The Structural Relationship among Career-Related Mentoring, Ambiguity Tolerance, and Job Search Effort and Behavior of Korean College Students

Yangyi Kwon, Jhong Yun (Joy) Kim and Andrew Keane
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Yangyi Kwon: Department of Education, Hongik University, 94 Wausan-ro, Sangsu-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul 04066, Korea
Jhong Yun (Joy) Kim: BK21FOUR Group of Education, Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea
Andrew Keane: Department of Hotel Tourism, Incheon Jaeneung University, 78 Jaeneung-ro, Songnim dong, Incheon 22573, Korea

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 21, 1-14

Abstract: Although a substantial body of mentoring research has been conducted on students attending four-year colleges, the interplay of career-related mentoring, ambiguity tolerance, and job search effort and behavior has not been seriously investigated. Therefore, we examined the relationship between career-related mentoring and ambiguity tolerance, as well as job search effort and behavior, for the purpose of understanding how to better assist undergraduate college students achieve preliminary job search success. Data were collected via pencil surveys administered to 300 undergraduate students selected by purposive sampling from four colleges in Seoul, Korea. Correlation analysis and covariance structure analysis were conducted to examine the relationships between variables. A Sobel test was also conducted to check the mediation effect of the model. Results were consistent with our hypotheses and showed that there was a significant, indirect, positive effect of career-related mentoring on job search effort and behavior, mediated through ambiguity tolerance. Our study contributes to career-related mentoring and job search research by providing empirical evidence supporting the results. It has implications for universities, mentoring program design, and career guidance professionals.

Keywords: career-related mentoring; job search effort; job search behavior; ambiguity tolerance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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