Career pandemonium: Realigning organizations and individuals

Academy of Management Executive

Volumn 10, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 52-66

  Brousseau, Kenneth R ^a,b   Driver, Michael J ^c   Eneroth, Kristina ^d   Larsson, Rikard ^d,e,f,g  

^a Decision Dynamics Group

^b YALE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^d LUND UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

^e UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^f Academy of Management

^g Academy of Management ^*

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0003114143     PISSN: 10795545     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5465/ame.1996.3145319     Document Type: Article

References (29)

1. See M.B. Arthur, "Career Theory in a Dynamic Context," in D.H. Montross and C.J. Shrinkman (Eds.) Career Development in the 1990s: Theory and Practice (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1992, 65-84)
2. and P. Sparrow and J.M. Hiltrop, European Human Resource Management in Transition (Hertfordshire, UK: Prentice Hall, 1994) for recent discussions on careers and HRM in various dynamic situations.
3. See E.H. Schein, Career Dynamics: Matching Individual and Organizational Needs (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1978)
4. and C.B. Derr, Work, Family, and Career (New York: Praeger, 1980) for discussions of the dynamics of, and tensions between, the needs of individuals and organizations.
5. W. Bridges, "The end of the job," Fortune, 1994, September, 19, 62-74.
6. C.M. Savage, "The Dawn of the Knowledge Era," OR/MS Today. 1994. December 18-23.
7. R.H. Waterman, J.A. Waterman and B.A. Collard, "Toward a career-resilient workforce," Harvard Business Review, 1994, July-August, 87-92.
8. See for example, P. Hirsch, Pack Your Own Parachute: How to Survive Mergers, Takeovers, and Other Corporate Disasters, (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1987)
9. and C.M. Savage, op. cit.
10. P. Sellers, "Don't Call Me a Slacker," Fortune, 1994, December 12, 181-196.
11. W. Bridges, op. cit., 68.
12. P. Hirsch, op. cit.
13. Waterman et al. op. cit., 87, 88.
14. See, for example, M.B. Arthur, D.T. Hall and B.S. Lawrence "Generating New Directions in Career Theory: The Case for a Transdisciplinary Approach" in M.B. Arthur, D.T. Hall and B.S. Lawrence (Eds.) Handbook of Career Theory (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989, 7-25).
15. For a recent, more detailed treatment of the four career concepts and their associated motives, see K.R. Brousseau and M.J. Driver "Enhancing Informed Choice: A Career-Concepts Approach to Career Advisement," Selections, 1994, Spring 24-31.
16. The impact of demographic and organizational trends on careers from a career concept perspective is also discussed in K.R. Brousseau, "Career Dynamics in the Baby Boom, Baby Bust Era," Journal of Organizational Change Management, 1990, 3,(3), 46-58,
17. and M.J. Driver "Work-Force Personality and the New Information-Age Workplace," in An Aging Workforce Competes (Washington, D.C.: The National Planning Association and The National Council on Aging, 1994).
18. D.T. Hall and J. Richter, "Career Gridlock: Baby Boomers Hit the Wall," Academy of Management Executive 1990, 4(3), 7-21.
19. E.H. Schein, "A Critical Look at Current Career Development Theory and Research," in D.T. Hall and Associates, Career Development in Organizations (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1986, 310-331) calls for a theory and a technology that deal with the process issues of how organizations administer performance appraisal, career planning, and management development in different ways to better grasp the impact of cultural forces.
20. The connection between culture and careers is extended to include both organizational and national cultures in a framework by C.B. Derr and A. Laurant, "The Internal and External Career: A Theoretical and Cross-Cultural Perspective" in M.B. Arthur, D.T. Hall and B.S. Lawrence (Eds.) Handbook of Career Theory (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989, 454-471).
21. Hall and Richter, op. cit.
22. See M.J. Driver and M.W. Coombs, op. cit.
23. See J.E. Butler, G.R. Ferris, and N.K. Napier, Strategy and Human Resource Management, (Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing, 1991)
24. and C. Fombrun, N.M. Tichy and M.A. Devanna, Strategic Human Resource Management (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1984) on the relationship between strategy and human resource management.
25. We wish to point out that the linkages between strategy and career culture presented in the table are our own propositions. They are not based upon a body of empirical research. We initially arrived at these propositions by considering the kinds of strategies that, if successful, logically could be expected to create organizational conditions supportive of each career concept. For example, if an organization increases its market share, the organization is likely also to grow in size to support the expanded levels of activity necessary to service a larger market. This should mean more jobs, including higher level positions that would open up opportunities for the kind of upward movement that otherwise is presently threatened by organizational down-sizing. Accordingly, a strategy of expansion fits well with the Linear career concept. Conversely, individuals with strong attachment to the Linear career concept and with Linear motives of power and achievement should be most motivated to "score the big gains" that are needed for expansion that in turn would create the opportunities for upward motion. So, we see the linkages as a two-way street. The strategy supports the concept and the concept supports the strategy. Similar logic was used to develop linkages between strategy and the other concepts.
26. See G.W. Dalton, "Development Views of Careers in Organizations" in M.B. Arthur, D.T. Hall and B.S. Lawrence, op. cit. 89-109, for an overview of various developmental models of careers and the organizational impact on individuals.
27. See F.N. Schwartz, "Management Women and the New Facts of Life," Harvard Business Review, 1989, January-February, 65-76
28. and L. Bailyn, Breaking the Mold, New York: Free Press, 1993.
29. The notion of cafeteria HR systems is especially linked to flexible reward systems as, for example, described by E.E. Lawler, Strategic Pay: Aligning Organizational Strategies and Pay Systems, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990.