Global Economy Essay

Below is a list of essay questions, the ONE question that you will be required to write on will be chosen from the list below. 1. Identify a current international political or economic issue and write on the cause(s) and impact globally. (500 word limit) 2. Select one project you have worked on in the past and write an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the execution, including an assessment of your own contribution. (500 word limit) 3. Identify a key industry leader in Nigeria today and give reasons why you admire this person and outline the person’s contributions to the economy and society. 4. What is the relevance of the MBA degree in the current business environment? Is the degree necessary for success? If you miss this examination or would like to do the GMAT instead, you have until June 28, 2013 to submit your GMAT score in order to have an interview scheduled for you. For details of the GMAT, please visit www. mba. com I wish you all the best. Regards, Nubi Achebo (Dr. ) MBA Director

Impact of Organizational Support for Career Development

Career Development International Emerald Article: The impact of organisational support for career development on career satisfaction Belinda Renee Barnett, Lisa Bradley Article information: To cite this document: Belinda Renee Barnett, Lisa Bradley, (2007),†The impact of organisational support for career development on career satisfaction†, Career Development International, Vol. 12 Iss: 7 pp. 617 – 636 Permanent link to this document: http://dx. doi. org/10. 108/13620430710834396 Downloaded on: 18-09-2012 References: This document contains references to 40 other documents Citations: This document has been cited by 17 other documents To copy this document: [email  protected] com This document has been downloaded 7990 times since 2007. * Users who downloaded this Article also downloaded: * Jyotsna Bhatnagar, (2007),†Talent management strategy of employee engagement in Indian ITES employees: key to retention†, Employee Relations, Vol. 29 Iss: 6 pp. 640 à ¢â‚¬â€œ 663 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/01425450710826122 Ans De Vos, Koen Dewettinck, Dirk Buyens, (2008),†To move or not to move? The relationship between career management and preferred career moves†, Employee Relations, Vol. 30 Iss: 2 pp. 156 – 175 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/01425450810843348 Marilyn Clarke, Margaret Patrickson, (2008),†The new covenant of employability†, Employee Relations, Vol. 30 Iss: 2 pp. 121 – 141 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/01425450810843320 Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by UNIVERSITY OF GUJRAT For Authors: If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service.Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www. emeraldinsight. com/authors for more information. About Emerald www. emeraldinsight. com With over forty years' experi ence, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education. 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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www. emeraldinsight. com/1362-0436. htm The impact of organisational support for career development on career satisfaction Belinda Renee Barnett Queensland Rail, Sandgate, Australia, and Support for career development 617 Received December 2006 Revised July 2007 Accepted August 2007Lisa Bradley School of Management, Queensland University of Technology , Brisbane, Australia Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between organisational support for career development (OSCD) and employees’ career satisfaction. Based on an extended model of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and an integrative model of proactive behaviours, the study proposed that career management behaviours would mediate the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction, and between proactive personality and career satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach – Public and private sector employees (N ? 90) participating in career development activities completed a survey regarding their proactivity, OSCD, career management behaviours and career satisfaction. Findings – OSCD, proactive personality and career management behaviours were all positively related to career satisfaction and career management behaviours mediated the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction. There wa s no support for the career management behaviours mediating between OSCD and career satisfaction.Research limitations/implications – This study provided support for the extended SCCT model by testing a subset of its proposed relationships using a cross-sectional approach. The sample surveyed (employees participating in career development activities) and the large proportion of full-time employees, may limit the generalisability of the ? ndings. Future longitudinal research could more fully test the relationships proposed by the extended SCCT model and include a greater representation of part-time and casual employees. Practical implications – The results suggest that there are bene? s for organisations and individuals investing in career development.. First, from an organisational perspective, investing in OSCD may enhance employees’ career satisfaction. Second, employees may enhance their own career satisfaction by participating in career management behaviours. Originality/value – This study integrated the predictions of two models (an extension of SCCT and a model of proactive behaviours) to test the in? uence of environmental (OSCD) and individual difference (proactive personality) variables on career satisfaction. Exploring how organisational and individual variables together in? ence career satisfaction provides a more balanced approach to theoretical development. Keywords Career satisfaction, Human resource management, Employee development, Career management Paper type Research paper Changes in the economic, technological and business environment during the last two decades have signi? cantly impacted people’s career attitudes and experiences (Hall, 2002; Pinnington and Lafferty, 2003). These environmental changes have contributed to the Career Development International Vol. 12 No. 7, 2007 pp. 617-636 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1362-0436 DOI 10. 1108/13620430710834396CDI 12,7 618 establishment of a new psycholog ical contract: the reciprocal obligations held by employees and employers (Hall, 2002). The predominance of organisational restructuring, de-layering and downsizing has contributed to a more ? exible or â€Å"boundaryless† career environment with expectations that individuals will self-manage their careers, rather than rely on organisational direction (Arthur et al. , 2005; Kossek et al. , 1998). Concurrently, tight labour markets in Australia and other developed countries challenge organisations in attracting, motivating and retaining employees.Australia is currently experiencing record low unemployment rates with labour shortages across many industries, including the trades, engineering and knowledge sectors. In this competitive environment, where it is increasingly dif? cult and costly to attract employees with the necessary skills, organisations need to convince employees that their organisation provides more opportunities, challenges and rewards than their competitors. T his aim can be particularly challenging when the traditional rewards offered as part of the old psychological contract, such as structured career paths and job stability, are more dif? ult for organisations to provide due to the more dynamic environment in which many organisations now operate. Therefore, organisations are seeking creative ways to address this attraction, motivation and retention challenge (Erdogan et al. , 2004; Heslin, 2005). One way that organisations may meet this challenge is to support employees to develop their own careers and increase their career satisfaction. This approach is consistent with the recommendation that organisations perform a new supportive, rather than directive, role in enabling their employees’ career success (Baruch, 2006).This study proposes that organisations can adopt strategies to enhance employees’ career satisfaction and so potentially increase the organisations’ ability to attract and retain these employees. Whil e one focus of this study is on the role that organisational support can play in employees’ career satisfaction, it is important to also consider the role that individuals play in their own career success, particularly given the trend towards more individualistic career management in the last few decades (Baruch, 2006).Exploring the impact that organisational and individual difference variables have on career satisfaction will result in a more comprehensive understanding of these relationships and also offers the opportunity to merge the two, often distinct perspectives provided by (worker-focused) vocational psychology and (employer focused) organisational psychology (Lent and Brown, 2006). An extended model of Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) has recently been proposed which predicts how contextual and individual personality, cognitive and behavioural variables predict vocational satisfaction (Lent, 2004, 2005; Lent and Brown, 2006).To date, versions of this extended m odel have only examined the academic satisfaction of college students (Lent et al. , 2005) and there is a strong need for further study with employed workers (Lent and Brown, 2006). Therefore, this study will explore the relationship between an environmental support variable, organisational support for career development (OSCD) and employee career satisfaction.In addition, a mediating relationship proposed by SCCT, via participation in goal directed activities (individual career management behaviours) will be explored. Since this recently extended model of SCCT emphasises an approach to unify personality and environmental perspectives, previous studies of university students tested how extraversion and positive affect ? t the model (Lent et al. , 2005). The current study builds on past research by exploring how another important personality variable (proactive personality) impacts career satisfaction.By incorporating the predictions of the model of proactive behaviours (Crant, 2000) , and the extended SCCT model (Lent and Brown, 2006), this study will also explore whether career management behaviours mediate the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction. Greater understanding about the mediating mechanisms by which environmental and personality variables impact career satisfaction will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of career satisfaction and support the development and testing of the extended SCCT model.Organisational career management is a risk management process (Baruch, 2006). Therefore, examining the relative contribution that OSCD makes to employee career satisfaction can assist organisations in determining whether investment in supporting employee career development will derive adequate bene? ts and enable organisations to better design career development strategies to achieve desired outcomes. From an employee perspective, understanding how personality, behavioural and environmental factors function together ma y offer the opportunity to assist people to become as satis? d with their careers as nature and environmental factors support (Lent and Brown, 2006). Figure 1 presents a social cognitive model aimed at understanding vocational and educational satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006). The model predicts paths by which social cognitive variables (e. g. self-ef? cacy, goals) function jointly with personality and environmental variables to impact work satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006). The model extends upon SCCT, which was originally developed to explain interest development, choice and performance in career and educational domains (Lent et al. , 1994).Exploration of this recently developed model of SCCT can contribute to the literature by helping to achieve integration on two levels (Lent and Brown, 2006). These levels of contribution will be described next. Support for career development 619 Figure 1. A process model of work satisfaction that highlights theorized interrelations among pe rsonality, cognitive, behavioural and environmental variables CDI 12,7 620 The ? rst way that this model of SCCT can contribute to the literature is to help unify the often disparate perspectives of organisational and vocational psychology (Lent and Brown, 2006).While organisational and vocational psychology researchers focus on work satisfaction, it is often with different perspectives. For example, vocational psychology tends to be clearly focused on the individual and work satisfaction is treated as an end in itself, or as a component of work adjustment (Lent and Brown, 2006; Russell, 1991). Organisational psychology, alternatively, tends to focus more on the organisational consequences of work satisfaction, such as productivity, engagement and turnover (Lent and Brown, 2006).These differing perspectives have led to largely distinct literatures, with concerns that researchers will reinvent areas of inquiry if they do not draw together learning from multiple disciplines (Baruch, 2 006; Lent and Brown, 2006; Russell, 1991) Therefore, exploring this extended SCCT model can contribute to the literature by developing closer links between vocational and organisational psychology perspectives on work satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006).Exploring this SCCT model can also contribute to building a more comprehensive understanding of work satisfaction by considering how cognitive, behavioural, personality and environmental factors jointly impact work satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006). By incorporating frequently studied correlates of work satisfaction into a few, broader conceptual categories, this extended model of SCCT attempts to balance comprehensiveness and simplicity in explaining the multiple in? uences on work satisfaction.While the bivariate relations contained in this model have received study, this extended model of SCCT provides a theoretical logic for predicting how these variables may function together. Since study of the extended SCCT model has focused on student samples to date (Lent et al. , 2005), this current study will also contribute to the literature by exploring how a subset of the relationships proposed by this SCCT model applies to employed workers, as recommended by Lent and Brown (2006).This study also incorporates theoretical predictions from the model of proactive behaviours (Crant, 2000) from the management literature. This model considers the antecedents (individual differences, such as proactive personality, and contextual factors, such as OSCD) and consequences (such as career success) of both general and context-speci? c proactive behaviours (Crant, 2000). The model shares similarities with SCCT, in its perspective that employees take an active role in their careers: they initiate behaviours and create favourable situations to achieve personal goals and career success (Crant, 2000).Similar to the predictions of SCCT (Lent, 2005), the model proposes that people are more likely to take actions to achieve their go als if they have access to environmental (organisational) support and resources relevant to the pursuit of these goals. Integrating the predictions from the psychological and managerial literature also builds on the recommendations of (Baruch, 2006) who urged researchers to analyse careers from a broad, multi-disciplined approach, rather than from a limited, single discipline perspective. The key elements of the model proposed in this study and its predicted pathways will be described next.The model