The fundamental purpose of vocational guidance and counselling is obvious and quite straightforward it

is to help people make appropriate vocational choices and adjustment and to facilitate the efficient and
cost effective functioning of organization by the appropriate exploitation of individual assets and
abilities. To a large extent, the work on vocational guidance is identical to that of employee selection
except the former takes the perspective of, and is primarily concerned with, the best interests of the
employee, whereas the latter is mainly the concern of the employer. Because there are striking individual
differences in ability, aptitude, needs, personality and interest, and job differences in the demands they
make in terms of personal attributes and skills, people will do better in jobs for which their abilities are
suited than in those vacations where their skills are incongruous

Vocational (occasionally termed “career”)psychology focuses on people thinking about careers,

preparing for the occupations of their choice and where appropriate, changing jobs or even leaving the
world of paid work for things like “early” retirement. Occupational choice is determined by many factors,
including socioeconomics status, ethnicity, gender, intelligence, aptidus and interest, as well as the
community from which people come. Vocational psychologist helps people explore their long-range
personal and professional goals, look at personal strengths and weakness, as well as environmental
threats and opportunities to examine salient and suitable career alternatives. Vocational guidance is one
of the oldest areas of applied psychology. Super (1983) has reviewed the history of what he calls the
differential psychology applied to occupations and the development psychology of careers. He noted the
impetus that both world wars gave to the classifying of large numbers of drafted men and assigning
them to appropriate military jobs.

Many organizations are becoming aware of the career development of employees. Over time it is quite
common for people to be promoted in rank or level (concomitant changes in responsibilities and skils),
or move horizontaly or laterally (with functional or technical changes). These lead to significant changes,
which the individual might or might not be able to cope with.

Arnold (1997) has noted that job changes occur more frequently now and hence people are having to
make and remake career decisions more often. People relocate more often and are told that they, rather
than the organization, will manage their careers. The following may be of help:
1. Mentoring : an employee is assigned (or chooses) an older, hopefully wiser employee to guide,
assist and support them
2. Succession planning: looking at who, when and how people should succeed into jobs
3. Development centres: assessment centres used to identify developmental needs
4. Development through the job: this is essentially old ideas associated with job enrichment and
rotation
5. Career counselling:helping people to make wise decisions rather than actually giving them
advice

As dawis (1992) notes, people’s interests, values and preferences are stable consequences of various life
experiences and are thought of as good indicators of motives. Thus, it is argued that, when combined
with abilities, they are good predictors of experience. Hence, a great deal of work has gone into trying to
taxonomize the basics interest factors. Dawis derived a table from the work of five scholarly works,
which seem to delineate 12 different interest factors. Certainly, one central feature of occupational
psychology is trying to establish reliably the interest of individuals and then recommending jobs that
fulfil these interests.
According to savicks, there are currently four major schism in vocational psychology:
 1. The theory versus practice issue: practitioners claim that academic theories are of little use in
the “real world”, while academic insist that practice should be informed by research, data
gathering and theory
2. Integration versus separation from other areas of mainstream psychology like developmental,
social and personality psychology
3. Counselling vs psychotherapy: is career counselling different from or a branch of psychotherapy?
4. Opposition camps with unique constructs which ignore one another

However, there are now more signs of rapprochement, convergence and bridging but often through the
relativism of postmodern philosophy. Savickas believes vocational psychology needs to reaffirm research
as a core activity, and articulate a research agenda. He believes it needs to forge links with related
disciplines, bridge the rift between science and practice, and diversify epistemology. Most importantly, it
needs to adapt to the new world of working and recommit to the issues of recruitment and training.

