Examination of the role of goal orientation in the relationship between perceived job search progress and job search self-efficacies

Abstract

In 2014, Liu et al. (2014) published a study demonstrating that job search self-efficacy was dependent upon goal hierarchy in job search. Individuals seeking jobs will have self-efficacy related to the type of job they hope to obtain, which is the primary goal in job search. Job seekers will also have self-efficacy related to their job search behaviors used to help obtain their desired jobs. The job search behaviors are a manifestation of the subgoals in the job search process. In this dissertation, I examine whether job search goal orientations are also hierarchically oriented in the job search process. I test whether employment goal orientations and job search behavior goal orientations are between-person moderators of the within-person relationships of perceived job search progress with employment self-efficacy and job search behavior self-efficacy. None of these relationships were found to be statistically significant. However, I did find that at the within-person level, job search goal orientations did have direct effects on job search self-efficacies. In addition, the results demonstrate that goal orientations are hierarchically related to job search self-efficacies.