John emerged from his annual performance
The role of goal setting
in career management
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus,
Gerard A. Callanan
and Eileen Kaplan
The authors
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus is Professor of Management at
Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA.
Gerard A. Callanan is Assistant Vice-President at The
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, USA.
Eileen Kaplan is Professor of Management at Montclair
State University, New Jersey, USA.
Abstract
Examines the conditions under which career goal setting
contributes to effective career management. Views career
management as a process by which individuals can make
informed decisions regarding their work lives. Highlights
the role of the career goal in the career management
process, and identifies the useful features of the goal-
setting process. Reviews the concepts of career indecision
and career decidedness, and specifies four subtypes –
developmental indecision, chronic indecision, hyper-
vigilant decidedness, and vigilant decidedness. Discusses
the implications for organizations and their employees.
The International Journal of Career Management
Volume 7 · Number 5 · 1995 · pp. 3–12
© MCB University Press · ISSN 0955-6214
3
review feeling confident. A 32-year-old senior
computer programmer, John had just finished
discussing his career plans with Mary, his
supervisor. John’s goals were crystal clear:
(1) systems analyst within a year;
(2) systems project leader in another two
years; and
(3) head of the information systems depart-
ment within five years.
Mary was impressed with John’s clear think-
ing, as well as his concrete plans for accom-
plishing his goals. In fact, John was impressed
with himself, as he remembered the words of
the company’s director of human resources:
“If you don’t know where you want to go,
you’ll never get there”. No way will John float
aimlessly through his career!
Michele, on the other hand, was more than
a little concerned. A programmer colleague of
John, Michele was confused. She was not only
unsure of her future in the information sys-
tems department, but also was beginning to
question whether she even wanted to remain
in the systems area. More and more, she
found herself thinking about a career in mar-
keting management, although she had no idea
why. At age 35, Michele should have a firmer
grip on her career, her supervisor commented
to the department head. And Michele agreed!
“What is wrong with me?” she wondered on
more than one occasion.
It is generally assumed that career goal
setting is beneficial, if not essential, to
employees and their organizations. A career
goal can signify that an employee has a clear
picture of his or her future, and it can provide
a target that guides one’s actions towards the
satisfaction of important needs. Moreover,
from the organization’s perspective, a career
goal is thought to promote effective job per-
formance and can serve as a basis for effective
human resource planning. It is no wonder that
career planning programmes generally
include career goal setting as a central activity.
Most readers may congratulate John on his
decisiveness and chide Michele on her indeci-
sion. Certainly, social wisdom assumes that it
is better for employees to have a targeted
career goal towards which to strive than to
flounder in a sea of uncertainty.
Yet this assumption is being questioned
along several fronts. Hall and Richter[1]
contend that long-term career planning may
be unrealistic in today’s world. They argue
 The role of goal setting in career management
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Gerard A. Callanan and Eileen Kaplan
persuasively that the turbulence experienced
by many organizations renders useless the
traditional conception of career planning – a
long-term series of career goals and strategies.
Moreover, a specific career goal can create
tunnel vision, leaving employees so commit-
ted to a particular course of action that they
resist new information regarding the viability
of the goal[2]. Indeed, people can be so dri-
ven by the desire to accomplish a concrete
goal that they lose flexibility and adaptabil-
ity[3]. Therefore, we must consider whether a
career goal is helpful or unnecessarily restric-
tive, and whether employees who pursue
specific career objectives are better off than
those who do not.
We believe that the usefulness of a specific
career goal depends on the circumstances.
There are times when career goal setting is
beneficial, and there are times when it is
useless or even harmful. In this article, we will
examine our view of the career management
process, discuss the relevance of career goal
setting to career management, give an
overview of the concept of adult career indeci-
sion, and identify those circumstances under
which career goals can enhance or impede
career growth and development. We close the
article by presenting a number of implications
of our views for organizations and their
employees.
The career management process
Career management, depicted in Figure 1, is
the process by which individuals can make
Figure 1 Model of career management
Information, opportunities, and support from educational, family, work, and societal institutions
Need to make
decision
Career
exploration
Career
appraisal
Progress
towards goal
The International Journal of Career Management
Volume 7 · Number 5 · 1995 · 3–12
informed decisions regarding their work
lives[2]. This model of career management
portrays how people should manage their
careers, not necessarily how they do manage
them. According to this perspective, individu-
als should engage in various forms of career
exploration in order to enhance their aware-
ness of themselves (values, interests, talents,
and preferred lifestyle) and their environment
(occupations, jobs, career paths, organiza-
tions, industries, and family constraints). This
heightened awareness of self and environment
should enable individuals to set realistic
career goals that are compatible with their
personal qualities which, in turn, should aid
the development and implementation of
appropriate career strategies or action plans.
The implementation of a career strategy
should provide feedback regarding progress
towards achieving the career goal, as well as
additional information concerning the appro-
priateness of the strategy and the career goal
itself. Career appraisal, the ongoing utiliza-
tion of career-related feedback, perpetuates
the career management cycle.
What are the signals that a person is man-
aging his or her career effectively? Certainly,
advancement in rank, money, status, or power
does not, in and of itself, reflect effective
career management, since these outcomes can
be attained by individuals whose work life
brings dissatisfaction and unhappiness. The
external trappings of “success” tell us little
about the appropriateness of career decisions.
Rather, effective career management can be
assessed by applying two criteria:
Awareness of self Goal
and environment setting
Feedback:
work/non-work
Strategy Strategy
implementation development
4
 The role of goal setting in career management
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Gerard A. Callanan and Eileen Kaplan
(1) Has the individual made career decisions
that are compatible with his or her values,
talents, interests, and lifestyle prefer-
ences?; and
(2) Can the individual adapt to changes in
him/herself and the environment that
threaten the compatibility of career expe-
riences with values, talents, interests, and
lifestyle preferences?
We examine these criteria in more depth.
First, extensive research in vocational and
organizational behaviour has demonstrated
the importance of compatibility or “fit”
between a person’s work experiences and his
or her underlying personal qualities. For
example, employees who work on jobs that
support personal values and that involve tasks
that are intrinsically interesting are more
satisfied with their jobs and are more commit-
ted to their organizations than employees
whose jobs are incompatible with their values
and interests[4]. Moreover, compatibility
between the demands of the job and the
employee’s talents and abilities enhances job
performance[5]. In addition, jobs and careers
that permit an employee to achieve a pre-
ferred lifestyle – effectively balancing work
and non-work activities – can reduce stress
and promote wellbeing[6]. In short, person-
job compatibility has been found as a reliable
indicator of effective career management.
However, we know that people change and
develop over the course of their lives, not only
through such dramatic events as family crises
and health problems, but in more subtle and
evolutionary ways as well[7]. Values held
dearly at age 25 may seem less important at
age 45. Interests that lay dormant during early
adulthood may become increasingly com-
pelling during middle and late adulthood.
The centrality of work so characteristic of
ambitious young women and men can be
replaced over time by a need to balance com-
mitments to different facets of one’s life.
People who manage their careers effectively
are sensitive to such changes in themselves,
and are sufficiently flexible to make career
decisions that are more compatible with their
emerging selves. For example, employees may
seek a job transfer, change employers,
redesign their jobs, or cut down on their work
involvement in response to these internal
changes.
Additionally, employees’ environments
are subject to periodic change. Rapid
5
The International Journal of Career Management
Volume 7 · Number 5 · 1995 · 3–12
technological changes may eliminate old
career paths in favour of new options. Merg-
ers, acquisitions, and corporate downsizing
can severely restrict an employee’s advance-
ment opportunities and, at the extreme, can
eliminate his or her current position. Other
sweeping environmental changes – such as the
modification of retirement regulations, the
institution of a corporate affirmative action
programme, or the career demands of a
spouse or partner – can influence the career
opportunities or restrictions experienced by
an employee. Again, effective career manage-
ment requires periodic adaptation to chang-
ing circum-stances to maintain or improve the
compatibility between the employee and his
or her work experiences.
In summary, career management is an
ongoing decision-making process designed to
promote employee wellbeing through com-
patibility of work experiences with personal
qualities. Information is acquired, awareness
is heightened, goals are set, strategies are
implemented, feedback is utilized, and adap-
tation is sought.
The role of goal setting in career
management
Central to the career management process,
and the primary subject of this article, is the
role of goal setting in career management. A
career goal can clarify thinking, motivate and
direct behaviour, and serve as a basis for the
development of a career strategy. For exam-
ple, John’s career goals, described at the
beginning of the article, provided him with
specific targets towards which to strive,
and suggested action plans to achieve his
aspirations. In pursuit of his short-term career
goal – to achieve the position of systems ana-
lyst – John may decide to take extra courses on
systems design, he may attempt to learn more
about the workings of the organization as a
whole, and/or he may try to improve his com-
munication and group leadership skills.
Moreover, because of its concrete nature, a
career goal can serve as a feedback and con-
trol mechanism, providing information to the
employee on whether his or her career
progress is “on target”. John may speak with
his supervisor Mary about the appropriate-
ness of his goal and his overall progress. He
can seek feedback on the usefulness of the
systems design courses or his success in
improving his communication skills. In light
 The role of goal setting in career management
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Gerard A. Callanan and Eileen Kaplan
of his experiences, he can reflect on whether
the position of systems analyst is still a
meaningful objective for him. A career goal, in
other words, can organize thought, direct
action, and serve as a monitoring device to
assess progress and identify obstacles to
future satisfaction.
Yet career goal setting is not without its
critics. Consider the following objections:
• Everything is changing so rapidly in today’s
world that it is impossible to plan one’s
career and set meaningful career goals.
• The pursuit of a career goal encourages
rigidity and inflexibility that does not
permit adaptation to change.
• An employee pursuing a career goal is so
preoccupied with the future that little
attention is given to (and little satisfaction
is derived from) performance on the cur-
rent job.
• With the glut of baby boomers in the job
market and the trend towards corporate
downsizing and re-engineering, there are
fewer advancement opportunities, fewer
goals to achieve, and therefore greater
potential for career frustration.
We believe that these objections are based on
two common misconceptions about the
nature of a career goal: first, that a career goal
necessarily represents a particular target job
that an employee is striving to attain; and
second, that a career goal serves primarily as a
stepping stone to attain higher-level jobs in
the future.
In reality, career goals can be less specific
and instrumental. Indeed, a career goal can,
and often should, be a more general guide for
the future, summarizing nothing more than
the broad-based work experiences an employ-
ee wishes to attain. In this sense, the career
goal is a map of the future that takes into
account the tasks that one finds enjoyable and
satisfying, that provide appropriate rewards,
and that permit one to achieve a desired
lifestyle. Thus, it is our view that individuals
should have a balanced concern for the con-
crete, instrumental aspects of a career goal, as
well as for the conceptual and less specific
side.
Taking into account the prior research on
career goals, we can offer several prescriptions
for when career goal setting is most useful.
(1) One should set career goals that are com-
patible with personal values, talents,
interests, and preferred lifestyle, and do
6
The International Journal of Career Management
Volume 7 · Number 5 · 1995 · 3–12
not “belong” to somebody else. Often
people set career goals to please some
other person, not necessarily to meet their
personal needs. The chemistry major who
selects medicine to please a parent, the
scientist who selects a management track
to satisfy a boss, the attorney who takes a
position with a prestigious Wall Street
firm to please a spouse, are all pursuing
someone else’s conception of what is best
for them. People who choose career goals
for that reason are courting disaster,
because such goals are unlikely to satisfy
personal values and aspirations.
(2) Individuals should have a dual concern
for present satisfaction and future satis-
faction. Employees who focus exclusively
on the future and who see every job and
work activity merely as preparation for
some later assignment will probably have
difficulty enjoying their work. Planning
for the future is fine, but an absolute
preoccupation with the future can be
unhealthy. There is no substitute for
doing work that is interesting and person-
ally meaningful. Most employees can
accept brief periods of uninteresting or
unimportant tasks in the service of a
longer-term goal. However, when boring
or distasteful work becomes the rule
rather than the exception, then the future
is dictating the present and satisfaction is
replaced by anticipation.
(3) One’s career goals should incorporate
total lifestyle concerns. Effective career
management requires an understanding
of the relationship between an employee’s
work life and his or her family and per-
sonal life. Many people pursue a career
goal without regard for its influence on
the different facets of their lives. Work can
often require an extensive time commit-
ment that conflicts with other aspects of
our existence, including time for family,
leisure, community service, and self-
development. An employee’s career goal
should take into account the balance that
the employee desires between work and
non-work involvements. This requires
considerable insight regarding the effect
of pursuing a particular career goal on
one’s family and personal life, as well as
the consequences of family and personal
factors on the likelihood of attaining a
career goal.
 The role of goal setting in career management
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Gerard A. Callanan and Eileen Kaplan
(4) The employee should be flexible with
regard to career planning. Since people
can become overly committed to a con-
crete objective, a thorough re-evaluation
of career goals is often difficult. Yet flexi-
bility is essential for effective career man-
agement. Career values and interests can
change over time, talents can blossom
with experience or maturity, and the
salience of family or personal interests
can wax or wane over the course of a
lifetime. Any of these shifts can signal the
need to re-examine and revise one’s
career goal. People need to be sufficiently
flexible to understand that their underly-
ing needs and values can be met through
a variety of different positions and organi-
zations.
Career indecision
One of the major messages of this article is
that properly set career goals can promote
career growth and satisfaction. From this
central theme, two questions arise:
(1) it can be asked whether the setting of
career goals is always appropriate; and
(2) what happens when individuals have
difficulty setting goals for themselves?
The concept of career indecision can help us
answer these questions and can give guidance
on the conditions under which the establish-
ment of a career goal is useful, as well as when
it might be dysfunctional.
Career indecision (and its mirror image
career decidedness) refers to the absence (or
presence) of a career goal, as well as the
degree of certainty attached to the goal.
Employees are “career undecided” if they
have either:
• not established a career goal; or
• established a goal with which they experi-
ence substantial uncertainty and discom-
fort.
Employees are “career decided” if they have
established a career goal with which they
experience relative certainty and comfort.
Turning back to the examples cited at the
beginning of the article, John seems to be
“career decided” because he has selected a
career goal (systems analyst) with which he
seems comfortable, whereas Michele is
“career undecided” because she is unable to
7
The International Journal of Career Management
Volume 7 · Number 5 · 1995 · 3–12
specify a career objective at the present time.
Who is better off?
Recent research suggests that there are
different subtypes of career indecision/career
decidedness[8]. Figure 2 presents a matrix
that illustrates these four subtypes.
Developmental indecision (upper left
panel) occurs when an employee experiences
indecision primarily because of a general lack
of information. Our research shows that
developmentally undecided employees tend
to be younger (20s and early 30s), and in
comparison with the decided groups, have
more limited knowledge about themselves
and the work environment. In addition,
because of their ages, they tend to experience
extensive family demands.
We refer to the second career indecision
subtype as chronic indecision (upper right
panel). This form of indecision represents a
more persistent inability to set career goals.
We have found that chronically undecided
employees are comparatively older than their
developmentally undecided counterparts, and
display lower self-confidence, experience
more extensive fear and anxiety regarding
their decision making, and confront more
extensive situational constraints than their
developmentally undecided colleagues.
The bottom half of the matrix shows two
types of career decidedness. Consistent with
the Janis and Mann[9] typology of decision
making, hypervigilant employees (lower right
panel) have selected a career goal, but their
decision is based on insufficient knowledge of
Figure 2 Subtypes of employee career decision making
No Developmental Chronic
Selection of a career goal?
Yes Vigilant Hypervigilant
Low High
Decision making anxiety/pressure
Source: This classification scheme is based on the findings of
Callanan and Greenhaus [8]
 The role of goal setting in career management
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Gerard A. Callanan and Eileen Kaplan
themselves and/or their organizational envi-
ronment. In such situations, the career goal
may have been hastily contrived as a response
to the extensive pressure, anxiety, and stress
experienced by the individual. Unlike the
chronically undecided individual who
responds to extensive stress by postponing a
career decision, the hypervigilant individual
prematurely rushes into a decision in response
to extensive stress or other factors.
‘…research indicates that vigilant career
decision making produces positive
work attitudes and least stress…’
Vigilant employees (lower left panel) also have
selected a career goal. However, unlike their
hypervigilant counterparts, their selection is
based on sufficient personal and environmen-
tal information and is made with a compara-
tively lower level of stress and anxiety. Consis-
tent with this reasoning, our research indi-
cates that vigilant career decision making
produces the most positive work attitudes and
the least stress for the employee.
An example of each subtype follows:
At age 24, Kevin has been out of college for
two years. On graduation, he had taken his
current position as a junior underwriter with a
large insurance company, mainly because the
number of available jobs for general business
majors was slim. Kevin really is not sure what
he wants to do with his career. He has started
going to the library to learn more about differ-
ent occupations and industries and has asked
his friends and family for advice. Next week
he will be attending a company-sponsored
career development workshop where they use
different self-assessment instruments to allow
participants to discover more about them-
selves. Kevin actively wants to get a fix on
where he should be taking his career.
