Career development looks at the long-term career effectiveness and success of organizational personnel. A successful career development program, in attempting to match individual abilities and aspirations with the needs of the organization, should develop people for the long-term needs of the organization and address the dynamic changes that will take place over time.

Career development is a major aspect of human development. It includes one’s entire life span and concerns the whole person. Career development involves a person’s past, present and future work roles. It is linked to a person’s self-concept, family life, and all aspects of one’s environmental and cultural conditions.

Career development has been defined as the interaction of psychological, sociological, economic, physical and chance factors that shape the sequence of jobs, occupations or careers that a person may engage in throughout a lifetime.

Career Practices...

1. Selection and placement are crucial to development.

2. Lifelong learning depends on mobility.

3. Job assignments provide “real time” learning.

4. Mentoring, coaching and relationships are integral to learning.

5. People need information and support to self-manage careers.

6. Career moves should be valued.

7. Older workers need not be deadwood.

Hall and Associates

S.T.E.E.P. Impact on Career Development

• Sociological, e.g., women working outside the home

• Technological, e.g., development of powerful PC’s

• Environmental, e.g., living in California

• Economic, e.g., significant growth of mutual funds

• Political, e.g., welfare reform act and states’ emphasis

Employees and organizations alike engage in essential career development activities to improve the effectiveness of career development.

The amount of time spent and the degree of importance placed on these activities together enhance harmony between the employees and the organization. This harmony is known as the area of career development congruence.

Enlargement

Growingin Place

Moving Up

Moving Down

Moving Across

Relocation

INDIVIDUAL INSTITUTIONAL

OrganizationalCareer

Development

CareerPlanning

CareerManagement

Subprocesses Subprocesses-Occupational Choice -Recruitment and Selection-Organizational Choice -Human Resource Allocation

-Choice of Job Assignment -Appraisal and Evaluation

-Career Self-Development -Training and Development

A. Career: The sequence of a person’s work-related activities, behaviors and associated attitudes, values and aspirations over the span of one’s life.

B. Organizational Career Development: The outcomes of the interaction between individual career planning and institutional career management processes.

C. Career Planning: A deliberate process for becoming aware of self, opportunities, constraints, choices and consequences, for identifying career-related goals, and for programming of work, education and related developmental experiences to provide the direction timing and sequence of steps to attain a specific career goal.

D. Career Management: An ongoing process of preparing, implementing and monitoring career plans undertaken by the individual alone or in concert with the organization’s career system.

An organizational career development program (as opposed to employee training) should have a long term focus on increasing the organizations effectiveness in managing its human resources. Positive results accruing to a well-designed career development program:

• Ensures needed talent will be available– staff requirements identified– employee identified to prepare for requirements

• Improve ability to attract and retain high talent employees– cope with competition for needed talent– reduce employee attrition

• Ensure minorities and women get opportunities

– grown internal talent

– comply with affirmative action programs

– enhance cultural diversity

• Reduce employee frustration

– cope with downsizing, mergers, etc.

– increase morale (employability)

• Promote organizational Goodwill

Today many forces are encouraging organization-sponsored career planning programs.

1. Affirmative action programs.

2. Women, mid-career employees, and college recruits are seeking career planning assistance.

3. Highly talented candidates demand organizations demonstrate that career advancement

opportunities exist.

4. Corporate growth and development results in a need for more qualified human resources.

5. A competitive environment demands that “top” companies/agencies support key personnel.

Key Trends in Career Development Programming

1. Will return as company benefit

2. More extensive outplacement services

3. Development of “Talent Alliance” programs

4. Larger use of employee leasing programs

5. Convergence with general counseling (but now stress, family problems and outgrowth of job)

6. Limited R&D, so limited empirical base

7. Increased use of inventories, aptitude tests, surveys (will be controversial)

Organizational activities designed to enhance career development include:

(1) the establishment of a job posting system, (2) the development of mentoring activities, (3) the development of career resource centers, (4) the training of managers as career counselors, (5) the planning and implementing of career

development workshops, (6) human resource planning and forecasting (7) utilizing performance appraisals, and (8) developing career pathing programs.

Activities of the CD “department”

• Job posting systems (an “open” process)

• Employee request system (an emerging concept)

• Mentoring Systems

– a good mentor is open, perceptive, personable

– a good mentor has high status

– a good mentor is tolerant of disagreements, different styles

Activities of the CD “department” Cont’d.