outlined in Figure 2 integrates some of the predictions of the extended SCCT model (Lent and Brown, 2006) and the proactive behaviour model when applied to the career domain (Crant, 2000). The key classes of variables that comprise this model include: career satisfaction; OSCD – organisational support for career development; proactive personality; and career management behaviours. Support for career development 621 Figure 2. Integrated model of proactive behaviours Key model eleme nts Career satisfaction (subjective career success) While traditionally a career was considered to be con? ed to professionals or those who advanced through organisational hierarchies, today the term â€Å"career† is more broadly applied and is commonly considered to be the lifelong sequence of role-related experiences of individuals (Hall, 2002). Building on this de? nition, â€Å"career success† can be de? ned as the â€Å"positive psychological and work-related outcomes accumulated as a result of one’s work experiences† (Seibert and Kraimer, 2001, p. 2). Distinction has been made between objective and subjective indicators of career success.Objective career success refers to the work experience outcomes, such as status, promotions and salary, that are objectively observable (Seibert and Kraimer, 2001). Traditional career research focused predominantly on objective measures of career success (Gattiker and Larwood, 1988). This focus was consistent with t he predominance of hierarchical organisations where employees’ career success was largely de? ned by promotion, rank and retention (Hall and Chandler, 2005). Measuring only objective criteria of career success, however, is de? ient, since people also value subjective outcomes such as development of new skills, work-life balance, challenge and purpose (Gattiker and Larwood, 1988; Heslin, 2005). Also, having achieved objective career success does not necessarily mean that people are satis? ed with their career (Hall, 2002). Lastly, some objective career success measures appear less relevant today, since organisations are more constrained in providing these opportunities (Heslin, 2005). One way to deal with the limitations of de? ning and measuring career success using objective criteria is to supplement these with measures of subjective career success.Subjective career success Subjective career success refers to individuals’ evaluation of their career progress, accomplis hments and anticipated outcomes, relative to their own goals and aspirations (Seibert and Kraimer, 2001). The change in focus to subjective career success, where the criterion for success is internal rather than external, is also consistent with the change in the career context where individuals are expected to self-manage their own careers rather than rely on organisational direction (Hall and Chandler, 2005; Hall and Mirvis, 1995). CDI 12,7 622Subjective career success has most often been operationalised as job satisfaction or career satisfaction (Erdogan et al. , 2004; Heslin, 2003; Ng et al. , 2005; Seibert and Kraimer, 2001). For example, in a recent review of career success studies, 20 out of a total of 49 studies operationalising subjective career success included measures of career satisfaction and 11 studies included measures for job satisfaction (Arthur et al. , 2005). Alternatively, a recent meta-analysis included only studies measuring career satisfaction to operationali se subjective career success (Ng et al. 2005). While there appears little general consensus about the relative merits of both measures, one perspective considers job satisfaction as an inadequate measure of career success, since subjective career success indicates satisfaction over a longer time frame and wider range of outcomes, such as sense of purpose and work-life balance, than job satisfaction (Heslin, 2005). We will use career satisfaction in this study. Career satisfaction measures the extent to which individuals believe their career progress is consistent with their own goals, values and preferences (Erdogan et al. 2004; Heslin, 2003; Seibert and Kraimer, 2001). Career satisfaction is often measured using the career satisfaction scale developed by Greenhaus et al. (1990). The vast majority of studies measuring career satisfaction use this scale. For example, of the 20 studies measuring career satisfaction in the review article referred to above, 14 studies used the career sa tisfaction scale (Arthur et al. , 2005) as we will do in the current research. Organisational support for career development Organisational support for areer development (OSCD) is also called â€Å"organisational career management† or â€Å"organisational sponsorship† and refers to the programs, processes and assistance provided by organisations to support and enhance their employees’ career success (Ng et al. , 2005; Orpen, 1994). The variable has been so named in this study to be consistent with the new supportive and enabling role proposed for organisations, rather than the traditional â€Å"command and control† approach taken in the past (Baruch, 2006).Referring to the extended SCCT model (Lent and Brown, 2006), OSCD belongs to a class of environmental support and resources variables that are speci? cally relevant to the pursuit of an individual’s career goals. OSCD comprises formal strategies (including career planning, training and assessment centres) and informal support such as providing mentoring, coaching and networking opportunities (Hall, 2002; London, 1988; Sturges, Guest, Conway, and Davey, 2002).Proactive personality Proactive personality or disposition is a stable individual difference construct that differentiates individuals based on the extent to which they take action to in? uence their environment. People with a proactive disposition tend to identify opportunities and act on them, persevering until meaningful change occurs in their environment (Crant, 2000). Proactive personality has demonstrated signi? cant positive relationships with career satisfaction and career management behaviours (Chiaburu et al. , 2006; Seibert et al. , 2001).Career management behaviours Career management behaviours are the actions that individuals take to achieve their career goals. These behaviours occur when individuals choose to initiate and intervene in their career situation in such a way that the individual acts in a desir ed direction, rather than responding passively to an imposed change (Crant, 2000). These behaviours are referred to alternatively as â€Å"career enhancing strategies† (Nabi, 2003), â€Å"context-speci? c proactive behaviours† (Crant, 2000) and â€Å"career goal-directed activities† (Lent, 2004).These behaviours include career exploration and planning, skills development, networking and promoting one’s achievements (Claes and Ruiz-Quintamilla, 1998; Kossek et al. , 1998; Nabi, 2000, 2003; Noe, 1996; Orpen, 1994). Pathways to career satisfaction The model outlined in Figure 2 proposes that contextual or environmental factors (such as OSCD) can in? uence the career satisfaction of employees by enhancing employees’ participation in career management behaviours. The model also proposes that stable individual differences, such as proactive personality, also in? ences career satisfaction via career management behaviours: people with a proactive dispositi on are more likely to engage in career management behaviours and be more satis? ed with their careers. Each of the paths proposed in the model will now be discussed. OSCD and career satisfaction A goal-speci? c environmental support and resource, such as OSCD, which provides social and material support for one’s personal goals, is likely to be a signi? cant predictor of career satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006).Conversely, the absence of such supports, or presence of contextual obstacles, is likely to impede goal progress and reduce satisfaction. This direct link to career satisfaction is predicted in the extended model of SCCT (Lent and Brown, 2006), and in this study’s model. To date, the evidence about the amount of variance in career satisfaction explained by OSCD is mixed (Ng et al. , 2005). This variability could partly be explained by the lack of empirical research testing theoretical models that uniquely predict subjective career success (Ng et al. 2005; Seibe rt et al. , 2001; Wayne et al. , 1999). For example, many studies examining the in? uence of OSCD on career success make similar predictions for both objective and subjective career success and control for variables that have a greater relationship with objective than with subjective career success. Lack of research which makes this distinction is of particular concern, since recent meta-analytic results suggest that there is a signi? cant difference between the predictors of objective and subjective career success (Ng et al. , 2005). Speci? ally, OSCD (including career sponsorship, supervisor support and training and development opportunities) and stable individual differences (such as proactive personality) were more strongly related to career satisfaction than to salary and promotion, measures of objective career success (Ng et al. , 2005). Support for the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction was provided in two recent meta-analyses (Allen et al. , 2004; Ng et al. , 2005). Signi? cant positive relationships were found between mentoring and employee career satisfaction, with effect sizes ranging from 0. 1 to 0. 29 across up to ten studies (Allen et al. , 2004). Signi? cant effect sizes ranging from 0. 38 to 0. 46 were also found between OSCD (career sponsorship, supervisor support and training and development opportunities) and career satisfaction across up to 18 studies (Ng et al. , 2005). Analyses showed however, that the meta-analytic correlations between self-report measures were signi? cantly higher than correlations between self-report and objective measures, suggesting that percept-percept bias may be in? ating these correlations (Ng et al. 2005). Support for career development 623 CDI 12,7 624 Moderate support for a positive relationship between OSCD and employee career satisfaction was also found in two cross-sectional studies, comprising employees from private and public sector organisations in the United Kingdom and Israel (Orpen, 199 4; Pazy, 1988). In both studies, the items developed to represent characteristics of an effective organisational career management system loaded on three factors: career management policies, employee career development and career information.Together, theoretical predictions and empirical ? ndings lead to the study’s ? rst hypothesis: H1. OSCD will be positively related to career satisfaction. Career management behaviours and career satisfaction Participating in career management behaviours that are directed at achieving personally valued goals in the career domain are also expected to promote an individual’s career satisfaction and success (Crant, 2000; Lent and Brown, 2006).Pursuing personally relevant goals is a key way that people can contribute to their own wellbeing and enables the exercise of personal agency in career satisfaction. To the extent that an individual can set and work towards their own goals and perceive that they are making progress, they are capab le of promoting their own career satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006). Meta-analytic support also exists for the positive relationship between individual career management behaviours and career satisfaction (Ng et al. , 2005). Signi? cant effect sizes of 0. 33 and 0. 8 were found respectively for career planning and employee networking behaviour on career satisfaction across up to eight studies (Ng et al. , 2005). While most studies exploring these relationships are cross-sectional, there is also support for the positive impact of career management behaviours on subjective career success three years later (Wiese et al. , 2002). Wiese et al. (2002) surveyed 82 young German adults (age range 28 to 39 years) employed in a range of professions including physicians, lawyers, scientists, bank employees, hotel managers and police of? ers The study measured participants’ career management behaviours and their subjective success in the work domain (career satisfaction) at Time 1 and th ree years later. Participants’ career management behaviours at Time 1 predicted 14 per cent of the variance in participants’ career satisfaction three years later, after controlling for career satisfaction at Time 1. Career management behaviours at Time 1 however, did not predict signi? cant additional variance in career satisfaction when career management behaviours at Time 2 were also considered.The predictions of SCCT and the model of proactive behaviours, supported by these meta-analytic and longitudinal results, lead to the study’s second hypothesis: H2. Career management behaviours will be positively related to career satisfaction. Mediating role of career management behaviours between OSCD and career satisfaction The extended model of SCCT predicts that in addition to a direct relationship between OSCD (goal speci? c environmental resources) and career satisfaction, OSCD may also indirectly impact satisfaction via goal pursuit (career management behaviour s) (Lent and Brown, 2006).The model of proactive behaviours also predicts that the presence of contextual factors, such as organisational support and resources, will facilitate an individual’s proactive career behaviours and career success (Crant, 2000). While there is indirect support for the impact of OSCD on individual career management behaviours (Kossek et al. , 1998; Noe, 1996), empirical evidence for the mediating role of career management behaviours between OSCD and career satisfaction is limited (Nabi, 2003). For example, in two recent studies of university students conducted by the same research team (Lent et al. 2005), one study found support for this mediating relationship, while the second study did not. In the ? rst study of 177 students, signi? cant relationships were found between environmental resources and academic goal progress and between goal progress and domain satisfaction for both the academic and social domain. In the second study of 299 students a st rong predictive relationship was found between goal progress and satisfaction, but not between environmental support and goal progress (Lent et al. , 2005).Nevertheless, based on the predictions of SCCT and the integrated model of proactive behaviour, it is expected that individuals will be more likely to take actions to achieve their career goals and career satisfaction if they have access to organisational (environmental) support and resources to pursue these goals (Crant, 2000; Lent, 2005). This leads to the third hypothesis: H3. Career management behaviours will mediate the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction. Proactive personality and career satisfaction According to the model of proactive behaviour (Crant, 2000), an individual’s disposition or personality will also in? ence the extent to which they take the initiative to engage in career management behaviours and achieve career satisfaction. Therefore, this suggests that individuals with proactive disposit ions are more likely to engage in career management behaviours and experience greater career satisfaction than individuals with lower proactive tendencies. A recent meta-analysis found that proactive personality was strongly related to career satisfaction with an effect size of 0. 