Managing Careers

Managing Careers

Career Stages • Apprentice • Colleague • Mentor • Sponsor

Life Stages • Late Adolescence/Young Adulthood • Establishment • Mid-Life • Late Adulthood

Holland’s Model of Vocational Choice

Schein’s Typology of Career Anchors • Technical/Functional Competence • Primarily excited by the content of the work itself; generally disdains and fears general management jobs as too political; gravitates to staff and technical specialist positions. • Managerial Competence • Primarily excited by the opportunity to analyze and solve problems under conditions of incomplete information and uncertainty; gravitates to general management positions in large corporations. • Security and Stability • Primarily motivated by job security and long-term attachment to one organization; tends to dislike travel and relocation; gravitates to jobs with high job security such as civil service jobs and jobs in local utility companies and universities.

Schein’s Typology of Career Anchors (cont.) • Entrepreneurial Creativity • Primarily motivated by the need to build or create their own projects; easily bored; more interested in starting projects than in managing them; gravitates to start-up firms, management consulting, and other entrepreneurial ventures • Autonomy and Independence • Primarily motivated to seek work situations which are maximally free of organizational constraints; likes to set own schedule and own pace of work; gravitates to jobs in academe and self-employment • Service and Dedication to a Cause • Primarily motivated to improve the world in some fashion; wants to align work activities with personal values about helping society; gravitates to jobs in the public sector, the health-care sector, and human services.

Schein’s Typology of Career Anchors (cont.) • Pure challenge • Primarily motivated to overcome major obstacles, solve difficult problems, or win out over extremely tough opponents; very single-minded and intolerant of those without comparable aspirations; gravitates to such career paths as military pilot, professional sports, etc. • Lifestyle • Primarily motivated to balance career with lifestyle; highly concerned with issues such as paternity/maternity leave and daycare options; gravitates to occupations like teaching, nursing, and sales which can be part-time or temporary in nature

Managing Organizational Socialization • Individual Strategies • Do intensive research on the organization and the job itself before accepting the position to make sure that your skills, abilities, and values are consistent with the expectations of the potential employer • Work longer hours, especially in the first weeks or months, to get up to speed quickly and leave a positive first impression • Take the initiative in getting to know the new boss and co-workers so that you can more quickly learn the norms and values of the work group • Demonstrate excellent performance right from the start. This increases the chances that you will obtain good mentors and better future job assignments

Managing Organizational Socialization • Organizational Strategies • Give potential employees realistic job previews so that candidates who are not a good fit for the organization can remove themselves from further consideration • Provide relevant training so that new hires can learn their jobs more quickly and effectively • Provide timely and reliable feedback so that newcomers can make desired changes in the ways they perform their work and interact with others in the workplace • Design a relaxed orientation program that provides newcomers with important information without deluging them with irrelevant data. The orientation should promote, rather than defeat, new hires’ enthusiasm and self-confidence

Benefits of Job Changes • For Employees • Job changes offer opportunities for employees to develop new competencies and to gain more experience in managing or mentoring others • These transitions (particularly promotion and expatriation) also typically bring substantial salary increases, which make them very attractive to employees as they start families and their financial needs grow proportionately

Benefits of Job Changes • For Employers • Job changes help employers inculcate a company-wide perspective in employees so they do not become too complacent or too “local” in their viewpoint • When employees leave the firm for other jobs, retirement, or health reasons, the use of these job changes also help organizations solve short-run staffing problems • If an organization is growing, promotions serve as incentives for employees to perform well and remain within the firm as well

Problems Associated with Job Changes • When employees change jobs, they usually are expected to perform well right from the start; unlike new hires, job changers rarely get much new training or orientation. As a result, employees who are being promoted may face many new job challenges with little additional preparation. Employees who are going overseas on expatriate assignments often require extensive language training and orientation to the foreign culture, yet many firms still do not provide adequate assistance to their expatriates in this regard.

Problems Associated with Job Changes • Geographically relocating can also be stressful for employees and their families. In terms of moving within one's own country, research suggests that the disruption caused by geographical relocation may not be as traumatic as the media often portrays it. On the positive side, employees who move geographically do not appear to have higher divorce rates or more marital discord than couples who do not move. In addition, younger children who move do not appear to exhibit negative side effects from relocation. To the extent that domestic relocation causes problems, it appears they occur with late adolescent children, who miss their friendship networks and have a hard time getting socially integrated into a new high school in their last two years.

Problems Associated with Job Changes • Moving internationally, in general, can be significantly more unsettling. Spouses often have difficulties getting comparable jobs when their husbands or wives go on expatriate assignments; because they themselves may not have received any language training, spouses may experience more social isolation overseas as well. Since the "trailing spouses" often handle the logistics of moving and settling in, they bear the greatest brunt of the disruption caused by the relocation. Both expatriates and their spouses often report missing friends and families back home.

Problems Associated with Job Changes • In addition, for the expatriate, working overseas might not be as positive for one's career as might be expected. Being an expatriate can mean being "out of sight, out of mind." That is, by being overseas, the expatriate may miss out on developments back home which might hinder their future movement up the corporate ladder. Many expatriates are also concerned about whether they will receive repatriate assignments which use the skills and knowledge they gained while overseas.

