Career choice of tourism students in a triple-whammy crisis.

Hong Kong hospitality and tourism industry has been battered by the triple whammy of social unrest, Sino-US trade war and COVID-19 pandemic in recent years. To understand how vulnerable tourism students may be in terms of career shock when facing the three major challenges, 407 tourism students in Hong Kong were surveyed. Structural equation modelling found a positive correlation between affect (an intrinsic, motivating factor) and extraneous events (an extrinsic, demotivating factor), indicating that motivation and demotivating factors may co-exist. Affect was more positively correlated with three career choice outcomes (intent to join the industry, desire for a lifelong career, and resilience in face of unfavourable circumstances) than was Extraneous. In face of career shock arising from extraneous events, tourism students still tend to have a strong intent to join the workforce, take it as a lifelong career, and remain resilient despite the hardship. However, the career shock was a greater concern for those in hotel-related disciplines and for students aged over 20 than younger ones. The findings offer an empirical basis to guide policy makers, academia and the industry in strategy formulation to ensure sustainable quality and manpower supply in the post-crisis future.

Optimization: In-Depth Examination and Proposition.

One notable concept that is of interest is a person's state of optimal functioning. Achieving optimal functioning (e.g., subjective well-being at school), aside from personal autonomy, requires some form of "optimization." Optimization, we argue, is more than just an "enhancement," a "predictive effect," and/or a "causal flow" between an independent variable (IV) and a dependent variable (DV). We note from existing literature that optimization has often been referred to without a clear, definitive explanation of what this term actually entails. At the same time, we acknowledge that unlike other areas of development (e.g., engagement), no theoretical article is available to explain the concept of optimization. This article considers a number of theoretical tenets for advancement: (1) the tenet of three major criteria that could assist in the explanation, assessment, and measurement of optimization, (2) the tenet of the development of a methodological conceptualization that could measure and assess optimization, and (3) the tenet of the "quantification" of optimization, and in particular, a proposed index of optimization and a corresponding scientific notation of "γ", which we coin as an "optimizing effect." Overall, we contend that this examination is insightful and holistic, seeking clarity into an important topical theme in psychology.

The importance of autonomy support and the mediating role of work motivation for well-being: testing self-determination theory in a Chinese work organisation.

We examine relations between perceived organisational autonomy support and different types of work motivation and well-being outcomes in 266 teachers from two government schools in China. We hypothesised that greater autonomy support would be associated with more autonomous forms of employee motivation, and that teacher motivation would in turn mediate the effects of autonomy support on indicators of work well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, work stress and physical ill symptoms). Results generally supported the hypothesised relations between perceived autonomy support and SDT's five types of motivations. Findings also showed that perceived autonomy support predicted job satisfaction directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, introjected regulation and external regulation. Perceived autonomy support predicted work stress directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of external regulation and amotivation. Autonomy support also predicted illness symptoms via the mediating roles of intrinsic motivation, introjected regulation and amotivation. The current findings highlight how perceived organisational support for autonomy relates to motivational differences in a Chinese work context, and the potential relevance of autonomy support for employee well-being.

Toward a hierarchical goal theory model of school motivation.

Instead of concentrating on mastery and performance goal orientations, recent research on school motivation has suggested a multidimensional structure of achievement goal orientations. Students in Australian high schools (N =774) responded to 35 survey items on 10 goal orientation constructs (effort, task, sense of purpose, praise, competition, power, token, social concern, social dependence, and affiliation) and 14 items on general mastery, general performance, general social, and global motivation constructs. Confirmatory factor analysis results supported a hierarchical, multidimensional school motivation construct. The hierarchical, multidimensional model has provided a strong theoretical structure for further school motivation research.