CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS

6.1.

OVERVIEW

This study set out to investigate the career understanding and career needs of Hellenic civil servants in austerity while exploring the relevancy of a well-respected career model (KCM). The importance of this research is to be found in the illuminations of career theory within the boundaries of the context of austerity, as it is an under-researched area within career management. With an increasingly diverse and global economy, being aware of different contexts is becoming ever more important. More specifically, this research looks at careers from a contextual point of view while examining the relevancy of an established career model (Sullivan, 1999; Pringle and Mallon, 2003; Sullivan and Baruch, 2009). In addition, this research provides an insight into organisational careers specifically within the Hellenic public sector in austerity, as management studies in this regard are limited, especially within the public sector (Bourantas and Papalexandris, 1999; Myloni et al 2004; Mihail, 2008; Koskina, 2008; Bellou, 2009a).

This is important, because although career research has flourished in the past decades with many emerging career models aiming to explain the new careerist, there is impetus to understand and explore the organisational career, as it might need a redefinition in order to fit the changing financial and working environment (Clarke, 2013). The study therefore aimed to answer the following research objectives:

• To explore how careers are understood in austerity.

• To explore the relevancy of the KCM’s career needs in austerity. • To discover the career needs of civil employees in austerity.

• To develop further the KCM, in order to extend its applicability to the context of austerity. This chapter is a critical reflection of the key research findings, implications, contributions to the literature and practice of careers while revisiting the key findings of the study in relation to the research objectives. The chapter is structured as follows. Initially, it addresses how the empirical findings respond to the formerly under-investigated areas of career research via the research objectives, and secondly it introduces the main conceptual and practical methodological and policy contributions of this thesis. Finally, through critically reflecting on the limitations of this study, it presents recommendations for further development.

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6.2.

EMPIRICAL FINDINGS

The main empirical findings were discussed and summarised in the discussion chapter, so this section will synthesise and then conclude on the findings in order to display how the study answered the research objectives.

6.2.1. Research objective 1: To explore how careers are understood in austerity The initial research objective was constructed from the literature review and focused on addressing the limitations of existing research relating to careers and career perceptions in different contexts, and more specifically in the context of austerity, by utilising career actors’ perspectives as the primary unit of analysis (Pringle and Mallon, 2003; Tams and Arthur, 2007; Thomas and Inkson, 2007; Khapova and Korotov, 2007). This is justified by the fact (Peiperl and Baruch, 1997; Baruch, 2004a, b; Thomas and Inkson, 2007) that the career landscape has changed due to many social and economic forces. Hence, the view that the organisational career provides stability in employment, advancement via tenure, training and job security is questioned today in austerity (Baruch, 2004a). Thus, there is impetus to understand the notion in the context of financial strain. Furthermore, due to the precedence of recent career models within career research, organisational careers have been possibly neglected by researchers, so there is an incentive to examine and try to understand organisational careers in case they have changed due to the evolving career landscape (Clarke, 2013). In addition, it responds to the calls of scholars who have argued about more management research in the under-researched context of Hellenic organisations (Bourantas and Papalexandris, 1999; Myloni et al., 2004; Mihail, 2008; Koskina, 2008; Bellou, 2009a).

The findings suggest that the organisational career in Hellenic public sector austerity is interpreted as a job, due to the sectoral features of the Hellenic civil service, referring to its strict bureaucratic law and the way it provides careers. In addition, the recent Labour Directive, which was promulgated during austerity (Labour Directive 4024/2011) aiming to freeze the career development of employees by introducing quotas which regulate advancement, has reinforced this perception. The findings also point to an instrumental view of working, confirming studies of Terkel (1972) and Goldthorpe et al. (1969), who argued about working as a means to survive and not as a means to take on a challenge, advancement and self-actualisation (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2006). Moreover, it challenges the common assumption that within bureaucracy white- collar workers perceive to have careers, since the evidence suggests that they have jobs – a

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notion commonly associated with blue collar workers (Thomas, 1989; Hennequin, 2007; Hu et al, 2010).

6.2.2. Research objective 2: To explore the relevancy of the KCM’s career needs in austerity

The second research objective was also based on the literature review and was concerned with exploring the relevancy of the KCM in austerity by investigating participants’ perceptions regarding authenticity, balance and challenge. The findings that were attributed to this research objective made a significant contribution to the current model, as it was examined during a recession, a completely different context than the original from which the model originates (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2006). The findings also suggest that there is a conflict between the career needs proposed by the KCM and their comprehensive applicability in Hellenic austerity. More specifically, authenticity was a career need which was not discovered, as individuals sought public sector employment as a way to secure employability. The evidence suggests that it was not related to living according to one’s values and reaching self-actualisation via work; rather, the public sector was a means to secure employment and avoid uncertainties (Hofstede, 1980). In terms of balance, the work-life balance issue was not perceived as strongly as argued in the KCM, where career actors try to balance their lives by utilising different strategies. This might be explained by sectorial features, as the public sector is considered a generous employer providing good working hours and relaxed working conditions in comparison to the private sector, leading to the importance of context, which in this case takes the form of the employment sector (Glaveli et al., 2013).

