Culture as an environmental context for careers

Cultural factors influence career patterns in a variety of ways. Societal, occupational, and organizational cultures influence the structure of the external career, prestige associated with given careers, the legitimacy of certain motives underlying careers, success criteria, the clarity of the career concept itself, and the importance attached to career versus family and self development. How career occupants view their careers and the degree of variation in such views within given societies, occupations, and organizations is also culturally patterned. Both managers and career researchers must become more familiar with these cultural influences.     

Career communities: a preliminary exploration of member‐defined career support structures

This paper explores the concept of career communities: social structures that provide career support and frequently transcend the boundaries of any single organization. The theoretical background notes the convergence of a number of different perspectives from both career development and organization studies, pertaining to the social contextualization of careers. The methodology involved eliciting expressions of the (individual) subjective career from the members of three potential career communities, and then exploring (communal) inter‐subjective interpretations in focus groups. Our results suggest that career communities typically involve a hybrid of types rather than any one pure type. Preliminary support is found for the view that career communities facilitate career support, sensemaking and learning. The results invite further research into career communities and have implications for organizational behavior and human resource management, suggesting greater appreciation of the extra‐organizational as well as intra‐organizational communities in which careers develop. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The relationships between career concerns and political tactics in organizations

The study examined the relationships between four career concerns (Personal Success, Organizational Involvement, Skill Development and Autonomy) and two categories of political tactics in organizations (Hierarchical Tactics and Networking Tactics) in a sample of management school alumni. Career concerns were not related to the employment of hierarchical tactics but were strongly related to the use of networking tactics. ‘External’ career concerns of personal success and organizational involvement were more strongly related to political behavior than ‘internal’ career concerns of skill development and autonomy. Organization size was significantly related to the use of hierarchical tactics but not to the use of networking tactics. Type of organization structure (mechanistic versus organic) did not have a direct effect on political behavior but moderated the relationships between career concerns and political tactics. These relationships were stronger in organic than in mechanistic organizations.     

Getting ahead: organizational practices that set boundaries around mobility patterns

An organizational level empirical analysis of career advancement in organizations was conducted on a diverse sample of 318 mid to large size worksites in Georgia, USA. Two variables were used to indicate career advancement: (1) emphasis on upward mobility of non‐management employees to other non‐management positions; and (2) the movement of non‐management employees into management. Two sets of organizational variables are differentially related to the two different indicators of career advancement. Organizational structural variables are more likely to be related to upward mobility within the non‐management ranks, and demographic variables are more likely to be related to across‐category movement from non‐management to management. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From job-based to competency-based organizations

The efficacy of designing organizations around job structures is challenged. Although this approach has dominated the fields of organizational behavior and human resource management for decades, a number of forces have converged to suggest that a competency-based approach often is more appropriate. In the global competitive environment which large, complex organizations face, the competency-based approach and the capabilities that individuals need to acquire and develop should be the major focus. Reward systems, career tracks, selection systems, and the structure of organizations need to change to focus on competencies. The challenges and opportunities for research, theory, and practice development that a change to a competency-based approach raises are many and diverse. For example, new pay systems are needed, new selection systems are needed, indeed whole new concepts about what constitutes selection validity and career development are needed.     

The critical re-action: Learning from accidents

How do organizations react and learn from accidents? The current paper deals with the justified necessity of acting upon, and learning from accidents. The aim is to discuss organizational dynamics and interplay, evoked and put into (re)action ‘after the fact’.The paper is part of an interview study that was designed to invite individuals to reflect back, and search for patterns in terms of how they interpret the learning impact of an accident, not just in terms of changes within their own organization that can be traced back to accidents, but for the sector as a whole. A presumption for this study was the importance to look at organizational interaction, i.e. how organizations act, affect, and speak with each other. In all 30 people from the rail and marine sector were interviewed with regard to (1) revealed changes in the aftermath of the accident, and (2) conditions for learning from accidents. Thematically, the interviews had two major accidents in Norway as a background theme: The high-speed craft MS Sleipner-accident (1999) and the railway accident at Åsta (2000).The paper reports and discusses key findings from the study, with a specific focus on the interplay between actors and parallel processes in the aftermaths of an accident.     

