Amity Business School

Managing Career
 Amity Business School

• Career development is important for companies to create

and sustain a continuous learning environment

• The biggest challenge companies face is how to balance

advancing current employees’ careers with
simultaneously attracting and acquiring employees with
new skills

• The growing use of teams is influencing the concept of

careers
– e.g., project careers
 Definition: Career
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• A sequence of positions or job held by a person

during the course of his working life
OR
• The pattern or series of work related experiences
that span the course of the person’s life
What Is A Career?
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 Amity Business School

• Career Planning: A systematic process by which one

selects career goals and the path to these goals.

• Career Development: Refers to the activities &

processes undertaken by the organization to help
employees attain their career objectives.

• Career Management: is a continuous process that

involves setting personal career goals, developing
strategies for achieving these goals, and revising
based on work & experience.
 Amity Business School

Why Is Career Management Important?

• From the company’s perspective, the failure to
motivate employees to plan their careers can result in:

– a shortage of employees to fill open positions

– lower employee commitment
– inappropriate use of monies allocated for training and
development programs
 Amity Business School

• From the employees’ perspective, lack of

career management can result in:
– frustration
– feelings of not being valued by the company
– being unable to find suitable employment should a job
change be necessary due to mergers, acquisitions,
restructuring, or downsizing
 Amity Business School

Career Management and Career Motivation

• Career motivation refers to:
– Employees’ energy to invest in their careers
– Their awareness of the direction they want their
careers to take
– The ability to maintain energy and direction despite
barriers they may encounter
• Career motivation has three aspects:
– Career resilience
– Career insight
– Career identity
 Amity Business School

• Career resilience – the extent to which employees are

able to cope with problems that affect their work
• Career insight involves:
– how much employees know about their interests, skill
strengths, and weaknesses
– the awareness of how these perceptions relate to
their career goals
• Career identity – the degree to which employees define
their personal values according to their work
 Suggested Characteristics of
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Different Generations of Employees
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Amity Business School
 Career Stages Amity Business School

According to Huse & Cummings (1980) :

• Establishment Stage (20-26 yrs)

• Advancement Stage ( 26-40 yrs)
• Maintenance Stage ( 40-60 yrs)
• Withdrawal Stage ( 60 & above)
Career Development Interventions at Each Stage
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• Career Development includes all those activities that

are undertaken by the organization to prepare an
employee for the current and future need of the
organization.

• Career development needs are likely to evolve with

each career stage, hence specific career
development interventions can be adopted by
organizations to facilitate career development.
 Amity Business School
Career Career Development Career Development
Stages Needs Interventions
Establishme
nt Stage 1. Challenging Initial Job Realistic Job Preview

2. Variety in job activities Job Pathing

3. Opportunities for Performance Feedback
development of skills & Coaching
4. Feedback on
performance

Advancemen 1. Exposure & visibility in Challenging and visible

t Stage the firm assignments
2. Opportunity to
demonstrate potential Mentoring
3. Balance career with Dual Career
outside interests Partnership
 Amity Business School

• Dual-Career Partnerships
– Couples in which both members follow their own
careers and actively support each other’s career
development.
• Flexible work schedules
• Adaptive leave policies
• Work-at-home
• On-premises day care
• Job sharing
 Amity Business School

Career Career Development Career Development

Stages Needs Interventions
Maintenance 1. Redefine role in Assigning mentoring
Stage company roles
Rotation to job
2. Autonomy requiring new skills
3. Opportunity to develop
others Developmental training

Withdrawal 1.Adjust to role of retired

Stage person Consultative role
2. Establish a meaningful
life outside Retirement counseling

the organization
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Career Planning Process
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 Amity Business School

• Self assessment assists employees in setting goals,

values, skills and behavioral trends. Psychological tests
are used like:

-Inventory goals Strong– Campbell” (it helps employees

to identify occupational and professional goals)
- self quest” (it identify the employee’ preferences for
different working environments - sales, consulting, etc.)
 Amity Business School