Challenge was not found to be a motivator to work, as the KCM argues; instead, survival and employment security are motivators to seek employment in the public sector, which emanates from high unemployment in the country and the volatile labour market (Manolopoulos, 2006; Koskina, 2008). As the evidence suggests, more people aim to enter the sector today, as the labour market is considered “dead”. The perception of working in the safe public sector was always strong in Greece, and one could argue that it is a cultural feature (Hofstede, 1980); however, austerity worsened the situation and made insecurity more intense. On the other hand, the content plateaued jobs which the public sector offers, where employees are content in inactivity, without any prospect of developing due to the sector but also due to the new Labour Directive (4024/2011), have made individuals long for more challenging working tasks driven by targets, which will lead to advancements and development.

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Overall, the findings from the interviews provided in-depth, context-specific examples of how relevant the KCM is in austerity, simply concluding that austerity has influenced and strengthened the perceptions of individuals in terms of maintaining safe employment.

6.2.3. Research objective 3: To understand the career needs of civil servants

The examination of career needs in austerity contributes to the career literature, as career research in austerity is under-developed (Grau-Grau, 2013). The study discovered three career needs in need of gratification, namely safety, fairness and training. More specifically, the participants referred to the need to have employment safety and provided some examples which illustrated their feelings of job insecurity emanating from the context. In addition, the participants claimed that they received distributive and procedural injustice in terms of wages, placements and appraisals and argued about not receiving training due to budgetary cuts. Nevertheless, this was seen as the norm in the public sector. Overall, the study demonstrated that for the participants all career perceptions were grounded in the social context of the public sector and austerity. Concluding, the findings of the interviews illustrate that the theoretical framework (KCM) is not wholly appropriate for explaining the career needs of the Hellenic public sector in austerity. On the other hand, the findings of the thesis illustrated that safety, fairness and training are basic career needs which are required when the individual locates himself/herself and his/her meaning and purpose in life on the basic level of the hierarchy (Maslow, 1954; Taylor, 2006). In addition, the findings suggest that basic needs need to be satisfied before higher-order needs (Maslow, 1943). The findings of this research objective have theoretical implications for the model, as they are reflected in its redevelopment and hence provide another nuance.

6.2.4. Research objective 4: To develop further the KCM, in order to extend its applicability to the context of austerity

The fourth research objective of this thesis aims to redevelop the model in order to extend its applicability to the context of austerity. Hence, the final research objective proposes a redeveloped KCM, by adding the career need of safety, which leads to the realisation that organisational careers in austerity took the form of jobs and hence gives the KCM a different appearance. Instead of only accommodating higher-order needs which correspond to the notion of a career regarding work perceptions, the redeveloped KCM now corresponds also to the

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understanding of work as a job, thus allowing the inclusion of more workers who may necessarily not self-actualise in their work although they would like to do so, as that should be the ultimate goal (Maslow, 1943).

In essence, the newly revisited career model adopts a holistic approach and illustrates current careers by incorporating and satisfying basic low-level needs while reflecting the existing context , since a career in austerity is a concept that stands at the nexus of political and economic interests dominated by contextual influences (Maslow, 1954; Taylor, 2006; Noon, 1981). By recognising and accepting the fact that careers do not occur in a vacuum but are influenced by context (Khapova and Korotov, 2007; Thomas and Inkson, 2007; Sullivan and Baruch, 2009), the researcher concludes and proposes that the model, in order to reflect austerity, needs to incorporate the safety need, which includes safety, fairness and training. As such, the KCM becomes A, B, C, S, in order to extend its applicability to the context of austerity.

6.3.

CONTRIBUTIONS

TO

THEORY,

PRACTICE,

POLICY,

AND

METHODOLOGY

6.3.1. Theoretical contributions

The research started out with four research objectives, and in meeting those it has contributed to the existing career literature in different of ways. More specifically, the initial research objective was to explore career perceptions in austerity. This may be the first study to focus specifically on this situation, and we know a great deal more about how organisational careers are understood in the Hellenic public sector than was known at the outset. In particular, we now have a much clearer idea of how austerity and the sectorial features of bureaucracy along with clientelism influence the career perceptions of civil servants.

The theoretical implication of the findings, i.e. that an organisational career in the Hellenic public sector in austerity is understood as a job, answers the calls of scholars who argue about the need to understand careers in different contexts such as austerity, in order to illuminate career theory (Burr, 1995; Young and Collin, 2004; Khapova and Korotov, 2007; Thomas and Inkson, 2007). This finding suggests that the public sector employee in austerity does not fulfil his/her potential, as the purpose of work is to become what one is capable of becoming i.e. self-realising, based on his/her values and finding meaning and purpose in life via one’s work (Maslow, 1954; Mainirero