| Abstract: | The paper draws on the Chicago School'sconceptualization of career and on Personal ConstructPsychology to examine the relationships betweengraduates construction systems and patterns of careerdevelopment during the first 4 years of employment. Itseeks to identify differences in trends of constructiverevision between successful and less successfulgraduates. The study is based on 33 graduates whocompleted repertory grids on entering employment (T1), 6months later (T2), and 4 years later (T3), re-elicitingconstructs each time. The results show some significantchange in the nature of the constructs elicited by graduates over the 4 years; in particular,graduates made greater use of constructs related toachievement, cynicism, and organizational politics.Graduates whose career was more successful (i.e., who experienced one or two promotions during the 4years of the study and felt generally satisfied withtheir careers) were more likely to use constructsrelated to social behavior and flexibility at T1, while graduates whose career was less sucessful(i.e., no promotion and felt dissatisfied with theircareers) were more likely to construe themselves interms of achievement and work competence at T1. Fouryears on, successful graduates tended to rely more onconstructs related to achievement and flexibility, whileless successful graduates were more likely to useconstructs related to social behavior. The significance and implications of these results fororganizational recruitment and development practices arediscussed. |
