Career Dynamics Chapter 7. © Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 2 Learning Objectives 1. Define career and distinguish among the various types of careers that

Career DynamicsCareer Dynamics

Chapter 7Chapter 7

2 © Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall

Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives

1. Define career and distinguish among the various types of careers that exist.

2. Describe the three major considerations in making career choices.

3. Describe the process of organizational socialization, including the stages by which it occurs.

4. Define mentoring and describe the processes through which mentorship develops.

5. Identify and describe the special challenges likely to be confronted in established careers.

6. Explain various personal challenges and strategies for managing your own career.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 3

Career ConceptsCareer Concepts

Career DynamicsCareer Dynamics: The wide variety of factors that influence the nature of people’s career choices, the directions their careers take, and their ultimate success and satisfaction over the course of their working lives.CareerCareer: The evolving sequences of work experience over time.JobJob: A predetermined set of activities a worker is expected to perform.OccupationOccupation: A coherent set of jobs.


Career ConceptsCareer Concepts


Characteristics of Modern Characteristics of Modern CareersCareers Lifetime employment is

a thing of the past. Careers are

boundaryless. Career success is

defined in many different ways.

Where, when, and for whom you work are not necessarily fixed.


Lifetime EmploymentLifetime Employment

Reasons for the shift away from lifetime employment:– Technological advancesTechnological advances are causing new jobs to

come into existence and old ones to be phased out all the time.

– Economic shiftsEconomic shifts reduce job security due to mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and firm closures.

– Social normsSocial norms have changed such that company loyalty is no longer as highly valued as it once was.


Boundaryless CareersBoundaryless Careers

The tendency for people to have careers that cut across various companies and industries.

Reasons:– Downsizing eliminates employment

options.– Careers progress more quickly outside

the organization.– Changing careers is more socially

acceptable than ever.


Types of CareersTypes of Careers

Steady-StateLinearSpiralTransitory


Steady-State CareerSteady-State Career

The type of career characterized by a lifetime of employment in a single job.


Linear CareerLinear Career

The type of career in which someone stays in a certain field and works his or her way up the occupational ladder from low-level jobs to high-level jobs.


Spiral CareerSpiral Career

The type of career in which people evolve through a series of occupations, each of which requires new skills and builds on existing knowledge and skills.


Transitory CareerTransitory Career

The type of career in which someone moves between many different unrelated positions, spending about one to four years in each.


Career StagesCareer Stages

1.1. Preparation for WorkPreparation for Work: Acquiring various skills, learning about various career options, and determining what career you want to pursue.

2.2. Organizational EntryOrganizational Entry: Finding out about specific jobs and getting your foot in the door.

3.3. Early CareerEarly Career: Establishing yourself in a specific job and then achieving success at it.

4.4. Middle CareerMiddle Career: Figuring out how to continue to be productive after you’ve been working for over 20 years.

5.5. Late CareerLate Career: Keeping from becoming obsolete and planning for retirement.


Career StagesCareer Stages


Holland’s Theory of Vocational Holland’s Theory of Vocational ChoiceChoice

A theory that claims that people will perform best at occupations that match their traits and personalities.

Holland’s HexagonHolland’s Hexagon: A conceptualization specifying the occupations for which people are best suited based on which of six personality types most closely describes them.


Holland’s TheoryHolland’s Theory


Holland’s HexagonHolland’s Hexagon


Career AnchorsCareer Anchors

A person’s occupational self-concept that is based on his or her self-perceived talents, abilities, values, needs, and motives.

Five major anchors:– Technical or FunctionalTechnical or Functional– Managerial CompetenceManagerial Competence– Security and StabilitySecurity and Stability– Creativity or EntrepreneurshipCreativity or Entrepreneurship– Autonomy and IndependenceAutonomy and Independence


Technical or Functional Technical or Functional AnchorAnchor

Concentration on jobs focusing on specific content areas (e.g., auto mechanics, graphic arts).


Managerial Competence Managerial Competence AnchorAnchor

Focus on jobs that allow for analyzing business problems and dealing with people.


Security and Stability Security and Stability AnchorAnchor

Attraction to jobs that are likely to continue into the future (e.g., the military).


Creativity or Entrepreneurship Creativity or Entrepreneurship AnchorAnchor

Primary interest in starting new companies from visions of unique products or services but not necessarily running them.


Autonomy and Independence Autonomy and Independence AnchorAnchor

Attraction to jobs that allow for freedom from constraints and to work at one’s own pace (e.g., novelists and creative artists).


