The use of traditional and non-traditional career theories to understand the young’s relationship with new technologies

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to, which involved 123 students in their last year of an administration course at a private university in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, evaluate the importance of analyzing the pressure from new technologies on the careers of young university students from a career theory perspective. Design/methodology/approach – From the perspective of traditional theories, the authors used “career anchors,” and from the perspective of non-traditional theories, “intelligent careers,” in which people develop three competency groups that are transferable between organizations: knowing why; knowing how; and knowing whom. The hypotheses the authors raised were analyzed using statistical techniques and the following results were obtained: young people do not see new technologies as a threat to their current job; people who see the “Knowing How” competence as being more developed feel less pressure from new technologies; non-traditional theories show a greater potential to analyze technological pressure than traditional theories; and, finally, the nature of people’s jobs produces different impacts on the pressure of new technologies on their careers, since people who occupy positions involving more human interaction with internal or external clients feel less threatened. Findings – It was found that the lowest mean among the constructs analyzed was the pressure from technology on career. The correlations between the competencies of intelligent careers and the perception of the pressure from technology on career were weak, but significant, whereas the “Knowing How” competency was negatively correlated with the pressure caused by technology. There was no significant influence of the anchors on the pressure from technology on career. However, incorporating the competencies of intelligent careers improved the statistical model’s fit. In associating job positions with the pressure from technology on career, administrative and operational positions showed higher averages than sales associate and management positions. Originality/value – Broadly speaking, it can be noted that traditional career theories, especially the vocational counseling approach, are not sufficient to explain the impact of new technologies on careers. At the same time, one way of coping with the pressure brought about by technological advances may be in using technology itself to develop “useful professional skills,” in a manner consistent with “intelligent careers.”