38 found across three studies with over 1,000 participants (Ng et al. 2005). Signi? cant relationships between proactive personality, career management behaviours and career satisfaction were also demonstrated in a longitudinal study, which will be outlined next. A study investigating the career behaviours and strategies of 496 full-time employees found that proactive personality explained additional variance in career satisfaction, after controlling for several demographic, human capital, organisational, motivational and industry variables (Seibert et al. , 1999).Two years later, the researchers found that the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction was mediated by innovation, p olitical knowledge and career management behaviours (de? ned as career initiative) (Seibert et al. , 2001a). While the recently extended SCCT model does not refer to proactive personality speci? cally, it does predict that personality and affective traits will impact satisfaction directly as well as via cognitive appraisals of self-ef? cacy and environmental supports (Lent and Brown, 2006).An additional theoretical pathway suggested is that certain personality traits may affect satisfaction through behavioural means: the example given suggests that highly conscientious workers may be more likely to set, pursue and make progress towards personal goals (Lent and Brown, 2006). Similarly, it follows that highly proactive workers may be more likely to engage in career management behaviours to achieve career goals and satisfaction. The similar Support for career development 625 CDI 12,7 predictions of SCCT and the proactive behaviour model, supported by meta-analytic and longitudinal resu lts, lead to the following hypotheses: H4.Proactive personality will be positively related to career satisfaction H5. Career management behaviours will mediate the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction. 626 Control variables To more appropriately determine the unique in? uence of OSCD and proactive personality on career satisfaction, the study will also control for human capital variables (organisational tenure and education level), which have been found to be related to career satisfaction (Ng et al. , 2005; Seibert and Kraimer, 2001; Wayne et al. 1999). The study will explore the in? uence that environmental and individual variables (OSCD, proactive personality and career management behaviours) can provide to employee career satisfaction and examine the mechanisms by which these relationships operate. This study therefore builds on recommendations to contribute a more balanced, integrative perspective to the study of careers (Baruch, 2006; Lent and Bro wn, 2006). Method Sample The participants were 90 employees from a range of private and public sector organisations.A questionnaire was completed by 77 public sector employees and 21 postgraduate business students. Eight of the postgraduate students reported that they were currently unemployed, so they were removed from the analysis, leaving a total of 90 respondents. Of the remaining respondents, 64 per cent were female. The majority of respondents were aged between 31 and 50 years (72 per cent), with 17 per cent under 30 years and 11 per cent aged over 51 years. Most of the respondents (53 per cent) were employed with their current organisation less than ? e years, with 14 per cent having organisational tenure of six to ten years and 33 per cent over 11 years. Most of the respondents (93 per cent) were employed full-time, with 56 per cent employed in administrative and professional roles, and 40 per cent in a managerial capacity. Educational level was high, with 86 per cent of res pondents having completed either undergraduate or postgraduate tertiary study. Measures All the study variable scales were measured on a ? ve-point scale which ranged from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5).Scores were reversed such that higher scores re? ected higher standing on the construct measure. All the scores for each of the items were averaged to obtain an overall measure for each of the variables. Organisational support for career development Respondents rated a ten-item organisational career management scale (Sturges et al. , 2002), indicating the extent to which they perceived OSCD. Five of the items were modi? ed slightly to re? ect a more supportive, rather than directive organisational relationship with employees. In a previous study (Sturges et al. 2002), six of the ten items loaded on â€Å"formal† OSCD (e. g. â€Å"I have been given work which has developed my skills for the future†) and four items loaded on â€Å"informal† OSCD (e. g. â€Å"I have been encouraged to obtain a mentor to help my career development†). In the previous longitudinal study, the â€Å"formal† OSCD subscale achieved an internal consistency reliability of 0. 77 at both time 1 and time 2, one year apart and the â€Å"informal† OSCD subscale achieved an internal consistency reliability of 0. 80 at time 1 and 0. 81 at time 2 (Sturges et al. , 2002).Refer to Table I for the internal consistency reliabilities for all the current study variables. Proactive personality Proactive personality was assessed with a ten-item shortened version of Bateman and Crant’s (1993) 17-item Proactive Personality scale. Seibert et al. (1999) presented evidence of the validity and reliability of the shortened scale, with the scale having demonstrated an internal consistency reliability of 0. 85 (Seibert et al. , 2001a). Respondents indicated their level of agreement with each of the statements (e. g. â€Å"I am constantly on the lookout for new ways to improve my life†).Career management behaviours Since the authors’ research did not identify one scale that examined as comprehensive a range of career management behaviours as desired, items from two scales were used. The ? rst scale measured career planning using six items developed by Gould (1979). This scale has demonstrated internal consistency reliability above 0. 7 in previous studies (Gould, 1979; Wayne et al. , 1999). Participants reported the extent to which they had career goals and plans (e. g. â€Å"I have a strategy for achieving my career goals†). Three items were stated in the opposite direction and were reverse scored.The second scale measured career self-management behaviours using 16 items (Sturges et al. , 2002). Respondents indicated the extent to which they engaged in networking (e. g. â€Å"I have arranged to be introduced to people who can in? uence my career†), visibility behaviour (e. g. â€Å"I have made my direc t supervisor aware of my accomplishments†), skills development (e. g. â€Å"I have read work-related publications in my spare time†) and mobility-oriented behaviour (e. g. â€Å"I have made plans to leave this organisation if it cannot offer me a rewarding career†). Internal consistency correlations above 0. were achieved for all of these subscales in a previous study (networking (0. 74), visibility (0. 69-0. 8) and mobility (0. 76-0. 78)), except for skills development (0. 56-0. 63) (Sturges et al. , 2002). Career satisfaction Career satisfaction was measured using the ? ve-item career satisfaction scale, which has demonstrated an internal consistency correlation of 0. 86 (Greenhaus et al. , 1990). Respondents indicated their level of agreement with each of the statements (e. g. â€Å"I am satis? ed with the progress I have made toward meeting my overall career goals†).Control variables Respondents’ demographic and human capital information was col lected with single item questions for gender, age, highest level of education completed, organisational tenure, work type (e. g. technical, professional, managerial) and employment status (full-time, part-time, casual). Support for career development 627 CDI 12,7 628 Variables – – – – 3. 65 3. 31 3. 52 3. 50 – 0. 08 0. 42 0. 22 20. 02 0. 16 20. 08 – 2 0. 28 0. 27 2 0. 08 0. 35 0. 15 – 0. 07 0. 02 2 0. 22 2 0. 17 – – – – 0. 49 0. 77 0. 54 0. 72 Table I. Correlations between variables of interest M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 – 0. 5 2 0. 19 2 0. 18 2 0. 32 2 0. 22 2 0. 17 2 0. 03 (0. 86) 0. 04 0. 55 0. 23 (0. 90) 0. 16 0. 27 (0. 88) 0. 35 (0. 87) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Gender# Age group# Education level# Tenure# Proactive personality OSCD Career management behaviours Career satisfaction Notes: correlations greater than | 0. 28 | are signi? cant at p , 0. 01; those greater than | 0. 21 | are signi? cant at p , 0. 05; internal consistency reliability for variables shown in brackets (); # nominal or ordinal scales used to measure variable, therefore mean and standard deviation not reportProcedure Public sector employees participating in internal and cross-agency career development programs were invited to complete the questionnaire during workshops, while the postgraduate business students were invited to complete the questionnaire during university classes. (The authors approached these organisations and their respective employees/students because it was expected that they would be more interested in the study’s variables of interest and subsequent results, and therefore, be more likely to participate in the study. Respondents were told that the aim of the survey was to research their career attitudes and perceptions about organisational career development. A cover letter provided background information regarding the purpose and nature of the study and emphasised con? dentiality, an onymity and voluntary participation. Participants either returned the questionnaire in an envelope at the end of the session or returned it in a reply-paid envelope addressed to the authors’ university address. To ensure anonymity, respondents were not asked to provide their names or any other identifying information.Participants were encouraged to participate by receiving a small incentive (such as a chocolate bar and/or being eligible to win a movie/meal voucher). The vouchers were awarded at the end of workshops, during which participants were given time to complete the questionnaire. Respondents who returned a completed questionnaire at the end of the workshop received a raf? e ticket. A winning ticket was then drawn from the collection of ticket butts, and the respondent with the matching ticket was given the voucher.These small incentives and the strategy used for approaching participating organisations may have resulted in the relatively high response rate of approxima tely 50 per cent. Results Means, standard deviations and internal reliability for the variables of interest are shown in Table I. An exploratory factor analysis showed that the formal and informal OSCD items loaded on one factor, accounting for 53 per cent of the variance in the factor structure. All the OSCD items were therefore averaged to form a composite OSCD score, with an internal consistency reliability of 0. 90.An exploratory factor analysis of the career management behaviours found that all items (except for the two mobility-oriented items and one networking item) loaded above 0. 30 on the ? rst factor, accounting for 30 per cent of the variance in the factor structure. A composite career management behaviour score was calculated by averaging all the items loading above 0. 30 on the ? rst factor, with an internal consistency reliability of 0. 88. The networking item and two mobility-oriented items were removed from further analyses. All the remaining scales obtained interna l consistency reliability above 0. 5 (refer Table I). The public sector and postgraduate business student samples were analysed to determine differences on demographic variables. The only signi? cant differences were that the university respondents were less likely to be female (x 2 ? 1? ? 7:52, p , 0:01) and tended to be younger (x 2 ? 3? ? 13:86, p , 0:01) than the public sector respondents. Due to there being only minor differences, the two cohorts were combined into one sample. Support for career development 629 CDI 12,7 630 Hypothesis testing H1 to H5 were analysed by conducting hierarchical egression analyses on career satisfaction. The data were checked for missing data and outliers. One multivariate outlier was identi? ed and removed from the analysis. The number of control variables used in the regression analyses was contained to meet the recommended ratio of respondents to predictor variables (Tabachnick and Fidell, 1989). H1 and H2 proposed that OSCD and career managemen t behaviours would both be positively related to career satisfaction. After controlling for education level and tenure, OSCD predicted an additional 8 per cent variance in career satisfaction (? 0:28, p , 0:01), F? 1; 85? ? 7:57. Therefore, H1 was supported. H2 was also supported. Career management behaviours predicted an additional 9 per cent variance in career satisfaction, after controlling for education level and tenure (? ? 0:33, p , 0:01), F? 1; 85? ? 8:97. H3 proposed that career management behaviours would mediate the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction (refer Table II). The ? rst condition of mediation (as described by Baron and Kenny, 1986) requires that the independent variable, OSCD, relate to the mediating variable, career management behaviours.In the ? rst equation (refer equation 1, Table II), OSCD was not signi? cantly related to career management behaviours (? ? 0:19, p ?. 0:05, ns). H1 represented the second condition, which was met (refer equation 2, Table II), In the third equation, (refer equation 3, Table II), career satisfaction was regressed on the mediating variable (career management behaviours) along with the independent variable (OSCD). The effect of OSCD on career satisfaction remained signi? cant (? ? 0:23, p , 0:05) and career management behaviour was also signi? cantly related to career satisfaction (? 0:28, p , 0:05). For the third condition to be met, the effect of OSCD on career satisfaction would need to decrease signi? cantly. The ? rst and third conditions of mediation were not met, suggesting that career management behaviours do not mediate the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction. Therefore H3 was not supported. H4 proposed that proactive personality would be positively related to career satisfaction. After entering the control variables (education level and tenure), proactive personality predicted 4 per cent additional variance in career satisfaction (? 0:21, p ? 0:05) F? 1; 85? ? 3:83 (refer equation 2, Table III). Therefore, H4 was supported. Dependent variable First equation CMB Second equation CSat Third equation CSat b b b 0. 31 * * 20. 13 0. 11 * * 0. 19 – 0. 14 * * 0. 04 0. 10 20. 15 0. 05 0. 28 * * – 0. 09 * * 0. 08 * * 0. 10 20. 15 0. 02 0. 23 * 0. 28 * 0. 14 * * 0. 14 * * Variable Step 1 Education level Tenure Adjusted R 2 Step 2 OSCD Career management behaviours Adjusted R 2 DR 2 Table II. Mediating role of career management behaviours between OSCD and career satisfaction Notes: *p , 0. 05; * *p , 0. 01; * * *p , 0. 01 Variable Step 1 Education level Tenure Adjusted R2 Step 2 Proactive personality Career management behaviours Adjusted R2 DR 2 Dependent variable First equation CMB Second equation CSat Third equation CSat b b b 0. 31 * * 20. 13 0. 11 * * 0. 53 * * * – 0. 36 * * * 0. 25 * * * 0. 10 20. 15 0. 02 0. 21^ – 0. 05^ 0. 04^ 0. 10 20. 15 0. 02 0. 06 0. 29 * 0. 09 * 0. 09 * Support for career development 631 Table III. Mediatin g role of career management behaviours between proactive personality and career satisfaction Notes: ^p=0. 05; *p , 0. 05; * *p , 0. 01; * * *p , 0. 001H5 predicted that career management behaviours would mediate between proactive personality and career satisfaction. In the ? rst equation, proactive personality was a signi? cant predictor of career management behaviours (? ? 0:53, p , 0:001) F? 1; 85? ? 34:98 (refer equation 1, Table III), meeting the ? rst condition. H4 represented the second condition of mediation which was also met. Both proactive personality and career management behaviours were entered in the third equation (refer equation 3, Table III). While career management behaviour was positively related to career satisfaction (? ? 0:29, p , 0:05) F? 2; 84? 4:55, proactive personality was no longer statistically signi? cant (? ? 0:06, p . 