اثر خوداثربخشی عمومی در اهداف انتخاب شغل از طریق منافع حرفه ای و مناسب فرد کار: مدل میانجی

This study investigates a new mediation model, in which individuals’ career choice goals are proposed to be influenced by the interplays of three influences including general self-efficacy, vocational interests, and person–job fit perceptions. Soon-to-be graduates of Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) who just finalized their placement in the industry responded to self-completed questionnaires. They were 302 senior undergraduates from two institutes of higher education in tourism and hospitality on China's Hainan Island. The four indirect causal paths within this mediation model include: (a) general self-efficacy → person–job fit → choice goals, (b) general self-efficacy → vocational interests → choice goals, (c) general self-efficacy → vocational interests → person–job fit, and (d) vocational interests → person–job fit → choice goals. The results of structural equation modeling indicate that these four paths are all statistically significant and all the hypotheses regarding these paths therefore gain empirical support. The study's findings as well as their implications are discussed within the context of self-efficacy theory, career development theory, and human resource development practices in the hospitality and tourism domain. Highlights ► General self-efficacy influences career choice goals indirectly through vocational interests and person–job fit. ► Vocational interests partially mediate the relation of General self-efficacy → person–job fit. ► Person–job fit partially mediates the relation of vocational interests → choice goals.

Globally there is a rise in demand for well-trained hospitality and tourism management (HTM) professionals, However, there is a remarkable decline in the number of HTM graduates joining the hospitality and tourism industry (e.g., Barron and Maxwell, 1993, Chuang and Jenkins, 2010, Kusluvan and Kusluvan, 2000, Lam and Ching, 2007, Richardson, 2009, Richardson, 2010, Song and Chathoth, 2008, Song and Chathoth, 2010, Song and Chathoth, 2011, Teng, 2008 and Zhang Qiu and Wu, 2004). The existing problem of attracting and retaining quality employees in the industry has resulted in worldwide labor and skill shortage, an issue that is both regarded as one of the top 10 issues in the hospitality and tourism industry and considered to have a huge impact on the industry as well ( International Society of Hospitality Consultants, 2006 and Richardson, 2010). China is not an exception to this problem (Gu et al., 2006 and Song and Chathoth, 2008). Each year a large number of students enter hospitality and tourism schools. This indicates that the students have the potential to become professionals in the industry. However, many of the students abandon their career goals in the industry after graduation (Song and Chathoth, 2008). It is estimated that each year approximately 80% of the HTM undergraduate students in Mainland China give up their career goals in the industry after graduation (e.g., Liu, 2005 and Wong and Liu, 2010). In response to this problem, many scholars have sought to understand the nature of HTM undergraduates’ career choice behavior. Thus far, they have identified a number of factors that affect people's choice behavior and/or behavioral intentions. Among these identified influences, some are environmental/situational determinants including parental influences, contextual support and barrier, academic major, educational experiences, internship experiences (e.g., Chuang and Jenkins, 2010, Chuang et al., 2009, Song and Chathoth, 2008, Song and Chathoth, 2010, Song and Chathoth, 2011 and Wong and Liu, 2010). Others are personal influences such as individual's self-efficacy, self-esteem, personality, work value and attitude, vocational interests, career outcome expectations (e.g., Chuang and Jenkins, 2010, Kusluvan and Kusluvan, 2000, Song and Chathoth, 2008, Song and Chathoth, 2010, Song and Chathoth, 2011, Teng, 2008 and Wong and Liu, 2009). Still others (e.g., Teng, 2008, Song and Chathoth, 2010 and Song and Chathoth, 2011) include moderation and mediation effects among the variables of interest relating to HTM undergraduates’ career preferences. Despite the strides and progress made in career choice research, there have been many research gaps in the literature of vocational choice behavior in general (e.g., Osipow, 1990, Price, 2009, McIlveen and Patton, 2006, Tinsley, 2006 and Walsh, 2001) and in the hospitality and tourism literature in particular (e.g., Chuang, 2005, Chuang and Jenkins, 2010 and Song and Chathoth, 2008). One notable gap is that the multivariate influences of general self-efficacy, vocational interests, and person–job fit as well as the interplays among these three in the prediction of choice goals have not been integratively explored in the literature. Such influences are also known as personal agency exercised by people to direct their own choice behavior ( Brown and Lent, 2005). Moreover, these personal influences are known as more proximal and influential to individual's career decision-making. These personal influences are essentially intermediate variables that not only influence career choice outcomes (e.g., choice goals), but also are reflective of a more distal set of personal (e.g., gender, health status), environmental (e.g., background), and developmental (e.g., learning experience) influences ( Lent et al., 1994 and Lent and Brown, 2006). As such, it is necessary and useful for researchers to explore such joint effects focusing on individual's personal influences that are proximal to the choice process of career decision-making. The goal of this study is therefore to propose and test a new mediation model, in which individuals’ choice goals are influenced by the interplays among three personal influences including general self-efficacy, vocational interests, and person–job fit. Specifically, the research objectives of this study are threefold: (1) to explore general self-efficacy's potential indirect effects on choice goals via vocational interests and person–job fit, respectively; (2) to explore vocational interests’ potential mediating role in the relationship between general self-efficacy and person–job fit; and (3) to explore person–job fit's potential mediating role in the relationship between vocational interests and choice goals. In the career development literature, specific self-efficacy has been well theorized and it has attracted much empirical attention thus far. However, its counterpart of general self-efficacy has often been neglected. The breakthrough of this study therefore lies in the fact that general self-efficacy has its indirect effects on choice goals through vocational interests and person–job fit, respectively. In the sections that follow, an issue regarding general versus specific self-efficacy is addressed, key theoretical lenses on the vocational choice behavior are reviewed, and the four constructs contained in the present model are described, following which research hypotheses are developed for this study.

It is believed that this study's exploration and identification of general self-efficacy role in the prediction of people's career choice goals have been unique and valuable. This is partly because of one notable gap in the career development literature: Over-emphasizing specific self-efficacy role in people's career development process while ruling out general self-efficacy's role in the same process. This gap has somewhat hampered career development theory, research and, in turn, practice. Moreover, exploring general self-efficacy's role in the prediction of people's career behavior has been informative and valuable, particularly in the context where the vocational literature has been criticized for the lack of exploring new and novel ideas to move the vocational theories forward (Price, 2009 and Walsh, 2001). In a nutshell, on the basis of, but not limited to, the existing vocational career choice research, this study proposes a new mediation model with empirical support from 302 soon-to-be HTM graduates from two universities on Hainan Island, China. It concludes that general self-efficacy's effect on choice goals is mediated by perceptions of person–job fit and vocational interests. It also concludes that vocational interests’ effect on choice goals is mediated partially by person–job fit; and that general self-efficacy's effect on person–job fit is partially mediated by vocational interests. In fact, this study's findings regarding general self-efficacy as well as its interplays with person–job fit and vocational interests in jointly shaping individuals’ choice goals are exploratory in nature. Given this fact, future studies are warranted to lend more additional support to this study's hypotheses with a focus on general self-efficacy's role in the prediction of HTM undergraduates’ occupational choice goals throughout their school-to-work transition process.