Career typology
Once, ability and long service were rewarded by a steady climb up the corporate ladder. The speed and
endpoint in the career were defined only by ability and service (and perhaps a bit of politics). Today, the
idea of a “job for life” is, for many people, neither possible nor desirable. In many European countries,
about one-third to one-half of the workforce are in temporary employment or self-employment. There is
now a cohort of young people, aged 30 years and under, who expect and look forward to buiding up a
portfolio of jobs in different companies. They are content to give 5-8 years of loyal and enthusiastic
service to a variety of possibly widely different companies so as to increase their experience and
competence
For many people, this new approach to a working life is exciting rather than worrying. It has been
estimated that people used to have about 100,000 working hours over a 47 years working life to pursue
a career. Now 47 years has shrunk to 30, with many retiring at 50 and thinking of a “second career”.
Whereas some older people perceive this as a threat, many younger people interpret it is a major
opportunity with change comes growth and opportunity.
Employment has changed and so have careers. The way people approached a career was characterized
by many different strategies:
1. Drifters: appear rather directionless and unambitious. Some seem not to be able to hold down a
job for any period of time, but they are flexible and adaptable as they take on new jobs every so
often. Drifters are seen by some people to be capricious, fickle or even reckless. More positively,
they are adventurous and experimental
2. Lifers: are the opposite of drifters the lifer’s first job is their last. Although they might not have
chosen their first job judiciously, or with foresight, they settle down for life. Although this may be
an excellent strategy if one is in a company on the move, it is more likely to be a trade-off of high
risk/gain over security. Furthermore, downsizing and restructuring may leave them not very
employable. Lifers are loyal, but they are risk-averse, and liable to be alienated as performance
management systems replace seniority-based or service ideologies
3. Hoppers: look like snakes and ladders experts. They climb short ladders quite fast, perhaps in
small companies or departments, but slide down slippery snakes as they change jobs in the
search for betterment. They lack the long term vision of the planner, who has the whole journey
mapped out. They may make job move decisions too quickly, based on too few data
4. Planners: have clear targets, sometimes over ambitiously fantasized. They can articulate where
they want to be at the big milestones of life (aged 40, 55 or 60). They may even cultivate head
hunters, apply (whimsically) for jobs on a regular basis, and update their CV’s quarterly. Planners
 are committed of their career development. They understand the modern world of portfolio
management
5. Hobbyists: are masters of this final strategy. Some are SOBO’s – shoved out, but better off, but
many, often in their forties, become concerned with self development. They echo the
observation of a priest, who for years counselled the dying, heard their confessions and their
regrets, no one said that they wished they had spent more time in the office. The hobbyist may
take early retirement, turn to consultancy, or simply define quality of life as more important than
the rat race. This makes them interesting people, but not always deeply commited to the
company’s interest. Work is a hobby for these people.

Who excactly is responsible for one’s career or more likely, careers? Three groups have specific
responsibilities for an individual’s career development. First, the organization itself should provide
training and developmental oppurtunities where possible. Courses, sabbaticals, job shares and
shadowing experiences, for instance, all help. They need to provide realistic and uptodate career
information and, where necessary, out placement services. Indeed, these will become more important in
helping people to choose to work for a particular organization
Managers, too have responsibilities. They need to provide high equality and timely feedback on
performance so that staff get to appraise themselves realistically. They need to have regular, expectation
managing discussions and support their reports in their action plans. Again, where possible, they need to
offer developmental assignments where they can acquire new skills. Honest feedback and oppurtunities
to develop new skills are the best things any manager can do for his or her employees, permanent or
temporary.
Of course, individulas must accept responsibility for their own career. They cannot expevt to remain
passive. Individuals must seek out information on careers within and without the organization they must
initiate talks with their managers about careers and be prepared to take up development oppurtinities
even if they are outside their particular comfort zone
The ability to have multiple careers, probably a better way of working than the temporary career, means
that people will have to learn new skills and reinvent themselves. We will all need to be more feedback
seeking and more eager to learn form others. Chosen jobs need to fit ability and values and a sense of
identity. Support and affinity groups, networks and adult learning centres are some of the best sources
of help in personal career development. We will all need to learn how to plan and develop our working
careers in the future
Paradoxically, learning from experience seems to be more critical than ever, yet past experience has less
relevance to current experience because of the speed of change. In the new world of self reliant careers,
it will be essential for individuals to take an active role in steering their own ship and plotting their own
course. Compared with the past, there will need to be higher degree of learning by oneself, of
communicating with others, interdisciplinary work, working in groups and solving personal problems

