Abstract
This paper took the social exchange and social cognitive perspectives to examine the effects between job values and organizational socialization and how to play a mediation in career exploration and moderating effect in demographic characteristics. The research collected 700 valid samples of the youth of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for statistical analysis and then subjected them to job value scale, career exploration, and organizational socialization scale. With structural equation model and correlation analysis, it verified that the proposed scale had demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity, a theoretical model of a good overall fit. In the final part, this paper used hierarchical regression analysis and path analysis. The results indicated that career exploration plays a mediation role between job value and organizational socialization, demographic characteristics are moderating effect between job value and career exploration, and demographic characteristics make a moderating effect between career exploration and organizational socialization, but demographic characteristics are not moderated on work value and organizational socialization.
1. Introduction
With the construction and promotion of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in China, major industries are facing opportunities for development. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a serious impact on the global economy, and at the same time, it has once again exposed the problems of a single industrial structure and insufficient economic resilience in some areas of the Greater Bay Area. In addition, the retail, catering, hotel, and other industries have also suffered great losses. Young people in Greater Bay Area are faced with unemployment, career loss, social status pressure, and instability. Due to geocultural reasons, Greater Bay Area has integrated the characteristics of Chinese and Western cultures, and a series of historical events, such as the return of Hong Kong and Macao, the opening of gambling rights, and the financial crisis, have also left a deep imprint on the growth of young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, which have also had a far-reaching impact on the formation of young people’s personal career development in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, showing significant differences in professional values between the younger generation in Greater Bay Area and intergenerational groups in other regions; Moreover, most young people also show maladjustment in career and fail to properly evaluate themselves and analyze the external environment. They often do not have a clear concept of career exploration and do not think it can affect their cognition of career prospects or even regard it as irrelevant and redundant behavior with career development. Based on the current situation, this paper attempts to explore the intermediary effect of the career exploration behavior of young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao from the perspective of social cognition and social exchange between professional values and organizational socialization, and how they play a role under the regulation of population attributes, in order to explore strategies to promote the career development of young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, so that they can better seek the matching between individuals and organizations and individuals and occupations after entering the workplace and provide corresponding enlightening ideas and reference for academic circles.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Career Exploration
The theory of career exploration first appeared in the 1960s, and at first, it was only regarded as a common exploration behavior [1]. However, with the development of society, career exploration has gradually evolved a variety of meanings. (1) The first definition is also a relatively simple one, which comes from the theories of career choice and career consultation, such as Krumboltz’s learning theory [2]. This definition regards career exploration as an information-seeking behavior or a career problem-solving behavior. For example, Greenhaus and Sklarew [3] directly define career exploration as the collection and analysis of information related to career development. (2) The second definition comes from the career decision-making theory, which regards career exploration as an important stage in the process of career decision-making, which includes information collection behavior and identification and evaluation of various possible choices (e.g., Gelatt [4]). (3) The third definition comes from the theory of career development, which regards career exploration as an important career stage, that is, adolescence (14–24 years old). The important task of this stage is to finalize, clarify, and implement career choices [5]. (4) The fourth and final definition regards career exploration as a process of career learning and career development that runs through the whole career [1, 6, 7].
This paper holds that career exploration is a series of professional behaviors which integrate the internal professional psychology and the external professional reaction. According to the definition proposed by Jordaan [1] and Super [5], career exploration should be regarded as a process throughout the whole career and career development. The core of it is self-evaluation and external environment analysis.
2.2. Connotation of Career Exploration
Career exploration can enhance people’s awareness of themselves and their environment. The purpose of career exploration is to help people establish a more realistic career development goal and more appropriate development strategy. According to the types of information obtained, most researchers, such as Taveira and Moreno [7], divide career exploration into two parts: self-exploration and environmental exploration. For example, Luo [8] used “confidant” and “Zhibi” to express the task of career exploration. However, there is no big difference between its content and the classification methods of self-exploration and environmental exploration. The real-time “self-exploration” corresponding to “confidant” corresponds to “environmental exploration.” Therefore, this study intends to use the classification method of self-exploration and environmental exploration to review the content of career exploration.
