Date of Award

12-1988

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Jody Newman

Second Advisor

Dr. Robert Brinkerhoff

Third Advisor

Dr. Robert Betz

Abstract

A review of the career development literature in current journals revealed several important trends that accentuate the need for additional career services for working adults. Moreover, assessment techniques currently used are transparent and rely mainly on participants' self perceptions. A new career inventory (Crites, 1982), which is based on a taxonomy of adult career problems, has been developed to measure the career adjustment of establishment stage individuals. The instrument was developed as a more effective assessment instrument for the purpose of uncovering employee needs, and for designing appropriate career development programs.

The Career Adjustment and Development Inventory (CADI) was administered to a manufacturing company's management group at four separate locations. The results were reported for four dependent variables: (1) location, (2) years of service, (3) gender, and (4) age. Significant differences were found on the level of career adjustment between the locations, but not for years, gender, or age. Scores on two of the scales, Career Advancement and Career Planning, were consistently lower across all of the groups.

Internal norms were also created as a result of the research. A comparison to an earlier testing of the inventory showed that the results followed the same task/time sequence of the career development continuum for this career stage, meaning that particular competencies were mastered at certain phases of the stage, as the theory predicted (Campbell et al., 1979).

A process evaluation was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the assessment. Focused discussion groups were used to elicit evaluative comments from the sample, and a process log was kept to make observations on the use of the instrument. A meta-evaluation was also conducted which yielded generally favorable results.

The Career Adjustment and Development Inventory holds promise as a needs analysis tool because it successfully measured the adjustment levels of a diverse sample. It also uncovered specific developmental needs of both the individuals and the groups. More importantly, the use of the CADI provides a more comprehensive analysis of the critical career behaviors of the establishment stage, and goes beyond the simple measurement of the amount of career activities in the organization.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

Included in

Counseling Commons

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