There are many models that guide the understanding of career development. However, all of them are centred on individual motivation to pursue certain career paths and pro- active approaches to learn and adapt to new situations within the changing environment in one lifetime (Carbery & Garavan 2007). However, one cannot lose sight of the excel- lent work done by Edgar Schein in developing the career anchor theory (Schein 1996). According to Schein, career anchor is a personal attribute that enables an individual to make career decisions and stick to them even under difficult career circumstances. In this regard, there are eight career anchors, which are:
• Security. Job security is one of the criteria people use to pursue certain job careers. For example, in developing countries, one of the reasons why many people chose to pursue career in the public service as compared to private sector is security of tenure and a clear career path.
• Autonomy. Some kind of autonomy in performing work is intrinsically rewarding. This also explains why some individuals may prefer self-employment.
• Technical and functional competencies. Mastering ones job is itself rewarding because it creates a sense of recognition and status from colleagues and the
management. Therefore, a person may have desire and the motivation to achieve the highest levels of technical and professional competencies in a particular field and hence grow along that career.
• Creativity. Some people are more creative than others and when they are exposed to jobs that are routine, with less opportunity to manoeuvre, they become bored and are likely to change career given an opportunity.
• Feeling a sense of service to others. Some jobs give employees less exposure to the recipients of their services, the consumers. This is typical of scientific careers where a person may be tied to a laboratory for hours, months and years. Persons with the urge to serve others may not find such jobs attractive enough like, let’s say, a social worker or a teacher.
• Challenging job. Some careers pose more challenges than others. I remember that when I was doing my ‘O’ level studies, some students felt great when they could solve complex questions in additional mathematics, physics and chemistry. In fact, other subjects such as history and languages were seen as less challenging and
relevant for ‘less brainy’ students. Most of these students ended up pursuing science related disciplines and hence have anchored their career life in science although today they may not feel that their jobs are challenging enough. One of the reasons why some people are ready to sacrifice their social life to achieve scientific discovery is the drive for achievement through a challenging job.
• Lifestyle. Every human being has a lifestyle preference and may not be willing to lose that through career choices. For example, a person may prefer to pursue a less rewarding job career with flexibility to have more time to stay with their family than have a better rewarded job.
• Management competence. Some people make better managers than others because they have managerial attributes which are either inherent or learned. Therefore, motivation to play a managerial role in an organisation tends to influence career choices and the development of some people.
Rationale for career development
It is becoming increasingly clear that an organisation‘s competitive advantage lies in its people. In the global economy of the 2000s the effective development of human re- sources – employees’ skills, creativity, and commitment – will spell the difference be- tween organisational success and failure. Taken collectively, successful individual ca- reers help create successful organisations and shape the economic prospects of a nation. Careers provide organisations with a way to channel people into needed areas and to develop their skills so that they can continue to perform much needed organisational functions. When done right, both employers and employees also gain. Careers provide the chance to gain experiences and jobs that offer valuable rewards and develop compe- tencies that lead to more opportunities and a brighter future. Indeed, it is now well es- tablished that career development should be part of the strategic human resource man- agement and be linked to business strategy (McDonald & Hite 2005). Therefore, man- agers should create enough opportunities and support systems to develop and sustain career development programmes.
Stages in career development
Johns (1996) with his extensive and well-articulated approach to career development defines a career as an evolving sequence of work activities and positions that individu- als experience over time, as well as the associated attitudes, knowledge, and competen- cies that develop throughout one’s life. This same notion is shared by Morrison & Hall (2002) and Torrington et al. (2005), in which a career is seen to involve life stages from childhood to adulthood. The pattern for career development in a lifetime is presented in Table 8.2.
Career stages seem to tell something close to reality in our own life. This starts from primary school, and proceeds to secondary, college and finally university. However, depending on the level of education one wants to attain or the opportunity available, in some cases employees may be stuck in some stages. Sometimes people may even change career at later stages in pursuit of what might be the available career opportunity rather than what is wished for. Initially a career as a concept has also been used to mean advancement of senior employees up the organisational ladder. However, as more fea- tures of strategic human resource management influence policy choices on people man- agement, career advancement is becoming more of a concern for individuals than for
Table 8.2 Stages in career development
Approximate age range Career stage and characteristics
16-28 Exploration. Explore various occupations and test out an initial occupational identity. Develop skills, establish a social network and mentor relationship, and cope with the emotional demands of an early career.
22-42 Establishment. Become an individual contributor with a specific area of expertise. Work through work versus non work conflicts and develop a plan for achieving career goals.
32-55 Advancement and maintenance. Focus on achieving career goals and maintaining organisational progress. Revise career plan in light of progress. Re-determine the relative importance of work and non-work roles. For many, the top position in their career becomes evident, and few promotions are likely. Become a men- tor.
55- Retirement Late career. Usually the highest position has been reached, and people have started to shift more energy into non-work pursuits. Their main source of contribution is breadth of knowledge and experience. Mentoring can continue throughout this stage.
Source: Johns (1996).
organisations (Simonsen 1997; Morrison & Hall 2002; Torrington et al. 2005). There- fore, viewed as a formal approach in human resource management in organisation, ca- reer development has to be an on-going and formalised process and activity of improv- ing employee competencies.
Organisations should have many programmes and policies for managing human re- sources (Morrison & Hall 2002). These programmes accomplish things such as recruit- ment and selection of new employees, training, and compensation. Traditionally, these programmes provide narrow focus on the short-term matching of employees to current jobs. If human resource programmes focus on the long-term development of ‘human capital‘ and anticipate future job transitions employees should experience, then those efforts will pay off in ways that contribute to both individual and organisational success.
New model of career development
There are on-going debates regarding the relevance of career development in organisa- tions today and the main criticisms are levied at the increasingly unpredictable employ- ment relationships arising from:
• High unemployment due to limited job opportunities and availability of ‘readymade’ human resources in the job market as a result of a knowledge based economy. • Job losses as a result of mergers, acquisitions and business closures.
• Increasing preferences for part time and contract jobs and less secure job tenures. • More simplified work process through automation.
These developments have shifted the traditional career development equation to more flexible and dynamic approaches that define different roles for individuals and organisa- tions in career management (Jarvis 2003; McDonald & Hite 2003). Jarvis (2003) has proposed the following differences between the traditional career development model and the emerging one as indicated in Table 8.3.
Table 8.3 The differences between the old and new career development models
S/N Old model New model
1 You have an office You have a virtual space 2 Success is found on the career ladder Success is found in valued skills 3 The power of position is used to get a job
done
Influence is used to get a job done 4 Influence as a manager Influence as a leader
5 Job gives entitlements Marketability gives entitlements 6 Loyalty to the company matters Loyalty to work and yourself matters 7 You enjoy salaries and benefits You enjoy contracts and fees
8 You have job security You have personal freedom and control 9 You get identity from the job and position You get identity from contribution to work,
family and community
10 You pay attention to bosses and managers You pay attention to clients and customers 11 We have employees We have vendors, entrepreneurs, team members 12 You will have retirement You will have second career- Self employment
Source: Jarvis (2003).
The comparison between career changes depict a situation where the relationship be- tween employees and employers and the expectations have changed, suggesting that individuals are more responsible for managing their own careers than the organisation although the role of the organisation is still important in terms of providing career guid- ance, information, mentoring, coaching and opportunity for advancement.