2.2.1. Self-Exploration
When a person is collecting personal characteristics related to career decision-making, we can think that he is exploring himself. In order to set a suitable career goal, a person needs to have a clear understanding of what he/she hopes to obtain from his/her working and nonworking roles and what his/her skills and abilities can be engaged in (or develop in his/her work). In the specific content of self-exploration, researchers mentioned more about professional values, professional interests, personality characteristics, professional ability, preferred lifestyle, and so on (Greenhaus and Sklarew [3], Song and Fai Tso [9], etc.).
(1) Professional Interest. Professional interest refers to whether a person likes a specific work activity or work goal. Professional interest is the embodiment of the following factors, such as professional values, family lifestyle, social class, accepted culture, and material conditions, etc. Professional interests are associated with specific activities. Studies have shown that when a person chooses a career field that is consistent with his /her own professional interests, his/her satisfaction is significantly higher than that of those who choose a career field that is not consistent with his /her interest and is willing to continue to engage in this occupation [10].
Holland [11] identified six career interest orientations that reflect a person’s personality, values, and preferred lifestyle. Holland’s theory assumes that professional interest is an important embodiment of a person’s personality. Therefore, the six interest orientations he listed are consistent with specific personality characteristics. These six career interest orientations are realistic, research-oriented, social-oriented, conventional, entrepreneurial, and artistic.
(2) Personality. Personality is a person in the social life adaptation process, for himself, others, or other things, in the body and mind behavior of the unique personality. This unique personality is influenced by many congenital factors and an acquired environment. It is formed by the interaction of heredity, maturity, environment, and learning. It has relative continuity and stability. Therefore, personality factor is very important to one’s career choice. Personality theory has made great progress in the past ten or twenty years. One of them is the preliminary study of the big five-factor structure of personality traits. Cattell [12] designed a 16-factor personality questionnaire in 1943, which laid a foundation for the study of the big five factors. Goldberg and Hillier [13] formally proposed the big five-factor model. Costa and McCrae [14] and others put forward the big five personality trait theory on the basis of previous studies. The personality scale developed by McCrae and Costa [15] reflects the connotation of these five factors: extraversion, adjustment, friendliness, rigor, and curiosity. Some studies have shown that these five factors have a good predictive ability for individual job performance and career development.
(3) Professional Ability. The professional abilities mentioned here include not only one’s innate ability but also the acquired skills, which reflect what one can do or accomplish. Therefore, professional ability sets a certain limit for one’s career development. Therefore, before making a career decision, an individual must carefully examine his own professional ability. With the development of the social division of labor, people are engaged in more and more professional fields, so the specific professional ability model is very rich. The American general aptitude test has identified nine abilities: general learning ability, speech ability, arithmetic ability, judgment ability, figure perception ability, symbol perception ability, motor coordination ability, finger dexterity, and wrist dexterity. The test can help to determine the professional ability in 8 categories and 32 subcategories of occupational fields and is considered to be a better test in career guidance.
The Canadian vocational classification system divides professional competence into 11 aspects, including intelligence and ten basic special abilities. The first nine abilities are obviously influenced by the American GATB. Each of these 11 abilities is suitable for a certain occupation type.
(4) Preferred Lifestyle. Because the work role is only one of the many roles one plays in one’s life, one must also consider nonworking life when making career decisions, such as what kind of family life you want to live, what kind of leisure and entertainment you need, and so on. We can call these issues the preferred lifestyle.
2.2.2. Environmental Exploration
Because a person’s career exists in a certain industry and organization, personal professional values, interests, talents, etc., are bound to be related to a certain working environment, and the matching between personal characteristics and environmental characteristics will inevitably affect a person’s job satisfaction and career success. Therefore, professional exploration must include active exploration of the environment. Environmental exploration includes many contents, but four aspects are often mentioned by researchers: occupation, position, organization, and family (such as Blustein and Phillips [16], etc.).
