The influence of personality type on career choices: a critical literature review

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between personality type and choice of a career. This relationship is important in that it will act as a guide to career choice and secondly, the relationship between each personality type and career choice will be analyzed thus helping management to understand how employees need to be treated to offer their best services to the organization. A review of the literature from 1990 to 2009 was conducted. A total of 32 research studies were analyzed. The review indicated that personality type does have an influence on not only career choice, but also career development and career change. The gaps that have been identified in the literature review are that; I. Many of the studies were carried out for students as they made their university choices and no subsequent follow up was done to evaluate whether they retained those career paths after college completion II. Many of the studies were carried out outside Africa and it would be prudent to carry out more studies locally to identify the critical factors that influence career choice. Further, to evaluate whether the factors already studied are universal to all people iii. There is need to explore other races to identify whether the personality types identified through research for particular races apply universally IV. There are few studies carried out in Africa but none was found from the review for Kenya in particular. It is important to carry out related studies for Kenya to enhance on local empirical literature