ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with providing a theoretical overview on how a qualitative approach can be implemented in cross-cultural career counselling. Short-term contracts rather than lifetime employment with one organisation have, for instance, become commonplace, and many workers' sense of self, more particularly their sense of career self, have been negatively impacted by the global changes. Because of the challenges experienced with the traditional approach to career counselling in cross-cultural contexts in particular, quantitative measurement, observation of behaviour and qualitative analysis of test results should be integrated to enable career counsellors to enter the phenomenological world of the client. Career counselling is based on the integration of clients' interests, competencies and work ethics, the threads that underlie and connect clients' entire career-life stories. Career-related inhibitions may surface during narrative career counselling. In Africa, some careers are traditionally reserved for females. Career counsellors should familiarise themselves with prevailing cultural beliefs, such as the African custom of greeting another person.
