1. Taking Control of Your Career
Sandra Haase & Catherine Steele
Centre for Work

2. Careers today Dramatic transformations in organisations
New Career Realities
Careers are boundaryless
Individuals need to take ownership of careers
Definition of career changed
authors describe dramatic transformations in work organisations - attributed to profound changes in the context of employment, e.g. pressures brought about by the globalisation of economies and technological advance.
Stable career paths and fixed lattices of job positions are now less likely to be encountered, processes such as downsizing, internal restructuring and delayering make it harder to obtain promotion
job changes are frequent, individuals have to make and remake career decisions more frequently (increasingly seek progression through lateral transfers)
These changes lead to new ‘career realities’ (Kidd, 1996).
two important changes have emerged: 1) careers are no longer linked to a single organisational context but are boundaryless and 2) organisations are taking an increasingly hands-off approach to career management, placing greater responsibility on the individual
People have to carry a portfolio of skills and experiences and make strategic moves which equip them for future employability (identify what they want to do, analyse the gap and close them). Buss word: transferable skills

3. Work to live or live to work?
Schein (1990) Internal vs External Career
Internal = subjective, individual-oriented view
External = objective realities and constraints in the world of work

4. Definition of Career Definition career
Objective career - ordered movement of individuals among a patterned sequence of positions
Subjective career - sense that individuals make of their careers, their personal histories, and skills, attitudes and beliefs that they have acquired
Definition career
“the sequence of employment-related positions, roles, activities and experiences encountered by a person” (Arnold, 1997)
Majority of traditional career theories describe career in structural not in personal terms focussing on the observed progress of an individual through an organization. Traditionally, careers were managed by the organisation
Career defined as “a succession of related jobs, arranged in a hierarchy of prestige, through which persons move in an ordered (more-or-less predictable) sequence" (Wilensky, 1961) p. 523) or “movement through a series of positions that require greater mastery and responsibility, and that provide increasing financial return” (Perlmutter & Hall, 1992 in (Arnold, 1997b) p. 2) - external perception has frequently been referred to as objective or actual career.
New career realities - as a result, promotion now often harder to obtain and job security has declined. more individuals responsibility - focus of attention has shifted from the organisation to the individual.
‘New career realities’ (Kidd, 1996) led to new career theories being proposed. These new theories respond to the new career realities by emphasising the individualistic perspective and definition of career in personal terms rather than assuming universal, objectively identifiable stages of career.
This internal perspective on career has also been described as subjective or perceptual career, i.e. the “sense that individuals make of their careers” (Arthur, Inkson, & Pringle, 1999).
Arnold (1997) presented definition of career that accommodates both perspectives: “the sequence of employment-related positions, roles, activities and experiences encountered by a person” (p. 16).
The definition of career by Arnold does not imply success or failure. What characterises success in a career?

5. Career Success Objective career success (OCS)
Perception of an individual’s career by other people or by society - reflecting shared social understandings
Generally measured on external standards e.g. pay or number of promotions
Subjective career success (SCS)
Individual’s perspective, their internal interpretation and evaluation of their careers
Generally measured on internal standards e.g. perception of success with regards to payment, job success, life success etc.
In style of theoretical distinction btw OC & SC - objective & subjective components of career success (OCS = main focus in past with trad. def. of career).
OCS = perception of individual’s career by other people or society - concerned with social role & official position, reflecting shared social understandings.
Generally measured on external standards - might involve attainments in areas such as pay, position or promotion (Heslin, 2003) - variables readily available & efficient to collect & free from self-serving, common method variance as can be cross-validated.
BUT affected by factors that are beyond individual’s influence e.g. labour market conditions, appraiser bias etc.
However, pay and promotion not important to everybody: managers often felt alienated with their careers in spite of their OCS (Korman, 1981)
Def. Arthur (2005) – esp. these days where individuals are more and more responsible for their career development, SCS gains importance - ultimate goal of the career is psychological success in line with the feeling of pride and personal accomplishment that comes from achieving one’s most important goals in life, be they achievement, family happiness, inner peace, or something else (Hall, 1996).
Recent research findings suggest various interdependent aspects of SCS (e.g. Eby et al., 2003) - SCS reflects individuals’ evaluation of their own success involving reactions to both objective e.g. level of pay and subjective e.g. challenge and security facets of their career (Heslin, 2005) - generally, assessed using self-report measures.
As such, SCS variables are not as readily assessable as OCS measures for various reasons - First, while there is only one way to achieve vertical success, there are infinite ways to achieve psychological success (Hall, 1996). Second, def of success depends on the individual i.e. is idiosyncratic.

