1. Chapter 12 Special Challenges in Career Management
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2010 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Introduction Supportive work-life culture
Acknowledges and respects family and life responsibilities and obligations.
Encourages managers and employees to work together to meet personal and work needs.

3. Socialization and Orientation
Organizational socialization – the process by which new employees are transformed into effective members of the company; has three phases:
Anticipatory socialization - employees develop expectations about the company, job, working conditions, and interpersonal relationships.

4. Socialization and Orientation (cont.)
Encounter phase - employee begins a new job; they experience shock and surprise and need to become familiar with job tasks, company practices, procedures, etc.
Settling-in phase - employees begin to feel comfortable with their job demands and social relationships.

5. Table 12.1 - What Employees Should Learn and Develop Through Socialization

6. Table 12.2 - Content of Orientation Programs

7. Table 12.3 - Characteristics of Effective Orientation Programs

8. Career Paths, Developing Dual-Career Paths and Career Portfolios
Career path - a sequence of job positions involving similar types of work and skills that employees move through in the company; it involves analyzing:
work and information flows.
important development experiences.
qualifications and tasks performed across jobs.
similarities and differences in working environments.
historical movement patterns of employees in and out of jobs.

9. Career Paths, Developing Dual-Career Paths and Career Portfolios (cont
Dual-career path system - enables employees to remain in a technical career path or move into a management career path. Its characteristics are:
Salary, status, and incentives for technical employees compare favorably with those of managers.
Individual contributors’ base salary may be lower than that of managers, but they are given opportunities to increase their total compensation through bonuses.

10. Career Paths, Developing Dual-Career Paths and Career Portfolios (cont
The individual contributor career path is not used to satisfy poor performers who have no managerial potential. The career path is for employees with outstanding technical skills.
Individual contributors are given the opportunity to choose their career path.

11. Figure 12.3 - Example of Dual-Career-Path System

12. Career Paths, Developing Dual-Career Paths and Career Portfolios (cont
Career portfolio - multiple part-time jobs that together make up a full-time position.
Advantages:
Increases job satisfaction and provides flexibility.
Disadvantages:
Stalled earnings and trouble maintaining company- sponsored health care.
Readjustment each time the employee moves from one job to the other.

13. Plateauing
The likelihood of the employee receiving future job assignments with increased responsibility is low.
Mid-career employees are most likely to plateau.
It becomes dysfunctional when the employee feels stuck in a job that offers no potential for personal growth resulting in poor job attitude, increased absenteeism, and poor job performance.

14. Plateauing (cont.) Reasons for employees to plateau:
Discrimination based on age, gender, or race.
Lack of ability and training.
Low need for achievement.
Unfair pay decisions or dissatisfaction with pay raises.
Confusion about job responsibilities.
Slow company growth resulting in reduced development opportunities.

15. Table 12.4 - Possible Remedies for Plateaued Employees

16. Skills Obsolescence
It is a reduction in an employee’s competence resulting from a lack of knowledge of new work processes, techniques, and technologies that have developed since the employee completed his or her education.

17. Figure 12.4 - Factors Related to Updating Skills

18. Coping With Career Breaks
Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act - deployed employees’ rights, such as guaranteeing reservists’ jobs when they return, except under special circumstance.
Companies must ensure that returning reservists are provided with career counseling and information on jobs and career opportunities.

19. Balancing Work and Life
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) - a federal law that provides for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for parents with new infants or newly adopted children.
Also covers employees who must take a leave of absence to care for a family member or to deal with a personal illness.
Companies are required to provide health care benefits.

20. Balancing Work and Life (cont.)
Role of training in balancing work and nonwork:
Trainers and managers may be responsible for developing policies and procedures.
Trainers may be responsible for developing training programs to teach managers their role in administering and overseeing the use of work-life policies.

21. Balancing Work and Life (cont.)
Types of work-life conflict
Time-based conflict - occurs when the demands of work and nonwork interfere with each other.
Strain-based conflict - results from the stress of work and nonwork roles.
Behavior-based conflict - occurs when employees’ behavior in work roles is not appropriate for their behavior in nonwork roles.

22. Company Policies to Accommodate Work and Nonwork
Identifying work and life needs and communicating information about work and non-work policies and job demands
Companies have to understand employees’ needs, solicit their input, and make work-life benefits accessible to everyone.
Providing information regarding the nature of jobs helps employees choose career opportunities that match the importance they place on work.

23. Company Policies to Accommodate Work and Nonwork (cont.)
Flexibility in work arrangements and work schedules
Reduce pressure on employees to work long hours.
Telecommuting - a work arrangement that provides flexibility in both location and hours.
Job sharing - two employees divide the hours, responsibilities, and benefits of a full-time job.

24. Table 12.6 - Alternative Work Schedules and Work Arrangements

25. Company Policies to Accommodate Work and Nonwork (cont.)
Redesigning jobs
Managerial support for work-life policies
Dependent care support: child and elder care and adoption support

26. Table 12.7 - Recommendations for the Development of Dependent Care Assistance Programs

27. Coping With Job Loss
From a career management standpoint, companies and managers have two major responsibilities:
Helping employees who will lose their jobs.
Ensuring that the “survivors” remain productive and committed to the organization.

28. Coping With Job Loss (cont.)
Outplacement services should include:
Advance warning and an explanation for the layoff.
Psychological, financial, and career counseling.
Assessment of skills and interests.
Job campaign services.
Job banks.
Electronic delivery of job openings, self-directed career management guides, and values and interest inventories.

29. Table 12.8 - Guidelines for Termination Meetings With Employees

30. Table 12.8 - Guidelines for Termination Meetings With Employees

31. Dealing With Older Workers
Companies can take the following actions:
Provide flexibility in scheduling, which allows older employees to take care of sick spouses, go back to school, travel, etc.
Ensure that older employees receive the training they need to avoid obsolescence and to be prepared to use new technology.
Provide resources and referral help that addresses long-term health care and elder care.

32. Dealing With Older Workers (cont.)
Provide assessment and counseling, which are necessary to help older employees recycle to new jobs or careers.
Consider moving valuable older employees who are suffering skill deterioration to other jobs.
Ensure that employees do not hold inappropriate stereotypes about older employees.

33. Dealing With Older Workers (cont.)
Preretirement socialization - helping employees prepare to exit from work. It addresses the following topics:
Psychological aspects of retirement.
Housing, transportation, living costs, and proximity to medical care.
Health during retirement.
Financial and estate planning.
Health care plans.
The collection of benefits from company pension plans and Social Security.

34. Dealing With Older Workers (cont.)
Early retirement programs - offer employees financial benefits to leave the company.
To avoid costly litigation, companies need to ensure that:
The program is part of the employee benefit plan.
The company can justify age-related distinctions for eligibility for early retirement.
Employees are allowed to voluntarily choose early retirement.