(1) Occupation and Position. Occupation refers to a series of jobs with similar job requirements or parallel responsibilities in different organizations and at different times. For example, teachers, workers, and engineers are different occupations. A position is a job, which is a job with equivalent responsibilities according to regulations or a clear work behavior to achieve a certain purpose. For example, the deputy general manager in charge of production and the deputy general manager in charge of marketing in the same enterprise are different positions. The exploration of occupation includes occupation task activities, ability/training requirements, remuneration, safety, social relations, physical environment, lifestyle (working time commitment, working pressure), and so on. The exploration of the position includes the diversity of tasks, importance of tasks, ability/training requirements, remuneration, safety, social relations, physical environment, lifestyle (working time commitment, work pressure), independence/autonomy, relationship with other positions, and so on.
(2) Organization. Generally speaking, an organization has a different attraction to different students. The exploration of an organization should include its industrial prospect, financial status, organizational strategy, promotion opportunities within the organization, the flexibility of career channels, career management practices/policies, organizational scale and structure, remuneration system, and human resource needs. In addition, some researchers mentioned the analysis of the external environment of the organization, such as its position and development trend in the industry and market conditions faced, etc. Some researchers also mentioned the ownership nature of the organization (such as whether the organization is state-owned or private), the subordinate relationship (if it is a subordinate unit; it is necessary to find out the situation of the higher authorities at the same time), the geographical location and environment of the organization, and the social security provided by the organization.
(3) Family. The exploration of the family should include spouse’s career expectation, spouse’s emotional needs, children’s emotional needs, other family members’ needs, family financial needs, family’s expected lifestyle, family stage, career stage of oneself and spouse, etc. For college students, family influencing factors should mainly include the needs of family members or male/female friends, family financial needs, expected family lifestyle, etc. These factors often affect salary expectations, career choices, or geographical choices, etc.
In addition to the above, Yang and Ji [17] also mentioned the understanding and analysis of the social environment. Because China is in the process of social reform, college students should pay attention to the current social, political, and economic development trends when exploring their careers. Distribution and demand of social hot occupational categories. The status of one’s chosen profession in current and future society. The influence of social development trend on one’s occupation is analyzed.
2.3. Job Values, Career Exploration, and Organizational Socialization
As a predictive variable, career exploration behavior has many related factors, such as professional values, organizational socialization, personality factors, family environment, demographic characteristics, and so on. Among them, professional values, organizational socialization, and demographic characteristics are the related influencing variables that this study tries to pay attention to.
The discussion of professional values began around the 1950s. It is generally believed that personal work attitude and performance are closely related to personal, professional values, and personal views on work values will affect career choice, development, and performance [18]. Professional values are the results that individuals expect through their careers. Professional values emphasize the differences between people in terms of remuneration, reputation, security, self-satisfaction, and realization. Super [19] once summarized people’s professional values into 15 types: helping others, aestheticism, creation, intellectual stimulation, independence, achievement, reputation, management, economic return, safety, things around, relationship with superiors, social interaction, diversification, and lifestyle. Allport [20] proposed a classification system of professional values, including six types: theoretical, economic, aesthetic, religious, social, and political. Each person may focus on a certain type of professional values, and each occupation or job can provide people with different value satisfaction. Therefore, people tend to choose a career that can meet their own value needs, so it is very helpful to know their own professional values for their career aspirations.
