Career Development:

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Career Development

• Organizational
• and
• Individual
• Approaches
• HR 5110

Online Format
Professor James P. Pappas, Ph.D.
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The Field of Human Resource Development
Organizational Career DevelopmentUnit 5Module 2
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• 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.

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Benefits of a Career Development System

• Reduced turnover of highly skilled or
  experienced employees
• Revision of outdated expectations for career
  opportunities after flattening or reorganizing
• Motivated employees who take responsibility for
  their own development and continue to add value
• Understanding by employees of the urgency to
  keep skills current
• Employee and manager buy-in of the need for
  continuous learning
• Increased bench strength (based on increased
  retention of experienced employees) for
  succession planning

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Benefits of a Career Development System (Contd)

• Ensured equal opportunity for minorities and
  women
• Managers who are convinced of the importance of
  developing employees
• A competitive organization through productive
  and motivated employees
• Flexible employees who can move out of
  functional silos or narrowly defined roles
• Matching organizational realities to recruiting
  promises
• International flexibility
• Employees with meaningful development plans

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

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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

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

• Sociological, e.g., women working outside the
  home
• Technological, e.g., development of powerful PCs
• Environmental, e.g., living in California
• Economic, e.g., significant growth of mutual
  funds
• Political, e.g., welfare reform act and states
  emphasis

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• 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.
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Moving Up
Moving Across
Enlargement
Growing in Place
Relocation
Moving Down
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Organizational Career Development
INDIVIDUAL
INSTITUTIONAL
Career Management
Career Planning
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• 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

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• 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

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• 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.

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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 RD, so limited empirical base
• 7. Increased use of inventories, aptitude tests,
  surveys (will be controversial)

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• 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.

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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

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Activities of the CD department Contd.

• Career Resource Center
• educational and training info
• career planning
• personal growth activities
• job finding skills
• management/supervision

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A Five-Stage Approach to Career Development
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• 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.

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• 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 organizations 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.

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• 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 supervisors impact on a workers
  career is greater than any other organizational
  factor.

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• 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 employees
  performance and provides feedback.
• 3. Coach--one who gives instruction or skill
  training.
• 4. Mentor--one who serves as a sponsor to
  facilitate an employees career growth.
• 5. Advisor--one who directs and supports an
  employees 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).

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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).

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• 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.

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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.
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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)

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Prototype Career Workshop (Lawrence Livermore)
(contd)

• 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.)

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Some HRD competencies in CD...

• Adult Learning and Development
• Career Development Theories
• Career Facilitation and Advising
• Electronic Systems Skills

• Job Design and Evaluation
• Training and Development Techniques
• Organizational and Management Understandings
• Project and Program Management
• Needs Assessment and Research
• Interpersonal and Group Skills

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Creating an Organization Career Development
Program

• 1. 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.

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Creating an Organization Career Development
Program (Contd)

• 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.