Career Planning and Development

Prof. M. A. Akkas, Dhaka University.

1. What is Career?

The term career has a number of meanings. It can be viewed from different
perspectives. In popular usage it can mean advancement or upward movement to
linear progression. For example, he is moving up in his career. This definition
suggests that a person is pursuing a career only if he or she exhibits steady or rapid
advancement in status, money and the like. People who have not experienced
advancement or other substantial achievements do not really have a career.

Career means a profession (for example, he has chosen a career in medicine). It is a

lifelong sequence of jobs. It is sequence of positions that a person has held over his
or her life. It means stable employment within a profession. For example
physicians and lawyers are thought to have careers, whereas clerks and mechanical
are not. This definition suggests that one must achieve a certain occupational or
social status for one’s work activities to constitute a career.

Super and Hall (1988) define career as a sequence of positions occupied by a

person during the course of a lifetime. A career is all the jobs that are held during
one’s working life. This is the objective career.

Career may be defined as a source of stability within single occupational field or

closely connected fields. A person’s pursuit of closely connected jobs like teacher,
guidance counselor and private tutor is thought to represent a career.

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From another perspective, a career consists of the changes in values, attitudes and
motivation that occur, as a person grows older ( Davis, 1996). This is the
subjective career. So all careers have both subjective and objective elements that
together from the basis of an individual’s career.

Both of these perspectives, objective and subjective, focus on the individual. Both
assume that people have some degree of control over their destinies and that they
can manipulate opportunities in order to maximize the success and satisfaction
derived from their careers.

Career means advancement, professional status and stability. Arther, Hall and
Lawrence consider the career to be an evolving sequence of a person’s work
experience over time.

A career is defined as the pattern of work-related experiences that span the course
of a person’s life. Work-related experiences include objective events or situations
such as job positions, job duties, and work-related decisions; and subjective
interpretations of work-related events such as work aspirations, expectations,
values and needs, and feelings about particular work experiences.

Recently researchers have advocated a multiple career concept that distinguishes

four career patterns:
- A traditional linear career that emphasizes upward mobility,
- An expert career that focuses on stability in a specially area,
- A spiral career in which major career shifts occur periodically, perhaps
every 7 to 10 years

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 - A transitory career, which is characterized by changes in career fields as
frequently as every three to five years.

Career is often confused with job. Experts make difference between a career and a
job. According to them, a career is a perceived sequence of attitudes and behaviors
associated with work-related experiences and activities over the span of the
person’s life.

Whereas a job is what a person does at work to bring home a paycheck, a career is
being engaged in a satisfying and productive activity. Thus a career involves a
long-term view of a series of jobs and work experiences.

For some people their jobs are part of a careful plan. For others, their career is
simply a matter of luck. Merely planning a career does not guarantee career
success. Superior performance, experience, education, and some occupational luck
play an important role. When people rely largely on luck, however, they seldom
are prepared for career opportunities that arise. Successful people identify their
career goals, plan, and then take action. To put it another way, successful careers
are managed through proper and careful career planning.

People who fail to plan their careers may do so because they think that their
company or their boss will assume that responsibility. Or perhaps they are unaware
of the basic career planning concepts. Without an understanding of career goals
and career paths, planning is unlikely. A career path is the sequential pattern of
jobs that forms one’s career. Career goals are the future positions one strives to
reach as part of a career.

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2. Career planning

Career planning is the process of one’s life work and involves evaluating abilities
and interests, considering alternative career opportunities, establishing career
goals, and planning practical development.

Career planning is the deliberate process through which a person becomes aware of
personal career related attributes and the lifelong sense of stages that contribute to
his or her career fulfillment.

Organization has a vested interest in the careers of their members and career
planning and development programs help them to enhance employees’ job
performance and thus the overall effectiveness of the organization.

3. What do employees want in organizational career planning?

Effective career planning and development programs must consider the different
perceptions and desires of employees. Employees want the following factors in
organizational career planning:

 Career equity: Employees want to perceive equity in the organization’s

performance and promotion system with respect to career advancement
opportunities.

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 Supervisory concern: Employee want their supervisors to play an active role in
career development and to provide timely performance feedback.

 Awareness of opportunities: Employees want knowledge of the career

advancement opportunities that exist in their organizations.

 Employee interest: Employees needs different amount of information and have

different degrees of interest in career advancement depending on a variety of
factors (age, sex, occupation, education).

 Career satisfaction: Employees, depending on their age and occupation, have

different levels of career satisfaction.

4. Benefits of career planning

Personnel department should take an active interest in employee career planning.

They often handle career planning because their human resources plans indicate
the organization’s future employment needs and related career opportunities. D. B.
Miller (1997) says that organizations have different perspective on careers. They
want to assure that managerial succession is orderly and efficient so that when
managers need to be replaced because of promotion, retirement, accident or illness,
termination or resignation, high-qualified people can replace them quickly and
easily. In addition, personnel experts are more likely to be aware of training and
other developmental opportunities. Of course individual managers should
encourage career planning. The involvement of personnel managers in career
planning has grown during recent years because of its benefits. Here is a partial list
of those benefits:

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 Develops promotable employees. Career planning helps to develop internal
supplies of promotable talent.

 Lowers turnover. The increased attention and concern for individual careers
generate more organizational loyalty, and therefore, lower employee turnover.

 Improves the organization’s ability to attract and retain high talent personnel.

 Taps employee potential. Career planning encourages employees to tap more of

their potential abilities because they have specific career goals.

 Furthers growth. Career plans and goals motivate employees to grow and
develop.

 Reduces hoarding. Without career planning, it is easier for managers to hoard

key subordinates. Career planning causes employees, managers and the
personnel department to become aware of employee qualifications.

 Satisfies employee needs. With less hoarding and improved growth

opportunities for employees, an individual’s esteem needs, such as recognition
and accomplishment, is more readily satisfied.

 Reduce employee frustration.

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 Assists affirmative action plans. Career planning can help members of protected
groups prepare for more important jobs. This preparation can contribute to
meeting affirmative action timetables.

 It ensures needed talents will be available.

 Improves the organization’s ability to attract and retain high talent employees.

 Promotes organizational goodwill.

5. In what ways can a human resources department assist career planning?

A career is not something that should be left to each employee; instead it should be
managed by the organization to ensure efficient allocation of human and capital
resources.

The HR department must take an active role in employee career planning through
career education, information and counseling. These are discussed next.

Career Education

Many employees know very little about career planning. Often they are unaware of
the need for and advantages of career planning. And once made aware, they often
lack the necessary information to plan their careers successfully. Personnel
departments are suited to solve both of these shortcomings, and they can increase
employee awareness through a variety of educational techniques. Workshops and
seminars on career planning increase employee interest by pointing out the key

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concepts associated with career planning. Workshops help the employees set career
goals, identify career paths, and uncover specific career development activities.
These educational activities may be supplemented by printed information. The
goals of career information seminar is to help employees better understand hoe
their jobs and careers can contribute to their goals and to identify the roles of
employees, their supervisors, and the personnel department in career planning and
personal development.

Information on career planning

Regardless of the educational strategy the personnel department selects, it should

provide employees with other information they need to plan their careers. Much of
this information is already a part of the personnel department’s human resource
information system. For example, job description and job specification can be
valuable to someone who is trying to estimate reasonable career goals at a firm.
Personnel department can identify future job openings through the human resource
plan. Personnel specialists can also share their knowledge of potential career plans.
The personnel department can also encourage career planning by providing
information about alternative career paths.

Career counseling

To help employees establish career goals and find appropriate career paths, some
personnel departments offer career counseling. The career counselor may simply
be someone who listens to the employee’s interest and provides the specific job-
related information. Or the counselor may help employees uncover their interests
by administering and interpreting aptitude and skill tests.

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Regardless of the match between one’s skills and the organization’s career paths,
counselors need to inform employees of likely changes that will affect their
occupational choices. Career counseling is available to all personnel, especially
those who are being moved up, down, or out of the organization.

Career development

The implementation of career plans requires career development. Career

development comprises those personal improvements one undertakes to achieve a
career plan. The personnel department may sponsor these actions or they may be
activities that employees undertake independent of the department.

That is career development may be organizational and individual career

development. From an organizational career standpoint, career development
involves tracking career paths.

In contrast, individual career development focuses on assisting individuals to

identify their major career goals and to determine what they need to do to attain
these goals.
Each person must accept responsibility for his own career; assess his own
interests, skills and values and take the step required to ensure a happy and
fulfilling career. It is unwise to leave these jobs to others.

In the case of individual career development, the focus is entirely on the individual
and includes his career outside the organization as well as inside. So while
organizational career development looks at individuals filling the needs of the

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organization, individual career development addresses each individual’s personal
work career irrespective of whether this work is performed.

Career development is different from management development. Career

development looks at the long term career effectiveness and success of
organizational personnel. In contrast, management development focuses on work
effectiveness or performance in the immediate time frame. These two have a
common element; management development effort should be compatible with an
individual’s career development in the organization. But a successful career
program should look forward developing people for the long-term needs of the
organization.

6. Career development from the perspective of the individual employee.

Career development can be viewed from the perspective of the organization or of

the individual. We can now focus on individual career development. In this section
we want to identify what employees can do to better manage their own careers.
Career development begins with the individual. Each person must accept his
responsibility for career development, or career progress is likely to suffer. The
primary responsibility for career planning and development rests with the
individual employee. The responsibility for career development ultimately belongs
to each individual. Once the personal commitment is made, several career
development actions may prove useful. These actions involve:

Job performance: Career progress rests largely upon performance. The most
important action an individual can undertake to further his career is good job
performance. When performance is substandard, regardless of other career

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development efforts, even modest career goals are usually unattainable. Individuals
who perform poorly are disregarded quickly by the personnel department and by
management decision- makers.

Exposure: Career progress is furthered by exposure. Exposure means becoming

known by those who decide on promotions, transfers, and other career
opportunities. Without exposure, good performers may not get a chance at the
opportunities needed to achieve their career goals. Managers gain exposure
primarily through their performance, written reports, oral presentations, committee
work, community service, and even the hours they work.

Resignation: When an individual sees greater career opportunities elsewhere, a

resignation may be the only way to meet his career goals. Some employees change
employers as part of a conscious career strategy. Resigning in order to further
one’s career with another employer has been called leveraging.

Organizational loyalty: In many organizations, people put loyalty to their career

above loyalty to their organization. Sometimes, employers try to buy this loyalty
with high pay or benefits; other organizations try to build employee loyalty
through good management treatment and effective human resource practices,
including career planning and development. By offering careers, not just jobs,
many organizations nurture a pool of talent that consistently allows them to staff
senior management positions from among life-long employees. And many
employees use their dedication and loyalty to the company as a career tactic. In
Japan, employees tend to be very loyal to their employer because many firms will
hire only entry-level workers.

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Mentors and sponsors: Mentoring has become a very popular concept. The idea is
simple: an older, more experienced person helps a young person grow and advance
by providing advice, support, and encouragement. Good teachers, coaches, parents
and bosses- all take on some mentoring functions. A mentor is a teacher, an
advisor, a sponsor, and a confidant. A mentor is someone who offers informal
career advice.

If the mentor can nominate the employee for career development activities- such as
training programs, transfers or promotions- then the mentor becomes a sponsor. A
sponsor is someone in the organization who can create career development
opportunities for others. Often the employee’s sponsor is the immediate supervisor,
although others may serve as nominators.

Key subordinate: Successful managers rely on subordinates who aid the manager’s
development and performance. The subordinates may possess highly specialized
knowledge and skills that the manager may learn from them. Or the employee may
perform a crucial role in helping a manager achieve good performance. In either
case, employees of this type are key subordinates. They exhibit loyalty and
dedication to their bosses. They gather and interpret information, offer skills that
supplement those of their managers, and work unselfishly to further their
manager’s careers. They benefit by also moving up the career ladder when the
manager is promoted and by receiving important delegations that serve to develop
their careers. These people complement personnel department objectives through
their teamwork, motivation, and dedication.

Growth opportunities: When employees expand their abilities, they complement

the organization’s objectives. For example, enrolling in a training program, taking

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noncredit courses, pursuing an additional degree can contribute to employee
growth. These growth opportunities aid both the personnel department’s objectives
of developing internal replacements and the individual’s personal career plan.
Membership in the private clubs and professional associations may also afford
growth opportunities. Community service activities provide opportunities for
growth and recognition.

7. Career management

Career management is the process by which organizational career planning is

implemented. As shown in Table 1. Top management support is needed to
establish a climate that fosters career development. Efforts by the personnel
department to encourage career development have little impact unless supported by
managers. Commitment by top management is crucial. Without it, middle-level
managers may show much less support of their subordinates’ career planning
concerns.

All human resource activities within the organization must be coordinated and
human resource managers from various areas should be involved at least as
consultants.

The career-planning program must be open to all members of the organization, and
so they must be flexible to accommodate the variety of individual differences that
will be encountered.

Realistic feedback should be provided to participants with the focus of

psychological success rather than simply advancement. Without feedback about

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their career development efforts, it is difficult for employees to sustain the years of
preparation sometimes needed to reach career goals. Personnel departments can
provide this information in several ways. One way is to give employees feedback
about job placement decisions. This feedback has three objectives: a) to assure
bypassed employees that they are still values and will be considered for future
promotions if they are qualified, b) to explain why they were not selected, and c) to
indicate what specific career development actions they should undertake. To give
employees feedback about their job performance, many personnel department
develop formal performance evaluation procedures.

Implementation of new programs should begin with small pilot programs that
emphasize periodic assessment of employee skills and experiences of the program
itself.

The role of supervisors is very important. Their role include communicating

information about careers; counseling to help subordinates identify skills and
options; evaluating subordinates’ performance, strengths, and weaknesses;
coaching or teaching skills and behaviors; advising about the realities of the
organization; serving as a mentor or role model for subordinates; brokering, or
bringing together subordinates and those who might have positions better suited to
them; and referring subordinates to opportunities.

Table-1

Key ingredients for career management

 Coordination with other human resource activities.

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 Involvement of supervisors.
 Use of human resource managers as consultants.
 Periodical skill assessment.
 Realistic feedback about career progress.
 Top management support.
 Equal accesses and opens enrollment.
 Focus on psychological success rather than advancement.
 Flexibility for individual needs.
 Climate setting for career development.
 Small pilot programs.
 Periodic program assessment

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8. Suggestions to help a person in developing his career.

Making your career decision. The best career choice is one that offers the best
match between what you want out of life and what you need. Good career choice
outcomes should result in a series of positions that give you an opportunity to be a
good performer, make you want to maintain your commitment to your career, lead
to highly satisfying work and give you proper balance work and personal life.
Following suggestions can be used to advance your careers.

a. Select your first job judiciously.

If you have a choice, you should select a powerful organization or department
as place to start your management career. A powerful department is one in
which crucial and important decisions are made. If you start out in departments
that are high in power within the organization, you are more likely to advance
rapidly.

b. Participate in an internship.

Companies want persons who have some experiences and who show some
initiative. One of the better ways of showing these attributes is through
internship. Doing internship is a prerequisite to get a degree. Internship offers
you a chance to see what the work is really like, to get a better understanding of
an organization’s culture and to see if you fit well into the organization. The
work experience the intern gets and the realistic preview of his profession of
choice are invaluable. Internship experiences also enable a person to list work
experience on a resume-something that recruiters view very favorably. If

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 internship is not possible, consider part-time employment in your field of
choice while you pursue your education.
c. Do good work.. Good work performance is a necessary but not sufficient
condition for career success. Your good work performance is no guarantee of
success but without it, a successful long-term career is unlikely.

d. Present the right image

Develop right image. You should assess the organization’s culture so that you can
determine what the organization wants and values. Then you need to project that
image in terms of styles of dress, organizational relationships that you do and do
not cultivate, risk-taking, or risk averse stance, leadership styles and attitude
toward conflict.

e. Learn the power structure

Know and understand the organization’s power structure. You need to learn who is
really in charge, who has the goods on whom, what are the major debts and
dependencies.

f. Gain control of organizational resources.

Control of scarce and important organizational resources is a source of power.

Knowledge and expertise are effective resources to control.
They make you more valuable to the organization and therefore more likely to gain
job security and advancement.

g. Stay visible

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Because the evaluation of your effectiveness can be very subjective, it is important
that your boss and those in power in the organization be made aware of your
contributions.

Other tactics include:

Being seen in social functions,
Being active in your professional associations and developing powerful allies who
speak positively of you.

h. Do not stay too long in your first job

Moving quickly through different jobs.
Seek early transfer or promotion from your first management job.
Find a mentor
Employees who aspire to higher levels in organizations often need the assistance
and advocacy of someone higher up in the organization.
Career progression requires the favor of the dominant in-group that sets corporate
goals, priorities and standards.

j. Support your boss

Your immediate future is in the hands of your current boss.

He evaluates your performance and you do not have enough power to successfully
challenge your boss.
You should make the effort to help your boss succeed.
Be supportive.
Do not undermine your boss or speak negatively of your boss to others.

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If your boss’s performance is poor or his power is negligible, you need to transfer
to another unit.

Stay mobile
You are likely to advance more rapidly if you indicate your willingness to move to
different geographical locations and across functional lines within the organization.
If possible, do not work in slow-growth and stagnant or declining organization.

Think laterally
If you are moving ahead din your organization, consider a lateral move internally
or a lateral shift to another organization.

Keep your skills current.

Organizations need employees who can readily adapt to the demands of the rapidly
changing marketplace. Focusing on skills that you currently have and continuing to
learn new skills can establish your value to the organization.

College graduation is not an end, it is the beginning of a continued lifelong

learning journey.
Remember it is your responsibility to manage your career.

Develop a Network
Our final suggestion is based on the recognition that a network of friends,
colleagues, neighbors, customers, suppliers, and so on can be a useful tool for
career development.

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Final words of wisdom
Let us explain the acronym DATA.
D stands for desire

Sometimes, past experience may be a hindrance. The past may promote a status-
quo mentality. You desire will be a key factor in your career growth. If you desire
to be the best in your field, continually strive to excel, and perform under a variety
of difficult situations.
The A stands for ability.
You must have ability to perform the required work. You must continually upgrade
your skills, knowledge and abilities in order to become the best at your job. This
means looking closely at yourself and identifying your strengths and weaknesses,
capitalizing on strengths and working to develop the weaknesses.
T stands for temperament
You must have an appropriate temperament. You must have ability to adjust in
changing situation. Rigidity and the desire for security may be the ultimate killers
of your career.
A stands for assets
You must possess a variety of assets. Whatever resources the job requires, you
must be able to provide them. This may be networking contacts, equipments, even
time commitments-all resources that contribute to a successful performer.

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9. Stages involved in a career.
Career can be analyzed in terms of stages. Five stages in a career are:
Exploration,
Establishment,
Mid-career,
Late-career,
Decline.

Progression from beginning point through growth and decline phases to a

termination point is typically a natural occurrence in one’s work life.

Exploration.
Many of the critical choices employees make about their careers are made prior to
entering the work on a paid basis. It is a career stage that usually ends in one’s mid
twenties as one makes the transition from school to work. It occurs prior to
employment. It is a time when a number of expectations about one’s career are
developed.

Establishment.
It is a stage in which one begins to search for work.
It includes getting one’s first job.
It is acceptance of a job.
Induction and orientation.
It begins with uncertainties and anxieties and is dominated by two problems:
finding a niche and making your mark. Finding the right jobs take time for many of
us. We change a series of job in which we feel more comfortable. Making your

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mark is characterized by making mistakes, learning from those mistakes and
assuming increased responsibilities. Individuals at this stage cannot reach their
peak productivity. The career takes lot of time and energy. At this time employee
is considered seasoned veteran.

Mid-career.
It is a career stage marked by a continuous improvement in performance, leveling
off in performance, or beginning of deterioration of performance.
Enters a period of maximum productivity.
Becoming more of a teacher/ mentor than a learner.
Continued growth and high performance are not only the successful outcomes at
this stage. Maintenance or holding onto what you have, is another possible
outcome of the mid-career stage.
These employees are plateaued, not failed.
Plateauing is a condition of stagnating in one’s current job.
They are technically competent and they may be satisfied to contribute a sufficient
amount of time and energy to the organization to meet production
commitments; they may be easier to manage than someone who wants more.
These employees are not deadwood but good, reliable employee and solid
citizens.
More feeling of security relaxation but danger of leveling off and stagnation.
There are some employees whose performance begins to deteriorate. They lose
interest and their productivity is low.
Organizations are often limited to relegating such employees to easy jobs,
reprimanding them, demoting them or terminating them.