• Reality check: the employees are informed on how

the company assess their skills and knowledge and what
place they took on company plans (eg opportunities for
promotion, lateral moves)

• Setting goals: Employees establish the short and

long term career objectives that are related to concerned
professional positions, the necessary level of
competence, setting steps forward, learning new skills.
 Amity Business School

• Planning activities: during this phase, the

employees determine how to achieve short and long
term career goals. These plans may include attending
lectures and seminars, applications to fill vacancies
within the company or participating in interviews.
 Amity Business School

Career Management Systems

Individual Centred Organization Centred

Focus on individuals career rather Focus on ensuring the fulfillment of
Than on organizational needs Organizational goals

Individual Career Management Organizational Career

Strategies Management Strategies

-Self Assessment -Career Planning workshops

-Assessment of job opportunities -Development performance
-Formulating career goals Appraisal
-Seeking opportunities -Providing mentors for individual
for professional growth -Establishing realistic career plans
 Benefits of Career Management
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• Individual • Organization
- Development of - Improved productivity
potential & - Reduced employee
competencies turnover
- Increase in salary & - Retention of quality
status employees
- Achievement of - Better utilization of
personal career employee skills
aspirations - Employer Branding
- Improved performance
 Shared Responsibility:Amity Business School
Roles in Career Management
 Career Management Best Practices
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• Providing Employee Assessment and Career

Planning Workshops.
• Companies such as Apple and Sun Microsystems hold
on-site workshops where employees learn to take
charge of their careers, beginning with assessing
their abilities, interests, and values.

• They then engage in a planning process where they

explore the organization's needs to determine
possible future options and how to prepare for them.
Then they are ready for productive career
discussions with their managers
 Amity Business School

• Establishing Employee Career Centers. Companies

such as Advanced Micro Devices, IBM, and Motorola,
have set up internal career centers where employees
can come for self-assessment.

• Services may include computerized programs that

incorporate 360-degree feedback, competency
assessment, confidential counseling, career
management and resilience training, lunch-and-learn
seminars, and information, sometimes through an
intranet system, about internal opportunities.
 Amity Business School

• Giving Open Business Briefings.

To meet employees halfway in planning their careers inside the

organization, companies such as Sun Microsystems, 3Com,
Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, and Microsoft openly discuss
strategic decisions and plans that may impact jobs or skills
that will be required in the future.

• At 3Com, most departments hold weekly discussion sessions

on the status of the business and what it may mean to
employees.

• IBM has a national website for employees that provides

information about the strategic direction of the company.
 Amity Business School

• Andy Grove, chairman of Intel, is a strong believer in

giving employees the information they need to stay
resilient, or, as he calls it, "owning your own
employability. "Every quarter," he says to his
employees, "I give you a two-hour dump of what's
happening to us. You have to figure out what that
means to you”
 Amity Business School

• Maintaining Internal Job and Talent Banks.

• Microsoft has created an on-line service where
employees can learn about open positions and the
skills required for them.
• Microsoft also places large amounts of career
information on what it calls its "electronic campus,"
including a "resource and referral" section with lists
of books, professional associations, conferences,
courses, articles, and other information
recommended by coworkers
 Amity Business School

• Starting a Mentoring Program.

• The list of companies who have launched mentoring

programs includes Hewlett-Packard,Charles
Schwab, Ford Motor, Ernst & Young, Quaker Oats
Company, IBM, PriceWaterhouse-Coopers, 3M, and
General Mills.

• Hewlett-Packard maintains an on-line mentor

database that mentees can use to search for
mentors with specific areas of expertise. They can
even interview potential mentors and submit their
choices in order of preference.
 Internal Barriers to Amity Business School
Career Advancement
• Lack of time, budgets, and resources for employees to
plan their careers and to undertake training and
development.
• Rigid job specifications, lack of leadership support for
career management, and a short-term focus.
• Lack of career opportunities and pathways within the
organization for employees.