Career Engagement of New
Zealand Career Development
Practitioners
Dr Dale Furbish
AUT University
CDANZ Symposium
17 November 2014
Career Engagement
Career engagement “is defined as the current
emotional and cognitive connection to
one’s career; it is a state in which one is
focused, energized, and able to derive
pleasure from activities linked to work and
other life roles” (Pickerell, 2013, p. 4)
Career Engagement
Career engagement is the dynamic
interaction between Challenge and
Capacity. It is a holistic notion that
encompasses Challenge and Capacity in all
life roles.
Challenge
Challenge is characterised by the perceived
demands placed on a person. Within the
model, challenge has two aspects,
referring both to the level of difficulty
associated with a task, or set of tasks, and
whether or not tasks are stimulating,
fascinating, and/or invigorating.
Capacity
Capacity refers to the resources one has to meet
those challenges. It is one’s ability to meet, or
withstand, the challenges life presents. It is
composed of an individual’s level of skill,
knowledge, and education; the availability of
sufficient resources such as equipment,
money, and time; relationships with
supervisors, colleagues, friends, and family;
level of optimism; and work-to-life and lifeto-work interference / conflict.
Feeling of Overwhelmed
One becomes overwhelmed within the
career engagement model when there is
too much challenge for the available
capacity.
Feeling of Underutilised
One feels underutilised when there is too
little challenge for the available capacity
Career Engagement
Problems
Burnout is the product of high challenge and low
capacity
Boredom is the product when capacities exceed
challenges
Excess capacity in relation to challenge can contribute
to lack of “job fit”, over qualification, and
underemployment
High challenges in life roles without the concomitant
capacities to meet the challenges can lead to
distraction or poor performance in employment
Pickerell’s Study
Surveyed 215 Canadian Career Practitioners using the Survey of Career Engagement

Slightly Underutilized .5%

Slightly Engaged (U) 2.3%

Somewhat Engaged (U) 9.8%

Zone of Engagement (Very Engaged) 25.1%

Somewhat Engaged (O) 36.3%

Slightly Engaged (O) 20.5%

Slightly Overwhelmed 5.1%

Somewhat Overwhelmed .5%
Current Study
Replicate Pickerell’s study to investigate
career engagement in the New Zealand
context and to extend the Career
Engagement Model of Neault and Pickerell
Invitations sent to CDANZ members (N= 504)
to respond to the Survey of Career
Engagement
Data collected from 110 participants (22%)
Survey of Career
Engagement
The Survey requests brief demographic information
Type of organisation, location, gender, age, length
of career practice employment and hours per
week of career practice
10 questions related to “challenges”
25 questions related to “capacity”
Responses are made on a 5-point Likert type scale,
ranging from 1=Strongly Disagree to 5=Strongly
Agree
Survey of Career
Engagement
Two questions ask participants to rate their level of
engagement on a 5-point Likert type scale from Very
Engaged to Very Disengaged and their level of being
overwhelmed/underutilised on a 5-point Likert type
scale from Very Overwhelmed to Very Underutilised
The Survey then uses a mixed methods approach
(Creswell, 2003) to request that participants respond
to open-ended questions about reasons for their
perceptions of engagement (challenges and
capacities)
Survey of Career
Engagement
Level of engagement is calculated by
subtracting the transformed capacity
score from the transformed challenge
score
Survey of Career
Engagement

75.50 to 80.00 8.00 Very Disengaged

5.49 to -5.59 Zone of Engagement (Very Engaged)

65.50 to 75.49 7.00 Somewhat Disengaged (O)

-15.49 to - 5.50 -1.00 Somewhat Engaged (U)

55.50 to 65.49 6.00 Slightly Disengaged (O)

-25.49 to -15.50 -2.00 Slightly Engaged (U)

45.50 to 55.49 5.00 Very Overwhelmed

-35.49 to -25.50 -3.00 Slightly Underutilized

35.50 to 45.49 4.00 Somewhat Overwhelmed

-45.49 to -35.50 -4.00 Somewhat Underutilized

25.50 to 35.49 3.00 Slightly Overwhelmed

-55.49 to -44.50 -5.00 Very Underutilized

15.50 to 25.49 2.00 Slightly Engaged (O)

-65.49 to -55.50 -6.00 Slightly Disengaged (U)

5.50 to 15.49 1.00 Somewhat Engaged (O)

-75.49 to -65.50 -7.00 Somewhat Disengaged (U)

-80.00 to -75.50 -8.00 Very Disengaged
Findings
 37.3% of respondents are considered very engaged (capacity
to meet challenges)
 32.7% of respondents can be considered engaged, but
somewhat overwhelmed (more challenge than capacity)

12.7% can be considered engaged by somewhat
underutilised (more capacity than challenge).
 11.8% were considered engaged but slightly overwhelmed

3.6% were considered engaged but slightly underutilised

1.8% were out of the range of engagement, and considered
to be slightly overwhelmed.
Findings
Findings
Relationships between demographics and Engagement
 Gender was -.17 (p=.06)
 Age was -.10 (p=.30)
 Length of career employment was -.08 (p=.37)
 Hours per week in career practice was -.17 (p=.07).
Findings
Overwhelming factors
 High work load
 Lack of resources
 Managerial expectations
 Administrative responsibilities
 Life roles of parent, grandparent, student and worker in
a second job
Findings
Underutilising factors
 Lack of advancement opportunities
 Restrictions placed on services by funding organisations
 Not being involved in managerial decisions
Limitations
Data collected online
Secondary school career advisers not included
Discussion
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Provide motivating work
Offer meaningful opportunities
Recognize the importance of “work fit”
Equip supervisors to support employees’ careers
Strengthen co-worker relationships
Provide relevant resources
Continuously monitor alignment
Facilitate work-life balance
Respect work-life boundaries
Align challenge and capacity
Neault (2014)
Discussion
Dale Furbish
AUT University
[email protected]