0:05, ns), meeting the third condition, Moreover, the indirect path linking proactive personality and career satisfaction through career management behaviours was signi? cant (Sobel test, z ? 2:11, p , 0:05). This suggests that career management behaviours fully mediated the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction, providing support for H5. Discussion This study explored the contribution that organisations and employees can make to their career satisfaction and the mechanisms by which these relationships occur.This was achieved by testing a subset of the relationships proposed by an extended model of SCCT (Lent and Brown, 2006) and an integrative model of proactive career behaviours (Crant, 2000). The study explored how proactive personality, OSCD and individual career management behaviours relate to career satisfaction. Consistent with previous research (Ng et al. , 2005; Seibert et al. , 2001a), this study found that proactive personality was signi? cantly positively related to career satisfaction. The study also found that career management behaviours mediated the relationship between p roactive personality and career satisfaction.These results support the model of proactive behaviours, which suggests that highly proactive individuals are more likely to achieve greater career satisfaction than less proactively inclined individuals, by engaging in proactive career behaviours (Crant, 2000). The results also support the theoretical proposition by Lent and Brown (2006) that speci? c personality traits (proactive personality) impact satisfaction via behavioural means (career management behaviours). CDI 12,7 632 After controlling for education level and tenure, OSCD explained a moderate 8 per cent variance in career satisfaction.This result supports the premise made by the extended SCCT model that access to goal-relevant environmental resources will be directly related to satisfaction (Lent and Brown, 2006). This ? nding also supports this study’s proposal that organisations can in? uence their employees’ experience of career success by supporting their emp loyees’ career development. Individual career management behaviour (comprising career planning, networking, skills development and visibility) was also positively related to career satisfaction.After controlling for education level and tenure, individual career management behaviour explained 9 per cent additional variance in career satisfaction. This ? nding is consistent with SCCT and the model of proactive career behaviours, since it supports the proposal that individuals taking proactive actions to achieve their career goals (engaging in career management behaviours) are more likely to experience career satisfaction (Crant, 2000; Lent, 2005). The proposal that individual career management behaviours mediated the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction received no support, due to a non-signi? ant relationship between OSCD and career management behaviours. This ? nding is inconsistent with the extended SCCT model, which predicts that environmental resources may imp act satisfaction indirectly via their impact on goal-directed activities. The relationship between contextual factors, such as OSCD, and individual career management behaviours has received mixed empirical support. For example, Lent et al. (2005) found two different outcomes from their two different studies. The ? rst study of 177 students found a signi? ant relationship between environmental supports and resources and student progress towards their academic goals. The second study of 299 students found no direct relationship between these variables. A possible explanation for this study’s results is that individual difference variables, such as proactive personality, moderate the relationship between OSCD and career management behaviours. Given that individuals with a proactive disposition are relatively unconstrained by situational forces (Crant, 2000) it is likely that highly proactive people will engage in career management behaviours independent of the OSCD they perceive .This study possibly suffered from a restriction of range in this independent variable, since the study’s respondents (employees participating in career development programs and/or further study) are more likely to have highly proactive dispositions, and therefore engage in career management behaviours independent of their perceived OSCD. This explanation is supported somewhat by the relatively high mean score for proactive personality (3. 65 on a ? ve-point scale).Another possible reason for career management behaviours not mediating between OSCD and career satisfaction is that there are additional environmental supports and resources (such as those outside the organisation), individual difference or social cognitive variables impacting individuals’ career management behaviours which were not explored in this study. Theoretical implications This study contributes to the existing literature by exploring how environmental aspects (OSCD) and an individual difference vari able (proactive personality) together impact career management behaviours and career satisfaction.Few studies have simultaneously investigated the impacts of these variables on career satisfaction before, and doing so responds to recommendations to balance both organisational and individual perspectives in theoretical development and facilitate integration of the organisational and vocational psychology perspectives (Baruch, 2006; Lent and Brown, 2006). This study builds on previous research which tested the extended SCCT model with university students (Lent et al. , 2005), by exploring the application of a subset of its proposed relationships with employed workers.This study also incorporated conceptual predictions and empirical ? ndings from the management literature (Seibert et al. , 2001a) to test the applicability of another personality variable, proactive personality, in the extended SCCT model. Previously, positive affect and extraversion have been tested in the SCCT model (L ent et al. , 2005). The ? nding that career management behaviours mediated the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction provides support for the extended SCCT model’s prediction that personality traits may affect satisfaction via behavioural means (Lent and Brown, 2006).Together with the signi? cant positive relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction, this study provides support for the application of some of the extended model’s proposed relationships to employed workers. The study also has practical implications, which will be reviewed next. Practical implications While causation can not be proven, this study suggests that employees’ proactive personality, via their career management behaviours, and OSCD are signi? cantly related to employee career satisfaction. This suggests two different strategies for organisations to facilitate employees’ career satisfaction.The ? rst strategy involves recruiting employees with proac tive dispositions. While this may be more dif? cult given the tight labour market experienced currently in Australia, and many other countries, it may be possible in some countries or in some industries. The second strategy involves enhancing employees’ perceptions of OSCD by providing both formal programs and informal support for employee career development. The signi? cant positive relationship between career management behaviours and career satisfaction suggests that individuals bene? personally from engaging in these behaviours. Therefore, this ? nding suggests that OSCD initiatives that promote the individual bene? ts associated with career management behaviours and encourage employees to engage in these behaviours, may experience most success in facilitating employee career satisfaction. Study limitations As with all cross-sectional studies, causality between OSCD and career satisfaction can not be proven. Questionnaires were completed at one point in time by respondent s, so the results are also subject to common method and common source bias.As discussed above, the sample surveyed (employees participating in career development activities) is likely to be more proactively inclined than the general population, which may have restricted the range of study and limit the generalisability of the results. A large proportion of the study respondents were educated to tertiary level and employed full-time, which may also limit the generalisability of the ? ndings, particularly given the increasing participation in part-time and casual employment in Australia. The use of the career satisfaction scale to measure subjective career success may be another limitation of the study.While this standardised scale is used widely and obtains acceptable levels of internal consistency (Greenhaus et al. , 1990), it may be a de? cient measure of the subjective career success construct. The career satisfaction Support for career development 633 CDI 12,7 scale includes item s (such as satisfaction with income and advancement goals) which may not be the most important criteria used by individuals to assess their career success (Heslin, 2005). Future research Future research could be conducted with a greater representation of part-time and casual employees, and with greater variability in individual differences, such as roactive personality. Exploration of the broader relationships proposed by SCCT on a longitudinal basis could build our understanding of the nature of the relationships between individual differences, environmental, social cognitive and behavioural predictors of subjective career success. Future research could also explore the types of career management behaviours that are most valuable for. achieving important career outcomes for employees. Greater understanding of these relationships could lead to the design of interventions that better facilitate employees’ experience of career success.Conclusion This study proposed that organis ations may potentially attract, motivate and retain employees by supporting their employees’ career development. The results indicated that OSCD and employee participation in career management behaviours are positively related to employee career satisfaction. These results suggest that OSCD initiatives promoting the bene? ts associated with career management behaviours and supporting employees to participate in these behaviours may experience the most success in facilitating employee career satisfaction. References Allen, T. D. , Eby, L.T. , Poteet, M. L. , Lentz, E. and Lima, L. (2004), â€Å"Career bene? ts associated with mentoring for proteges: a meta-analysis†, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 89, pp. 127-35. Arthur, M. B. , Khapova, S. N. and Wilderom, C. P. M. (2005), â€Å"Career success in a boundaryless career world†, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 177-202. Baron, R. M. and Kenny, D. A. (1986), â€Å"The moderator-mediator v ariable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic and statistical considerations†, Journal of Personality and Soclal Psychology, Vol. 1, pp. 1173-82. Baruch, Y. (2006), â€Å"Career development in organizations and beyond: balancing traditional and contemporary viewpoints†, Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 16, pp. 125-38. Bateman, T. S. and Crant, J. M. (1993), â€Å"The proactive component of organizational behavior†, Journal of Personality and Soclal Psychology, Vol. 14, pp. 103-18. Chiaburu, D. S. , Baker, V. L. and Pitariu, A. H. (2006), â€Å"Beyond being proactive: what (else) matters for career self-management behaviours? †, Career Development International, Vol. 11 No. 7, pp. 619-32. Claes, R. nd Ruiz-Quintamilla, S. A. (1998), â€Å"In? uences of early career experiences, occupational group and national culture on proactive career behaviour†, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 52, pp. 357-78. Crant, J. M. ( 2000), â€Å"Proactive behavior in organizations†, Journal of Management, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 435-62. Erdogan, B. , Kraimer, M. L. and Liden, R. C. (2004), â€Å"Work value congruence and intrinsic career success: the compensatory roles of leader-member exchange and perceived organizational support†, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 57 No. 2, pp. 305-32. 634 Gattiker, U. E. nd Larwood, L. (1988), â€Å"Predictors for managers’ career mobility, success, and satisfaction†, Human Relations, Vol. 41 No. 6, pp. 569-91. Gould, S. (1979), â€Å"Characteristics of career planners in upwardly mobile occupations†, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 22, pp. 539-50. Greenhaus, J. H. , Parasuraman, S. J. and Wormley, W. M. (1990), â€Å"Effects of race on organisational experiences, job performance evaluations, and career outcomes†, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 33, pp. 64-86. Hall, D. T. (2002), Careers In and Out of Organisations, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.Hall, D. T. and Chandler, D. E. (2005), â€Å"Psychological success: when the career is a calling†, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 155-76. Hall, D. T. and Mirvis, P. H. (1995), â€Å"The new career contract: developing the whole person at midlife and beyond†, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 47, pp. 269-89. Heslin, P. A. (2003), â€Å"Self- and other-referent criteria of career success†, Journal of Career Assessment, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 262-86. Heslin, P. A. (2005), â€Å"Conceptualizing and evaluating career success†, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 113-36. Kossek, E. E. , Roberts, K. , Fisher, S. and DeMarr, B. (1998), â€Å"Career self-management: a quasi-experimental assessment of the effects of a training intervention†, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 51 No. 4, pp. 935-62. Lent, R. W. (2004), â€Å"Toward a unifying theoretical and practical perspective on well-being and psychosocial adjustmentâ € , Journal of Counseling Psychology, Vol. 51 No. 4, pp. 482-509. Lent, R. W. (2005), â€Å"A social cognitive view of career development and counseling†, in Brown, S. D. E. L. and Lent, R. W. Eds), Career Development and Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. , Hoboken, NJ, pp. 101-127). Lent, R. W. and Brown, S. D. (2006), â€Å"Integrating person and situation perspectives on work satisfaction: a social-cognitive view†, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 69, pp. 236-47. Lent, R. W. , Brown, S. D. and Hackett, G. (1994), â€Å"Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice and performance†, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Vol. 45, pp. 79-122. Lent, R. W. , Singley, D. , Sheu, H. -B. , Gainor, K. A. , Brenner, B.R. and Treistman, D. et al. (2005), â€Å"Social cognitive predictors of domain and life satisfaction: exploring the theoretical precursors of subjective well-being†, Jour nal of Counseling Psychology, Vol. 52 No. 3, pp. 429-42. London, M. (1988), â€Å"Organizational support for employees’ career motivation: a guide to human resource strategies in changing business conditions†, HR: Human Resource Planning, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 23-32. Nabi, G. R. (2000), â€Å"Motivational attributes and organizatonal experiences as predictors of career-enhancing strategies†, Career Development International, Vol. No. 2, pp. 91-8. Nabi, G. R. (2003), â€Å"Situational characteristics and subjective career success: the mediating role of career-enhancing strategies†, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 24 No. 6, pp. 653-71. Ng, T. W. H. , Eby, L. T. , Sorensen, K. L. and Feldman, D. C. (2005), â€Å"Predictors of objective and subjective career success: a meta-analysis†, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 58, pp. 367-408. Noe, R. A. (1996), â€Å"Is career management related to employee development and performance?

