1.1.

MANAGING CAREERS/CAREER MANAGEMENT

1.1.1.

Meaning and Definition of Career Management

Career management is the process of crafting, executing and observing employees career path keeping in view
managements needs and goals. The two very important dimensions of career management are planning and
development of career. The main aim here is to maintain a balance between the employees interest and the
organisations needs. The practices and policies of career management depend on how well the manager
understands the phases through which an employees career progresses.
According to Arnold, Career management is an attempt made to influence the career development of one of
more people.
According to Greenhaus, Career management has been defined as the process by which individuals develop,
implement and monitor career goals and strategies.
According to Mayo, Career management is the design and implementation of organisational processes which
enables the careers of individuals to be planned and managed in a way that optimises both the needs of the
organisation and the preferences and capabilities of individuals.

1.1.2.

Need for Career Management

Following are the needs of career management from organisations as well as employees point of view:
1) Employees Point of View: Career management is crucial from an employees perspective due to the
dynamic and unstable economic, cultural and technological environments. To be successful and satisfied in
todays ever changing and uncertain world, an employee must have all the facets of career management.
This means that only those employees can survive and develop who know their abilities, can measure and
adjust with the unpredictability of environment, develop opportunities in their favour, and take some
positive aspects out of their faults. A deep understanding of oneself and various career paths is the key to a
smooth career growth, especially in times when organisations are changing their structure frequently,
outsourcing various business activities in order to downsize themselves, etc.
Today, unorganised, innovative, and impulsive career paths are gaining popularity and taking the place of
traditional and established careers. With the increase in responsiveness of organisation towards the dynamic
business scenarios, increased flexibility will be needed on employees part as well. Hence, two important
traits of effective career management are adaptability and flexibility. The modern-day employees are active
and of self-confident nature, who need power in their own hands to control their careers and lives instead of
being controlled by any other person. This factor acts as another burden in managing the career effectively.
2) Organisations Point of View: Employees who set high standards for career success and those who intend
to merge the different aspects of their lives and develop a fulfilling lifestyle are the ones who really need to
comprehend the need of dynamic career management. Understanding the career related needs of its
employees and providing assistance to the employees to manage their careers efficiently proves profitable
to organisation also as it help the organisation to manage its personnel efficiently.

1.1.3.

Principles of Effective Career Management

Following are the principles on which effective career management is based:

1) Consistency: A rational and clear image of the career strategy of the organisation must be displayed by
career management.
2) Pro-Activity: To manage current potential of the employees and to ensure adaptability in future through
prediction of the organisations future course of action should be the concern of the career management.
3) Collaboration: A strong association between the employer and the employee is very important for effective
career management.
4) Dynamism: Career management must be dynamic enough to respond to the vibrant needs and
circumstances faced by the organisation and employees.

1.1.4.

Roles in Career Management

Following are the roles of employees, employers, and organisation in career management:
1) Role of Employees: The employees should look to enhance their employment opportunity as well as their
value in the eyes of employer. This can be achieved if they take up the responsibility of planning their
careers on themselves. Many big companies having advanced career management systems ask the
employees to manage their careers themselves. For this, companies can distribute books containing the
guidelines starting from assessment, setting the goals and development planning to final action planning.
The employees should voluntarily join the programme of self-management of their careers. It is their duty
to indulge in career-management discussions with the superiors under career planning process.
Even if a company has a very complicated system for career planning, then also the employees must take
part in various career management activities, such as:
i) Start a voluntary conversation with the superiors in order to get feedback about potential and vulnerable
areas.
ii) Ascertain the current phase of career development and needs for development.
iii) Take up challenges by willingly accepting the assignments of different functional areas.
iv) Communicate with employees that come from diverse work groups within the organisation as well as
professionals from different companies of same industry.
v) Be noticeable as a productive employee.
2) Role of Employers: Employers have a great role to play in the career management process. A supervisor
can act as an important source of information for career appraisal process, as he can provide strengths and
weaknesses of the employees by evaluating their performance. The supervisor also has the chance to
involve in career planning by suggesting success options in the organisation to the employees, appreciating
and backing their career planning, and arrange trainings for them, if necessary.
The participation of the supervisor is believed to be one of the most important elements of a successful
career development programme. A research conducted on the employees reflects that in order to develop the
careers of employees, supervisors must be trained to perform the following four roles:
i) Coach: A coach is someone who understands, listens, enquires, and solves career related issues of the
employees.
ii) Appraiser: An appraiser specifies clear responsibilities, communicates standards, and gives feedback.
iii) Advisor: Advisor suggests alternatives, assists in setting feasible objectives, and advices career paths to
achieve them.
iv) Referral Agent: Someone who discusses action plans with employees and help them connect with the
organisational resources and people.
3) Role of Organisation: The means required by an employee to
provided by the organisations. The following specific processes
management are included in these resources:
i) Career Workshops: Seminars on topics like operation of
assessment, and assisting managers in understanding and
management, are organised in these workshops.

execute career planning successfully are

as well as programmes related to career
career management, setting goals, selfperforming their duties towards career

ii) Information on Job Opportunities and Career: The openings within the organisation and the
trainings to be organised should be informed to the employees through websites, newsletters, e-mails,
career centres, etc.
iii) Career Planning Workbook: Employees are provided with guidebooks as hard copies consisting of
exercises, suggestions, and guidelines for career management.
iv) Career Counselling: A professional counsellor assists the employees and counsels them regarding any
career related concern.
v) Career Paths: Career paths aim at spotting and managing the employees skills for enlargement or
enriching the job either inside or outside the job family, i.e., moving from administrative jobs to
technical jobs.

