerge: Transitory, Steady State, Linear and Spiral. Cherniss (1980) used the term career orientations to refer to an individual’s needs, values and aspirations. He identified four career orientations in his longitudinal study of social service professionals: Self-Investors, Social Activists, Careerists and Artisans. Cherniss hypothesized that Social Activists would be more prone to psychological burnout. The present investigation, using the four career orientations proposed by Cherniss, examine the relationship of career orientations to work experiences and health of men and women in teaching and in police work. Previous work (Schein, Driver, Cherniss) suggested that one’s occupational self-concept should relate to career experiences and career outcomes. The respondents were 828 men and women in policing and 833 men and women in teaching. The data were collected using questionnaires completed anonymously . Police officers completed the questionnaires while attending police training courses at a provincial police college. Their response rate was over 90 percent. Questionnaire were sent to the teachers at their schools. Their response rate was approximately 45 percent. Both samples were characterized by diversity in age, education and job and organizational tenure. Career orientations were assessed by a measure created specifically for this research. Each of Cherniss’s four career orientations was described by a brief paragraph. Respondents rank ordered the four paragraphs indicating which career orientation best describes them when they began their careers and which one best described them now. The other variables were measured, where possible, by already available and widely used scales. These included: work setting characteristics (workload, auto-nomy, supervision, stimulation), sources of stress, social support, burnout, health and well-being (psychosomatic symptoms, health behaviors, medication use), Satisfaction, motivation et stress au travail 335 absenteeism, intention to quit, job and life and marital satisfaction, and work-nonwork conflict. Four aspects of the data will be discussed. 1. Prevalence of Various Career Orientations About 40 percent of police officers were Careerists and another 40 percent were Artisans, 15 percent were Social Activists and less than 10 percent were SelfInvestors . About 60 percent of Teachers were Artisans, followed by Social Activists (18 %), Self-Investors (10 %), and Careerists (12 %). Thus significant occupational differences in career orientations were present. In addition, significant sex differences in career orientations were present in the teacher sample, more men than women being careerists and more women being Artisans. 2. Work Experiences and Career Orientations There was considerable agreement in the two samples in the relationship between career orientations and work experiences. Social Activists reported a significantly more negative work setting, significantly greater experienced stress, both Social Activists and Self-Investors reported significantly more work dissatisfaction, Self-Investors reported greater intention to quit, and Self-Investors reported significantly less work nonwork conflict. 3. Health and Career Orientations There was also considerable agreement in the two samples in the relationship between career orientations and health outcomes. Social Activists reported significantly more psychosomatic symptoms, significantly poorer self-reported health, greater burnout, were taking more medications and drank more alcohol and coffee and smoked more cigarettes per day. 4. Consequences of Changes in Career Orientations About half of both samples had changed their career orientations since they began their careers. The Social Activist career orientation was the least stable while the Artisan orientation was the most stable. Individuals who had changed their career orientations were then compared with individuals who had not changed their career orientations. The same pattern of findings were observed in both occupations. Individuals who had changed their career orientations reported significantly greater distress, less job satisfaction and a more negative work setting. In summary, particular career orientations were more likely to be...

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