Job-hunting by female university students as a goal-action-outcome process: Impact of vocational motives and control strategies

Abstract

The present study examined the relationships among vocational motives, the job-hunting process, and job attainment. Female students (junior college seniors: 222; university seniors: 172) completed a questionnaire. Vocational motives were measured with challenge- and relatedness-aspirations. The psychological aspects of job-hunting were measured through selective and compensatory secondary controls, while behavioral aspects were measured through selective and compensatory primary controls. Structural equation modeling revealed that selective secondary control had a significant mediating function between vocational motives and job-hunting actions. In particular, relatedness aspiration was found to be positively related to selective primary control only when it was mediated by selective secondary control. It was also found that selective primary control (i.e., direct job-hunting activity) contributed to job attainment, while compensatory primary control, including support seeking, was negatively related to job attainment. However, compensatory primary control functioned to enhance selective primary control. No differences in the relations among the variables were found between the junior college and university students. It was suggested that encouragement of vocational motives and selective secondary control might lead to fruitful job-hunting activities.