Complexometric Determination of Water Hardnesss Essay

Introduction/Background: This lab was about determining water hardness. Water hardness is the amount of metal ions in the water. The most common found ion in the water is calcium ions and typically with a charge of +2. Water hardness plays a big significance in our daily life because to many metal ions in our drinking water can have adverse effects on our body. You can measure the water hardness by EDTA titrations. EDTA is a disodium salt that stands for ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and it is a chelating agent. Chelation is the process of a ligand forms a complex with a metal ion. Eriochrome Black T is an indicator you add to the water sample that will turn the water pink if metal ions exist. Through the process of titration, carefully adding EDTA to the water sample with the Eriochrome Black T will cause a chemical reaction to occur, slowly changing the water color from pink to violet and then violet to a light blue which will be the end of the chemical reaction. Once the titration is complete you can ca lculate your water hardness. Above in the formula V represents the actual delivered volume of Na2EDTA solution and M is your actual molarity. Procedures: Start by preparing 500mL of 0.004 disodium EDTA solution. This is what will be added to the buret. Next take a 250-mL Erlenmeyer flask and add 10.00mL of standardized calcium and 30mL of deionized water. Place a magnetic stir-bar in the flask and set on top of a piece of white paper on a magnetic stirrer. After place 3mL of ammonia/ammonium chloride buffer (pH10) inside the flask and let it stir for thirty seconds. Lastly add four drops of Eriochrome Black T indicator to the solution which will turn it a pink color. Begin titration and watch as the color changes from pink to violet and then violet to a light blue color. Record the data when the color turns a light blue and repeat the process two more times. Fill the buret with the same 500mL of 0.004 disodium EDTA solution. Take 25.00mL of an unknown water sample and add it to a 250mL Erlenmeyer flask. Mix in 20mL of deionized water. Set a magnetic stir-bar inside the solution and place on the magnetic stirrer. Next add 3mL of ammonia/ammonium chloride buffer (pH10). After thirty seconds of stirring add four drops of the Eriochrome Back T indicator and watch as the solution turns pink. Begin your titration by slowly adding small droplets of the 0.004 disodium EDTA solution. The color will slowly change to a violet color and then to a blue color which will be the stopping point. Record the data and repeat two more times. With the data collected calculates the hardness of each sample, then the average water hardness of all three samples, and lastly the precision of each trial. Compare your data to the expected range of a local cities water hardness. Results and Discussion: The first three titrations involved the known Calcium stock, titration 1 used 22.91ml of Na2EDTA solution before the titration complete. The second Titration used 21.91ml while the third and final used 21.55ml of solution. During the procedure a 250ml Erlenmeyer flask was used as well as a 50ml burette, the buret was filled with our Na2EDTA solution while the flask was filled with 30ml of DI water, 3ml of ammonia, and 4 drops of an indicator, in this case Eriochrome Black T. Experimental error was calculated by taking the sum of all absolute deviations/3 than divided by the mean concentration of Na2EDTA, in this case the mean concentration was .00452M, and lastly, multiplied by 1000 to get the answer in PPT. Table 1 below shows the readings of both solutions before and after titration. The mean concentration of these titrations is 0.00452, This figure was used to find the estimated precision which came out to 23.270% off of 100% meaning the experiment was 76.73% accurate. Finally the volume of the unknown was calculated to find the ppm for each titration and the mean of all three titrations was used to find the estimated precision of the unknown in ppm. The mean in ppm for the unknown came to 212ppm, this number was plugged into the equation for estimated precision which is the sum of all absolute value deviations/ number of trials, all of which is divide by the mean and multiplied by 1000ppt. The final figure came out to 25.2% off of 100% meaning that the experiment was 74.8% accurate. Conclusion: In conclusion the water hardness of a solution can be found by titrating a known solution containing metal ions and using a chelating agent such as EDTA to determine the impurities of each of the water samples. Also, using the data collected from each titration the concentration and mean can be found from each titration and used to determine the water hardness in ppm. The estimated precision of this experiment can be found by running multiple titrations on the same sample more than one time. The results obtained in this experiment include a mean concentration for the Calcium stock of .00452M, and an estimated precision of 76.73% and the average water hardness was 400.39ppm. The estimated precision for the unknown was 74.8% and an average water hardness of 204ppm. In this experiment 500ml of a known solution EDTA was prepared; a 10ml pipet was used to transfer a standard calcium ion stock solution into a 250ml Erlenmeyer flask. 30ml of DI water was added to the flask and the contents were than stirred using a magnetic stirrer and stirring rod. 3ml of Ammonia was added to the flask mixed for a few seconds underneath the fume hood and 4 drops of an indicator was added, in this case Eriochrome Black T. The contents of the flask were stirred for thirty seconds before titration began, as the titration progressed, the color changed from pink to violet and finally to a sky blue color indicating that the titration was complete. This process was completed with minor changes for the Unknown #141, 25ml of the unknown was placed in the flask and 20ml of Di water was used rather than 30ml, the rest of the titration however, used the same steps as above. Work Cited Klenck, Thomas. â€Å"How It Works: Water Softener.† Popular Mechanics 1 Aug. 1998: n. pag. Web. Our Lab instruction sheet

African studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

African studies - Essay Example Mammo elucidates the fact that the rate of development in Africa cannot be considered to have been substandard as compared to other parts of the world. African development was significantly affected after its colonization by European countries. It is worth noting that colonization was characterized by slave trade between the seventeenth century and twentieth century. Instead of Africans developing there continent, there were sold as slaves in other parts of the world particularly in America to work in the farms. Therefore, Africa remained underdeveloped as other parts of the world were developing at a very rapid rate (Mammo 24). The partition of Africa into colonies led to disproportionate allocation of resources since some of the colonies had higher quantities of mineral resources than others. Subsequently, this has led to some African countries enriching themselves from these resources leaving others poor (Europa Publications 33). European colonization also led to the discrimination of Africans. According to Europa Publications, racial discrimination against Africans was rampant in the 19th century whereby the colonizers considered Africans as lesser humans (33). Africans were not allowed to mix with Europeans and were therefore forced in selected villages. It is worth noting that the effects of discrimination against Africans is still felt today especially in America. The partitioning of Africa and the fact that Africans were forced to live in segregated villages is one of the contributing factors of ethnic conflicts that are prevalent in African countries. When colonization came to an end in the twentieth century, most of the African countries were left subdivided into ethnic regions. Therefore, there has always been a struggle for power between these ethnic communities in Africa. In the fight for independence in many parts of Africa, individuals united

In Support of Designer Babies in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

In Support of Designer Babies in China - Essay Example This instance involved a shift in population policy away from Leninist family planning policy to softer neo-liberal methods, which involved indirect regulation by the state and self-regulation by citizens. Starting in 1956, the Ministry of Public Health oversaw a yearlong campaign for the use of birth control. However, these efforts portended minimal effects on fertility rates and the period following Great Leap Years saw a rapid population increase (Hesketh 12), which eventually necessitated the One Child Policy as a way to counter population growth. However, this policy has led ethical and moral dilemmas concerning gender and physical selection by parents who only have one try at parenthood. Out of the remaining alternatives for the Chinese government, genetic selection is the best choice to reduce control population, while solving the problem of sex-selection abortion and inherited diseases.One of the most visible effects of China’s One Child Policy is that parents have tur ned to sex-selected abortions in their search for boys, rather than girls. Various surveys carried out within China paint a grim situation with 117 boys born to every 100 girls because of sex selection abortions (Hesketh 62), while normal births resulted in a ratio of 105:100. Other surveys have found that Chinese women who migrated to Beijing in the last two decades arrived with only one hundred girls compared to one hundred and fifty nine boys. This shows that males are favored to girls in China, which has resulted in an increase of sex-selected abortions. However, by using genetic selection, parents would have the ability to choose the sex of their children prior to conception. This would result in a decrease of women influenced by the One Child policy to seek abortions and try again for a boy (Hesketh 63). Although this would not address the looming gender-imbalance in China, it will present women with a more harmless tool in determining the sex of their child. Genetic selection can also allow Chinese parents to have their only child with the characteristics they desire, which would reduce China’s growing population. With the largest growing population in the world, the government of China tried to institute regulations that sought to prevent further growth, causing controversy and general discontent about the laws (Orleans 44). The government and population would benefit from genetic selection in various ways with the government reducing population growth and the parents having their characteristic children. Parents who wish for children with specific heights, skill sets, athletic ability, and personal tendencies would be free to use genetic selection, rather than aborting their infants. Projection of the human genome could provide China and its people the ability to predict their future in terms of population growth and make-up (Orleans 45). Genetic selection will allow for screening out and in specific genes within the mother’s embryo, mak ing it possible to influence the natural characteristics of a child. Finally, gene selection could help China in reducing the number of unhealthy or disabled children. A recent study showed that there was minimal protest at the decision made, in the mid-2000s, to allow couples to test embryos for breast cancer genes and inherited bowel disease, which pushed humanity towards the creation of designer babies with healthy genes (Savulescu 39). Genetic selection will prevent the only child a family in China is allowed to have from having inherited disease. Some of the most common diseases among Chinese children are Down’s syndrome and cystic fibrosis and with genetic selection,

My management philosophy Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

My management philosophy - Term Paper Example ommunication, face-to-face contact for coordination and ability to rapidly adapt to changes while executing the projects (McShane & Travaglione, 2003). On the other hand, the organic component of our organizational structure will give us the much needed flexibility to deal with the high rate of environmental and technological change and uncertainty. Motivation In pursuing product and market development and being in the software development industry our generic strategy is clearly a differentiation approach. This means that in order for the company to deepen its current advantage and/or build new competitive advantages, we will have to orient the way we deploy our resources to reflect this. This means our selection, promotion, rewards and so will be oriented towards hiring and rewarding the creative and innovative members of staff. To motivate staff the organization will ensure that entrepreneurs are rewarded and recognized, in both monetary and non-monetary terms. We will also cons ider giving employees ‘bootleg’ time to spend on projects of their own interest that may not be directly related to their day-to-day activities. This will keep our highly talented staff motivated as there potential will be exploited while the company benefits from increased competencies as well as increased potential of coming up with breakthrough products. Given that this is a software business, most of the staff are highly technical and educated which adds to difficulty in finding ways to motivate them. Such knowledge workers naturally would require high motivation which Hackman and Oldham job characteristics model identified as: meaningfulness of work, responsibility for outcomes and knowledge of how successful their work has been or not (YourCoach, 2010). Our hybrid... In pursuing product and market development and being in the software development industry our generic strategy is clearly a differentiation approach. This means that in order for the company to deepen its current advantage and/or build new competitive advantages, we will have to orient the way we deploy our resources to reflect this. This means our selection, promotion, rewards and so will be oriented towards hiring and rewarding the creative and innovative members of staff. To motivate staff the organization will ensure that entrepreneurs are rewarded and recognized, in both monetary and non-monetary terms. We will also consider giving employees ‘bootleg’ time to spend on projects of their own interest that may not be directly related to their day-to-day activities. This will keep our highly talented staff motivated as there potential will be exploited while the company benefits from increased competencies as well as the increased potential of coming up with breakthroug h products. Given that this is a software business, most of the staff are highly technical and educated which adds to the difficulty in finding ways to motivate them. Such knowledge workers naturally would require high motivation which Hackman and Oldham job characteristics model identified as meaningfulness of work, responsibility for outcomes and knowledge of how successful their work has been. Our hybrid organic-project-based matrix structure improves our ability to make the jobs motivating for our most highly technical and educated staff.

Summarize the Article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summarize the Article - Essay Example population. These results support the notion that those with exceptional longevity may interact with environmental and lifestyle factors differently than others. Lifestyle factors play a larger role in human lifespan than due to genetic factors. The presence of longevity genes in people with exceptional longevity counters the presence of disease-associated genes. To live long and to live a healthy life is the normal expectation of a human being. Two significant factors have been identified for the important role they play in longevity and they are lifestyle and genetic factors. The relative contributions of these two factors are a matter of conjecture. But the scale tilts more in favor of genetic contribution to a healthy life span in those with exceptional longevity may be greater than that in the general population and several genes have been found to be associated with longevity in these individuals. But in studies the lifestyle of this population has received less

Banned Pesticides by US Companies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Banned Pesticides by US Companies - Essay Example Because of ban, companies have resorted to selling their products in cheaper prices and dumping them in developing countries in order to flush-out their existing big stocks. In North, the Government had put a ban on the pesticide called â€Å"Methyl bromide† because of being health hazards and harmful effects to the ozone layer. In spite of being aware of its hazardous effects, it was being openly sold especially in third world countries. Eddleston, M. et al. (2002) examined, â€Å"In 1985, the UN Food and agriculture Organisation (FAO) produced a voluntary code of conduct for the pesticide industry in an attempt to limit the harmful effects of pesticides. Unfortunately, a lack of adequate government resources in the developing world makes this code ineffective, and thousands of deaths continue today.† Redmond, D. (2002) stated, â€Å"The United States is one of the largest exporters of pesticides in the world. Many of the pesticides are so dangerous that they are banned for use in the United States. There is no doubt that the use of these pesticides in the third world countries where they are exported is devastating. "But we are victims too. Pesticide exports create a circle of poison" by returning to the United States in the food we import.† Machipisa, L. (1995) quoted in his article, "If we have stocks we should destroy them. It is wrong to go and create a problem in the South when we in the North do not think it is good for us," said Herren. "One should look for alternatives before and not dump it, because it will lead its abuse.† In conclusion, I would appeal the Companies, involved in this abusive business, to please stop playing with human lives for the sake of few dollars.

