“Expecting children to be dragons” in an east asian context: Parental expectations of children choosing a career in the public sector

ABSTRACT

In East Asia, where a culture of submission to authority dominates, parental expectations significantly influence children’s career choices. A recent empirical study conducted in Taiwan shows that children are more inclined to pursue a public service career when influenced by their parents’ expectations. The present study asks two questions: why do parents in East Asia expect children to secure a career in public service? Is it a result of social pressure, parents’ own values, their socio-economic status, or all of these possible reasons? The present study uses data collected in Taiwan to answer these questions. Our findings broaden the current knowledge base of parental socialisation and its effect on children’s preference for public sector careers.

KEYWORDS:

• Parental expectation
• public sector preference
• interest in a public service career
• East Asia
• Taiwan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Refer to https://wwwc.moex.gov.tw/main/content/wHandMenuFile.ashx?file_id=2163 and https://wwwc.moex.gov.tw/main/content/wHandMenuFile.ashx?file_id=2164 for detailed information.

2. Telephone surveys may result in the inclusion of more aged participants because they are more likely to use landline phones than young people (i.e., coverage error; Lang et al., 2011). This may not be a serious problem in our study as participants have a relatively equal distribution in each age group. Telephone surveys may also lead to a certain level of nonresponse error: respondents may immediately decline a survey invitation once they know the purpose of the call is about a survey. Finally, telephone surveys create a greater social distance, which may reduce the credibility of interviewers’ pledges of legitimacy and confidentiality (Groves, 1990). In our phone survey, we tried various methods to reduce nonresponse error and coverage error. We conducted the survey during school breaks, weekends, holidays, or workday evenings when both parents and students were likely to be home. We also tried to make our survey questions short. To reduce measurement error, our interviewers tried to ask questions at a slow pace and made sure the interviewees fully understood the questions before they provided answers.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education [Tier-1 Grant (RG61/16)]; Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology Research [NSC–102–2410–H– 004- 124–MY2; TGBSIII].

Notes on contributors

Chung-an Chen

Chung-An Chen is an associate professor in the Public Policy and Global Affairs Programme, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has a broad interest in public management issues with a particular focus on organizational behavior, human resource management, and East Asian public management.

Chengwei Xu

Chengwei Xu is a research fellow in the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has published over a dozen of papers in major public administration journals such as International Review of Administrative Science, Public Performance and Management Review, Public Personnel Management, among others.

Don-Yun Chen

Don-Yun Chen is a professor in the Department of Public Administration, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. He specializes in public management in the Chinese context, digital government, and democratic governance.