Career Uncertainty 1 Running Head: CAREER UNCERTAINTY A Grounded Analysis of Career Uncertainty Perceived by College Students in Taiwan Hsiu-Lan

The purpose of the study was to examine career-related uncertainties perceived by college students in Taiwan. Five hundred thirty-two students in the northern area of Taiwan responded to a free-response instrument containing three questions related to career uncertainties: (a) the sources of career uncertainty; (b) the experiences at the moment of feeling uncertainty; and (c) coping efficacies toward the uncertainty. The resultant responses were sorted into certain categories within each question based on the Grounded Theory methodology (B. G. Glaser & A. L. Strauss, 1967). A hypothetical model was developed to describe college students’ perceptions of career uncertainties, experiences of feeling uncertainty, and coping-efficacy toward the uncertainty. The sources of career uncertainty were classified into three categories: internal, external, and the interactions between the two. The experiences of feeling uncertainty included five categories: cognitive, behavioral, emotional, physical, and ultimate concerns. As far as the coping efficacies, there were six main categories: personal/psychological adjustment, physical type of adjustment, social support network, information search, religious beliefs, and acceptance of the current situation. In addition, the coding process and detailed results, including open coding, axial coding, selective coding, and category themes, were elaborated and discussed in this paper. Career Uncertainty 3 A Grounded Analysis of Career Uncertainty Perceived by College Students in Taiwan Career uncertainty plays an important role in an individual’s career decision making process. In Taiwan, the rapid fluctuations in social, economic, and political situations influence the structure of the world of work, as well as the career development of the individuals. About two decades ago, the progress of economics, technology, and social welfare were more stable and the college students had more opportunities to enter the job market. It seems that they did not have to worry about their future; neither did they have the chance to encounter the problem of career uncertainty. In the recent seven years, the newly found political power led by different party is not so stable. In addition, many people lost family and job in the earthquake occurred in September 21st, 1999. The political issues, social problems, and unstable economic development all interwove and influenced the opportunity structure of the work world. Career uncertainty has become an important issue during the process of college students career planning. In the four years of college, the rapid changes of the external environment force students to modify their decisions from time to time. In addition, environmental changes also influence the development of students’ personal values and/or interests. These interactions between an individual and the environment continue to play an important role in the process of career development. Another culture background related to college students’ career uncertainty is the educational system in Taiwan. Career counseling at school has been sacrificed by the over-emphasis on intellectual learning. During the compulsory education, which is from first to ninth grade in Taiwan, most students are encouraged to perform well at a variety of achievement tests in order to get into excellent universities. The students spent too much time in study and do not have enough chance to do self-exploration, nor do they have the chance to explore the world of work. Career Uncertainty 4 At the stage of college and university, the students suddenly feel uncertain about what they really want to do or what they can do. Nowadays, career courses starts to be provided in most of the high schools. Career planning courses are also popular in colleges and universities. However, unplanned events often lead many people to alter their career directions. It’s important to explore the resources of career uncertainty and help college students develop appropriate coping efficacy. It is clear that uncertainty plays an important role in an individuals’ career decision process. Several studies found that career indecision was prevalent among college students in Taiwan (Lin, 1989; Tien, 2001, 2005; Xie, 1990). In Tien’s study, about two thirds of college students were undecided about their career futures. The undecided group, which defined by the author according to Marcia’s (1966, 1980) concept of identity status, included anxious type of undecided (which was so called indecisiveness), explorative type of undecided, and career diffusion group. These students were undecided about their career futures for the reasons of lack of exploration, lack of crisis and/or commitment to certain job fields, and varieties of personal or external barriers. These barriers and difficulties all possibly caused the individuals’ career uncertainty. Betz and Voyten (1997) believe that decision-making self-efficacy is a major predictor of career uncertainty. The concept of self efficacy originated from Bandura’s (1986) contention that people who believe in their ability to successfully complete the tasks required to achieve an outcome are more likely to engage in and persist at those tasks. Sex role socialization might also influence an individual’s career uncertainty, especially for women who intend to pursue positions in traditionally male dominated fields (Dawson-Threat & Huba, 1996). Career uncertainty might also be caused by certain barriers perceived by individuals. Career Uncertainty 5 Gottfredson (1981) emphasized the importance of an individual’s recognition of career barriers in three domains: self-concept, socioeconomic environment, and the interaction of self-concept and environment. Russell and Rush (1987) specifically examined women’s views of 28 internal and external barriers to management careers. London (1997), on the other hand, stated that career barriers stem from the individual, the work environment, and a combination of the two. He further proposed an emotional and cognitive model of coping with career barriers. In Taiwan, Xie (1990) explored the relationships among career decision-making self-efficacy, sex-role attitude, field independence, decision-making style, and career uncertainty. The results indicated that the variable self-efficacy is highly correlated with the subjects' career certainty. In our study, we also want to explore the college students’ coping efficacy toward the perceived uncertainty. To further examine the cross-culture influences on the students’ career, we believe that the ecological structures also have to be taken into account. D. W. Sue and Sue (1999) pointed out that some cultural values are salient to the Asian American group are deference to authority, emotional restraint, and hierarchical family structure. Cultural values common to Asian people include collectivism, conformity to norms, emotional self-control, family recognition through achievement, filial piety, and humility. This culture is categorized as a group-oriented culture; therefore, issues of family, confirming to authority, and collectivism are most important (Pope, Cheng, & Leong, 1998). To be success means to honor and proud the family. The individuals’ career development does not exist as an individual problem but within an embedded network of family obligations and expectations. Hartung (2002) emphasized that collectivism relates positively and significantly to family expectations of and influences on occupational decision-making and planning. Collectivism also relates positively to extrinsic work values stressing relationship to others (e.g., altruism, Career Uncertainty 6 associates, and supervisory relations) and negatively with intrinsic work values signifying personal gains (e.g., achievement, independence, and way of life). In the current study, we also believe that the family issues are important resources related to the individual’s career uncertainty and coping efficacy. To be more specifically, the meaning of career uncertainty in the current study was defined as “any factors that make the individuals feel uncertain of their career future”. Even for some of those who have decided what to do in the future, they might still feel uncertain about what wound happen in their career journey. There might always be something out of their control. It is different from the concept of barriers and difficulties in the aspect that career uncertainty is even more subtle. It focuses on the feelings of uncontrollable and sense of efficacy to cope with. To be aware of the uncertainty, an individual will be more comfortable to recognize and cope with the inevitable happenstance. Uncertainty has to be incorporated into the decision process. The purpose of the present study was to explore the resources and experiences of career uncertainties perceived by college students in Taiwan. Coping efficacy toward uncertainties were also examined. More concretely, we used grounded-theory analytic strategies to describe varieties of career uncertainty perceived by college students, their experiences in encountering those uncertainties, and coping efficacies perceived by these college students. We then used our findings to propose a hypothetical model to describe these aspects of college students’ career-related uncertainties. As a result of our review of literature and our previous work with this population (Gelatt, 1989; Ito & Brotheridge, 2001; Lin. 1989; Swanson & Tokar, 1991; Tien, 1998, 2001, 2005; Xie, 1990), we had several general expectations for the results of our investigation: (a) Career uncertainty is a very typical problem for college students. (b) Sources of college students’ career uncertainty will be related to the individual, environment, and the Career Uncertainty 7 interactions between the two. (c) Internal/psychological and external/environmental support will be the two main types of coping efficacies for college students facing career uncertain