Career Dynamics Chapter 7

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 2 Learning 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 Concepts Career Dynamics Career 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. Career Career: The evolving sequences of work experience over time. Job Job: A predetermined set of activities a worker is expected to perform. Occupation Occupation: A coherent set of jobs.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 4 Career Concepts

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 5 Characteristics of Modern Careers  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.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 6 Lifetime Employment Reasons for the shift away from lifetime employment: –Technological advances –Technological advances are causing new jobs to come into existence and old ones to be phased out all the time. –Economic shifts –Economic shifts reduce job security due to mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and firm closures. –Social norms –Social norms have changed such that company loyalty is no longer as highly valued as it once was.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 7 Boundaryless 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.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 8 Types of Careers Steady-State Linear Spiral Transitory

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 9 Steady-State Career The type of career characterized by a lifetime of employment in a single job.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 10 Linear 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.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 11 Spiral 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.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 12 Transitory Career The type of career in which someone moves between many different unrelated positions, spending about one to four years in each.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 13 Career Stages 1. Preparation for Work 1. Preparation for Work: Acquiring various skills, learning about various career options, and determining what career you want to pursue. 2. Organizational Entry 2. Organizational Entry: Finding out about specific jobs and getting your foot in the door. 3. Early Career 3. Early Career: Establishing yourself in a specific job and then achieving success at it. 4. Middle Career 4. Middle Career: Figuring out how to continue to be productive after you’ve been working for over 20 years. 5. Late Career 5. Late Career: Keeping from becoming obsolete and planning for retirement.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 14 Career Stages

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 15 Holland ’ s Theory of Vocational Choice A theory that claims that people will perform best at occupations that match their traits and personalities. Holland’s Hexagon Holland’s Hexagon: A conceptualization specifying the occupations for which people are best suited based on which of six personality types most closely describes them.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 16 Holland ’ s Theory

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 17 Holland ’ s Hexagon

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 18 Career 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 Functional –Managerial Competence –Security and Stability –Creativity or Entrepreneurship –Autonomy and Independence

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 19 Technical or Functional Anchor Concentration on jobs focusing on specific content areas (e.g., auto mechanics, graphic arts).

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 20 Managerial Competence Anchor Focus on jobs that allow for analyzing business problems and dealing with people.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 21 Security and Stability Anchor Attraction to jobs that are likely to continue into the future (e.g., the military).

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 22 Creativity or Entrepreneurship Anchor Primary interest in starting new companies from visions of unique products or services but not necessarily running them.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 23 Autonomy and Independence Anchor Attraction to jobs that allow for freedom from constraints and to work at one’s own pace (e.g., novelists and creative artists).

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 24 Occupational Outlook

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 25 Growth of High-Tech Jobs

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 26 Organizational Socialization The process through which people move from outsiders to effective, participating members of their organizations. Stages: –Anticipatory Socialization –Encounter –Metamorphosis

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 27 Socialization Stages Anticipatory Socialization Anticipatory Socialization: The first stage of socialization, concerned with learning about an organization before working there. Encounter Encounter: The second stage of organizational socialization, faced as newcomers to an organization learn their new duties and the organization’s ways of operating. Metamorphosis Metamorphosis: 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).

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 28 Stages of Socialization

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 29 Entry Shock The disillusionment, disappointment, and confusion that result when new employees’ job expectations are unmet. Realistic Job Preview Realistic 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.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 30 Realistic Job Previews

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 31 Mentoring The process by which a more experienced employee advises, counsels, and otherwise enhances the professional development of a new employee. Mentor Mentor: A more experienced employee who guides a newer employee in learning about the job and organization. Protégé Protégé: An inexperienced employee who receives assistance from a more experienced employee in learning about a new job and/or organization.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 32 Mentoring Stages

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 33 Benefits 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

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 34 Benefits 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

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 35 Risks 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.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 36 Successful Mentoring

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 37 Mentoring Diverse Groups

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 38 Challenges in Established Careers  Confronting the career plateau  Making career changes  Planning for succession and retirement

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 39 Career Plateaus  Career Plateau  Career Plateau: The point at which one’s career has peaked and is unlikely to develop further.  Career Development Intervention  Career Development Intervention: Systematic efforts to help manage people’s careers while simultaneously helping the organizations in which they work.  Outplacement Programs  Outplacement Programs: Systematic efforts to find new jobs for employees who are laid off.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 40 Career Development Interventions

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 41 Career Changes

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 42 Retirement

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 43 Personal Challenges and Strategies  Job Rotation  Entrepreneurship  Home-Based Business  The Glass Ceiling  Dealing with the Dual Career  Hiring a Career Coach

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 44 Job Rotation The practice of transferring employees laterally between different jobs in an organization.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 45 Entrepreneurship

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 46 Home-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.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 47 The Glass Ceiling The artificial barrier that prevents qualified individuals from advancing in their organizations.

© Copyright 2003, Prentice Hall 48 Dealing with the Dual Career Dual-Career Couples Dual-Career Couples: Married couples in which both partners are employed. Dual-Career Conflict Dual-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 Break Career Break: The practice in which an employee leaves and then subsequently reenters a job following an agreed-upon period of absence. Dropping Out Dropping Out: The practice of resigning from a job for a long period of time and then taking another job at another time.