6. Career Competencies
Introduction of competency concept to career context
Definition career competencies
“behavioural repertoires and knowledge that are
instrumental in the delivery of desired career
related outcomes”
Operationalised: Career Competencies Indicator (CCI)
Phd in collaboration with the local police force – when started to look into question of how competencies can be best applied to career development context
police force - very hierarchical structure
To date, no systematic approach to officers’ career progression.
Presently, career management interventions mainly aimed at particular groups of individuals - focus mainly on new recruits, probationers, and on senior managers (Blunket, 2004). Development beyond that has largely been restricted to preparation for promotion.
As a result, most career development programmes in the police are linked to promotion processes. This is a reflection of the fact that rank is still seen as the main source of power, status and prestige (McGinnis, 1987).
In addition, there is a move to hand over more and more responsibility for career development to individuals.
Found that competencies as presently used mainly focus on job and don’t cover all the things that are important with regard to career development
Useful concept – therefore introduction of concept to the career context
originally introduced by Arthur and colleagues BUT did not distinguish clearly between competencies and personality – therefore new definition of career competencies based on traditional definition of competencies by Bartram

7. Career Competencies II
Goal setting and career planning (5)
Self-knowledge (5)
Job-performance (5)
Career-skills (7)
Knowlege of (office) politics (5)
Networking and mentoring (8)
Feedback seeking and self-presentation (8)

8. Data collection Measures in online questionnaire:
CCI
OCS – income and number of promotions
SCS – career satisfaction, job success and life success
demographics incl. age, gender, education, marital status
Career salience and personality
Sent to random sample of 1000 police officers in collaborating organisation and all employees of UW
406 responses (269 police, 110 UW) received
Aim – answer the question whether career competencies actually have an impact on career outcomes as defined in the literature.
Some of the measures used to assess SCS = career satisfaction, job success and life success
Point out that sample number different to what is stated in in the abstract
Life satisfaction: Happy with my private life. Enjoying non-work activities. Satisfied with my life overall.
Job success: Enough responsibility. Positive feedback from supervisors. etc.

9. Analysis and outcomes
Multiple regression analysis showed that CCI sub-scales jointly contributed significantly to the prediction of SCS and OCS
For SCS the contribution of the CCI sub-scales was even significant over and above the impact of demographics, career salience and personality
Multiple regression analyses provided support for the criterion-related validity of the CCI, showing that the sub-scales jointly contributed significantly to the prediction of SCS and OCS. For career satisfaction, job success, interpersonal success and life success, the contribution of the CCI sub-scales was even significant over and above the impact of demographics, career salience and personality.
Networking, setting of career goals, knowing yourself, influencing others, asking for feedback and presenting own work, doing a good job and working to develop a range of skills that are important for future jobs are not only important to achieve OCS but also a subjective feeling of success with regards to the career in general and the job in specific but also with regards to overall life success

10. Importance of Career Self-Management
Career competencies not only important for OCS but also for SCS
Ability to manage own career effectively may:
Provide individuals with sense of control
Prevent them from interpreting situations as stressful
Function as coping strategy and help overcome barriers
Encourage more positive work attitudes and lower stress levels
As described above, the continuous changes affecting the world of work have a large effect on careers. Individuals are required to deal with changes that make promotion less likely and job changes more frequent. Change (HSE, 2005) and career events are key sources of stress at work (Latack, 1989). A lot of costs are associated with stress and career issues have become increasingly salient and common in work organisations (Latack, 1989). Though as yet not empirically supported, career self-management activities (and so career competencies) are thought to provide the individual with an increased sense of control. Therefore, it can be speculated that individuals who score low on the career competencies are more likely to experience stress, or display strain reactions, under conditions of career change. As described earlier, having a career goal, self-knowledge, a broad range of career-related skills, and a network to obtain information and guidance from, may help individuals to deal with career changes and events more effectively. Not only may career competencies give individuals a greater sense of control, which may prevent them from interpreting the situation as stressful, career competencies may also function as coping strategies, and help to overcome barriers. If career competencies help individuals to feel on top of change activities and adverse career events, they are likely to encourage more positive work attitudes and lower stress levels.

