GRADUATES CONSTRUCTION SYSTEMS AND CAREER-DEVELOPMENT

The paper draws on the Chicago School's conceptualization of career an d on Personal Construct Psychology to examine the relationships betwee n graduates' construction systems and patterns of career development d uring the first 4 years of employment. It seeks to identify difference s in trends of constructive revision between ''successful'' and ''less successful'' graduates. The study is based on 33 graduates who comple ted repertory grids on entering employment (T1), 6 months later (T2), and 4 years later (T3), re-eliciting constructs each time. The results show some significant change in the nature of the constructs elicited by graduates over the 4 years; in particular, graduates made greater use of constructs related to achievement, cynicism, and organizational politics. Graduates whose career was more ''successful'' (i.e., who e xperienced one or two promotions during the 4 years of the study and f elt generally satisfied with their careers) were more likely to use co nstructs related to social behavior and flexibility at T1, while gradu ates whose career was ''less sucessful'' (i.e., no promotion and felt dissatisfied with their careers) were more likely to construe themselv es in terms of achievement and work competence at T1. Four years on, ' 'successful'' graduates tended to rely more on constructs related to a chievement and flexibility, while ''less successful'' graduates were m ore likely to use constructs related to social behavior. The significa nce and implications of these results for organizational recruitment a nd development practices are discussed.