Late-career

It is a stage in which individuals are no longer learning about their jobs,

nor is it expected that they should be trying to outdo levels of
performance from previous years.
They can teach others based on the knowledge they have gained.
More jobs involving teaching others.
One begins to look forward to retirement and the opportunities of doing
something different.
Psychological preparation fro retirement.

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Finding new sources of self-improvement off the job, new sources of job
satisfaction through teaching others.

Decline
Formal preparation for retirement.
Finding new sources of self-improvement off the jobs, new sources of job
satisfaction through teaching others.
Learning to accept reduced role.
Work responsibilities are fewer.
Learning to accept a less structured life due to absence of work.
New accommodation to family and community.
Those who are financially sound to lead a better life in retirement are more likely
to engage in activities that they desire. But financially weak persons may not
be able to retire and they have to seek gainful employment in some capacity
to supplement their retirement income.

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10. Holland Vocational preferences or personality –job match theory

Good career choice is important because it makes people productive and satisfied. A good match
is one in which we are able to develop a positive self-concept and to do work that we think
important.

Holland Vocational preferences model

It is an individual occupational personality a sit relates to vocational themes. It guides career
choices. He found that people have varying occupational preferences; we do not all like to do the
same job. An employee will be more productive if he has a job where he can do what he thinks
is important. Personality of workers must be matched with their occupations.

Holland vocational preference model identifies six vocational themes:

Personality Personality traits Suitable jobs
type
Realistic Rugged, robust, practical, prefer to deal with things rather than Agriculture, nature,
people adventures. Military,
mechanical
Investigative Scientific, task oriented, prefer abstract problem, prefer to think
through problem rather than to act on them, enjoy ambiguity.
Artistic Enjoy creative self-expression; dislike highly structured situations, Music, art, writing
sensitive, emotional, independent, original.
Social Concerted with welfare of others, enjoy developing and teaching Teaching, athletics,
others, good in group settings, extroverted, cheerful, popular. religious activities, social
services.
Enterprising Good facility with words, energetic, extroverted, enjoy persuasion, Public speaking, politics,
business management and
marketing.
Conventional Prefer ordered, numerical work, enjoy large organizations, stable Office practices,
and reliable. accounting.

Realistic and social are opposite each other. A person with a realistic preference
wants to work with things, not people. A person with asocial preference wants to

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work with people, no matter what else they do. Therefore they have opposing
preferences about working alone or with others. Investigative and enterprising are
opposing themes, as are artistic and conventional preferences.

An example of mutually reinforcing theme is the Social-Enterprising, conventional

(SEC) vocational preference structure. For example, Salim likes working with
people, being successful and following ordered rules. This combination is perfect
for someone who is willing to climb the ladder in a large bureaucracy.

For example, Rahim is Realistic-investigative – artistic (RIA), preferring solitary

work to large groups, asking questions to answering them, and making hi sown
rules instead of following someone else’s. Possibly Rahim is fit for a research lab,
which is characterized by a lack of human interruptions and a concentration of
factual materials. That is consistent with the R-I-A profile.

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11. Schein Anchors
Edgar Schein has identified anchors, personal value clusters that may be satisfied
or frustrated by work..

When a particular combination of these personal values clusters ( technical-

functional competence, managerial competence, security-stability, creativity, and
autonomy-independence) is held by the worker and characteristically offered by
the organization, that person is anchored in that job, organization or industry.

Most people have two or three value clusters that are important to them. If an
organization satisfied two out of three, that is considered a stable match.

For example, Karim is a recent MBA graduate. He wants to use his human
resources degree. His father was laid off when his organization downsized last
year, and he never want to have to deal with that type of uncertainty. Schein
would describe Karim’s anchors as technical competence and security-stability.
His current job choices are marketing on a commission basis for new credit card
company or recruiting for an established and growth-oriented computer firm.
Which job should Karim take? Based on his combination of value clusters, at this
time the recruiting job appears to better match Karim’s preferences.