11. Career Anchors Career anchors describe a constellation of self
perceived attitudes, values, needs and talents
that develops over time, and which when
developed, shapes and guides career choices
and directions. (Schein, 1975)
The first step for individuals wanting to self manage their career is to focus on raising their self awareness of the skills and weaknesses. So focusing on the career competencies of self knowledge, goal setting and career planning.
One of the models that aids raising self awareness is career anchors

12. The 8 Career Anchors
General Management – rise to a high level in the organisation
Functional Expertise – seek high levels of challenge in expertise
Autonomy – want working life to be under your control
Security & Stability – need to feel economically secure & stable
Sense of Service – job must fulfil the values you hold
Pure Challenge – enjoy overcoming impossible barriers
Creativity – want to create a product/service of your own
Lifestyle – want work to integrate with other areas of your life

13. Data Collection 1
40 item on line questionnaire to assess career anchors
Sent to various organisations in the UK
606 responses
Participants received personal profile in return for completion of questionnaire
Aim – to look for trends in career values – what is it that people want from their career and does this match what organisations are offering?

14. Popularity Frequency Tan & Queks (2001) method Lifestyle 225
Functional Expertise 96
Sense of Service 87
Security 66
Autonomy 53
Pure Challenge 41
Creativity 25
General Management 13
Tan & Queks (2001) method
Lifestyle 222
Sense of Service 145
Security 107
Functional Expertise 89
Autonomy 82
Pure Challenge 56
Creativity 39
General Management 14
2 methods used to look at the popularity of career anchors within this sample. The first was based on high scoring anchors, the second was simply looking at the frequency of the highest scoring anchors.
Both show the same top 4 and the same top anchor = LIFESTYLE! Suggesting that consideration of work life balance is very important to the majority. Also suggesting a shift towards viewing subjective career success and the internal career more importantly.
Sense of service?
General Management?

15. Person Job Fit Study Matching anchors to jobs Measures used:
- Job Satisfaction,
- Organisational Commitment, - Career Salience
- COI
180 WMC employees
Project undertaken within WMC
Line managers and job holders were asked to indicate how well individual job roles matched the career anchors. A selection of 7 jobs were chosen. All jobs had a high number of job holders – eg CSO.
Questions such as does your job enable you to manage others to indicate suitability for GM anchor etc.
Individuals rated JS, OC, CS & completed COI to identify their career anchors
180 employees

16. Analysis & Outcomes
Multiple regression analysis found that fit between job profile and career anchor profile predicts both JS & OC
No moderating effect was found for career salience
The model being tested was that fit between an individuals career anchors and the job anchors would predict job satisfaction and org com. It was expected that career salience wold moderate this relationship. So for individuals that highly value their careers the impact of good fit would be greater than for those that don’t.
Overall suggests that career values actually are important.

17. But……
Between 1988 and 1998 the male part time workforce increased by 138% from 556,000 to 1,320,000.
Research suggests a link between the “traditional” view of careers and stress (Cooper, 2005)
Most organisations still only operate a vertical career progression model (CIPD 2003). Only 26% of organisations offer career management for all staff
Most common strategic objectives of career management are “growing future senior management” or “retaining key staff” (Hirsh 2005)
So research is suggesting that views of careers are changing psychological success is more important as is work life balance.
Demographics of the workforce are changing
COM ignores large parts of the organisation – not helping individuals to develop career competence

18. Recommendations
Be aware that fit between career values and job role is likely to impact on performance
Encourage organisations to take a broader view of career management
Recognise importance of subjective side of career and career success
Support individual career management by helping individuals to develop career competencies

19. Contact Details Sandra: s.haase@worc.ac.uk
Catherine: