Career success in a boundaryless

career world
MICHAEL B. ARTHUR1*, SVETLANA N. KHAPOVA2
AND CELESTE P. M. WILDEROM2

Presented by:
Sana Kulsoom
Zain Munir Kiyani
Naeem Aslam
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Contents

 Introduction - reasons of rapprochment

 Theory Underlying Career Success
 Six Definitions
 Five Key attributes
 Empirical Research on Career Success
 Guidelines for Future Research
 Conclusion

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Career- defined

 Career is defined as an individual's "course or

progress through life (or a distinct portion of
life)". It is usually considered to pertain to
remunerative work (and sometimes also
formal education).

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Boundaryless career Defined

 “sequence of job opportunities that go

beyond the boundaries of single employment
settings”

4
Introduction

 Rapprochement: Career theory – Career

Success
 Career Theory- boundaryless career
 Career Success – attained promotions
between positions

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Reasons for rapprochment

1) there are grounds to beware of fragmentation

of underlying theory.
 one group of research relies on an argument that
objective career success affects subjective career
success
 Another group of papers elevates the role of
subjective career success over objective career
success
 A third group of papers insists that the subjective and
objective sides of career success are interdependent
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2) concerns the interpretation of career success
 Career Success - key variables
1. number of promotions
2. salary increase
3. scales of career satisfaction
 Career Theory –
1. Success with in and other organzations
2. Success may be assessed by peer groups
3. Accommodating work and family interfaces and work-
life balance
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3) rapprochement is that the employment
context in which careers evolve is rapidly
changing.
 people who exhibit boundaryless career behavior
report considerably higher levels of career success

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Career and types of careers- Career
Success research
 Career- is the unfolding sequence of a person’s work
experiences over time
 Time
 Mobility
 Subjective Career:- reflecting the individual’s own sense
of his or her career and what it is becoming

 Objective Career:- reflecting the more or less publicly

observable positions, situations, and status ‘that serve
as landmarks for gauging a person’s movement through
the social environment
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Career success

 is an outcome of a person’s career

experiences.
 defined as the accomplishment of desirable
work-related outcomes at any point in a
person’s work experiences over time
 Subjective career :- the individual’s internal
apprehension and evaluation of his or her
career, across any dimensions that are
important to that individual.
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 Objective career success:-
 as an external perspective that delineates more or
less tangible indicators of an individual’s career
situation.
 is publicly accessible, and concerned with social
role and official position.

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Subjective–objective career duality

 artists
 Sales people

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Interdependence between the
subjective and objective sides
 Objective and subjective sides are
interdependent
 Inner city school teachers
 Socially useful work (subjective)
 Position of influence and prestige (objective)
 Time:-

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Attributes of boundaryless career
theory
 Inter-organizational mobility
 Employment relationship will not last forever by both
the parties (psychological contract)
 concerns not only actual career movement between
employers, but also the opportunities for such
movement

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 Extra-organizational support
 individual careers may be seen as ‘careers of
achievement’ in terms of skills and behavior
 rather than seen as ‘careers of advancement’ in
terms of a person’s hierarchical progression
 Co-workers, peers and communities that are

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Lessons from career theory
 Careers unfold over time, and career success has both
subjective and objective career components.
 The duality and interdependence of subjective career
success and objective career success make each relevant
to the other, and likely to influence the other over time.
 From a boundaryless career perspective, the increased
prospects for both inter-organizational mobility and
extra-organizational career support need to be
accommodated within career research designs, and
both variables are likely to affect the relationship over
time between objective and subjective career success.
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Empirical Research

• 80 articles
• Definition
• desirable work related outcomes at a given point in
a person’s unfolding career
• 78% refer to subjective career (72% operationalize)
• 90% refer to objective career, reflecting
through Barley (1948) ‘advancement along a
hierarchy of power or prestige (85%
operationalize)
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Cont…

 15% (10 articles) focus only on subjective

career success
 28% (19 articles) focus on objective career
success
Subjective-objective career durability

 39 of 68 articles(57%) include either explicit

or implicit reference to the durability of the
subjective & objective careers underlying
career success.
 ‘psychological and work-related outcomes’
(Judge, Cable, Boudreau and Bretz 1995)
 29 articles (43%) concerned with one career
success criterion, such as managerial career
attainment, advancement etc
Interdependence

 25 articles (37%) considered one way

influence of objective career success onto
subjective career success. (career success is
effected by income and job level)
 Individual interpret their success on the basis
of their objective accomplishment
(assumption)
Cont…

 13 articles (19%) considered the influence of

subjective variables onto objective career
success.
 Mainly psychologically grounded studies,
where relationship between personality,
behavior and objective career success is
hypothesized
Cont….

 22articles(32%) acknowledge the two way

interdependence between SCS and OCS
 16 of 22 were on relationship of mentoring or
social support and OCS
 6 of 22 explore two way interdependence in a
theoretical way. (exploring employee
turnover as a subjective career response to
the objective career reality of the length of
time employed on same job)
Cont…

 8 articles neither conceptualize nor

operationalize any interdependence.
 These articles conceive of career success
solely in terms of objective managerial
advancement or in terms of subjective career
perception.
 They overlook both the presence of another
side of CS and interdependence between
both.
Theoretical Adequacy

 57% addressed both SCS and OCS

 More than half focus only one way
relationship (56%),rather then two way
relationship (44%)
 12 of these 22 involve cross sectional design
 10 of 22 examine how SCS can influence OCS
or vice versa.
Inter-organizational mobility

 Concerns not only actual career movement

but also opportunities for such movement
 Out of 68 articles only 18 examine in any way
the links between inter organizational
mobility and career success.
 Greater significance of inter-organizational
mobility elevated the importance of SCS and
predicted more dynamic relationship
between SCS & OCS
Cont…

 Previous sections indicates that this

relationship is lightly studied.
 The overall evidence is that basic attribute of
boundary less career theory, to envision inter-
organizational mobility in some way
 Has frequently been neglected in career
success research.
Extra organizational support

 10articles (15%) make some reference

 Most of the articles do not study
interdependence between SCS & OCS
 Few articles conceptualize and even few
operationalize the likely influence of inter
organizational mobility or extra
organizational support on career success.
Guidelines for Future Research

 Adequacy of research designs

 Missing dimensions
 Broadening peer group assumptions
 Examining ability
 The developing, subjectively driven person
 Expanding the boundary less career agenda
Conclusion

 Career research makes inconsistent use of

contemporary career theory, particularly
regarding interdependence
 Boundaryless career attributes of Inter-
Organizational Mobility and Extra-
Organizational Career Support have often
been neglected