1.1.5.

Approaches of Career Management

Following are the different approaches of career management:

Approaches of Career Management
Career Audits
Career Counselling and Interviews
Job Shadowing and Mentoring
Job Rotation
Systematic Management of Relocation and/or Job Transition

Executive Coaching
Cross-Training
Provision of a Variety of Contracts and Systems

Computer-Aided Career Management Information Systems

1) Career Audits: The process that undertakes an in-depth analysis of skills, interests, methods, objectives,
and motivations is called career audit. This is not only an account of accomplishments and failures but also
a process that carefully scrutinises the current position of the individual and his prospective position in the
future. Several facts which might get unnoticed if not taken care of like other important activities can also
be reviewed through a sincere career audit. The most significant experiences and skills that can be
emphasised by an individual looking for a job in a new industry can also be revealed by the help of career
audit. If the organisation is undergoing a crisis and a career audit is performed at that time, there are
chances that the results will be biased and impacted by the sentiments of the moment. Thus, it is
recommended to perform career audits on a regular basis.
2) Career Counselling and Interviews: In career counselling, details regarding the employees career
security, expectations, and his prospects are discussed by the counsellor. It enables the employees to predetermine realistic targets for themselves and strive to achieve those targets. On the other hand, in a career
interview, the managers make an effort to match the objectives and expectation of employee as well as the
organisation and put both of them in line. Career counselling motivates and supports the employees as it
understands their individual needs and insights. Moreover, it encourages all individuals to choose a career
for which they are passionate about. In this way it helps individuals to recognise their strengths and also the
fact that success lies within.
3) Job Shadowing and Mentoring: Job shadowing is a self-exploration approach structured to enhance the
know-how of a specific job. In Job shadowing, the individual is tagged along with someone who is actually
performing the task. The individual does not have to perform it by himself. All he needs to do is observe,
listen, and understand the routine task done by the person at job.
The concept of mentoring has been intensely monitored in the recent years and attention has not only been
paid to the impact that mentors have on the careers of the mentee but also on the specific aspects of the
mentoring relations which are very crucial for success. It is a universal belief that mentoring contributes to
career growth, but success cannot be attributed totally to mentoring as it might have been undertaken in the
background or framework of some other crucial developmental activities. The central idea here is that in
order to make mentoring productive, it should be managed well.
4) Executive Coaching: An interactive and personal approach in which a professional coach develops an
association with one executive who is interested in enhancing and developing his career related
knowledge and ability. This helps considerably in individuals development and enhances an
individuals skills at the executive level. This benefits the organisation as a whole. This also enables
the executive to implement the learned skills in order to increase productivity, enhance performance
and grow personally to bring benefits for the company. The main motive of executive coaching is to
enable change and uninterrupted growth. It involves channelising the strengths of the employee and
identifying and overcoming his weaknesses.

5) Job Rotation: It is observed that the benefits of development to the organisation through job rotation are
much more in proportion than the cost and time taken to adjust to the new job and losing the already gained
experience of the older job. Job rotation motivates the employees to expand their knowledge and skills.
However, the key elements of job rotation which assist development should be analysed.
6) Cross-Training: Training for diversified and unusual tasks or skills is known as cross-training. It increases
the capacity of an individual to do multitasking on an urgent requirement when an employee is absent from
work. The plan is to increase the awareness of every team member about the roles and responsibilities of
the other members so that he can provisionally take up his role in his absence. In this training, the trainee is
placed in the job situation of another employee from a diverse but linked job for some time so that he can
understand the important elements of the other job as well. The process of an effective cross-training
consists of clear goals, instructions, guidelines for evaluation, proper feedback framework, and a designated
trainer. This approach is different from job rotation and does not only mean working in place of an
absentee. It is a well-structured training with all the essential instructions needed for conducting training.
7) Systematic Management of Relocation and/or Job Transition: Job transition stands for a modification in
the roles and responsibilities in job, its specifications, location, or status. While switching functional areas
like from human resource to technical, or while climbing the organisational ladder, or while taking up a job
in another organisation, job transition might be involved. Managers are also taken off from situations that
they have been accustomed to and where they have fixed behaviour and routine and placed in situations
where they need to inculcate fresh skills. Hence, transitions are considered a challenge. In addition, when a
manager moves to a new job, he is monitored closely and needs to prove himself in the same manner again.
This makes it essential for firms to ensure that employees and their families are adjusted suitably.
8) Provision of a Variety of Contracts and Systems: The individual needs of the employees must be
addressed through provisions for paternity leave, food courts and cafeterias, phased retirement, VRS, job
sharing, crche, breaks in careers, secondment, etc.
9) Computer-Aided Career Management Information Systems: These systems consist of information
about career development (interests, expectations, behaviour, objective for need interpretation, etc.) as well
as job-related information (jobs and vacancies). Several requirements of career management such as
enumeration of vacancies, career related decisions, career topics, and analysing personality and skills are
accomplished by these systems.

1.1.6.

Importance of Career Management

The following points highlight the importance of career management:

1) Develops Efficient Leadership and Management Skills: Career management clears the vision about the
current position, suggests future course of action and also suggests how people in the organisation can
understand each others point of view.
2) It Makes an Individual Confident: Once a person is sure about the path he needs to take and the results he
would attain on taking that path, he is less likely to get confused in life and gains confidence.

3) Creates New Opportunities: Career management creates new opportunities through improved and new
ideas. This makes the individuals career unique. Besides, if the ideas and opinions are life-changing, they
may help the individual to extend his services to more number of people and meet their needs.
4) Showcasing Potential: An individual can display his potentials to complete tasks and meet deadlines.