2. Chapter 10
Managing Careers

3. Self-Reliance – Key to Career Management
A few questions a 21st century manager should ask:
Should employees be responsible for their own career development?
Is the new approach to management a fad, or will the trend continue?
What kinds of support mechanisms are necessary to make career self-management work?

4. Evidence That Career-Management Issues Are Here to Stay
Increased concern for QWL and personal life planning
Expansion of workplace diversity throughout all organizational levels
Rising educational levels and occupational aspirations, coupled with
Slow economic growth and reduced opportunities for advancement

5. Careers Without Boundaries
They span multiple organizations and are growing because of:
Portability of knowledge and skills across firms
People want meaningful work
On-the-job action learning
Development of multiple networks of associates
Responsibility for managing one’s own career

6. Individual-Focused Career Management
An individual who is career-focused must realize the following:
Think in terms of where you ultimately want to be
Understand different fields of employment
Accept short-term trade-offs for long-term benefits
Be aware of opportunities in your current position
Carefully and honestly assess your current performance
Try to understand when you and your organization have outlived each other’s usefulness

7. How HP Helps Its Employees Self-Manage
Hewlett-Packard helps its employees self-manage through a series of exercises designed to promote self-understanding:
A written self-interview
Completion of the Strong Vocational Interest Inventory
Exploration of the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values
Recording a 24-hour diary on a work day and on a non-work day
Interviews with at least two “significant others”
Lifestyle depiction using words, photos, and drawings

8. Benefits of the Family-Focused Company
The company integrates family-support mechanisms into the business itself
Flextime is usually a reality
Job-share programs are common
Childcare is often provided by the company

9. Managing the Mid-Career Employee
The following issues may arise sometime between the ages of 35-55:
An awareness of advancing age and awareness of death
An awareness of body changes related to aging
Marked changes in family relationships
A search for new goals in life
One is now more of a coach than a novice
A growing sense of obsolescence at work
A feeling of decreased job mobility and increased concern for employment security

10. Functions of a Career Path
Should represent realistic opportunities, whether lateral or upward
Should be tentative and responsive to changes in job content, work priorities, and management needs
Should be flexible, taking into consideration how employees, subordinates, and managers influence the way work is performed
Should specify skills and knowledge required to perform effectively at each position along the path, and specify how they can be acquired

11. Negative Career Path Elements
Demotions
Transfers
Layoffs
Resignations
Early retirements