Taking Control of Your Career

Sandra Haase & Catherine Steele

Centre for People @ Work
 Careers today
• Dramatic transformations in organisations
• New Career Realities
– Careers are boundaryless
– Individuals need to take ownership of careers
• Definition of career changed
 Work to live or live to work?
• Schein (1990) Internal vs External Career
– Internal = subjective, individual-oriented view
– External = objective realities and constraints in the
world of work
 Definition of Career
• Objective career - ordered movement of
individuals among a patterned sequence of
positions
• Subjective career - sense that individuals make of
their careers, their personal histories, and skills,
attitudes and beliefs that they have acquired
• Definition career
“the sequence of employment-related positions,
roles, activities and experiences encountered by a
person” (Arnold, 1997)
 Career Success
• Objective career success (OCS)
– Perception of an individual’s career by other people or by society -
reflecting shared social understandings
– Generally measured on external standards e.g. pay or number of
promotions
• Subjective career success (SCS)
– Individual’s perspective, their internal interpretation and evaluation
of their careers
– Generally measured on internal standards e.g. perception of
success with regards to payment, job success, life success etc.
 Career Competencies
• Introduction of competency concept to career
context
• Definition career competencies
“behavioural repertoires and knowledge that are
instrumental in the delivery of desired career
related outcomes”
• Operationalised: Career Competencies
Indicator (CCI)
 Career Competencies II
• Goal setting and career planning (5)
• Self-knowledge (5)
• Job-performance (5)
• Career-skills (7)
• Knowlege of (office) politics (5)
• Networking and mentoring (8)
• Feedback seeking and self-presentation (8)
 Data collection
• Measures in online questionnaire:
– CCI
– OCS – income and number of promotions
– SCS – career satisfaction, job success and life success
– demographics incl. age, gender, education, marital status
– Career salience and personality
• Sent to random sample of 1000 police officers in
collaborating organisation and all employees of UW
• 406 responses (269 police, 110 UW) received
 Analysis and outcomes
• Multiple regression analysis showed that CCI
sub-scales jointly contributed significantly to
the prediction of SCS and OCS
• For SCS the contribution of the CCI sub-
scales was even significant over and above
the impact of demographics, career salience
and personality
 Importance of Career Self-
Management
• Career competencies not only important for
OCS but also for SCS
• Ability to manage own career effectively may:
– Provide individuals with sense of control
– Prevent them from interpreting situations as stressful
– Function as coping strategy and help overcome barriers
– Encourage more positive work attitudes and lower stress
levels
 Career Anchors

Career anchors describe a constellation of self

perceived attitudes, values, needs and talents
that develops over time, and which when
developed, shapes and guides career choices
and directions. (Schein, 1975)
 The 8 Career Anchors

• General Management – rise to a high level in the organisation

• Functional Expertise – seek high levels of challenge in expertise

• Autonomy – want working life to be under your control

• Security & Stability – need to feel economically secure & stable

• Sense of Service – job must fulfil the values you hold

• Pure Challenge – enjoy overcoming impossible barriers

• Creativity – want to create a product/service of your own

• Lifestyle – want work to integrate with other areas of your life

 Data Collection 1

• 40 item on line questionnaire to assess career anchors

• Sent to various organisations in the UK

• 606 responses

• Participants received personal profile in return for completion of

questionnaire
 Popularity

Tan & Queks (2001) method Frequency

Lifestyle 222 Lifestyle 225

Sense of Service 145 Functional Expertise 96
Security 107 Sense of Service 87
Functional Expertise 89 Security 66
Autonomy 82 Autonomy 53
Pure Challenge 56 Pure Challenge 41
Creativity 39 Creativity 25
General Management 14 General Management 13
 Person Job Fit Study
• Matching anchors to jobs
• Measures used:
- Job Satisfaction,
- Organisational Commitment,
- Career Salience
- COI
• 180 WMC employees
 Analysis & Outcomes
• Multiple regression analysis found that
fit between job profile and career anchor
profile predicts both JS & OC

• No moderating effect was found for

career salience
 But……
• Between 1988 and 1998 the male part time workforce increased by
138% from 556,000 to 1,320,000.

• Research suggests a link between the “traditional” view of careers and

stress (Cooper, 2005)

• Most organisations still only operate a vertical career progression model (CIPD
2003). Only 26% of organisations offer career management for all staff

• Most common strategic objectives of career management are “growing future

senior management” or “retaining key staff” (Hirsh 2005)
 Recommendations
• Be aware that fit between career values and job role is
likely to impact on performance

• Encourage organisations to take a broader view of career

management

• Recognise importance of subjective side of career and

career success

• Support individual career management by helping

individuals to develop career competencies
 Contact Details
Sandra: s.haase@worc.ac.uk

Catherine: c.steele@worc.ac.uk