CH 10

Getty Images/iStockphoto/pawel_p
10: Career
Development
Dr. Mirna Safi
© Ronan Carbery & Christine Cross, Human Resource Management, 2nd edition, 2019
Introduction
• The ability to predict careers has decreased, flexibility has increased, and if
individuals are willing to follow opportunities as they arise, then it has been
argued that greater career success is the outcome.
• A number of new career types have been proposed to describe

contemporary careers, such as boundaryless, protean, authentic, portfolio
and kaleidoscope careers.
• One commonality shared by these concepts is that of self-directedness.
What is a career?
What is a career?
• The term ‘career’ was initially used to indicate a designation of privilege.
• The terms occupation or job were used to describe situations where

individuals exchanged their labour or skills for monetary reward.
• The term career has significantly broadened to include the entirety of work
experiences that a person engages in, rather than focusing solely on
employment in one industry or profession.
What is a career?
The evolving sequence of a person’s work experiences over time
(Arthur et. al, 1989).
• The distinguishing characteristics of this definition are:
• Its emphasis on the ‘evolving sequence’ which recognizes that careers

are not stationary, but change over time.
• ‘Work experiences’ includes paid employment, but also denotes
homemaking and other productive efforts that provide important
career skills.
• ‘Over time’ suggests that a career lasts a lifetime
What is a career?
• Career development is a lifelong process where individuals look at:
• Occupational options available to them, select an option, and continue to
make choices from the vast possibilities available to them.
• The use of metaphors is very common when talking about careers.

• Describing careers as a journey, for example:
• Career path
• Career ladder
• Getting to the top.
• New careers may be more accurately described in more open-ended

metaphors such as ‘travelling’ rather than ‘journeys’.
Traditional versus contemporary career
perspectives
• Traditionally, people worked for one or two organizations in their lives and,
by working hard, they would gradually take on more responsibility when the
organization considered them ready for advancement or promotion.
• Wilensky (1961:523) defined a traditional career as “a succession of related

jobs arranged in a hierarchy of prestige through which people move in
ordered (more or less predictable) sequence”.
• The conventional public sector career path where employment is

characterised by job security and lifelong employment is an example of this
type of career.
Contemporary careers
Contemporary careers
• Current careers tend to be dynamic, less predictable, and boundaryless
(Lips-Wiersma and Hall, 2007).
• It is the individual who bears primary responsibility for the planning and
managing of their own careers.
• Career Concepts:
• Boundaryless
• Protean
• Authentic
• Kaleidoscope
• Off-Ramp Careers.
Boundaryless careers
• Widening the perspective of careers to incorporate a range of possible
careers both within and across organizations.
• A boundaryless career is not determined by the prevailing career system of

one employer nor represented by an orderly sequence of hierarchical
upwards movement.
• Boundaryless careers are not confined to physical changes of employment,

the notion also applies to movement across psychological boundaries.
• Career development requires the strengthening of self-direction and

adaptability within a more transactional employment relationship.
Protean careers
• The protean career offers a self-directed approach to career that is driven
by the values of the individual (Briscoe and Hall, 2002).
• A person pursuing a protean career moves quickly to improvise new ways of

working, making the most of the empowerment it provides them.
• Acts as a compass in providing direction (Hall, 2002) for an individual.

• Understanding who they are and knowing their values, needs, goals and
interests.
Protean careers
• Hall (2004) identified two competencies that help individuals become more
protean. These are adaptability and/or self-awareness.
• Self-awareness and understanding are pivotal to the values-driven nature

of a protean career, ensuring a secure personal base in which to foster
career success and from which to interact with the changing external
conditions.
• Adaptability involves the capacity to change career and work behaviours

in a way that allows the individual to succeed in a number of contexts
with the need for externally-driven career development.
Authentic careers
• An authentic individual as one who makes career choices that are consistent
with the past or with an imagined future about who they would like to
become.
• The key characteristic is that there is a consistent set of beliefs guiding the
career.
• An authentic career-oriented individual is one willing to take the initiative

and responsibility for their career and able to achieve consistency between
past and present, and private and public expressions of themselves
(Svejenova, 2005).
Kaleidoscope careers
• A kaleidoscope career is created and evolved on the individual’s own terms, defined
by their own values, life choices and parameters, rather than by the organisation
(Mainiero and Sullivan, 2006).
• This particular concept is predominantly female-oriented in focus.
• Individuals amend, adjust and modify this kaleidoscope or career pattern, by

rotating the various aspects of their lives to arrange roles and relationships in new
ways.
• Individuals strive for challenging work that facilitates career advancement and
increases self-worth.
• A need for balance exists with regard to work, relationships and personal concerns.
Off-ramp careers
• A predominantly gender-specific career concept has emerged in recent
years in response to the “male competitive model” of careers (Hewlett,
2007).
• The male competitive model of careers supported a preference for a

continuous employment history, which penalised women who needed to
take time out of their careers.
• The idea of off-ramp careers provide an arc of career flexibility that allows
women to “ramp-down” or take time off from their career and
subsequently “ramp-up” or re-enter the labour market without losing
career traction.
Off-ramp careers
• Facilitating ease of access in returning to careers has led to organizations
introducing a variety of career flexibility and flexible working arrangements
in terms of:
• Reduced-hour options
• Flexible working times
• Job sharing
• Telecommuting
• Seasonal flexibility.
• Off-ramping from a male managerial perspective is concerned with strategic

repositioning of his career rather than for family-related concerns.
Portfolio careers
• Rather than pursuing a single full-time job, the individual balances a
portfolio of different and changing employment opportunities
(Handy,1989).
• Portfolio-centred career development is based on a very different set of

assumptions regarding the nature of careers and of the relationship
between the organization and the employee:
• The contract output is identified