The influence of career stage on the work attitudes of male and female accounting professionals

The present study compared work commitments, overall job satisfaction, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards satisfactions, and organizational and professional turnover intentions of 718 male and female accounting professionals at different career stages. Career stage was measured by professional tenure. The results indicate that there are some differences in work attitudes across career stages for male accounting professionals. Job involvement, organizational commitment, and intrinsic and extrinsic rewards satisfaction are positively related to professional tenure. Organizational turnover intentions are negatively related to professional tenure for male accounting professionals. There are no significant differences in work attitudes across career stages for female accounting professionals. An examination of reasons for differences in work attitude patterns between male and female accountants suggests the need for research to determine whether later career stages (advancement and maintenance) differ for men and women. The results also suggest that future research should consider defining career stage in terms of the overlap between stages defined using alternate career stage measures.     

Organizational career development is not dead: a case study on managing the new career during organizational change

New forms of careers have received increased attention in contemporary organizational research. A prominent focus in this research has been whether and how, in an increasingly unpredictable career environment, individuals are taking responsibility for their own career development. The implication is that career is becoming less central to organizational management practices. At the same time there is evidence that organizational changes typically described in this literature (such as delayering the organization in a quest for flexibility) have had a negative impact on career progress, resulting in resistance to change. The implication here is that career concerns are more central to organizational management practices. This in‐depth qualitative case study examines whether individuals do in fact take more responsibility for their career development during times of organizational change. We also examine whether this does indeed mean that the organization takes less responsibility for career management. Our data indicate that individuals are, in fact, taking more responsibility for their own careers. At the same time we found that the organization in our case study also became more actively involved in career development and management. However, this active approach did not resemble traditional top‐down career management and development. To us, the pattern of organizational and individual career development actions appear to constitute a kind of ‘organizational dance,’ a highly interactive mutual influence process, in which both parties are at once the agent and the target of career influence. Strengths and limitations of the study are discussed, as are directions for future research. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

公共危机管理中的组织学习研究

目前国外对危机管理的研究已经趋于成熟,已经进一步提出了在危机中学习的概念并取得一些进展。而在经历了几次大的危机之后,国内学者开始关注公共危机管理。随着危机种类越来越多,发生频率越来越高,政府的公共部门必须要具备组织学习的能力。但是国内对于组织学习研究在公共管理领域的延伸还十分有限,我国仅少量学者探讨了学习型政府,对其它类型公共部门的组织学习研究则更为罕见。显然,这种研究的缺失不利于公共组织构建组织学习能力和提高服务水平。未来的国内学习型组织研究需要在公共组领域有所突破,特别是危机情境下的公共组织学习。因此本文以分析文献的方式,借鉴国内外学者对公共危机管理,以及组织学习的研究,希望能为公共部门组织学习的深层探索提供思路。     

Managing the career deal: the psychological contract as a framework for understanding career management,organizational commitment and work behavior

This paper reports the findings of a study that investigated the relationship between different kinds of career management activities, the psychological contract, and outcomes of psychological contract fulfillment. The study tested a series of linked hypotheses which propose that individual career management behavior is associated with the experience of organizational career management help, which is related to fulfillment of the psychological contract. Fulfillment of the psychological contract in turn is linked to organizational commitment and is associated with behaviors at work, including absenteeism, turnover, and independent ratings of job performance. The findings provide some support for these proposed links. As a result, the paper makes four contributions to the psychological contract and careers literature: first, it shows that both individual and organizational career management behaviors are linked to psychological contract fulfillment; second, organizational career management help is associated with affective commitment and job performance; third, psychological contract fulfillment plays a key role in mediating the relationship between career management help and such attitudes and behaviors; and fourth, organizational commitment may mediate between psychological contract fulfillment and individual career management behavior aimed at furthering the career outside the organization. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐quality relationships,psychological safety,and learning from failures in work organizations

