Career Development Theory Comparison - Assignment Example

Various theories have been proposed that show how an individual selects his or her career path. One such theory that has been successful in identifying how people choose their work environment and career path is John Holland’s theory of vocational choice. Holland proposes that human beings are divided into six types of personalities including: realistic, artistic, investigative, social, conventional and enterprising (Wee, 2006, p. 22). The theory further states that there are six types of work environments including: social, enterprising, investigative, realistic, conventional and artistic.

Holland proposes that people prefer and find work environments according to their personality type and individuals are highly satisfied if they are able to work in a work environment that suits their personality.Another career development theory is Frank Parson’s theory of trait and factor, the theory was proposed in 1909. Parson states that first an individual’s personality traits needed to perform a particular job should be identified and the individual should be awarded with that job if he has the required traits to perform the job.

The theory further states if individuals are hired for a job in accordance to their knowledge skills and abilities, they are going to perform well and will be satisfied with the work. Donald Super came up with the theory of development of self concept, the theory states that self concept (what you think about yourself) of an individual changes with passage of time and development of self concept depends on an individual’s experiences. Super argued that career development takes place throughout an individual’s life and his career choices changes as time passes.

Super believed that career development takes place in following five stages: growth, exploration, establishment, and maintenance and declaration stage.Bandura’s theory of social cognitive development states that an individual learns how to perform tasks and job by observing others do a particular job. The theory states that through this learning process, individuals shape their attitudes, behavior, principles and acquire competencies. The theory further states that to obtain knowledge, skills and abilities, a learner has to pay attention to what others are doing, learner has to save and remember the information obtained from observation, the learner has to then practice the learned behavior.

The theory even states that individuals have to be motivated in order to make sure that learning takes place.John Krumboltz’s proposed the theory of Happenstance, the theorist suggests that it is not necessary for an individual to make a career choice before hand and the individual should take up any career path that comes in his way.John Holland’s theory of vocational choice is the most helpful theory. The reason behind my support of Holland’s theory is that people have certain skills and abilities and they can easily perform well on those jobs that match their skills and abilities.

People are highly productive if they are able to use their knowledge skills and abilities in a particular job. The theory of happenstance is not really helpful; this is because an individual has to make choices beforehand about his career path. These choices inform an individual about the training he needs to do a particular job. If an individual has no idea about the career he is going to select, the individual will not be able to select the kind of training and organizations do not prefer individuals who have no training.

BibliographyWee, B. P. L., & University of Minnesota. (2006). Career orientations of Singaporean expatriates based in the People's Republic of China and their perceptions of the determinants of their career success.