Occupational OutlookOccupational Outlook


Growth of High-Tech JobsGrowth of High-Tech Jobs


Organizational Organizational SocializationSocialization

The process through which people move from outsiders to effective, participating members of their organizations.

Stages:– Anticipatory Socialization– Encounter– Metamorphosis


Socialization StagesSocialization Stages

Anticipatory SocializationAnticipatory Socialization: The first stage of socialization, concerned with learning about an organization before working there.

EncounterEncounter: The second stage of organizational socialization, faced as newcomers to an organization learn their new duties and the organization’s ways of operating.

MetamorphosisMetamorphosis: The third stage of organizational socialization, in which a person becomes a full-fledged member of the organization (e.g., after completing a training program for new recruits).


Stages of SocializationStages of Socialization


Entry ShockEntry Shock

The disillusionment, disappointment, and confusion that result when new employees’ job expectations are unmet.Realistic Job PreviewRealistic Job Preview: The practice of giving prospective employees both positive and negative information about the jobs they are considering and the organizations they will enter.


Realistic Job PreviewsRealistic Job Previews


MentoringMentoring

The process by which a more experienced employee advises, counsels, and otherwise enhances the professional development of a new employee.MentorMentor: A more experienced employee who guides a newer employee in learning about the job and organization.ProtégéProtégé: An inexperienced employee who receives assistance from a more experienced employee in learning about a new job and/or organization.


Mentoring StagesMentoring Stages


Benefits of MentoringBenefits of Mentoring

For the protégé: Mentors– Provide much needed emotional support and

confidence– Help pave the way for job success– Suggest useful strategies for achieving work

objectives– Help bring the protégé to the attention of top

management– Protect protégés from making errors and help

them avoid risky situations


Benefits of MentoringBenefits of Mentoring

For the mentor:– May reap psychological benefits from feeling

needed and a sense of accomplishment in helping the younger generation

– Can expect protégés to work hard at assigned tasks

– Can expect protégés to be loyal supporters– May gain recognition from others for their

work in helping nurture young talent– Can feel proud of their protégés’ successes


Risks of MentoringRisks of Mentoring

Protégés may find that their own success hinges on the success of their mentor.

Any failures on the part of the protégé may harm the mentor’s reputation.

The mentor’s advice may not be as good as it should be.

Protégés may become so highly dependent on their mentors that they will be slow to develop as self-reliant individuals.

Mentors may grow overly reliant on their protégés, delegating too many responsibilities that they should be discharging themselves.


Successful MentoringSuccessful Mentoring


Mentoring Diverse GroupsMentoring Diverse Groups


Challenges in Established Challenges in Established CareersCareers

Confronting the career plateau

Making career changes

Planning for succession and retirement


Career PlateausCareer Plateaus

Career PlateauCareer Plateau: The point at which one’s career has peaked and is unlikely to develop further.

Career Development InterventionCareer Development Intervention: Systematic efforts to help manage people’s careers while simultaneously helping the organizations in which they work.

Outplacement ProgramsOutplacement Programs: Systematic efforts to find new jobs for employees who are laid off.


Career Development Career Development InterventionsInterventions


Career ChangesCareer Changes


RetirementRetirement


Personal Challenges and Personal Challenges and StrategiesStrategies

Job Rotation Entrepreneurship Home-Based

Business The Glass Ceiling Dealing with the

Dual Career Hiring a Career

Coach


Job RotationJob Rotation

The practice of transferring employees laterally between different jobs in an organization.


EntrepreneurshipEntrepreneurship


Home-Based BusinessesHome-Based Businesses

The average American home-based worker earns only 70 percent as much as he or she would make outside the home.

Many people decide to work at home so that they can have a better balance between work and family; however, one or the other often gets shortchanged.

In most cases, there are limits to how large a home-based business can become.


The Glass CeilingThe Glass Ceiling

The artificial barrier that prevents qualified individuals from advancing in their organizations.


Dealing with the Dual Dealing with the Dual CareerCareer

Dual-Career CouplesDual-Career Couples: Married couples in which both partners are employed.Dual-Career ConflictDual-Career Conflict: A situation in which the career demands on one member of a couple are incompatible with the career demands on the other member of a couple.Career BreakCareer Break: The practice in which an employee leaves and then subsequently reenters a job following an agreed-upon period of absence.Dropping OutDropping Out: The practice of resigning from a job for a long period of time and then taking another job at another time.

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Career Dynamics Chapter 7. © Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 2 Learning Objectives 1. Define career and distinguish among the various types of careers that