Managing Careers

I. General Overview: Changing Concepts of Careers

II. Employer and employee roles in managing careers

III. Managing Careers in Different Career stages (special

emphasis on mentoring)
 Introduction
• Restructuring of organizations makes it essential
that companies reconsider the concepts of
career and career management in order to retain
and motivate employees.
• Companies successful at managing employee
growth that accompanies business expansion
emphasize that employees are to be responsible
for career management.
 Introduction (continued)
• These companies do provide resources supporting
careers such as development opportunities,
mentoring, and training managers in how to coach
employees.
• A major challenge is how to balance advancing
current employees’ careers with simultaneously
attracting and acquiring employees with new skills.
 What Is Career Management?
• Career management is the process through
which employees:
– Become aware of their own interests, values,
strengths, and weaknesses.
– Obtain information about job opportunities within
the company.
– Identify career goals.
– Establish action plans to achieve career goals.
Managing Your Career: General
• “Career development” and “opportunities
for growth” are often given as the most
important reason why employees join and
remain with employers.

• However, several changes in organizations

have made career development difficult:
 Why Is Career Management
Important?
• From the company’s perspective,
perspective the
failure to motivate employees to plan their
careers can result in:
– A shortage of employees to fill open positions
– Lower employee commitment
– Inappropriate use of monies allocated for training
and development programs
 Why Is Career Management
Important?
(continued)
• From the employees’ perspective,
perspective lack of
career management can result in:
– Frustration
– Feelings of not being valued by the company
– Being unable to find suitable employment should
a job change be necessary due to mergers,
acquisitions, restructuring, or downsizing.
Managing Your Career: General

Traditional
Newer Conceptualizations
 Managing Careers:
Responsibilities (Noe, et al., 2006)

• Organization • Employee
– Provide support – Ultimately responsible for
(e.g., information) managing careers
– Provide
assessments (+/-, – Identify opportunities and needs to
interests & values) improve

– Communicate performance – Identify what needs are realistic to

evaluation, where employee develop
fits in long-range company
plans, changes in industry,
profession, etc.

– Identify goals and how you want

– Commit to help employee
them achieved. Construct time
achieve goals. Identify table for achievement
resources (e.g., courses, work
experiences, etc.)
 Managing Careers:
Development Stages (Kulik, 2004)

1. Growth: an individual develops a sense of self and exploration of

interests.

2. Exploration: begins as an individual develops preference for a career

and ends with training and placement in chosen occupation

3. Establishment: : begins with stabilizing in their career, which means

performing satisfactorily which includes maintaining effective productivity
and to secure their position within an organization. There are examples
of advancement in careers also by few people in this stage. This stage is
from the age of 25 to 44.

4. Maintenance: begins with self-reflection and can lead to (a) being re-
energized; (b) changing careers; or (c) reduction in investment in one’s
career (less self-focused)

5. Disengagement: an individual looks ahead at what to do at the end of his

or her career
 Career Concepts
• What does it mean to have a
successful career?

• Where do you learn about what

makes for a successful career?
 4 Career Concepts (Lewellyn, 2002)

• Linear. To the person motivated by the linear concept,

success only comes from moving up the corporate
ladder. While prevalent in the United States, this proves
to be a difficult concept to yield continuing success.
Movement up the organizational pyramid provides fewer
positions into which to advance. Many who carry the
linear concept are frustrated. Many leave positions of
influence when they become "topped out." The "de-
layering" of organizational levels of the 1990s left many
linears disillusioned. For many, it is an emotionally brutal
concept.
 4 Career Concepts (Lewellyn, 2002)

• Expert. Success for the person motivated by the expert concept is

being known as the best among his or her peers. This includes the
craft worker who yearns to be the best welder at Amalgamated Inc. It
is also the trial lawyer garnering community recognition for a high-
profile case, the surgeon with national recognition for an innovative
procedure or the accountant with the most knowledge in the
department of accounting rules. Those who carry the expert concept
may have been told in their youth to "grow up to be good at
something." Their parents or grandparents may have been
influenced by the Great Depression, during which the employees
who kept their jobs were often the ones with the best skills.
 4 Career Concepts (Lewellyn, 2002)

• Spiral. Success is being able to move from one position

to a related but often broader position, usually every five
to 10 years. Broadening is the key. A spiral's parents
may have taught him to be "well rounded." New positions
are a natural extension of the prior work. This is the
engineer who migrates into project management and
then to capital budgeting and eventually to corporate
budgeting functions. Spirals amass a vast amount of
knowledge and experience. Many spirals in mid-career
feel a strong desire to share the massive knowledge with
others. This leads some spirals to leave large companies
to become consultants or teachers.
 4 Career Concepts (Lewellyn, 2002)

