Each culture exists within greater frameworks known as 'worldviews.' Worldviews can be described as the belief and assumptions used to help the individuals involved understand and process their experiences. These worldviews are formed through the languages and traditions of the society that surrounds them. Worldviews are typically specific to an individual's cultural background. Cultural worldviews exist on a range of factors, such as relationships, behavior, and careers. Cultural career worldviews are structured to influence how the individuals involved work, the decisions they make concerning work, and how their career paths are structured (Watson, 2019). Hence, culture shapes the identities of individuals and the context in which they prefer to work.
All individuals have a cultural background, and at other times, individuals have more than one cultural identities that structure their contexts. An example is that the cultural context for an African American man that lives in the Southern United States will be founded on his race, gender, and geographic background. The cultural context that he exists in is critical in determining his career expectations and the expectations of other individuals, and the career opportunities that he can access (McDaniel, 2016). While there are no distinctions in ability patterns across different cultural groups, several cultural factors can result in differences in occupational choice.
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As individuals work in contexts that are structured by their cultural worldviews, it also has an impact on the type of work, and the type of career interactions that they value. Based on cultural worldviews, the existing cultural values structure the career and work decisions that individuals end up making. For example, cultures that place a high value on the collective value on family, such as Hispanic cultures, will make distinct choices when compared to those that place greater value on individual achievements, such as the French culture. In the United States, the largest cultural group is white, and this group's cultural context has a variety of assumptions concerning work. An example of this is that individuals primarily make decisions concerning career paths without consulting others. Another assumption made by the dominant white culture is that other individuals have sufficient resources to access the opportunities needed to prepare work. This assumption is further based on the belief that work opportunities are available and accessible to all individuals.
Culture also structures the opportunities available to individuals. An assessment of occupations' demographic diversity shows that the members of different cultural groups have overrepresentation in some career paths while experiencing underrepresentation of other occupations (Watson, 2019). Hence, for some cultural worldviews, career decisions result from a compromise between the occupations that they can access and what they wanted to do. Different cultural groups also have varying views on the purpose of work in the lives of individuals. Some cultural groups prefer doing and achieving through their careers, while others have a preference to work so that they can engage in other activities.
Based on this, it is clear that cultural career worldviews are structured in two different ways. First, culture guides in the influence of individuals' views concerning what forms of work are appropriate and the role that work has in their lives. Secondly, cultural worldviews affect the type of work that individuals can access. This can happen positively, such as opportunities that exist in a family business, or it can occur negatively in cases where racism may prevent individuals from being employed in particular conditions. In this way, cultural career worldviews are mainly affected by the cultural contexts that an individual exists in.
References
McDaniel, A. (2016). The role of cultural contexts in explaining cross-national gender gaps in STEM Expectations. European Sociological Review , 32 (1), 122-133.
Watson, M. B. (2019). Career maturity assessment in an international context. In International handbook of career guidance (pp. 639-653). Springer, Cham.
