Abstract The notion of empowering human capital to onset creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and innovation through planning the careers of institutional members using HRM policies and practices to develop different mindsets, skills and competencies with the ultimate aim to provide a range of innovative products and services is attracting attention. This paper explores the link between career planning and career management as antecedents of career development and job satisfaction, and career commitment as its outcome. A sample of 505 employees of a leading international Singaporean hotel revealed the significant link between the variables of career planning and career management, and career development, and in turn, with job satisfaction and career commitment. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for career development. The globalised business world is undergoing unprecedented change. Organisations operating in this complex business environment are constantly engaged in restructuring and downsizing processes, facilitating mergers and acquisitions and embracing technological advancements to cope with the dynamic pressures of globalisation (Greenhaus, Callanan Godshalk 2000, Appelbaum, Ayre Shapiro 2002, Baruch 2004). These changes at the organisational level have elevated the importance of managing people at work, and in particular, the planning and managing of their careers (Baruch 2004). Arguably, people are the most valuable resource in contemporary organisations, and providing them with a long term stable career is a win-win situation for both organisations and their employees. In this context, a career has been defined as a lifelong process made up of a sequence of activities and related attitudes or behaviours that take place in a persons work life (Hall Associates 1986). It is also viewed as: a pattern of work related experiences, such as job positions, jobs duties or activities, work related decisions; and subjective interpretations of work related events, such as work aspirations, expectations, values, needs and feelings about particular work experiences, that span the course of a persons life (Greenhaus, et al. 2000). Clearly, a career is not just a job, but evolves around a process, an attitude, behaviour and a situation in a persons work life to achieve set career goals. Baruch (2004) points out that career is the property of individuals, but for the employed, it is organisations that will plan and manage employee careers. However, during the last few decades the notion that individuals are also responsible to cater to and build their own careers, instead of leaving it entirely to the organisation to manage, has been well documented (Baruch 2004). Hence, career management requires initiative from both organisations as well as individuals in order to provide maximum benefit for both.
This article addresses the general question as to which competencies employees need to possess in order to engage in self-management in their career development. The authors distinguished and operationalized 6 career factors and competencies of self-management in career development. A quantitative study was performed using 1,579 employees in 16 Dutch companies to investigate the relationship between career competencies and career success. The results indicate that, among others, the factors career control and networking are strongly associated with career success. The results are discussed with respect to the facilitation organizations can provide for their employees career actualization. Career development is a field that is becoming increasingly relevant for both employees and employers. Economic and technological developments have resulted in working careers becoming more unpredictable due to changing work opportunities and shifts in labor. A permanent job with one employer, preferably for the entire span of a persons working life, can no longer be considered the normal work pattern. At present, career opportunities tend to be seen in the light of employability (e.g., van Dam, 2004), recognizing that career development frequently goes beyond the boundaries of one organization (so-called boundaryless careers; Arthur, 1994). The notion of a traditional career, chiefly determined by an employees preliminary training and by opportunities provided by employers, has shifted to the concept of a changing career, largely guided by the employee him-or herself. This change toward employee self-management in career development fuels interest in the personal dispositions that could explain why this type of self-management goes well for some people, but not for others. In this context, we find increasing use of the general term employee competencies. Often lacking, however, is a more specific understanding of which competencies are actually relevant for career development. The need for further research on this matter is underlined by the fact that career competencies are now being mentioned more frequently in national policy documents on employability, as well as in the context of policies and programs in educational and labor organizations. According to Boudreaux (2001) and Savickas (2003), studies with practical relevance that go beyond the traditional focus of career development are needed. Thus, our study focuses on the association between career competencies and career success. Career development can be understood as an enumeration of consecutive jobs and training. In line with demands of the modern labor market, there is increased emphasis on the employees active role and level of involvement with respect to his or her career. This is reflected in concepts such as personal initiative (Frese, 2001), employability (e.g., van Dam, 2004), or preparedness to change (Schyns, 2004). Considering this element of self-guidance, career competencies could be seen as a persons self-management of his or her working and learning experiences in order to achieve desired career progress. Career development is taken as active career-actualization, which we define as the realization of personal goals and values in ones career vis-a-vis the facilitation and constraining conditions of the work situation.
The most fundamental challenge that career psychology faces is the construction of a new identity that will challenge the career theories and counselling practices that have occupied centre stage in evolving forms for over a century As part of that challenge, career practitioners and career educators need to address the critical question of what constitutes a good narrative for career practice at the present time. Central to the re-definition of career theory and counselling is the need to address and redress the diversity of environments in which career development and career counselling takes place. The present article explores the cultural roles inherent in career counselling and the possible reconstruction of the identity of career practitioners, particularly in terms of their responsibilities in culturally diverse settings. This exploration raises ethical concerns about the present training of career practitioners. The present article focuses on the culture that career theory and career counselling has generated. In so doing it challenges career practitioners to consider how they have constructed their career counselling process and whether they need to re-imagine and re-construct their role in this process. There is an increasing sensitivity to such a challenge, particularly in terms of how to career counsel in multicultural societies. South Africa is a case in point where politics, economics and prevailing social conditions have perniciously affected the nature, form and direction of career psychology in South Africa {Nicholas, Naidoo, Pretorius, 2006, p. 2). Faced with 11 official languages, South African career practitioners have to explore and carefully consider the culture of career theory and practice in terms of what makes realistic, contextual sense. That the discipline of career psychology represents a culture in itself seems to be a useful starting point for the present discussion. The present article explores the culture of career psychology from a systemic perspective, depicting it as a stage on which career theory, the career client and the career practitioner are all voices in a cultural script. As part of this exploration, the voices of various African cultures have been included. It is to career theory that we should first turn our attention. Career theory is a large role player on the stage of career psychology. While it is also presently centre stage, it is increasingly becoming a marginalised voice, a voice off. Career practitioners practise within a profession that is under serious threat, a profession that faces issues of relevancy and that sounds more like a chorus of discordant voices than a central, powerful voice. The Xhosa-speaking people of South Africa have a phrase that encapsulates the present status of career theory. They would describe it as umdudo woononkala which literally translated means a crabs dance–a confused discussion where everyone talks at once and, it would seem, often at random.
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