• Matching portfolio of skills needed to complete the contract is specified
• Individuals with those skills are located in the HR information system
• The contract is offered and then managed.
Graduate careers
Graduate careers
• In such difficult labour markets, the competition for graduate jobs has
intensified (Taylor, 2011).
• Consequently, when graduates do find employment, it isn’t always at a skill

level or pay rate commensurate with their education.
• Rosenberg et al. (2012) highlight that leadership skills, management skills,

interpersonal skills, critical thinking skills and a strong work ethic are among
the most essential skills for employment.
• Initial entry into the labour market is important but the nature of
contemporary knowledge work means that the foundations of many careers
take years to develop.
Graduate careers
• Universities and colleges are now frequently giving employability greater
priority at central or strategic level.
• Knight and Yorke (2004, p.38) suggest that graduate employability

encompasses the combination of four aspects of higher education:
• ‘Understanding of subject matter’ - mastery of the subject matter of the

degree.
• ‘Skilful practices’ - characterised as procedural knowledge.
• ‘Efficacy beliefs’ - belief that one can make some impact on situations
and events.
• ‘Metacognition’ - awareness of what one knows and can do, and of how
one learns more.
Responsibility for career development
• Changes in organizations as a result of globalization and advancements in
technology have led to a revised notion of the traditional ‘career contract’,
resulting in a decrease in employers’ commitment and willingness to retain
individuals.
• This lack of job security places significance on individual to take control of

their future employability.
• Employees are increasingly negotiating individualized work opportunities

that fit their career and work–family relationships and expect greater
flexibility on the part of their employer.
• In discussing responsibility for career development, we must consider the
nature of the psychological contract.
• Psychological contracts are the individual belief systems held by employees

and employers regarding their mutual obligations to and agreements with
each other (Rousseau, 1995).
• There are two kinds of psychological contract (Rousseau, 1995):

• Transactional
• Relational.
Career anchor theory
• Career progression may no longer be defined narrowly as upward mobility
or indeed advancement in the context of one organization.
• Each anchor in fact attaches different meaning to ‘progression’ and predicts

why employees value the same aspects of their job differently.
• For example, take the general management career anchor. This is perhaps
the anchor that organizations assume to be held by middle management
and prioritizes climbing the organization’s hierarchy.
• Schein and Van Maanen (2013) argue that individuals with sufficient work
experience (approximately 35 years +) can easily identify one dominant
career anchor out of the following:
1. General Management
2. Functional Expertise
3. Autonomy
4. Security & Stability
5. Sense of Service
6. Pure Challenge
7. Creativity
8. Lifestyle

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Getty Images/iStockphoto/pawel_p

Dr. Mirna Safi

• A number of new career types have been proposed to describe

• One commonality shared by these concepts is that of self-directedness.

• The terms occupation or job were used to describe situations where

• The distinguishing characteristics of this definition are:

• Its emphasis on the ‘evolving sequence’ which recognizes that careers

• The use of metaphors is very common when talking about careers.

• New careers may be more accurately described in more open-ended

• Wilensky (1961:523) defined a traditional career as “a succession of related

• The conventional public sector career path where employment is

• A boundaryless career is not determined by the prevailing career system of

• Boundaryless careers are not confined to physical changes of employment,

• Career development requires the strengthening of self-direction and

• A person pursuing a protean career moves quickly to improvise new ways of

• Acts as a compass in providing direction (Hall, 2002) for an individual.

• Self-awareness and understanding are pivotal to the values-driven nature

• Adaptability involves the capacity to change career and work behaviours

• An authentic career-oriented individual is one willing to take the initiative

• This particular concept is predominantly female-oriented in focus.

• Individuals amend, adjust and modify this kaleidoscope or career pattern, by

• The male competitive model of careers supported a preference for a

• Off-ramping from a male managerial perspective is concerned with strategic

• Portfolio-centred career development is based on a very different set of

• The contract output is identified

• Consequently, when graduates do find employment, it isn’t always at a skill

• Rosenberg et al. (2012) highlight that leadership skills, management skills,

• Knight and Yorke (2004, p.38) suggest that graduate employability

• ‘Understanding of subject matter’ - mastery of the subject matter of the

• This lack of job security places significance on individual to take control of

• Employees are increasingly negotiating individualized work opportunities

• Psychological contracts are the individual belief systems held by employees

• There are two kinds of psychological contract (Rousseau, 1995):

• Each anchor in fact attaches different meaning to ‘progression’ and predicts

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