• Career Resource Center

– educational and training info

– career planning

– personal growth activities

– job finding skills

– management/supervision

A Five-Stage Approach to Career Development

Stage IndividualActivities

OrganizationalActivities

1. Orientation Career Workshop

2. Who am I? Career AnalysisTest taking

Manager as career counselor

3. How am Iviewed

Self-analysis Performance appraisal

4. What are myoptions?

OrganizationalawarenessUtilizing careerresource centers

Job postingCareer resource centersHuman resource planning

5. How do Iaccomplish mygoal

Career planning Manager as career counselorMentioning career planning

The term career has been interpreted or defined in various ways in the professional literature. …equating career with the sum of all life experiences including education, work, leisure activities, social and civic memberships and responsibilities, and family membership. This view holds that all life development is an aspect of career.

According to Zenger (1981), the organization maintains several fundamental responsibilities regarding career development:

1. Agree that career pathing is a vital part of the organization.2. Prepare career paths for employees.3. Maintain an efficient, complete job posting system.4. Train managers as career counselors.5. Provide assessment testing.6. Communicate the organization’s philosophy.7. Reward managers who develop people and establish

mentoring programs.8. Provide career workshops for employees to explore career

development issues.9. Establish a human resource forecasting system.10. Develop an effective performance appraisal process.11. Establish career resource centers.

Because of this vital relationship, organizations tend to take two approaches when establishing career development programs. They employ career development specialists or relinquish career development responsibilities directly to managers and supervisors (Jones, Kaye, & Taylor, 1984). The latter alternative appeals to many organizations because of its simplicity and cost benefits. It can also be argued that the supervisor’s impact on a worker’s career is greater than any other organizational factor.

In addition to job counseling, managers maintain eight different roles associated with career development:

1. Communicator--one who promotes a two-way exchange between him/herself and the employees.

2. Appraiser--one who evaluates an employee’s performance and provides feedback.

3. Coach--one who gives instruction or skill training.4. Mentor--one who serves as a sponsor to facilitate an

employee’s career growth.5. Advisor--one who directs and supports an employee’s career

growth.6. Broker--one who serves as an agent for the employee.7. Advocate--one who intervenes on behalf of the employee for

benefits, promotions, and elimination of obstacles.8. Referred Agent--one who identifies resources to help an

employee with a specific problem (Leibowitz & Schlossberg, 1986).

Managers and supervisors...

• Benefit from having practical experience.

• Can make realistic appraisals of organizational opportunities.

• Can use information from past performance evaluation to make realistic suggestions concerning career planning.

• Can evaluate external economic opportunities pertaining to business

• Have experienced similar career decisions and can be empathetic toward the

employee (Gilley & Moore, 1986).

In career development, the employee is responsible for career planning and the organization, more specifically the HRD practitioner, is responsible for career management. These two separate but related processes combine to make up the organizational career development process. Career planning is a process of setting up employee career objectives and developing activities that will achieve them. Career management refers to specific human resource activities, such as job placement, performance appraisal, counseling, training, and education.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS AND SEMINARS

A favored form of career development enhancement is workshops and seminars designed to encourage employees to take responsibilities for their careers. Employees can reflect on their present occupation in order to determine their level of satisfaction.

Thus, workshops and seminars are excellent vehicles for orienting employees to career/life planning, a major component of career development.

Prototype Career Workshop (Lawrence Livermore)Week 1--Orientation to career planning (4 hrs.)

Week 2--Assessment of work values, personality style, interests; also training in career

decision making (16 hrs.)

Week 3--Individual interview--a structured interview focusing on past achievement is

videotaped (1 hr)

Week 4--Mini seminars made up of small groups of employees work to identify “motivated skills”

and effective work style (10 hrs.)

Week 5--Individual counseling session focuses on developing and individual career development

plan (1 hr)

Prototype Career Workshop (Lawrence Livermore) (cont’d)

Week 6--Individuals independently gather information and work on career development plan

(varies)

Week 7--Each person presents the what, how, when, and where of their career development plan to

other seminar participants (8 hrs.)

Some HRD competencies in CD...

• Job Design and Evaluation

• Training and Development Techniques

• Organizational and Management Understandings

• Project and Program Management

• Needs Assessment and Research

• Interpersonal and Group Skills

• Adult Learning and Development

• Career Development Theories

• Career Facilitation and Advising

• Electronic Systems Skills

Creating an Organization Career Development Program1. Start small and design a specific program in response to

particular institutional and employee needs. Expand the program on a gradual basis, identifying

priorities and desired time sequencing.2. Design the system to interface with other ongoing personnel

processes, such as performance appraisal, human resource planning, and training and development programs.

3. Obtain top management support via policy, physical presence, and budgetary provisions.

4. Encourage line management “ownership” of career development activities and utilize personnel as third- party change agents.

5. Establish indicators of programs effectiveness and measure and communicate the results.

Creating an Organization Career Development Program (Cont’d)6. Promote voluntary employee participation in the

program.

7. Provide a balance of individual and organizational interventions.

8. Prepare and train employees and managers for

changes likely to occur as a result of system implementation.

9. Be patient and provide time for problem solving.