Evaluate the arguments offered by Neil Postman in Technopoly on the Essay

Evaluate the arguments offered by Neil Postman in Technopoly on the basis of the history of America (1865 to the present) and in - Essay Example In short society is moving towards age of digital fashion that is more developed with the thoughts to provide maximum benefits to human beings. In early ages of 18th century this development was much limited with construction and better reconstruction works. But with the passage of time it became more of an electronic era rather then human society, this approach gave a boost to highly develop technology and use it for ease of humans. Except of lot of positive reviews and lovers of electronic era this truth can not be neglected that it made humans rusty with the same ratio! And to enlighten this aspect of modern life Neil Postman contributed with a lot of efforts and different approach. In an interview he mentioned his views about the new technology when he was asked about the positive and beneficial effects on society especially of the Internet and Email. It’s true that technology has been advancing nowadays, too fast, therefore we are at an era of speed, where computers as we ll as everything that has to do with growing technology rules our life, in the frame of Technopoly, having a relative impact on all fields of today life, mainly in USA, but no one is basically responsible for this, and all we have to do is follow growth of Technology, as Technopoly contributes to financial growth and we just have to follow the stream. Technopoly is a reality and we have to accept it and adjust to this reality. Technopoly is a need nowadays. But we should not compromise our moral values, nor can technopoly replace them, or substitute them. Our culture has changed, and we cannot do something else for it, just follow the stream. But this may not mean that we prefer Technopolis or culture based on Technopolis, and destruction of our old culture with books and manual work. Technology should’t becomes a way of life as it is nowadays, but just a helping tool, tool of adaption and not adoption. "Most of our daily news is inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action.† (68).1 — Neil Postman In our digital era, all fields such as knowledge and education are ruled by technology. Postman claims that our today culture satisfies its needs from technology, also taking its orders from it. We can claim further by analyzing this argument that technology functions in a way of pyramid whereas: On the base is culture, on the center is technology and on the top is multicultural and globalization, being as superstructure, identified with globalization and digital era with all consequences in the moral and social field of technopolis, which rules our life. Thus education is by ruled by technology, a new culture is formed throughout technopolis, and work is based on it. Technology may mean the end of education, as instead of reading a book of literature we prefer surfing on the Internet. USA in the past two centuries, thus from 1865 and hence up to the two last decades of 20th centur y and even more, had been a country with a grown population and too many immigrants. These people used to go there to work, in the dawn of industrial revolution, and when still USA was a state the development of which was based on agriculture initially. Then multicultural society was not only enhanced by technology, but it created itself the conditions for technology development and a further relative developed culture, that today rules technopolis and it

Pragmatism in Government Essay Example for Free

Pragmatism in Government Essay The character of politics makes consistency pretty close to impossible, partly because politicians are human and human nature is inconsistent, and partly because the voters dont really want consistency. As voters, we have the luxury of holding politicians to standards we would almost certainly be unable to meet if we were in their positions. And when they fail, we revile them for their hypocrisy, which is as pointless as reviling a dog for having a moist nose. Now, all of this may make Auntie sound awfully cynical. Should we have no moral standards at all for politicians? Should we throw principles by the wayside and let ome kind of shifty situational ethics fgleaf naked greed and power grabbing? Not at Just for illustration, take the issue of saving people from oppressive dictators, which is unquestionably a worthy concept, right up there with protecting children from pedophiles or saving animals from being abused and mistreated. But no matter how worthy an end is, its moral righteousness alone can never Justify evil means employed in achieving it. Its not wrong, cold, or cynical to carefully calculate the cost of achieving a noble end, its responsible, and responsibility is what we should be emanding from ourselves and the leaders we elect to represent us. Costs come in many forms. We may not always agree on the totals, or even what should be counted as cost in such an equation, but the greater the potential for harm from an action, the more stringently we should perform the analysis. If, for example, saving people from an oppressive dictator requires unpopular political decisions, economic pressure that involves some level of pain and suffering on both sides, diplomatic actions that require quids-pro-quo wed rather not give, possibly even strained relations with another party whose good will has value for us, etc. thats one calculation. If it requires military action, thats another cost accounting entirely. Military action, even for noble motives, has enormous potential for doing harm if something goes wrong, if errors are made, or the logistical or tactical situations change. And the intensity and impact of that harm is likely to be enormous as well. The consequences can be grave, long-lasting, and far-reaching, so the costs have to be calculated with extreme care and with maximum possible integrity. Those potential costs, and the likelihood of their being required, have to be factored into the equation. Lets take the other examples, protecting children from pedophiles and saving animals from abuse † each of these goals is indisputably good. What is required to achieve them, however, must be calculated, and each voter, and each elected official, will calculate differently. How effectively will any given measure reduce the risk of children being victimized? What are the costs of each measure, both short-term and long-term? . who bears those costs and n It, tor example, the measure under consideration involves restricting or denying civil rights and liberties granted under the Constitution, how do we choose whose rights will be curtailed? How much will that reduce the risk to children, and how much will it cost all of us to ensure that only those we are certain pose such a risk are denied their civil rights? I saw an amusing bumper sticker recently that said Liberals treat dogs like people, and conservatives treat people like dogs. Although I cant agree with such blanket characterizations (l have known liberals who mistreat dogs, and whose treatment of people wouldnt give dogs much to hope for, and conservatives who rescue dogs and exhibit deep compassion and care for people,) it provokes considerable thought. What are our priorities, and how do we choose to act on them? What should we expect our elected leaders to do with our priorities? First, it helps to remember that our elected officials are balancing my priorities against my neighbors priorities, not to mention the priorities of those who gave big money to their campaigns. And not only our priorities, but our beliefs about what means can and should be used to address them, will differ widely. What if the policy or legislative action that an elected leader truly believes is right also happens to address a priority of a donor who gave them a lot of money? On the other hand, what f the means of implementing that policy or action would go against the donors ideas of what is acceptable? What if those means address a priority of mine, but would require a sacrifice from my neighbor and seem a little doubtful to me? The reason so many people think of issues in black and white is that its easier. By establishing a rigid framework of right and wrong and tying everything to that framework and ignoring the complexities, they free themselves from having to do all those calculations. Its reprehensible enough in a voter, because after all, we have the ultimate responsibility for our government. But in an elected official, whose actions have immediate and far-ranging consequences, taking the black/white shortcut is deeply irresponsible. An elected leader cant be consistent and still be responsibly considering all the aspects of her actions. What she has to be, is thoughtful, cautious, and open-minded† willing to admit mistakes and work to correct them, but less likely to make them because she considers each action thoroughly. And we as voters need to stop reflexively chastising those we elect for inconsistency or hypocrisy, and start holding them accountable for how carefully and completely hey calculate the costs of their decisions, and their willingness to abide by those decisions. Thanks for bringing up such an interesting question, Jeniece, and for putting it to Auntie Pinko! It seems that the question is based on a false dichotomy. Ideology and pragmatism arent an either-or, its a case of apples and oranges. The liberal call tor a pragmatic response to Iraq is not necessarily a choice between idealism and the ends Justify the means, while Clintons support of NAFTA was both pragmatic AND ideological, no matter how misguided (Clinton is a neoliberal after all). The response seems to confuse ideology and values. Ideology is political theory, the basis of policy and, when misguided the lense through which problems and opportunities are viewed. Pragmatism (in the sense used in both the question and the response) is tantamount to realpolitik, which is the practice of politics without moral or ethical values. I myself have an issue with the American political system because it IS largely bereft of ideology outside the leitmotif of neoliberal economics and neoconservative foreign policy. The GOP and the DLC indeed propound the above ideologies and to a great extent base their world-view through ideologically-tinted glasses, but it is a alse ideology in more ways than one. What is worse is that neither group actually articulate their ideology in political discourse with the electorate it is hidden through rhetorical flourish and spin. Neoliberalism is a false ideology because it was created ex post facto in order to justify a pre-existing condition (laissez faire capitalism, free marketism, greed, abuse, etc. ). It was created in Mt. Pellegrin on the basis of the Austrian School of economic theory and it is wholly divorced from democratic principles (the common weal, etc). Neoconservatism is philosophically based on a serially mendacious ndividual (Leo Strauss) that Justifies manipulation and lies. Nevertheless, America NEEDS ideologies because, for too long our political discourse has been driven by relatively unimportant, short-term and specific issues such as abortion, gun control, immigration, and the like. Neither party has expressed a long- term goal and of course strategies to achieve said goals while both parties have gone their merry way maintaining a situation of corporate corruption and the tyranny of special interests. This makes American political discourse something of a bad Joke and party affilliation little different from being a fan of a sports team. cepting, of course, those earthshaking issues such as Terry Schiavos cerebral cortex. Politicis in a democracy is indeed the balancing and negotiation between sides, groups and individuals. The responses confusion between values and ideology clouds the issue in a democracy with ideologically-driven parties (that articulate said ideologies) the compromises take on a different meaning and scope. The absence of ideo logy turns our body politic into a trade show and keeps the electorate from fighting for a better future. Hear, Hear, from the OTHER District of Columbia, Washington State. The Columbia River restricts access, Just like the security forces in D. C. ) Here our politics has shitted over the years as well, even though, tortunately, we are rather progressive. Pragmatism is an important factor in the decisions politicians make, and sometimes utopians lose sight of the dangers and difficulties in making things turn out right. Even so, I agree with the utopians regarding their goals and commitment. The main questions involve what to do about the fact that not everybody agrees, at least in the short term, on the issues. I urge utopians to maintain their goodwill, while nderstanding reality as much as possible. Fighting for justice and a well-adjusted society requires patience and effort, which can often cause people to quit working for a better future. I urge steadfastness to principle here. Idealism is good, as long as you realize that not everybody is idealistic. Progress in human affairs is difficult and somewhat uncertain. But we do have evidence of its existence. Lets stick to our beliefs, through thick and thin. Remember to use your head to help your heartfelt beliefs come to realization, because finding the answers to problems takes thinking and effort.