Since the concept of professional values was put forward, scholars have devoted themselves to exploring the influencing factors and resulting variables of professional values. Studies have shown that the correlation between professional values and career exploration attitude has been widely supported, among which Rounds [21] found that there is a correlation between professional values and work attitude. Many experts’ studies, such as Kidron [22], also show that individual job values are related to organizational commitment, and job values are also related to job engagement. Elizur [23] pointed out that professional values and motivation are two related but different concepts. Therefore, previous studies have found that there is a high correlation between career values and career exploration. In addition, “organizational socialization” is a very important process because it ensures to provide a framework for new employees to respond to their working environment and cooperate with other members and continuously conveys the values and norms of the organizational center. When the socialization process makes the new members’ “personal value” and “organizational value” closely linked, they will become more committed to the organization, and will not easily try to leave, so as to ensure that the organization has more benefits and save investment in recruitment, selection, and training [24].
This paper argues that professional values will lead to professional exploration behavior and then have an impact on organizational socialization. When the individual’s professional values are clearer, the career exploration is more involved and the career planning is more comprehensive; that is, the individual may know more about himself and his chosen career. If a person does more career exploration activities before setting career goals, then the career goals he sets may be more suitable for himself, the higher his career satisfaction will be, and the matching with the organizational level will be more suitable. At the same time, the degree of career exploration developed by different professional values is also different, and the simple and complex professional values also influence or guide individual career exploration activities to varying degrees; The process of organizational socialization urges employees to subtly match the environment with individuals, thus influencing individual professional values by constantly scanning, perceiving, and exploring professional behaviors. It can be seen that career exploration is an indispensable and irreplaceable important element in the process of personal career development, which is not only affected by the formation and structure of professional values but also affects the process of organizational socialization in the long run. Organizations should plan and develop employees’ professional behaviors from the strategic level and based on professional exploration activities, so as to promote the perfect match between individuals and organizational goals. Based on the above literature, this paper establishes the following research hypothesis. See Figure 1 for details: H1: career exploration has a mediating effect between job values and organizational socialization H2: demographic characteristics have a moderating effect between job values and career exploration H3: demographic characteristics have a moderating effect between career exploration and organizational socialization
3. Methodology
This paper mainly adopts the method of combining theoretical research with empirical statistics. With the help of statistical software tools such as IBM AMOS 24.0 and IBM SPSS 24.0, descriptive statistical analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, multiple regression analysis, etc., so as to obtain rigorous and standardized research results. The Richter scale 5 was used in the survey, in which 1 means totally disagree, 5 means totally agree, and the subjects are required to fill in the answers according to their actual situation.
3.1. Sampling Design
This study adopts a convenient sampling method. The sampling objects are young people aged 20–30 in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, including students and enterprise employees. This group was born in 1991–2000. Society defines this generation as the post-90s generation, which has many different characteristics from previous generations. The total sample size is designed to be 710. The data are collected in the form of street visits, business visits, and school visits in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Hong Kong Island, Macao Peninsula, and Taipa Island. The distribution of regions, industries, occupations, and identities is taken into account according to the sample quota design.
3.2. Variable Measurement
The contents of this research questionnaire are mainly divided into four parts. The first part is a survey of job values, the second part is a survey of occupational exploration activities, the third part is a survey of organizational socialization, and the fourth part is demographic variables. In the measurement method of the questionnaire, the comprehensive scale of Likert is adopted to measure the problems, and the scale is five points. In the preliminary questionnaire, the specific items of professional values refer to the scale of Manhardt [25], and its A coefficient is 0.84. The specific items of career exploration refer to the scale of Lovelace and Rosen [26], and its A coefficient is 0.88. The scale of Cable and Judge [27] is adopted as the specific item of organizational socialization, and its A coefficient is 0.88. Demographic variables are mainly gender, age, education, major, industry, enterprise scale, position, working status, seniority, salary, and other items. After pretesting the questions and testing the reliability and validity of the contents, the items that do not conform to the empirical results were eliminated. There were 56 items in the formal questionnaire, among which 16 items examined the professional values of young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, 12 items examined the career exploration behavior of young people, and 16 items examined the organizational socialization.
