Role of Organizational Development Intervention in Improving Career Adaptability and Alleviating Career Anxiety among Chinese Undergraduate Students: A Case Study at Zhanjiang University Science and Technology

Abstract

This study examined whether an organizational development intervention could strengthen undergraduates’ career adaptability and alleviate career anxiety in a Chinese private-university context. Grounded in Social Cognitive Career Theory, Career Construction Theory, and Self-Efficacy Theory, the intervention integrated a four-phase Appreciative Inquiry process (Discovery, Dream, Design, and Destiny) with a three-stage career course structured as coaching, mentoring, and supporting. A convergent mixed-methods design was implemented with 40 third-year students in the School of Management at Zhanjiang University of Science and Technology (China) from September to November 2024. Quantitative data were collected using pre-intervention and post-intervention questionnaires measuring career exploration, teacher support, career decision-making self-efficacy, career adaptability, and career anxiety. Qualitative materials (including participant reflections, instructor focus group evidence, administrator perspectives, and implementation logs) were used to contextualize and explain observed changes. Paired pre-post comparisons indicated statistically significant improvements in all four positive outcomes and a significant reduction in career anxiety. Mean changes were 0.43 for career exploration, 0.44 for teacher support, 0.33 for career decision-making self-efficacy, and 0.26 for career adaptability, while career anxiety decreased by −0.46; standardized mean change effect sizes ranged from small-to-moderate to large. Although career adaptability improved, its magnitude was weaker than other outcomes, plausibly reflecting a short course-based intervention window and relatively stable adaptability resources that often require longer reinforcement to shift. Robustness checks using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test converged with the parametric pattern across outcomes. Qualitative evidence is interpreted as process-oriented support that strengthens the plausibility of the pre-post shifts, while avoiding causal over-claims given the single-group, two-wave design. The study contributes an empirically grounded and replicable blueprint for integrating strengths-based inquiry with course-embedded coaching, mentoring, and supporting to enhance career development programming in higher education.