Transcript Taking Control of Your Career

Taking Control of Your Career
Sandra Haase & Catherine Steele
Centre for People @ Work
Careers today
• Dramatic transformations in organisations
• New Career Realities
– Careers are boundaryless
– Individuals need to take ownership of careers
• Definition of career changed
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
Definition of 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)
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.
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)
Career Competencies II
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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)
Data collection
• Measures in online questionnaire:
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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
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 subscales was even significant over and above
the impact of demographics, career salience
and personality
Importance of Career SelfManagement
• Career competencies not only important for
OCS but also for SCS
• Ability to manage own career effectively may:
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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
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 8 Career Anchors
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General Management – rise to a high level in the organisation
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Functional Expertise – seek high levels of challenge in expertise
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Autonomy – want working life to be under your control
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Security & Stability – need to feel economically secure & stable
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Sense of Service – job must fulfil the values you hold
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Pure Challenge – enjoy overcoming impossible barriers
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Creativity – want to create a product/service of your own
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Lifestyle – want work to integrate with other areas of your life
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
Popularity
Tan & Queks (2001) method
Frequency
Lifestyle 222
Lifestyle 225
Sense of Service 145
Functional Expertise 96
Security 107
Sense of Service 87
Functional Expertise 89
Security 66
Autonomy
Autonomy 53
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Pure Challenge 56
Pure Challenge 41
Creativity 39
Creativity 25
General Management 14
General Management 13
Person Job Fit Study
• Matching anchors to jobs
• Measures used:
- Job Satisfaction,
- Organisational Commitment,
- Career Salience
- COI
• 180 WMC employees
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
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)
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
Contact Details
Sandra: [email protected]
Catherine: [email protected]