engleski

Values and intention of pursuing a career in sustainability

The role of values as general determinants of sustainability related behaviours has been well researched. However, most of the studies up to date have focused on behaviours which have direct consequences for the enhancement of sustainable development goals, while Stern (2000) notices that individuals can influence environment through various indirect behaviours and in that way have even greater impact. In this paper we are exploring the role of values in intentions of pursuing a career path which could lead to enhancement of environmental, social and economic sustainability. We claim that choosing a career can have a significant indirect impact on the promotion of the sustainability goals. In addition, we will explore the validity of proposed value typology among secondary school graduates in Croatia. We are using the typology of values developed by Steg et al. (2012) which distinguishes altruistic, biospheric, hedonic and egoistic values. Following a three-dimensional approach to sustainable development we are exploring the role of these values in predicting intentions for pursuing career enhancing environmental, social and economic sustainability. Respondents were 582 secondary school graduates (413 females and 169 males) enrolled in different schools in the city of Zagreb, Croatia. Data was collected on-line in two time points separated by a period of one year. Values were measured in the first time point, while intentions of pursuing a career in three domains of sustainability were measured afterwards. A multiple group method of confirmatory factor analysis supported the grouping of value items into four value clusters of altruistic, biospheric, hedonic and egoistic values, with two minor discrepancies. First, item ‘a world at peace’, originally belonging to a set of altruistic values, had stronger correlation with biospheric than with altruistic scale. Second, the egoistic item ‘ambition’ correlated slightly stronger with both altruistic and hedonic scale than with egoistic scale, which resembles the results obtained in similar cultural contexts (De Groot et al., 2007, 2012). Further, intensions for pursuing a career that can primarily contribute to enhancing environmental sustainability was most strongly predicted by biospheric values, while hedonic values were negatively related to that outcome. Altruistic values were the only significant predictor of intention for pursuing a career in the domain of social sustainability. Finally, intensions for pursuing a career that can contribute to enhancing economic sustainability were most strongly predicted by altruistic values, followed by egoistic values which had positive and hedonic values which had negative relationship with that outcome. This study confirmed that altruistic, biospheric, hedonic and egoistic values can be empirically distinguished among secondary school graduates in Croatia, and explores their relationship with intentions of pursuing career in environmental, social, economic domains of sustainability.

career choice ; values ; sustainability

http://www.icep2017.org/?fwp=29&fwl=2