Human impact on coral reefs

Human impact on coral reefs Human Impact On Coral Reefs In The Last 30 Years Abstract Coral reefs are the homes that provide shelter for approximately one quarter of all known marine species as well as being the most diverse ecosystems. Coral reefs are vulnerable to even the slightest environmental changes. A review of the literature of the last 30 years shows that the frequency of human activity has intensified to a new level where human actions have extended to the coral reefs on a global scale. Humans are actively damaging the coral reef ecosystems on our earth. Coral reefs are overfished, poisoned by chemical pollution, smothered by sediment, and choked by macroalgae growing on nutrient rich sewage and fertilizer runoff. In the meantime, global warming and ocean acidification is a greater contribution to coral reef mortality. The main driving force behind the coral crisis is the continuing increase in human population. These will give a burden to environment, and eventually will impact on marine life, especially the coral reefs. Through the review of the past pape rs, I found that from the least and latest topic of ocean acidification to the largest one (sedimentation and nutrient enrichment), scientists are getting concerned about the problem relate to carbon dioxide which results in climate change and ocean acidification globally, especially in the recent years. Lots of coral reef scientists have risen to this key issue. Introduction â€Å"Coral reefs are evaluated to cover 284,300 square kilometers, with the Indo-Pacific region (including the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia and the Pacific) accounting for 91.9% of the total. Southeast Asia accounts for 32.3% of that figure, while the Pacific including Australia accounts for 40.8%. Atlantic and Caribbean coral reefs only account for 7.6% of world total†. (Spalding, M., Ravilious, C., and Green, E. (2001). World Atlas of Coral Reefs. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press and UNEP/WCMC) It is reported that Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Fiji contain almost over half of the worlds reefs. It is now generally acknowledged that coral reefs are among the most threatened global ecosystems, and among the most vital (Costanza et al. 1997; Bryant et al. 1998; Boesch et al. 2000; Reaser et al. 2000; Wilkinson 2000). However, one of the upcoming crises is a major threat of death of corals and large scale damage of coral reefs in all over the world. This crisis is partly a result of the frequency of human activities which are having a negative effect on marine ecosystems, especially on coral reef ecosystems. A study from 1998 showed that coral reefs around the world were affected by human activities (Lauretta B. et al. 1998, Fig. 2). The study showed the relative proportion of reefs at risk in five regions, with Southeast Asia having the highest area at risk. This phenomenon probably is related to the overfishing in this area which leads to coral reefs being at the highest risk compared to the rest of the world. It is known that the current situation is directly or indirectly consistent with human activities. However, the question remains that to what extent has human activity changed the coral reef ecosystems? So in this report, I would use ISI web database to search articles related to coral reefs crisis. Basically, I will try to answer this question. To do this I will discuss the various threats to coral reef, including overfishing and fish live trade issue, pollution-including terrestrial runoff, chemical compounds and sedimentation, and macroalgae overgrowth which is causing by nutr ient enrichment under the seawater, and global warming and ocean acidification which contribute to coral disease and coral mortality. Impacts Of Overfishing It is sure about that overfishing in general is a damaging problem to many coral reefs around the world. In this field, it is shown that scientists did research in the topic of overfishing and fish trade was increasing since 1990. (Figure 3) In recent years, as a result of human interference on coral reefs, coral mortality is higher than ever before. When this occurs, the algae immediately take this opportunity for growth, which results in seedlings of coral not being able to attach to the reef. This type of event highlights the important role of herbivorous fish on the restoration of coral reefs. But if herbivorous coral reef fish are captured in large numbers, ethnic groups are difficult to recover. In this situation, macroalgae continues to overgrow, and inhibits the growth of corals. For example, The Caribbean region has been hit particularly hard, with 40% of absolute coral cover lost since the late 1970s due to overfishing and macroalgae overgrowth (Gardner et al. 2003). So some authors argue that overfishing is an important reason why reef corals have declined in recent years. (Aronson et al. 2006) However, overfishing has also been due to the improvement of global fishing technology, and a variety of advanced equipment is used in the exploitation of fishing. A large number of fish becomes extinct annually. As a result of advanced fishing technology, the worlds annual catch of fish is continuing to rise. Indeed, on one hand, increased fishing will provide sufficient global supply of fish products. However, at the same time, the increase in fisheries production will reduce the global average price of fish in the global market, and this decline will lead to the reduction of fishing profits, which in turn will drive an increase in catches again, ultimately leading to a vicious circle in fisheries. On the other hand, large scale fishing can lead to the sharp decline in fish population. Without predators, algae can overgrow and suppress coral recruitment. Even though, some scientists argue that these algae are not directly killing corals. In fact, they are competing with corals in t he space and intake of light. So without light, corals will die eventually due to corals can not get nutrients to survive. (Figure 4) Pollution A major threat besides the overexploitation of fishery resources is undoubtedly the strong increase in coastal development, and discharge of untreated sewage into the near-shore waters, resulting in enormous amounts of nutrients spreading into the sea and coastal zones (Burke et al., 2002; Wilkinson, 2002; Brown et al., 2006; UNEP, 2006). For example, around 60% of the wastewater discharged into the Caspian Sea is untreated, in Latin America and the Caribbean the figure is close to 80%, and in large parts of Africa and the Indo-Pacific the proportion is as high as 80-90% (UNEP, 2006). Agricultural run-off to the ocean, Nitrogen exports to the marine environment is projected to increase at least 14% globally by 2030 (UNEP, 2006). During the past 30 years, more and more scientists were on to the problems of sedimentation and nutrient enrichment and chemical pollution and oil spills. It is shown that a big number of topics on pollution and nutrient enrichment and so on. (Figure 5 and 6) Basically, the scientists wanted to understand how did sedimentation and nutrient enrichment and chemical pollution and oil spills impact on the corals? There are various mechanisms by which these factors can harm coral reefs. First of all, suspended sediment makes water turbid which allows less sunlight to penetrate the water. With less sunlight, zooxanthellae which live within the corals tissue can not photosynthesize to produce organic nutrients that support the corals to thrive. In addition, it is known that zooxanthellae are sensitive to chemical changes (Parker et al. 2008). In industrial wastewater and farming runoff, there are always chemical compounds which can make zooxanthellae toxic to corals as well as in the case of oil spills. So to protect themselves, corals have to eject the zooxanthellae (Parker et al. 2008). After a period in this situation, corals will die. Furthermore, farming near the coast results in large quantities of sediment and soil going into sea and onto coral reefs. This dirt, silt or sand can make water muddy, smothering the corals (Rogers 1990). In addition, the use of fertilizers for farming is another problem resulting in increased nutrient flow into the ocean. The discharge human sewage leads to the nutrient enrichment in certain areas, especially in the estuary, which may result in rapid growth of algae which as mentioned before they will outcompete corals, cutting off the supply of light as well. Ocean Acidification In this area, it is shown that more and more conservationists were interesting in ocean acidification in recent years (Figure 7). It seems a very new field that scientists have only focused on just 7 years ago. It might be scientists aware of the issue of acidification rising, which is now noticing that acid level rising makes an impact on coral reefs. Ocean acidification is related to the carbon dioxide being released in to the atmosphere and reacting with seawater. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earths atmosphere now exceeds 380 ppm, which is more than 80 ppm above the maximum values of the past 740,000 years (Petit et al. 1999; EPICA community members, Nature. 2004). Carbon dioxide reacts with water to form a weak acid H2CO3, which results in acid levels increasing in the oceans of the world. Ocean acidification is a current key problem that all marine animals have to face, especially coral reefs. As previous mentioned that corals get organic nutrients from a mutualistic symbiont zooxanthellae to grow. These algae are sensitive to acid rising in the seawater. If the environmental conditions are changing, corals will eject algae and turn to white, a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. Global Warming With respect to global warming, corals are sensitive to the sudden temperature changing as well, which means the change of temperature is a factor causes their photosynthetic process to break down. When this happens, zooxanthellae become toxic to corals. Then, if they want to protect themselves, the corals have to expel the zooxanthellae. And they will get starved and become bleaching. As is figure 8 shown that another very important threat affecting coral reefs is global warming. The rise in temperature can result coral bleaching. It is usual to see coral bleaching just temperature a little higher than hottest summer temperature (Parker et al. 2008). Large-scale bleaching events seem to be becoming increasingly common (Wellington et al. 2001). If temperature continues to increase, in the future, this means that coral bleaching events may increase their frequency an extent of severity. Even though populations adapt and corals do survive, this pressure increases their susceptibility to disease and reduces their ability to reproduce. Overall From 11393 articles found in the literature search on the topics of coral reefs, one eighth of papers are related to the impact of human activities on coral reefs (Figure 9 and Figure 10). Of course, there should be more factors impacting on coral reefs and have contributed to their mortality. Indeed, the coral reef crisis in all over the world is getting worse and worse, even in the future the coral reef would face further threats. But this does not mean we have no ideas to save them, the figure 11 also shows that marine biologists were concerned about the coral reef crisis more than before, larger possibly because more and more scientists were aware of the importance of coral reefs to the entire marine ecosystems. Protecting coral reef ecosystems probably is an effective pathway to get most species recovered. Conclusion During the past 30 years, marine ecosystems took place some changes. The interference of human activities directly or indirectly gives more and more burden for our earth. The damaged environment makes some species become threatened species or endangered species, even critical endangered species. Even though, coral reefs are not becoming extinct, they are facing high risk which leads them to die. Indeed, the world lost a large scale of coral reefs which all due to the humans since early 20th century. From the review of the literature of the past 3 decades, scientists are focusing now more on climate changes, including global warming and ocean acidification, which results in corals death. Compared to the previous large number and key issues, like fishing and pollution problems, scientists are beginning to find more new factors that influence the coral reefs. From this trend, we can see that there should be more work to do to find a solution to marine scientists. With the population con tinuing to rise, it is difficult to imagine what will happen in the near future. For the humans, perhaps, they have to think about what they can and should do to reduce the dead of corals and the damage of coral reefs. To find a solution to solve the coral reef issues, humans have to give more actively motivations and passions to change the current situations.