• Roamer. Success to the roamer is being able to change jobs

often. Movement is more frequent than spirals, perhaps every
two to three years, and the succeeding jobs are often
unrelated to past professional experiences. A roamer may
move from funeral director to draftsman. These are often
people from the extremes of economic backgrounds who don't
value security. They either were raised in an upper-economic
stratum and presume money will always be there or were in a
poorer economic environment and know they can survive on
very little. Roamers can play key roles in companies that are
expanding, both geographically and into new markets. They
make good startup people. Roamers tend to value work with
high people involvement.
 Career Management and Career
Motivation
• Career motivation refers to:
– Employees’ energy to invest in their careers
– Their awareness of the direction they want their
careers to take
– The ability to maintain energy and direction despite
barriers they may encounter
• Career motivation has three aspects:
– Career resilience
– Career insight
– Career identity
 The Value of Career Motivation
Components of Career Motivation

Career Resilience Company Value

• Innovation
• Employees adapting to unexpected changes
• Commitment to Company
• Pride in Work

Career Insight Employee Value

• Be aware of skill strengths and weaknesses
• Participate in learning activities
• Cope with less than ideal working conditions
• Avoid skill obsolescence

Career Identity
 What Is A Career?
• Traditional Career
– Sequence of positions held within an occupation
– Context of mobility is within an organization
– Characteristic of the employee
• Protean Career
– Frequently changing based on changes in the
person and changes in the work environment
– Employees take major responsibility for managing
their careers
 Comparison of Traditional Career
and Protean Career:
Dimension Traditional Career Protean Career
Goal Promotions Psychological success
Salary increase

Psychological contract Security for commitment Employability for flexibility

Mobility Vertical Lateral

Responsibility for Management Company Employee

Pattern Linear and expert Spiral and transitory

Expertise Know how Learn how

Development Heavy reliance on formal training Greater reliance on relationships and job
experiences
 A Model of Career Development
• Career development is the process by which
employees progress through a series of stages.
• Each stage is characterized by a different set of
developmental tasks, activities, and relationships.
• There are four career stages:
– Exploration
– Establishment
– Maintenance
– Disengagement
 A Model of Career Development
(continued)
Exploration Establishment Maintenance Disengagement
Developmental Identify interests, skills, Advancement, growth, Hold on to Retirement planning,
tasks fit between self and security, develop life accomplishments, change balance
work style update skills between work and
non-work

Activities Helping Making independent Training Phasing out of work

Learning contributions Sponsoring
Following directions Policy making

Relationships to Apprentice Colleague Mentor Sponsor

other employees

Typical age Less than 30 30 – 45 45 – 60 61+

Years on job Less than 2 years 2 – 10 years More than 10 years More than 10 years
 The career management process:

Self- Reality Action

Goal Setting
Assessment Check Planning
Components of the Career
Management Process:
• Self-Assessment
– Use of information by employees to determine their
career interests, values, aptitudes, and behavioral
tendencies.
– Often involves psychological tests.
• Reality Check
– Information employees receive about how the
company evaluates their skills and knowledge and
where they fit into company plans.
Components of the Career
Management Process: (continued)
• Goal Setting
– The process of employees developing short- and
long-term career objectives.
– Usually discussed with the manager and written into a
development plan.
• Action Planning
– Employees determining how they will achieve their
short- and long-term career goals.
Design factors of Effective Career
Management Systems:
• System is positioned as a response to a
business need.
• Employees and managers participate in
development of the system.
• Employees are encouraged to take an active
role in career management.
• Evaluation is ongoing and used to improve
the system.
Design factors of Effective Career
Management Systems: (continued)
• Business units can customize the system for
their own purposes.
• Employees need access to career
information sources.
• Senior management supports the career
system.
• Career management is linked to other human
resource practices such as training, recruiting
systems, and performance management.
 Elements of Career Management
Websites
Users Access Website Features

Self-assessment tools Jobs database

Training resources Employee profile database

Job data Matching engine

Salary information Tools and services – Assessment, online

Career management advice Training programs, development resources

Shared Responsibility:
Roles in Career Management

Employees

Manager Company

HR Manager
 Employees’ Role in Career
Management
• Take the initiative to ask for feedback from managers
and peers regarding their skill strengths and
weaknesses.
• Identify their stage of career development and
development needs.
• Seek challenges by gaining exposure to learning
opportunities.
• Interact with employees from different work groups
inside and outside the company.
• Create visibility through good performance.
 Managers’ Role in Career
Management
Roles Responsibilities
Coach Probe problems, interests, values, needs
Listen
Clarify concerns
Define concerns

Appraiser Give feedback

Clarify company standards
Clarify job responsibilities
Clarify company needs

Advisor Generate options, experiences, and relationships

Assist in goal setting
Provide recommendations

Referral agent Link to career management resources

Follow up on career management plan
 HR Manager’s Role in Career
Management
• Provide information or advice about training
and development opportunities.
• Provide specialized services such as testing
to determine employees’ values, interests,
and skills.
• Help prepare employees for job searches.
• Offer counseling on career-related problems.
 Company’s Role in Career
Management
• Companies are responsible for providing
employees with the resources needed to be
successful in career planning:
– Career workshops
– Information on career and job opportunities
– Career planning workbooks
– Career counseling
– Career paths
 Evaluating Career Management
Systems
• Career management systems need to be
evaluated to ensure that they are meeting the
needs of employees and the business.
• Two types of outcomes can be used to evaluate:
– Reactions of the customers (employees and
managers) who use the career management system
– Results of the career management system
• Evaluation of a career management system
should be based on its objectives.
 Managing Careers:
Growth Stage
• What do most organizations do to manage
this stage?
 Managing Careers:
Exploration Stage
• Exploration Stage: employees value the
opportunity to experiment and may be
interested in training opportunities or
exposure to different jobs (e.g.,
internships)
 Managing Careers:
Establishment Stage
• Establishment Stage: Employees seek out ever
greater challenges and achievements.