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12. Selected career planning terms
Tasks. A task is a distinct work activity carried out fro a distinct purpose.
Examples are typing a letter, preparing a lecture.
Duty. A duty is a number of tasks. Counseling students is a duty of a college
teacher.
Position. A position refers to one or more duties performed by one person in an
organization. There are at least as many positions as there are workers in an
organization.
Job. A job is a type of position within the organization. Electrician and
accountants are examples of occupation.
Occupation. An occupation is a group of similar jobs found across organizations.
Career. A career is all jobs that are held during one’s working life. A career
represents a sequence of positions, jobs or occupations that aperson has ove rhis
working life.

Career path. A career path is the sequential pattern of jobs that forms one’s career.

Career goals, Career goals are the future positions one strives to reach as part of a
career. These goals serve as benchmarks along one’s career path.

Career planning, Career planning is the process by which one selects career goals
and the path to those goals.

Career development. Career development consists of the personal improvements

one undertakes to achieve a personal career plan.

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13. Changing landscape of work

A. Job Loss.

Economic, political, cultural and social, technological changes are having profound effects on
the world of work.
Millions of jobs have been lost.
Reduction in work force.
Prospect of a secure and life time career with one employer is fading rapidly.

B. Internationalization.

Global economy reflects another major changes in the world of work and organizations will need
to adopt a global perspective to survive and flourish.
Career developments within the global organizations ( MNCs) are also changing.
Companies are adopting global strategies.
Managers must have a significant exposure to international operations.
Most manger must learn to understand foreign politics, markets, cultures, employees, and new
management styles if they are to be effective in MNCs.

C. Technology.

Technological advances have affected every phases of business. Computer technology has upgraded
skills and made existing skills obsolete.
It creates new career paths fro employees and displace many existing and old jobs. Technology
create new occupation like artificial intelligences technician, divorce mediator, issues
manager, robot salespersons.

D. Changing structure of organization.

Many organizations are making dramatic changes in their structure to meet the challenges of a highly
competitive, global marketplace.
Customer-driven horizontal organization structure contains few levels of management and uses cross-
functional autonomous work teams to manage virtually every process of management.
Organizations are becoming decentralized and flat.
Flat hierarchy
Small permanent core employees
Use outsourcing,
More reliance on temporary or contingent workers.
Many partnership or network with other organizations.
Network organizations link a variety of firms together to provide the expertise and resources needed to
complete a given projects or manufacture specific products.
These changes result in psychological contracts between employer and employees.
A psychological contract is an implicit and unwritten understanding that specifies the contribution an
employee is expected to make to the organization and the rewards employee receives from
the organization in exchange for his contributions. Here job security is less.
Focus is on employability, not employment.

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Organizations are becoming leaner, flatter and flexible.

F. Changing nature of work.

The organizational changes discussed earlier have significant implications for the type of work
performed by managers and workers.
Fewer managers in the organization to supervise employees.
Managers will derive power from expertise, not from position they hold in the organizational
hierarchy.
Employees need to become skilled in self-management.
Managers and employees will be required to become effective members and leaders of cross-
functional and cross-organizational teams and will attain power and influence as they gain
greater information and visibility through their participation in these groups.

G.Culturally diverse work force.

Work force will become culturally diversified. Future work force will be older, more female,
more disadvantaged.
Employees and managers must understand different cultures and to work cooperatively with
others who may hold different values and perspectives.
Career success in many organizations may well depend on an employee’s ability to work in a
multi-cultural environment.

H. Work and family.

Management of work and family will pose a big challenge to employer and employee.
More married women with children in the employment market.
They have more family commitments. Increasing divorce rate.
More single-parent.
Women are in conflict with work life and family.
Dual-career couples and single parents must learn to balance their careers with extensive family
responsibilities.
Work and family roles have also been altered by technological advances. Personal computers
have moved work activities from office to the dining and study rooms.

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Questions for discussion

1. What is meant by the term career?

2. Contrast career with a job.
3. Contrast management development with career development.
4. Career development is a waste of money for a company. All it does is raise employee
expectations and then, frustrated, they quit.” Do you agree or disagree? Discuss.
5. What do employees want in organizational career planning?
6. In what ways can a personnel department assist career planning?
7. Identify what employees can do to better manage their own careers.
8. Contrast human resource planning with career development.
9. Describe the activities involved in career counseling.

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