Theories in vocational psychology

There is no shortage of theory in vocational psychology, although there is something of a dearth of well
designed, enducted and analysed studies to test them. Indeed, there are so many theories in the area it
is necessary to group or classify them (furnham):
1. Development: these are theories that focus on developmental stages, tasks or phases, typically
as aspects of a life long process. The individual has some measure of control and some freedom
of choice however environmental factors play a part. Efforts is then expended in trying to
determine what stage a person has reached and what job is most important for that stage
 2. Needs: the psychological needs of individuals are considered the paramount determinants. What
need theorists do is try to specify all the salient and relevant needs of both the individual and
organization,and show how they can best be fulfilled in different jobs
3. Psychoanalytical: psychoanalytical vocational development theory deals with personality
dynamics, using concepts like id, ego and super ego as well as oral, anal and phallic
characteristics. This approach stresses the need for a full dynamic understanding of the
individual and how he or she is likely to function in organizations
4. Sociological : theorists in this group consider sociological factors to be major influences. Such
factors include the home, school and community as primarily shaping both job choice and fit,
which are stressed rather than personality or ability
5. Decision making : this is an emerging approach focusing on the way the individual utilizes
information, self knowledge and perceptions of rewards in making the successive choices
involved in career development. However, all theories focus on decisions and state with varying
degrees of specificity how decisions are made
6. Existensial: comparatively little has been written from this point of view, but there are some
indications that it is an area of concern. Much of existential psychology, as it relates to choice
and fulfilling potentialities, inevitably touches upon career development

Vocational psychology has been catholic and eclectic in its reliance on theories from other areas,
especially cognitive and moral development, achievement motivation and decision making skills. Yet it
has develop various relatively new themes, the vocational behavior of women, blacks and linguistic
minorities, career development and worker adjustment probles. The importance of sex differences in
occupational choice has received particular attention recently.
In 2001, a special issue of the journal of vocational psychology was devoted to looking both back and
forward critically, but realistically, at the field. Various contributors tried to list strength and weakness.
Tinley’s suggested strength were theoretical diversity and research vigour. He listed four weakness much
research is done by dabblers in the field rather than those doing systematic and programmatic research:
the field is criticized too often by pundits who offer little contribution themselves other boost a favoured
theory, instruments of practice too much and finally vocational psychology has been marginalized to the
status of a fringe interest in counselling psychology.
Rusell offered an interesting SWOT analysis of the field:

Strength :
1. The field is large, diverse and interdisciplinary
2. The mission is clear: expand knowledge about vocational choice and adjustment across the life
span
3. The field can be distinguished from its competition
4. The field is strong in advancing theories of career choice and adjustment
5. The topic has relevance to adults of all ages
6. Researchers employ a wide variety of method stages
Weakness:
1. The mission can become unfocused and fragmented because of interest in such diverse areas
2. The focus often forgets the organizational perspective
3. Researchers do not always draw most efficiently on the uptodate salient research of other areas
4. Sometimes methodological rigour is poor

Opportunities:
1. Theory building and paractical knowledge on career decisions and choice
 2. Better guidance given new career oppurtunities and a more diverse workface
3. A better understanding of how people adjust to changes at work
4. More insight into how people perceive their career and job transitions
5. Understanding the interface of work, career and family issues
6. How entrepreneurs face new business start up issues
7. How to reach a wider interdisciplinary audience of academics and practitioners
8. Using different groups and means in example to reach new groups

Threats:
1. Researchers must be willing to learn form theories in other areas
2. Practitioners must be willing and able advise individuals and employers

Because of the changes in organizations, career,technology, education and society at large, it is

imperative that vocational psychology “keeps up” with changing times.
Other who have performed a SWOT analysis came to similar conclusions (subick). Lent proposed a new
mission statement:
1. To foster scientific understanding of career choice and development, including issues of
occupational preparation, transition, entry, adjustment, satisfaction, health and change or
stability
2. To translate career theory and research into practice in the form of
developmental,preventive,and remedial services
3. To train new professionals (and to provide continuing education to more senior professionals) to
serve an increasingly diverse clientele consisting of students (of all ages) workers, the
unemployed, those undergoing work transition, retirees, and system (e.g schools, work
organizations, dual-career couples, and families)

Walsh argues that one of the most important challenges of vocational psychology is keeping up to date
with progress in differential psychology (the study of individuals differences). Vondracek, on other hand
stresses the importance of a developmental perspective in vocational psychology with a full life span
perspective. Hesketh highlights five important, strategic issues for vocational psychology
1. Understanding the genetic basis of skills (abilities) and how to stretch them if possible
2. Helping people to apply our current knowledge of change transfer of training and adaptive
performance
3. Stressing the importance of goal setting and self efficacy and other metacognitive skills
4. Working at the work/ non work balance and virtual work organizations
5. Trying to better understand the time dimension in vocational psychology

Many observers, like fouad have pointed to vocational psychology’s class bound perception of work. That
is, working class or poor people have had their vocations ignored or marginalized. Vocational psychology
seems more a white rather than blue collar researched world