1. Promotions. As an HR manager, need to decide:

(Dessler, 2005)

• Are promotions based on competency or seniority?

• How should you measure competence?
• Is the process formal or informal?

– Drawbacks.
 Managing Careers:
Establishment Stage
2. Lateral and downward moves. Assignments to other
functional areas or locations. [Need to
communicate importance of transfer – e.g., $$$]

3. Externship programs. Assignments to another

organization for a short period of time. [Most
popular in the consulting industry]

4. Dual career tracks: one management and one non-

management (e.g., technical, sales).
 Managing Careers:
Maintenance Stage
• Maintenance Stage: Employees are
becoming less self-focused and are
motivated to share knowledge and/or to
reappraise their careers

1. Sabbaticals: unpaid or paid leave that allows

employees to pursue other interests
 Managing Careers:
Maintenance Stage
2. Mentoring opportunities
• Benefit protégés: career & psychological support,
better pay, faster promotion, and greater career
satisfaction
• Mentor benefits: job fulfillment
• More on mentoring in Special Topics
Mentoring: Traditional Concerns
Seeking a Mentor
• Age differential:
• Age of Mentor: mid-life (40 +)
• Gender of protégé: same as mentor
• Power of Mentor: high
• Organizational Position: high
• Self-Confidence: high
Mentoring: Traditional Concerns
What Mentors Seek in Protégés:

• Age:

• Gender: women protégés likely to feel overprotected, greater social

distance, & general discomfort in male-mentor relationship than males

• Power Needs: mentors are one way for new person to gain power -- need
to make informal political alliances

• Performance: mentors seek protégés that are good performers & have had
the ability to “demonstrate the extraordinary”

• Social Skills: mentors like protégés who know other officers socially, are
highly visible, and can appear socially similar to high status members
 “New Models” of Mentoring
• Build a board of advisors

– External:
– Recruiters, HR Officers, Competitors, College Friends

– Internal:
 “New Models” of Mentoring
• Group Mentoring (a.k.a. mentoring or coaching
circles) (Workforce Management, 2004)
– Various models exist. Can be formalized as a mentor
and multiple protégés. Can be a more informal
gathering of individuals of different ranks who get
together and discuss issues (e.g., Chubb’s
Partnership for Women)

– Benefits include learning for peers as well as mentors;

can be more cost effective; and allows an
organization to increase its mentoring pool
 “New Models” of Mentoring
• “Matchmaking” Technology

– Employees input characteristics they are seeking and

receive a list of people who match their criteria

– Advantages: can be especially helpful for big

companies and those that are geographically
dispersed; does not require prior relationship; often
provides several options; does not require as high a
level of third-party involvement; often saves $$

– Disadvantages: mentors may not be trained or may be

inappropriate; protégés may not know what they need;
lacks “human touch” and expertise
 Managing Careers:
Disengagement Stage
• Disengagement Stage: Employees are trying
to disengage psychologically. Organizations
may use incentives to ease (and possibly
speed up) the transition. May be especially
helpful for plateued workers.
1. Early retirement – may involve “adding years” (age
and tenure) to allow employees to get more benefits
from retiring, earlier than they might otherwise.
Don’t make this too attractive!
 Concepts, Cont. (if time)

1. What does your career concept tell you about

how you are likely to experience the career
development stages (e.g., how frustrating or
fulfilling will they be)?

2. How could a mentor best help you succeed

with your chosen career concept?

3. Discuss your answers with people of different

career concepts
 Wrap-Up
• While there has been a shift in responsibility in
career management towards the individual,
organizations must still play a role

• Career management will vary by your concept

and your career stage

• Mentoring is critical for your own career as well

as your organization (e.g., some estimate that
most companies will lose half of their senior
management teams by 2010)
• Certainly a career has something to do with getting jobs, and
perhaps with moving between jobs, places, and levels of
responsibility and challenge. However, a career means more than
that.
• The Protean Career
• Proteus was a character in Greek mythology who could change
shape in any way he wanted-from fire to lion to dragon to tree.
Douglas T. Hall has drawn on this mythological figure to coin the
term protean career. The essence of this idea is that there is much
more to a career than just moving up the hierarchies of
organizations:
• The protean career is a process which the person, not the
organization, is managing. It consists of all of the person's varied
experiences in education, training work in several organizations,
changes in occupational field, etc.
• The protean career is not what happens to the person in any one
organization. The protean person's own personal career choices
and search for self-fulfillment are the unifying or integrative
elements in his or her life. The criterion of success is internal
(psychological success), not external.