Answer to Question #235695 in Political Science for manayka

Question

Draw comparisons between Schein’s career anchors and Holland’s personality types.

Answer 1

The common idea in Holland's theory of vocational personalities, Schein's theory of career anchors, and Myers-Briggs' type theory is that people tend to have differential preferences for certain modes of coping and developing, which they have to exercise in order to do well and feel well in their work and life situation.

From the observed structure of vocational preferences Holland inferred six vocational categories, i.e. realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional, which he arranged in a hexagonal model. Holland assumed that persons obtain satisfaction by performing the particular kind of work activity that most closely fits their personality, and he stated that there are six vocational personality types corresponding to the six vocational categories.

Schein defined a career anchor as a growing area of stability in the personality that keeps the person from deviating too far from a particular career path. According to Schein, the function of work is to support and make possible a career that the person values. Thus, his concepts are similar to what other researchers have called career values ( Arthur, Hall & Lawrence, 1989). Observing career development, Schein initially inferred five career anchors (Schein, 1978), but later he concluded that there were nine (Schein, 1985), i.e. technical competence, managerial competence, organizational security, geographic security, creativity, autonomy, service, pure challenge and life-style.