How can organizations support employees to engage in learning from failures? In this paper, we draw on the concept of high‐quality relationships to explore the relational underpinnings of learning from failures in organizations. We focus on relational coordination as a specific manifestation of high‐quality relationships and examine how the relational dimensions of relational coordination—shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect—foster psychological safety and thus enable organizational members to engage in learning from failures. The results of two separate studies support our mediation model where psychological safety mediates the link between high‐quality relationships and learning from failures in organizations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The art of measuring nothing: The paradox of measuring safety in a changing civil aviation industry using traditional safety metrics

Measuring safety as an outcome variable within the ultra-safe civil aviation industry during periods of deliberate organizational change is a difficult, and often fruitless, task. Anticipating eroding safety processes, based on measuring nothing happening over time, does not adequately capture the true state of an evolving safe system, and this is particularly relevant for leaders and managers in a civil aviation industry responsible for maintaining and improving ultra-safe performance while simultaneously managing demanding strategic business goals.In this paper, I will look at the difficulties of measuring safety as an outcome measure in high reliability organizations (HROs) using the traditional measures of incident and accident reporting during periods of deliberate organizational change inspired by the results from a 3 year longitudinal case study of the Norwegian Air Navigation Services provider – Avinor. I will first review the current safety literature relating to safety management systems (SMSs) used in the civil aviation industry. I will then propose a more holistic model that shifts the focus from the traditional safety monitoring mechanisms of risk analysis and trial and error learning, to the natural interactivity within socio-technical systems as found in high reliability organizations. And finally, I will present a summary of the empirical results of an alternate methodology for measuring perceived changes in safety at the operational level as leading indicators of evolving safety at the organizational level.     

The relationship between multiple levels of learning practices and objective and subjective organizational financial performance

Multi‐level learning approaches suggest that individuals, groups and organizations act both independently and interact dynamically to contribute to organizational performance. We directly examined this proposition in an Australian sample using a longitudinal design that employed subjective and objective financial performance data. Respondents completed a survey that provided details on their individual, team and organizational learning practices (ILP, TLP and OLP, respectively), and self assessed performance compared to 3 years ago. Concurrently, we collected objective performance data (sales/employee numbers) at 3 yearly intervals and averaged these data to create an index. Using hierarchical and moderated regression, we found a positive main effect for OLP with both subjective and objective performance. Main effects for ILP and TLP were not found. Further, we found a significant interaction between ILP and TLP such that the effect of TLP on productivity was better in organizations with less ILP. Three‐way interactions were not found. Overall, these results provide some support for the model. We discuss some limitations of the study and make recommendations for future studies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Learning and development factors related to perceptions of job content and hierarchical plateauing

This study applied theory from the employee learning and development literature to examine factors related to employees' perceptions of being job content plateaued and hierarchically plateaued. Results indicated that both types of plateauing were related to support from top management, career planning, job involvement, and education level. Furthermore, career exploration, motivation to learn, organizational tenure, and job tenure were related to perceptions of hierarchical plateauing, while supervisor support was related to job content plateauing. Additionally, the two types of plateauing differed in the relative strength of their relationship with the variables studied. Implications and future research suggestions are provided. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Career dynamics in a steelworks of the future

Recent organizational design efforts to provide more attractive jobs, including most attempts to apply socio-technical system principles, have failed to account for the dynamic nature of the environment. The practice of socio-technical design should respond to this failing by accommodating both environmental change and workers' confidence to cope with it. An attempt to make this accommodation, in a design for a model future steelworks, is described. The design incorporates principles such as anticipatory learning, a “tent” organization culture, a task oriented plant layout, a democratic governance system, local information systems, and dialectical decision making. It offers one answer to how careers within organizations, and organizations surrounding careers, can each influence the other while remaining adaptive to external change. The problems raised by dynamic environments can be met by putting learning and exploration back into workers' careers.     