Joyce’s career has been floundering for a
number of years. At 36, Joyce has held a
number of different jobs over the past 15
years, none of which represented what she
saw as a “career track” position. Presently she
is working as a customer service representa-
tive, but she really does not like the constant
dealing with other people’s problems. Joyce
has always had trouble setting goals for her-
self. Whenever an important decision needs
to be made, Joyce gets anxious and “freezes
up”, leaving her unable to make a commit-
ment. Because of her age, Joyce does not see
8
The International Journal of Career Management
Volume 7 · Number 5 · 1995 · 3–12
starting out on some new career path as a
realistic option. But she is clearly not happy in
her present position.
Coming out of a prestigious business
school five years ago with an MBA, Ted
immediately set career goals for himself, with
an exact time frame for moving up the corpo-
rate ladder. He has advanced pretty much in
line with his goals, but the personal toll has
been heavy. He just cannot seem to find time
for his family, and his wife has started talking
about a divorce. He envies other fathers who
are actively involved in their children’s activi-
ties. Ted has yet to recognize that his decision
to get an MBA and place himself on the fast-
track may have been inconsistent with his real
values.
Kathy is pleased with her job as a sales
manager. She is certain that her progress and
her satisfaction are the products of her thor-
ough approach to setting goals for herself.
Even back in college, Kathy was careful in her
selection of marketing as her major. She had
participated in workshops that helped her
learn more about her interests and talents.
Kathy also spent time talking with her family
and friends to find out more about different
lines of work. All the information that she
gathered indicated that the sales area was
right for her. Once in her career, Kathy con-
tinued to be conscientious in her decision
making. Her move into sales management was
again in line with her interests and lifestyle
preferences, and she pursued education and
experiences that facilitated her entry into the
management ranks.
In the first example, Kevin can be viewed
as developmentally undecided. Although he
does not currently have a career goal, he is
actively gathering information and exploring
different types of jobs. In contrast, Joyce
seems to be chronically undecided or indeci-
sive. She has shown a persistent inability to set
career goals, resulting from high degrees of
decision-making anxiety. Ted looks to be
hypervigilant in his career decision making.
While he has established career goals, they
have been at odds with his true interests and
preferences. He had set goals for himself
without considering fully the personal and
environmental information available and
succumbing to social pressure. Finally, we
view Kathy as representing the vigilant sub-
type. She has been thorough in setting her
career goals, careful to consider her own
personal desires and preferences. She has
 The role of goal setting in career management
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Gerard A. Callanan and Eileen Kaplan
taken time to gather relevant information
about herself and her environment before
setting her career goals and undertaking
related strategies.
As these scenarios suggest, the usefulness
of a career goal is contingent on the circum-
stances at a particular point in a person’s life.
Goals that are compatible with personal
qualities can be set only when the employee is
aware of values, talents, interests, and pre-
ferred lifestyle, accepts these qualities as
legitimate, and is aware of the opportunities
available in the environment. Career goals
should not be set until the employee is suffi-
ciently aware of self and environment to make
a valid decision. Thus, there can be times
during a person’s life when indecision and
uncertainty are appropriate responses to
personal and environmental conditions[2].
When individuals lack sufficient information
and insight, developmental indecision is
appropriate and hypervigilance is inappropri-
ate.
It is apparent that career exploration
should precede the establishment of a career
goal, since it is through career exploration that
employees gather information about them-
selves and learn more about their options.
With this increased information base, employ-
ees hopefully can set realistic career goals that
are consistent with personal values and aspira-
tions and with environmental conditions.
Implications for organizations and their
employees
Employees who set career goals in a vigilant
manner – based on insights into themselves
and their alternatives as well as a balanced
concern for their present and their future –
should have the greatest likelihood for pro-
ductive and satisfying careers. Organizations
can promote a vigilant approach to career goal
setting in a number of ways.
Facilitate self-awareness
Reasonable and appropriate career goals are
unlikely to be developed without a foundation
of accurate information regarding one’s tal-
ents, values, interests, and lifestyle prefer-
ences. Organizations can promote self-aware-
ness by providing career counselling and
sponsoring career-planning activities. How-
ever, considerable self-insight can also be
derived from everyday work experiences
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The International Journal of Career Management
Volume 7 · Number 5 · 1995 · 3–12
within organizations. The following experi-
ences can all serve as potential learning:
• effective performance appraisal and feed-
back systems;
• education and training activities;
• temporary assignments;
• job changes and;
• an expansion of the current job.