4. Data Analysis and Results
4.1. Sample Distribution
In this study, 710 samples were collected, 10 invalid questionnaires such as missing items were deleted, and 700 actual valid questionnaires were collected. Among them, there were 282 males, accounting for 40% of the total sample size; there are 418 females, accounting for 60% of the total sample size. In terms of age structure, the youth aged 20–25 accounted for 74% of the total sample. Observing the educational background of the research subjects, the proportion with undergraduate level is the highest, with a total of 472, accounting for 67.4% of the total number of samples; The high school level ranks second, with a total of 188, accounting for 26.9% of the total number of samples. There are 19 graduate students, accounting for 2.7% of the total number of samples. There are 15 junior high school students, accounting for 2.1% of the total samples. There are 6 students below junior high school, accounting for only 0.9% of the total number of samples. In addition, from the distribution of the industries in which the respondents are located, there are 196 tourism and hotel industries, accounting for 28% of the total number of samples. There are 117 people in the gaming industry, accounting for 16.7 of the total number of samples. There are 190 people in financial and insurance services, accounting for 27.1% of the total number of samples. There are 113 people in public administration, accounting for 16.1% of the total sample number; 27 people in the manufacturing industry, accounting for 3.9% of the total number of samples; 24 people in the communication industry, accounting for 3.4% of the total number of samples. Transportation and warehousing 20 people, accounting for 2.9% of the total number of samples. There are 13 people in the construction industry, accounting for only 1.9% of the total samples.
4.2. Reliability Analysis
The Cronbach’s a coefficient is used to analyze the questionnaire coefficient in order to measure the correlation of common factors among variables and also to measure the degree of internal consistency among variables. When Cronbach’s αcoefficient is greater than 0.70, it means that the correlation between the measurement items is stronger, and the reliability of this dimension is quite good [28].
According to the analysis in Table 1, Cronbach’s α coefficient is 0.84 for the professional values, 0.88 for the professional exploration, and 0.88 for the organizational socialization. All of them are greater than the standard value of 0.70, which also accords with the standard value of the reliability test proposed by Hair et al. [28]. Therefore, the aspects of “professional values, professional exploration and organizational socialization” in this study have high reliability.
4.3. Exploratory Factor Analysis
The paper adopts Harman’s single factor test, incorporates all kinds of job values, professional exploration, and organizational socialization into exploratory factor analysis. Through the main component factor test, results found that 3 feature values can be selected 1 of the factor accumulated variance interpretation of 65%, and the first-factor explanation force of the nonrotating shaft is only 20%, which is much less than 50%, which can be seen that the study has no common method deviation problem.
4.4. Confirmatory Factor Analysis
In terms of validity, the contents of the questionnaire in this study are based on theory, revised with reference to the contents of similar studies by scholars in the past, discussed with practical and academic experts, and conducted with a trial test, providing suggestions for improving the contents and format of the questionnaire, so as to effectively integrate theory with the opinions of experts and scholars, so it should have a certain degree of face validity and content validity.
In terms of constructive validity, this study uses Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to test the scale of job values, occupational exploration, and organizational socialization and measure the overall fitness and aggregation validity of the model. The three potential variables included in the experiential research scale are “professional values, professional exploration and organizational socialization,” which can explain the relationship between the factors of the measured variables.
According to Wu [29], three types of overall adaptation indexes, such as absolute adaptation index, value-added adaptation index, and simple adaptation index, are used as the evaluation criteria of measurement mode adaptation degree in this study. Among them, the absolute adaptation index: the smaller the test value of chi-square, the better the overall fit. GFI > 0.90, AGFI > 0.90, RMSEA < 0.05, and RMSEA < 0.08. In terms of value-added adaptability, NFI > 0.90 and CFI > 0.90. If the value is equal to 1, the mode is completely suitable, and if it is equal to 0, it is totally unsuitable. In terms of simple fitness, PCFI value > 0.50, PGFI value > 0.50, PNFI value > 0.50, CAIC value must be lower than independent model value and lower than saturated model value.
