Maria Järlström

Personality preferences and career expectations of Finnish business students

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the personality and career expectations of business students. The sample consisted of 533 business students. Personality was administered using the F‐version (the Finnish research version) of the Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator and career expectations were studied in Schein’s career orientation framework. Thus the relation between the MBTI preferences and Schein’s career anchors and type preferences of business students was reported. The main research question was: how are business students’ personality preferences and career expectations related to Schein’s career anchors? Business students’ career expectations were mostly seen as belonging to the Technical Competence (26 percent), Managerial Competence (17 percent) and Independence (14 percent) career anchors. Statistical significance was found in many cases.

How language misfit may affect psychological career mobility

This conceptual paper offers a novel, language-centered perspective on career mobility. Previous research on the boundaryless career has emphasized physical rather than psychological career mobility. We focus on the latter as it is an antecedent of physical mobility that has high predictive power. Findings in the field of international business show how the introduction of a new corporate language creates a glass ceiling preventing individuals whose language proficiency is insufficient from pursuing career opportunities within the organization. Nevertheless, these effects have not been systematically conceptualized. On the basis of an interdisciplinary literature review of careers, person-environment fit, and language-centered work in international business, we develop a theoretical model which explains psychological career mobility as an outcome of language misfit. We propose the construct of language misfit and argue that language misfit steers, shapes, and redirects psychological career mobility throug...