On a 5-step career planning method for Hong Kong part-time MBA graduates

On a 5-step career planning method for Hong Kong part-time MBA graduates

As a part-time MBA lecturer, I am interested in the research theme of "career planning for Hong Kong part-time MBA graduates". Could you suggest two relevant academic theories on career planning, highlighting 4 main ideas of each of these two theories, as well as providing 1 academic reference on each of these two theories in Harvard reference format?

Two strong theories for studying career planning for Hong Kong part-time MBA graduates are Super’s Career Development Theory and Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). Both are widely used in career research, and both fit a topic where graduates are balancing work, study, family roles, and future career moves.

1) Super’s Career Development Theory

This theory is useful because it treats career planning as a lifelong process rather than a one-time choice, and it explicitly recognizes that people hold multiple life roles at the same time. For part-time MBA graduates, that is especially relevant because they often combine the roles of employee, student, parent, and caregiver.

Four main ideas

·        Career development is lifelong and unfolds across stages such as growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and decline.

·        People occupy multiple roles simultaneously, and career choices are shaped by the balance among these roles.

·        Career decisions are influenced by both personal factors and situational conditions such as health, finances, family responsibilities, and social context.

·        Career adaptability becomes important in adulthood because adults often need to adjust plans as work and life circumstances change.

Harvard reference

Super, D.E. (1980) A life-span, life-space approach to career development. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 16(3), pp. 282–298.

2) Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT)

SCCT is a strong fit for your topic because it explains how people form career plans through the interaction of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, goals, and environmental supports/barriers. This is particularly useful for understanding why some MBA graduates become more confident and goal-directed after postgraduate study, while others remain constrained by workplace or family barriers.

Four main ideas

·        Self-efficacy: people are more likely to pursue career goals when they believe they can succeed.

·        Outcome expectations: people’s career choices depend on what they believe will happen if they take a certain path.

·        Interests and goals develop through learning experiences and shape what careers people consider and pursue.

·        Supports and barriers in the social and cultural environment affect career choice, persistence, and progress.

Harvard reference

Lent, R.W., Brown, S.D. and Hackett, G. (1994) Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45(1), pp. 79–122.

Why these two fit your topic

Super’s theory helps you frame career planning as role balancing across the life course, which suits part-time MBA graduates in Hong Kong very well. SCCT helps you examine how confidence, expectations, and constraints shape actual career intentions and actions, which is ideal if your dissertation wants to explain differences in post-MBA career planning.

A practical way to combine them is to use Super for the broad life-course framing and SCCT for the psychological mechanisms behind career planning decisions.

 

Please based on these 2 career planning theories, as well considering the following key words (i.e. positive psychology, inner dialogue, and collaboration with generative AI) to come up with a 5-step career planning method for the Hong Kong part-time MBA graduates.

Here is a practical 5-step career planning method for Hong Kong part-time MBA graduates that combines Super’s career development theory, SCCT, and your three keywords: positive psychology, inner dialogue, and collaboration with generative AI. The method is designed to fit the reality of working adults in Hong Kong who must balance career growth, study, and personal responsibilities.

5-step method

1) Role and strengths scan

Start by mapping your current life roles, such as employee, MBA student, family member, and future leader, because Super’s theory emphasizes that career planning happens across multiple life roles. At the same time, identify your strengths, achievements, and energizing experiences, using positive psychology to focus on what you do well rather than only on gaps. A short inner dialogue prompt can help: “What roles matter most now, and where have I already performed well?”

2) Career confidence check

Use SCCT to assess your self-efficacy and outcome expectations: “What career moves do I believe I can succeed in, and what results do I expect from them?”. This step helps you distinguish between goals you truly want and goals you avoid because of fear, uncertainty, or past setbacks. Generative AI can support this stage by helping you turn your experience into a structured career profile or by suggesting possible career paths based on your background, but it should not replace your own judgment.

3) Positive future design

Define a preferred future career direction in a positive, concrete way, such as a role, industry, or progression path you want over the next 1–3 years. Positive psychology is useful here because it encourages building goals around meaning, competence, and engagement rather than only salary or status. Inner dialogue can be used to test the fit of each option: “Does this path match my values, strengths, and life stage?”

4) AI-supported option testing

Use generative AI as a thinking partner to compare options, draft scenarios, and surface risks, opportunities, and skill gaps. This step fits SCCT because environmental supports and barriers matter, so AI can help you examine market trends, job descriptions, and likely transition barriers in Hong Kong. A useful workflow is: ask AI for three possible career paths, then evaluate each against your confidence, family/work constraints, and long-term goals.

5) Action and review loop

Convert the chosen path into a 90-day action plan with clear actions such as networking, updating your CV, completing a course, or arranging informational interviews. Super’s theory supports ongoing adjustment, so this is not a one-off decision but a cycle of planning, acting, and revising. Review progress regularly through inner dialogue and AI-assisted reflection: “What improved, what blocked progress, and what should I change next?”

How the theory fits

Super’s theory gives the life-span, life-space foundation, so the method respects multiple roles and changing life stages. SCCT adds the mechanism for explaining how confidence, expected outcomes, supports, and barriers shape career choice and persistence. Positive psychology strengthens motivation, inner dialogue supports self-reflection, and generative AI provides structured support for exploration and decision-making.

A dissertation-ready framing

You could present this as a human-AI assisted career planning model for part-time MBA graduates in Hong Kong. The model would argue that career planning is most effective when graduates combine self-awareness, confidence testing, future visualization, external labor-market scanning, and iterative action review. This makes the method suitable for both academic discussion and practical MBA career development programming.

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