Potential moderating influence of career growth opportunities on careerist orientation and work attitudes: evidence of the protean career era in Singapore

The emerging transactional or protean employment contract appears to have precipitated the development of a careerist orientation on the part of employees. This study examined the generalizability of the construct in a collectivist culture and the potential moderating influence of career growth opportunities on the careerist orientation–work attitude relationships. The results tend to support the generalizability of careerist orientation across cultures and, importantly, showed an absence of a moderating influence for career growth opportunities, suggesting that organizations cannot effectively counter the negative effects of careerist orientation on work attitudes. Limitations of the study, directions for future research, and implication of the findings for organizational dependence on employees as a competitive resource are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding organizational embeddedness and career success: Who and what you know

Integrating job embeddedness theory with the sponsored and contest mobility perspectives, we developed and tested a model linking organizational embeddedness with two indicators of career success within the organization (promotion and career satisfaction), via the mediating roles of employees' organizational sponsorship network and job-related human capital development. Data from 188 employees and their supervisors over a 1-year period showed that, after controlling for employees' initial levels of career satisfaction and job performance, only job-related human capital development transmitted the positive effects of organizational embeddedness on promotion and career satisfaction. Supplemental analyses revealed that organizational sponsorship network's positive effects on promotion and career satisfaction were transmitted indirectly, via job-related human capital development. Our findings illustrate the importance of integrating sponsored and contest mobility perspectives and contribute to research on organizational embeddedness by extending its outcomes to include career success within the organization and specifying the process through which organizational embeddedness is related to career success within the organization.     

Drivers of freelance career success

Recent evidence shows that the frequently proclaimed collapse of the traditional career model is actually not supported by job tenure data. This paper argues that the observed stability of job tenure might be explained by an increasing number of shamrock organizations. This organizational form has three types of workers: core employees, professional freelancers, and routine workers. In such an organization, two very different career models coexist. The organization largely determines the career of the core employee, whereas the individual essentially shapes that of the professional freelancer. This paper studies extensively the career of this second group: the professional freelancer, a growing phenomenon in many developed countries but not yet the focus of many career studies. We develop a freelance career success model on basis of the intelligent career framework augmented by insights from literature on entrepreneurship. Data are from a web survey with responses from about 1600 independent professionals in the Netherlands, in combination with 51 in‐depth interviews. We provide two main contributions. First, we report findings from the first large‐scale quantitative study into freelance career success. Second, this study enhances our understanding of the success of the modern career by building bridges between career and entrepreneurship literatures. We conclude that the external environment in which an individual freelancer operates is the most important factor determining career success. The study therefore suggests that more work needs to be performed on the relationship between the environment and individual career success. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Concept and career-stage differentiation in obsolescence research

The study aimed to further the differentiation in obsolescence research in three directions: differentiation of obsolescence concepts, differentiation of updating-related cognitions, and career-stage differentiation. Survey data from 544 professionals employed by high-tech organizations in Israel were collected. The analyses of differentiation in obsolescence and its related cognitions showed that the response to the obsolescence threat was characterized by constriction. Constriction was manifested in higher levels of updatedness in the closer scope, in the shorter time span, and in comparison to the more immediate reference groups. Other indications of constriction were the salience of the present job and the significant role played by the immediate supervisor in the updating pursuit. Two different meanings of updating could be distinguished—formal updating and incidental updating. The analyses of career differentiation identified stage differences in the extent of updating, obsolescence and organizational support of updating. They were mostly higher at more advanced stages. The managerial route was more advantageous to updating compared to the technical route. Finally, whereas the link of organizational support to updating behavior strengthened with career progress, its link to the obsolescence experience loosened. Implications of the findings are discussed.