In the CFA analysis results of this study, there is no negative error variance in the nonstandardized parameter estimation model diagram, which means that there is no problem in model definition. In the overall summary of pattern adaptation degree, (Chi-square) is 218.879, ; RMR value is 0.02 < 0.05; The RMSE value of 0.07 < 0.08 indicates that the mode adaptation is good. GFI value is 0.942 > 0.90; The AGFI is 0.90; The NFI value is 0.908 > 0.90; IFI value is 0.921 > 0.90; CFI value is 0.920 > 0.90; PCFI value is 0.654 > 0.50; the value of PGFI is 0.548 > 0.50; the value of PNFI is 0.646 > 0.50; while CAIC values are 392.554 < 415.309 and 392.554 < 2466.528. At the same time, the factor load value is more than 0.5 except the working stability factor of 0.39, which belongs to the acceptable and reasonable range. It can be seen from the above that the research scale has good construction validity and the model is well adapted.
4.5. Correlation Analysis
Through Pearson coefficient correlation analysis, we further explore the correlation analysis between pairwise variables such as “professional values,” “professional exploration,” “organizational socialization,” “education level,” “gender distribution,” “working years,” “industry distribution,” and “position situation.” From Table 1, it is not difficult to see that all the research variables involved in this paper are related. In this study, Pearson product-moment correlation is used to analyze the data of which both variables are equidistant variables, Spearman rank correlation is used to analyze the sequential variables, and if the statistical correlation coefficient r reaches the significant level of 0.05, the determination coefficient is obtained [30]. After the preliminary correlation analysis, in order to test whether the hypotheses put forward in this study are valid, the hierarchical regression analysis is used to verify the causal relationship between variables.
4.6. Hierarchical Regression Analysis
In this study, the hypothesis is verified by class regression analysis, in which H1: career exploration has a mediating effect between job values and organizational socialization, and the hypothesis holds; H2: demographic characteristics have interference effect between job values and career exploration, and the hypothesis holds; H3: demographic characteristics have interference effect between career exploration and organizational socialization, which is assumed to be true. The analysis results are shown in Tables 2 and 3.
4.6.1. Mediating Effect of Career Exploration
According to Baron and Kenny [31], when the mediation effect is verified by hierarchical regression analysis, the conditions for the mediation effect are as follows: First, independent variables and mediation variables are significantly related to dependent variables. Secondly, there is a significant relationship between independent variables and intermediary variables. Finally, the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable should be weaker when the intermediate variable is put in.
In order to verify whether career exploration is the intermediary variable between career values and organizational socialization, taking organizational socialization as the dependent variable, the control variable (demographic characteristics) is put in first, and then the independent variable job values are put in. The results show that there is a significant positive correlation between job values and organizational socialization (β value is 0.161, , ΔR2 is 0.042). Then, taking career exploration as the dependent variable, the control variable (demographic characteristics) and independent variable job values are inserted. The results show that there is a significant positive correlation between job values and career exploration (β value is 0.327, , ΔR2 is 0.141). At last, with career exploration as an independent variable, Model 4 shows that the mediation of career exploration is significant (β = 0.388, , ΔR2 = 0.170), while the β value of career values decreases from 0.161 () to 0.034 (), which accords with the third condition proposed by Baron and Kenny. Therefore, it can be seen that career exploration has a mediating effect on the correlation between career values and organizational socialization, so it is assumed that H1 is supported.
4.6.2. Moderation of Demographic Characteristics
In this study, H2 and H3 discussed the moderation of demographic characteristics on job values, career exploration, and organizational socialization, which were all important interference variables considered in the study. The details of empirical analysis data for every indicator can be found in Tables 4 and 5. However, the direct effect before the interference variables are added confirmed that there are significant positive roles between job values, career exploration, and organizational socialization.
