A cross-cultural investigation of students\u27 career planning

Abstract

Students’ career planning is of great concern for international human resource management. While a lot of research has been done to determine the antecedents of student’s career decisiveness, little is known about the influence of cultural norms and values on career planning. We propose that national culture has an indirect influence on students’ career planning through career adaptability, career optimism and career-related knowledge. Using an eight-country sample of more than 1,800 university students, our findings show that the influence of masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation on career planning is mediated by career knowledge and career optimism, while the influence of power distance and individualism are partially mediated by these two variables. The theoretical and managerial implications of our study’s findings are discussed