Gottfredson recommends four strategies for strengthening the future of vocational psychology
1. Not to be confined to examining individuals but to look at the vocational goals of employers,
ethnic/cultural groups or the economic system in general
2. An emphasis on training in measurement theory and methods
3. To set up and use a good database
 4. To find students interested in scientific research

Recent research has identified differences between the sexes in occupational perceptions and
expectation (bridges). Kirkelady found, perhaps quite predictably, that females displayed less interest in
technical trades and scientific occupations, but more interest in design orientated and social educational
occupations. Overall,females emerged as less likely to choose task oriented jobs and more inclined to
select creativity expressive occupations, indicating a preference for more permissive, less structured
occupations in environments allowing for artistic, emotional and introspective forms of expression

There has also been a great deal of renewed interest in young people’s occupational expectations
(Crowley & saphiro) although there is nothing new in this (nelson). Studies have examined pre-school
and elementary school children, secondary school children, as well as university students and have
noted how they change as a function of socioeconomic circumtances.

Schemata theory (the schema or ideas people have about jobs) has been particularly useful in
investigating streotypes of occupations. Levy, kaler asked 110 people to rate 14 occupations along
various personality characteristics, including introvert/extravert, feminine/masculine and
intelligent/non-intelligent. Two factors emerged , achievements versus helping orientation and high/low
educational level and it appears possible to “plot” people on each dimension. This may be a simple
beginning but a useful one in terms of understanding the nature of different jobs (furnham)

Kline has questioned all theories in vocational psychology on the grounds, first that the theories do not
travel across culture and country, and secondly that vocational (choice) theory should be part more
general theory relating to all aspects of behavior

Recruitment
Research into recruitment processes and procedures is comparatively new. Rynes and cable suggest that
one has to understand this research in terms of four factors:
1. The context: the external job/economic environtment but, more importantly, issues around the
organizations doing the recruiting: locatiob, size, reputation as an employee. The importance of
the industry in which the organization operates (telecommunications, helath care,
manufacturing) over all familiarity with the organization and its established profitability
influence, its image, applicant attraction and ease of recruitment
2. Recruitment activities and practices: trained, attractive, enthusiastic recruiters can and do have a
powerful influence on the perception of the organization. It is not clear if people recruited
informally (through personal contacs) survive longer than those recruited formally. Recruitment
administrative procedures can signal efficiency and professionalism or indeed, their opposite.
Potential candidates are also influenced by company affirmative action and general selection
procedures. Clearly the advertised pay and benefits are of fundamental importance
3. Processes : high quality applicants are critical of processes. Companies differ in the time delay
between recruitment, decision and hiring, which can have significant effects. Job seekers social
networks often explain their choice of career over and above other factors. Certainly, applicants
pre interview/screening beliefs about the organization significantly affect their actual
performance. Recruiter warmth and interest have powerful consequences on the interviewee
perceptions
4. Outcomes: this refers to the pre- and post hire attitudes, behaviours and perceptions of both
parties. Further recruitment outcomes inevitably have an impact on those already employed by
the organization.
This chapters is about vocational choice. It concerns the reason why people choose various vocations,
the wisdom of those choices and the possibilities of giving them the best possible kind of advice, as to
what to do, when and why. Many factors constrain job choice: ability, age,education, as well as social,
economic and political factors. Indeed, chance happenings can have a profound effect on vocational
choice and satisfaction
The initial job selection process is a significant issue for school and university leavers. Furthermore, as
“jobs for life” end and short contracts become more common, it may be as many as a dozen times during
a working life that an individual will seek out a new job, possibly in many varied areas. Once it was
thought that vocational guidance was almost exclusively for young leavers. Now there are specialist
outplacement and career adivisors for middle-aged executives changing jobs in mid life. job seekers
often need help and guidance in evaluating their own skills, abilities and abilities and preferences, as well
as evaluating the job market and how to enter and stay in it. Certainly, organizations do (or at least
should) invest considerable effort in recruiting, selecting and training employees who will optimally
happy and productive. Employee selection is not an easy business, there are so many variables and
factors to consider, not all of which are easy to measure and evaluate. Often “political” issues within an
organization mean that there are many constraints on selection that are not particulary relevant to fitting
the best person to the job. Selection of the potential employee by the employer (and vice versa) is an
important topic in all organizations.
But organizations also play a strong part in shaping individuals. The way they recruit,select, orientate and
socialize newcomers can have a powerful and lasting impact on them. Organizations choose employees
as much as employees choose organizations. Hence, the interview where both groups select each other.