Consequences of Job Loss • Psychologically--people who have lost their jobs typically experience periods of depression, anxiety, and nervousness • Physiologically--those who have been terminated or or laid off often experience sleeplessness; smoke, drink, and eat more; and have more psychosomatic illnesses (e.g. headaches and stomach aches • Financially--the effects of layoffs can be brutal. Many employees who lose their jobs deplete most of their savings, and between 5-10% experience financial problems so severe that they have to file bankruptcy or lose their houses

Consequences of Job Loss (cont.) • The effects of job loss often spill over to the families and friends of the laid-off worker. Because employees who lose their jobs have less discretionary income to spend on leisure activities, they are more likely to withdraw from their friends out of (misplaced) embarrassment. Spouses of laid-off workers often have to reenter the workforce or work longer hours to help make ends meet. Children often sense tension in the family, resent having their own standard of living curtailed, and blame the laid-off parent for their new problems • For organizations, too, downsizing does not come without costs. In addition to the expenses associated with severance pay, unemployment compensation, and other termination benefits to the employees being laid off, so-called “survivors” of downsizing can also harbor resentment and uncertainty about their futures. These affect morale and can also affect productivity. In addition, there are social costs for the organization as the networks of relationships among employees are disrupted or disturbed by the loss of personnel. The can impose costs on the organization in terms of reputation, efficiency, and morale

Coping With Job Loss Strategies for Employees: • Take a week or two to get reoriented before starting to hunt for a new job; being overwrought or highly agitated may hurt individuals trying to land new positions. • Consider updating skills and training. Particularly if there are widespread layoffs in an industry, employees might want to update their skills so they can obtain jobs in companies or industries which are growing more quickly. • Consider geographical relocation to a region where the economy in general or the labor market for an individual's skills is better. • Seek out social support from friends and family members in the wake of job loss. This is a difficult period of time, and social support helps people keep their spirits up during the stressful hunt for a new job.

Coping With Job Loss Strategies for Companies: • Calculate the full costs of a downsizing before making decisions to implement it. Generally, companies tend of over-estimate the savings from downsizing and underestimate costs. • Give advance notification of the layoffs, so that employees can get a head start on job hunting and start decreasing their levels of spending. • Provide severance pay and extended benefits so that employees will have some protection against uninsured medical emergencies and some financial cushion in the short run. • Provide outplacement assistance to laid-off workers. Outplacement programs provide employees with help in rewriting resumes, refreshing interviewing skills, and/or direct help in lining up job interviews with other firms. • Treat laid-off workers with dignity and respect. Degrading laid-off workers while they are being terminated or maligning them as they leave increases the stress for both the laid-off workers themselves and those who "survive" the layoffs.

Individual Strategies for Managing Careers Skills and Interests • Beginning with choosing a vocation and lasting throughout their careers, individuals have to consider both what activities they excel in and what their personal needs and interests are. When career choices are based only on what people like rather than what they are talented in, individuals usually end up plateaued and unable to advance very far in their chosen career paths. When career choices are based only on what people are good at rather than what they enjoy, individuals usually end up in jobs which they find boring and unfulfilling. For people to have successful careers, then, they need to identify jobs that play to both their skills and interests.

Individual Strategies for Managing Careers (cont.) Work and Family Integration • Although many people strive "to keep work at work and home at home," the reality of most people's careers and personal lives makes this separation untenable. In any personal relationship that is even moderately intimate, partners will share some of their work and career anxieties. In addition, personal decisions about starting a family, child care, elder care, and juggling two careers end up influencing each partner's own career path. While there are many successful models for integrating work and family demands, open discussion of these issues and conscious decisions between partners have to occur before a reasonable balance can be achieved.

Individual Strategies for Managing Careers (cont.) Growth Vs. Stability Orientation • As tempting as it is for individuals to arrive at some point in their careers and say to themselves "I'm satisfied with what I've got," the reality is that most people cannot stay in the same job, the same organization, or even in the same city for 20 to 30 years. Trying to defend one's current position against rapid changes in technology, labor markets, and even the shape of organizations themselves makes the search for long-term stability ultimately unsuccessful. No matter what the career stage, then, employees need continuously seek out opportunities for professional growth.

Individual Strategies for Managing Careers (cont.) Independent Vs. Sequential Career Decisions • In analyzing potential career decisions, individuals need to understand that earlier career decisions greatly constrain options available for later career decisions. Career decisions are not independent events; they are sequential and interdependent in nature. Thus, when making important career decisions, one cannot just consider the immediate consequences of actions. They have to consider, too, the doors their present decisions might open -- or close -- to future career moves.

Organizational Strategies for Developing Employees’ Careers Career Information & Career Pathing Systems • Many organizations are disseminating more complete information about career opportunities in their firms. Computer technology allows corporations to post job openings and job requirements and accept employee applications electronically. Increasing numbers of organizations are also using management development committees to systematically review employees' career progress and to establish realistic career goals and career plans with them. Skills Assessment & Continuous Training • Organizations seeking to facilitate employees' career development need to periodically assess their skills and design remedial and developmental training programs for them. This can be done through the use of assessment centers or in-house and outsourced educational programs. The goals are to identify weaknesses of employees that prevent them from advancing, remediate those problems, identify those skills employees will need for their next assignments, and train for the acquisition of those new skills accordingly.

Organizational Strategies for Developing Employees’ Careers Career Development for Historically Disadvantaged Groups • As the work force becomes more diverse in terms of gender, race, and nationality, organizations may need to provide additional career development programs for historically disadvantaged groups. Organizations seeking to increase their commitment to diversity are putting extra effort into the recruitment of these employees, providing additional feedback, training, and counseling to them, and establishing special mentor programs. Career Counseling for Individual Employees & Career Development Workshops for Managers • When organizations first begin their career development programs, they often focus their efforts on career counseling for individual employees. As these programs grow in scope, sole reliance on individual counseling can become prohibitively expensive. Thus, organizations often turn to greater use of group-level career development workshops and written materials to provide guidance to employees. Also, although individual counseling by HR specialists is still available in most firms, more and more corporations are running career development workshops to teach managers how to provide such guidance, too (particularly in conjunction with performance appraisals).

Managing Careers