Employees can gain most effectively from
these activities when they have an opportunity
to discuss the insights they have acquired with
other knowledgeable people, especially their
own manager.
Facilitate an awareness of the
environment
Extensive information about the environment
is necessary to set realistic and appropriate
career goals. What rewards are associated with
a market research position? How much travel
is required for a product manager in this
company? What skill areas are most critical
for success as a sales manager? What is this
company going to look like in one to two years
or five to ten years?
An organization can promote an awareness
of the environment by providing employees
with access to key information about alterna-
tive jobs in the organization, such as duties,
responsibilities, required skills, travel, and
time commitment pressures. This requires the
organization itself to understand the behav-
ioural requirements of different jobs and
career fields so that this information can be
provided to employees. Additionally, the
organization should communicate its mission,
structure, and culture to employees who are
trying to determine the presence of a fit
between the organization’s needs and their
needs.
In today’s decentralized environment, it is
likely that many employees will move outside
their functional areas for their next jobs.
Networking – either through formal or infor-
mal corporate sponsorship – encourages
employees to broaden their horizons with
regard to setting future career goals. An alter-
native is to provide exposure through ad hoc
groups or task forces as well as temporary
positions and/or lateral moves. These oppor-
tunities provide a flexible approach for
employees to learn about other areas and
functions of the organization. Such activities
have been found to be particularly helpful for
women and minorities who may be less likely
 The role of goal setting in career management
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Gerard A. Callanan and Eileen Kaplan
than white males to have had effective spon-
sorship.
Encourage experimentation
Much learning about oneself and the environ-
ment comes from active experimentation.
People can learn a great deal from taking on
new roles. A financial analyst or a salesperson
contemplating a move into management
should be encouraged to incorporate manage-
rial responsibilities into his or her current job,
perhaps through a special assignment or
project. Experimentation can also take the
form of seeking information from previously
unfamiliar sources. Speaking with a counsel-
lor about a career dilemma, joining a support
group for newly-transferred employees,
attending a seminar on marketing in the
financial services industry, or enrolling in a
graduate course or programme can all stimu-
late an employee to think about his or her
future from a different perspective.
Respond to chronic indecision
Our prior suggestions are based on one rather
critical assumption: that the undecided
employee needs simply to learn more about
him/herself, the environment, or alternative
courses of action – that is, the employee is
“developmentally” undecided. Perhaps recent
changes in an employee’s work situation,
family pressures, or career interests triggered
a re-evaluation of his or her future. Or
changes in one’s personal life (ageing and
feelings of mortality), work environment
(merger or acquisition, change in corporate
strategy), or family environment (empty nest,
spouse’s career aspirations) have produced
major uncertainties regarding career aims.
Career indecision in the face of such changes
suggests that an adaptive, developmental
process is helpful in achieving career decided-
ness.
However, as noted earlier, some employees
may be indecisive about making a career
decision because of an extraordinarily high
level of anxiety and stress surrounding the
decision-making process. Managers should
learn to recognize when indecision about a
career goal represents a kind of chronic inde-
cisiveness and paralysis. Observations about
prior career moves might be helpful in this
respect. In addition, discussions with the
employee about his or her career attitudes
might reveal a considerable degree of stress
about making a career decision. The employ-
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The International Journal of Career Management
Volume 7 · Number 5 · 1995 · 3–12
ee may be reluctant to make any career deci-
sion for fear of making a poor one. The
employee may claim that more information is
needed to make a decision (more testing,
more counselling, more course work, more
stability in the industry), when in reality no
amount of additional information is likely to
move the employee closer to a decision.
We are not suggesting that managers
become therapists, but rather that they probe
the basis for employees’ indecision and rec-
ommend appropriate courses of action. For
example, since chronically undecided
employees tend to be anxious and lack confi-
dence in their decision making, they
might benefit from career counselling on a
one-to-one basis as a supplement to
company-sponsored workshops. Since chron-
ically undecided individuals may also mani-
fest high levels of life stress, a critical aspect of
counselling is to determine whether part of
the problem involves a need for a more com-
prehensive form of support, such as financial
management skills or stress reduction before
undertaking any career goal setting. In short,
simply providing more information to chroni-
cally undecided employees may lack utility.