Figures 2 and 3 further report the changes in moderating effect of demographic characteristics for career exploration and organizational socialization. The results of hierarchical regression analysis show that only the interaction between seniority situation and job values has a significant interference effect on career exploration in the demographic characteristics of Model 3, and its β value is −0.128 () and ΔR2 is 0.159, so H2 hypothesis holds. In the demographic characteristics of Model 6, only the interactive items, including gender and career exploration, have a significant interference effect on organizational socialization, and its β value is 0.071 () and ΔR2 is 0.187, so the H3 hypothesis holds.
5. Discussion and Suggestion
5.1. Theoretical Contribution and Practical Significance
To sum up, although the causes and consequences of career exploration have been confirmed by many studies, it is rare to discuss the effect of comediation and referral based on the vision of youth’s professional values, organizational socialization, and population attributes. In the theoretical model constructed in this paper, the internal consistency among the measurement items has been verified by Cronbach’s a, and the three dimensions of professional development, such as professional values, professional exploration, and organizational socialization, have reached more than 0.8, and have passed the validity test, which meets the requirements of basic research; This scale and theoretical model are of great theoretical significance for the government and academic circles to further explore the career development of young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. At the same time, the industry can also use this scale to measure the professional values, career exploration behavior, and perception of organizational work of young and middle-aged employees so as to facilitate timely adjustment of the organization and its human resources strategy. In addition, the study tested the model fitness of the measurement items of young people’s career values, career exploration, and organizational socialization in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao by confirmatory factor analysis and class regression analysis and discussed the relationship between them by linear regression. The analysis results are all above the standard, and it is concluded that career exploration plays an intermediary role in career values and organizational socialization, the interaction between industry distribution and career values interferes with career exploration, and the interaction between job types and career exploration interferes with organizational socialization. It is of guiding significance to the industry on how to plan and manage the young people’s career choice, career orientation, and development in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. It is also beneficial to take corresponding development and promotion measures from the perspective of organization and society, promote the career development of the young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, and ensure the virtuous circle of social human resources in the Greater Bay Area.
5.2. Suggestions
5.2.1. Suggestions on Young People’s Personal Career Exploration
It is found that the professional values of young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao pay more attention to professional status and stability, professional remuneration, respect, and stability guarantee. Due to the relative shortage of the whole labor force in the Greater Bay Area, the employment pressure of young people is not great, their career exploration performance is not active enough, and their job satisfaction is not high. The main reason for this phenomenon is that before entering the workplace, they did not really understand themselves and their occupations, and they often chose a certain occupation with the social trend, rather than choosing according to their actual preferences and specialties. This will inevitably lead to the phenomenon of mismatch, which is not conducive to the development of a personal career and will also cause a waste of resources to the organization and society. Therefore, young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao should improve their self-exploration awareness, actively seek their own career anchors, make full use of possible resources to explore suitable occupations and enterprises, and avoid blindly following and drifting with the tide.
Young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao can take some measures to explore their career development path according to their actual situation. For example, attending lectures and reports on career planning, participating in discussion or exchange activities with enterprises and institutions, participating in activities such as investigation and research in enterprises and institutions, participating in enterprise human resources management training, participating in school-enterprise cooperation projects, and volunteering in enterprises and institutions, college students can enter the working environment in advance to experience, including taking part in extracurricular activities organized by schools or student associations, taking part-time jobs or internships through summer jobs, taking part-time jobs and internships through their own social relations, etc. They can also take part in induction training organized by enterprises, consciously collect professional and enterprise information, take professional tests in interests, values, personalities, abilities, etc., and discuss career-related issues with friends, relatives, teachers, etc. Their preservice and early career development experience are undoubtedly very important to adapt and integrate into the organization in the future. The more you participate, the deeper you know about yourself and professional organizations, the easier it is to make correct decisions in the process of career choice and ultimately promote personal career development.
