Career Counseling in Cultural Minorities: How Competent, Efficient and Engaged do Practitioners Feel in Greece?
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Asian Institute of Research, Journal Publication, Journal Academics, Education Journal, Asian Institute
Asian Institute of Research, Journal Publication, Journal Academics, Education Journal, Asian Institute

Journal of Social and Political

Sciences

ISSN 2615-3718 (Online)

ISSN 2621-5675 (Print)

asia insitute of research, journal of social and political sciences, jsp, aior, journal publication, humanities journal, social journa
asia insitute of research, journal of social and political sciences, jsp, aior, journal publication, humanities journal, social journa
asia insitute of research, journal of social and political sciences, jsp, aior, journal publication, humanities journal, social journa
asia insitute of research, journal of social and political sciences, jsp, aior, journal publication, humanities journal, social journa
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doi
open access

Published: 06 December 2023

Career Counseling in Cultural Minorities: How Competent, Efficient and Engaged do Practitioners Feel in Greece?

Georgia Georgaki, Ioanna Papavassiliou-Alexiou

University of Macedonia

journal of social and political sciences
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doi

10.31014/aior.1991.06.04.450

Pages: 138-151

Keywords: Multicultural Career Counseling, Intercultural Effectiveness, Self-Efficacy, Work Engagement, Counselors’ Competence, Cultural Minorities

Abstract

Career counselors are more than ever being called to assist new comers in their country migrating there in search of a better quality of life due to either financial reasons or an ongoing war in their homeland. The aim of this study is to shed light on the ability of career counselors to cope with cultural minorities in Greece since currently it is vital they provide guidance especially to those from less privileged backgrounds, whereas more and more practitioners have been employed in relevant institutions during the last decade. The focus is on examining the practitioners’ ability to communicate effectively with people from various cultural backgrounds, as well as their self-efficacy, job engagement and their self-perceived stress when working with clients with different cultural identity. Randomly selected participants working as career practitioners, both in the private and public sector, were invited to submit a questionnaire online which contained measures of these factors (n=146). Results indicated that the overall intercultural effectiveness is affected by socio-demographic characteristics and correlates more significantly with participants who have working experience with multicultural clients and practice in group settings rather than individually, presenting better results in the private sector, as opposed to public institutions. Furthermore, self-efficacy proved to be a predictor for intercultural effectiveness, correlating though less significantly with job engagement and perceived stress. Conclusions are discussed with the international research literature and implications for career practitioners are formulated.

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