Discourage career hypervigilance
Hypervigilant employees tend to make career
decisions in a reactive mode without adequate
time for reflection, preparation, and thinking
through their options and alternatives. Often
this results in a decision that is not compatible
with the employee’s values, talents, and inter-
ests, thereby setting up a cycle of dissatisfac-
tion or failure. For such individuals, getting
away from everyday pressures and concerns to
have proper time to reflect is critical. Effective
career management programmes that enable
these employees to distinguish between the
different dimensions of career goals can be
particularly helpful. As they reflect on what
may be truly fitting choices and goals, some
combination of seminars, workshops, com-
puter-based programs, and individual coun-
selling may be especially useful.
Benefits to the organization
While it may be desirable for employees to set
realistic career goals, there has to be some
tangible benefit for the organization to pro-
mote such activities. One major incentive for
an organization to encourage career goal
setting is that its employees learn to take
responsibility for their careers. A second
 The role of goal setting in career management
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Gerard A. Callanan and Eileen Kaplan
advantage is that when employees become
involved in career goal setting they are likely
to become more highly skilled and more
useful to the organization.
Moreover, many career goal-setting pro-
grammes include analyses of employees’ skills
not only by the individuals themselves but
also by their superiors and/or peers. Under-
standing how others view their strengths and
weaknesses further encourages employees to
improve, particularly when these views do not
threaten their self-concept. Taking stock of
one’s plans can aid in determining what types
of training and development activities are
needed. Such activities should be viewed in a
positive light as they frequently result in more
highly skilled employees. And in the event of a
downsizing, the employee has a “skills portfo-
lio” to take along to another job or organiza-
tion.
‘…career goal setting is often in the best
interests of the employee and the
organization…’
For these reasons, career goal setting is often
in the best interests of the employee and the
organization. Although there are certainly
risks to the individual (e.g. disappointment)
and the organization (the potential loss of
talented individuals), we would argue that the
advantages justify the risks. As with any devel-
opment programme, support from the organi-
zation’s top management is necessary for
success. Of particular importance is the cre-
ation of a work climate where individuals feel
safe enough to engage in career goal setting.
All too often in today’s business environment,
employees are not willing to openly voice an
interest in the subject. Many believe that an
interest in future career plans calls into ques-
tion their loyalty to their present position and
boss. In other cases, senior executives make
positive statements about career issues while
their managers ignore them in practice.
In our view, it is important for companies
and their managers to show a strong commit-
ment to continued employee development
through career planning. Even under turbu-
lent conditions, employees should be expect-
ed to consider options and alternatives. All
too often, however, managers believe that
while they are encouraged to develop their
employees, they themselves are forgotten.
Therefore, it is important for organizations to
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Volume 7 · Number 5 · 1995 · 3–12
promote career management across the vari-
ous hierarchical levels of the organization.
The best way to ensure this is to incorporate
subordinate career growth into each manag-
er’s reward system. In light of our previous
discussion, the most appropriate criterion to
apply is not whether the subordinate has set a
career goal or is ready for a promotion but
whether the subordinate is being encouraged
to explore him/herself and the environment
and is being provided with useful feedback,
guidance, and support.
Finally, it is important for organizational
managers to recognize the need for consisten-
cy between the strategic needs of the company
on the one hand and the career management
practices used by the firm on the other. More
precisely, an organization’s business strategies
and other competitive factors will normally
dictate the type and level of individuals who
are employed. The career management prac-
tices described in this article can help fulfil
these human resource needs by linking indi-
vidual aspirations with organizational staffing
responsibilities.
Knowledge of individual career goals can
also aid senior organizational managers in the
critical task of succession planning. Individu-
als with career goals that fit the demands of
top management positions can be targeted
and groomed for these posts. Thus, a compa-
ny can take advantage of the embedded
knowledge of its existing personnel by deploy-
ing them in areas and in jobs that mesh with
individual aspirations in the form of career
goals. Without knowing individual differ-
ences, organizations are apt to make unwar-
ranted or haphazard job assignments.
In closing, we believe that organizations
and their employees can benefit from well-
designed and maintained career management
programmes. We have articulated how career
goals that are the product of a thorough
assessment of one’s own interests, talents, and
lifestyle preferences, as well as an examination
of the work environment, can produce posi-
tive work attitudes. We also stated that career
goals which are set without benefit of this
thorough assessment can be counter-produc-
tive. Organizations that implement career
management programmes to help individuals
explore themselves and their work environ-
ment can reap rewards in the form of poten-
tially more productive employees and a more
efficient matching of employee desires with
corporate human resource requirements.
 The role of goal setting in career management
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus, Gerard A. Callanan and Eileen Kaplan
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