5.2.2. Suggestions of the Government
The government should step up publicity efforts to make more young people aware of the importance of career development and career exploration. The government needs to consider the macro labor situation in the region as a whole. The highly mobile human resources situation will have a negative impact on the development of the regional economy, and it is also a factor that leads to social instability. In order to achieve the rational allocation of talents and the sustainable advantage of competition and avoid the waste of social resources. The government should guide the young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao to pay attention to the role of career exploration through publicity and guide them to complete the process of career exploration before their employment, instead of making career choices through frequent job-hopping after entering the workplace.
Government departments in all parts of the Greater Bay Area should increase investment in youth career planning and can set up professional career consulting service departments, whose main responsibilities are not only to provide job opportunity information but also to include social practice opportunities, free evaluation tools, and professional guidance. Try to help young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao who have problems in the process of career analysis and exploration, and provide professional advice for their career development.
5.2.3. School Suggestions
The survey shows that many young people do not know how to do career exploration. School education is an important part of personal growth and a necessary stage before an individual enters the workplace. Schools should not only impart knowledge but also prepare for careers. Therefore, schools should offer courses related to careers, such as career planning and development, so as to help college graduates successfully realize the socialization transformation from students to workers and successfully realize organizational socialization.
Internship programs are the most recognized in career development, but at present, most of the internship programs that young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao participate in the use of interpersonal relationships to get opportunities, and there are few opportunities that they really get through schools. In fact, more students only regard internship programs as a means to make money, which losses the meaning of internship itself. Therefore, colleges and universities should strengthen cooperation with enterprises, make full use of this effective career exploration tool, and help students better understand the career and real enterprise situation.
5.2.4. Suggestions of Enterprises
Enterprises can use their recruitment functions to help young employees make correct choices. The goal of enterprise recruitment is not to find the best talents but to find the most suitable talents. Therefore, in the recruitment process, enterprises should provide true information as much as possible to help candidates make appropriate choices. Any false propaganda will increase the possibility of wrong career choice, which will lead to a higher turnover rate, and eventually, the enterprise will bear greater losses. Therefore, the recruitment of enterprises must pay attention to the real job prediction.
The induction training for new employees in enterprises is also prequalification education and orientation training. It is a training method to introduce new employees to the basic situation of enterprises, job responsibilities, department personnel, etc. It is a short time for employees employed by enterprises to change from “outsiders” to “enterprise people.” In this process, enterprises should clearly convey their organizational culture, rules, and regulations, and job requirements so that employees who do not match the organization and position can leave as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary waste of time, energy, and financial resources. Organizations can also use a tutorial system to promote organizational socialization, mainly including direct supervisors, colleagues, senior employees, and other auxiliary employees of new employees. Through social training and other organizational socialization strategies, the degree of organizational socialization will be continuously improved, and the values of work and life will be constantly affected and adjusted, which will gradually be consistent with the values and behavior patterns advocated by the organization. Therefore, from the above two aspects, the higher the degree of organizational socialization of new employees, the higher the degree of matching between individuals and organizations. However, if new employees perceive that they are more compatible with the organization, the longer they serve in the organization, the higher their job satisfaction, the lower their turnover intention, and the higher the overall performance of the organization.
5.3. Research Limitations and Suggestions for Follow-Up Research
Due to the limitation of research time and cost, the sample size is not enough, and the sample extraction is still a kind of nonrandom probability sampling, and there may be some differences. In addition, only demographic characteristics are added as interference variables in the research variables, and other influencing variables can be discussed in the future to improve the development of this field.
In the follow-up research, personality variables can be added as interference variables. Whether young people with different personality characteristics have different preferences for different career values and career exploration is another question worth exploring.
Data Availability
The data used to support the findings of this study are included within this article.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported in part by the project grants from the New Century Excellent Talents Support Plan of Fujian Colleges and Universities (grant number 2018047); Basic Ability Improvement Project of Young and Middle-Aged Teachers in Guangxi Universities by the Department of Education (grant number 2019KY0402); and Guangxi Philosophy and Social Science Planning Research Project (grant number 20FJY028).