4.3.

Career Planning and Development

• A career is a pattern of work-related experiences that
span the course of a person’s life
– 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 has objective events, like jobs and subjective
views of work like attitudes, values, expectations.
• Careers develop over time, have multiple work
related paths and experiences. Individuals,
organizations and the environment are critical to the
development of a career
– Focus is taken away from the stereotypical idea of the
career as a stable, long-term, predictable, organization
driven sequence of vertical movements.
 4.3. Career Planning and Development
• Career development is “an ongoing process by which
individuals progress through a series of stages, each of
which is characterized by a relatively unique set of issues,
themes, and tasks.”
• There is a strong relationship between career development and
T&D activities.
• Traditionally, career development programs helped
employees advance within the organization. Today, each
individual must take responsibility for his or her career.
• The biggest challenge companies face is how to balance
advancing current employees’ careers with
simultaneously attracting and acquiring employees with
new skills.
 4.3. Career Planning and Development
• Career Path: lines of advancement in an occupational
field within an organization.
• Career development involves two distinct processes:
career planning and career management
– Career planning involves activities performed by an
individual, often with the assistance of counselors and others, to
assess his or her skills and abilities in order to establish a
realistic career plan.
– Career management involves taking the necessary steps to
achieve that plan, and generally focuses more on what an
organization can do to foster employee career development.
• Career plans can be implemented, at least in part,
through an organization’s training programs.
 4.3. Career Planning and Development
• Career Planning can be:
– Organization-Centered Career Planning:
Focuses on jobs and on identifying career paths
that provide for the logical progression of people
between jobs in the organization.
– Individual-Centered Career Planning: Focuses
on individuals’ careers rather than in
organizational needs.
 4.3. Career Planning and Development
• Individual Career Development is related with:
– Job Performance
– Exposure
– Networking
– Resignations
– Organizational Loyalty
– Mentors and Sponsors
– Key Subordinates
– Growth Opportunities
– International Experience
 4.3. Career Planning and Development
• Multiple career concept model:
– Linear – steady movement up the hierarchy
– Expert – devotion to expertise within an
occupation
– Spiral – periodic moves across related occupations
– Transitory – frequent moves across different jobs
or fields
 4.3. Career Planning and Development
• Creating Favorable Conditions
– Management Participation
• Provide top management support
• Provide collaboration between line managers and HR
managers
• Train management personnel
– Setting Goals
• Plan human resources strategy
– Changing HR Policies
• Provide for job rotation
• Provide outplacement service
– Announcing the Program
• Explain its philosophy
 4.3. Career Planning and Development
• Career Planning Process
– Self-Assessment: Examine personal interests, skills, values, and
abilities.
– Opportunity Exploration: Seek information on available job
opportunities from family, friends, online job boards, job fairs. Examine
the skills and abilities required.
– Goal Setting/Reality Checking: Decide which job/occupational
opportunities fit both personal interests and skills/abilities. Set
specific target job objectives for a defined time period.
– Action Planning: Outline all steps needed to reach a specific
career goal—formal training, internships, job search, strategy
development, network building, further career exploration, etc.
– Evaluation: Review progress on steps in the action plan, realism of
goals, and accuracy/currency of self-assessment. Revise career plan
based on new information.
 4.3. Career Planning and Development
• The Individuals Role in career development:
– Knowing what: understanding industry’s O/T and
requirements
– Knowing why: Understanding the meaning, motives and
interests
– Knowing where: Understanding boundaries for entering,
training and advancing within a career
– Knowing whom: Forming relationships that will gain
access to opportunities and resources
– Knowing when: Understanding the timing and choices
– Knowing how: Understanding and acquiring the skills
needed
 4.3. Career Planning and Development
• The Manager’s Responsibility in career development:
– Coach: Listens, clarifies, probes and defines career
concerns
– Appraiser: Gives feedback, clarifies performance standards
and job responsibilities
– Advisor: Generates options, helps set goals, makes
recommendations and gives advice
– Referral agent: Consults with the employees on action
plans and links employees to other people and resources
 4.4. Employee Empowerment
• Empowerment - giving employees authority and
responsibility to make decisions about their work without
traditional managerial approval and control
– Sharing Information and Decision-Making Authority
– Keeping them informed about company’s financial performance
– Giving them broad authority to make workplace decisions
• A primary goal of employee empowerment is to give
workers a greater voice in decisions about work-
related matters.
• Decision-making authority can range from offering
suggestions to exercising veto power over management
decisions.
 4.4. Employee Empowerment
• Benefits of Empowerment
– All employees view themselves as ‘owners’ of the
business
– Improved productivity
– Creativity & Innovation
– Customer-focus
– Faster decision-making
– Organizational learning
– Making full use of Human resources-
– “Engaging the mind of every employee”
 4.4. Employee Empowerment
• Organizational improvement through employee
empowerment
1. Empowerment can strengthen motivation by providing
employees with the opportunity to attain intrinsic
rewards from their work, such as a greater sense of
accomplishment and a feeling of importance. Intrinsic
rewards such as job satisfaction and a sense of purposeful
work can be more powerful than extrinsic rewards such as
higher wages or bonuses.
2. Employee empowerment can increase productivity is
through better decisions. Especially when decisions
require task-specific knowledge, those on the front line
can often better identify problems.
 4.4. Employee Empowerment
• Elements Of Empowerment:
– Employees receive information about company
performance
– Employees receive knowledge and skills to
contribute to the company goals.
– Employees have the power to make substantive
decisions.
– Employees understand the meaning and impact of
their jobs.
– Employees are rewarded based on company
performance.