The Theory of Career Development and Management - Essay Example

The Theory of Career Development and Management Introduction Career management is the process by which one goes about in the structural planning and management of an individual’s professional career. Successful career management entails on being able to have personal fulfilment and satisfaction. In addition, one needs to be able to achieve all the goals and targets he had set before he embarked on that career path. The professional career choice should also enable the individual to attain financial security and an appropriate work/life balance. Careers include various calibres of employment. They range from semi-professional through professional and semi-skilled to skilled. In the past, it was a common belief that a career was restricted to work commitment to a single trade skill business firm or company for the entirety of the working life of a post-school adult (Wee, 2014, p. 593). However, recently, there has been a shift with careers now including alterations or changes in employment during the foreseeable prosperity. Career management entails an interplay of a variety of factors that include the development of overall goals and objectives, strategy development and development of particular means. It also involves systemic evaluation of the progress towards selected goals achievement (Maiden, 2014, p. 100). Currently, there are numerous economic theories available that analyse career development and management. No single one is sufficient to describe the vast field of career development and management. This paper tries to provide a critical analysis by scrutinizing at least two career theories. This paper will focus on two career theories, Super’s theory and the Gottfredson’s theory. Super’s Self-Development Concept Theory of Career Development and Management One prominent theory in the process of career management is Super’s self-development concept Theory of Career development and management. Super suggested that the management of one’s career required the development of that career. To advance career development, he suggested that career choice and development is essentially a process of the development and implementation of an individual’s self-concept (Bluestein, 2014, 219). Self-concept alludes to the product of complex interplay and integration of a number of factors that include mental and physical growth, an individual’s experiences and environmental characteristics and stimulation. Super’s initial theory involved a presumption that there is a mechanism (perhaps organic) that acted behind the process of development and self-maturation. Recent research material in the same theory emphasizes more on the impact of social context and reciprocal influence between the environment and the individual. Savickas built on Super’s theory that self-concept was a personal construct theory by taking a constructivist perspective (Muratori and Smith, 2015, p. 175). He said that the “whole process of career construction was that of ensuring the development and implementation of vocational concepts in work roles”. In order for an Individual to adequately manage his career, a stable self-concept should start emerging while still young at his new career or preferably in late adolescence to guide one in career choice and development. Super’s theory is not a static entity, and it would continue to evolve as the individual encounters new experience and advances through the developmental stages. A successful career management outcome would require the continual process of implementation of the changing concept through work and other life roles. Super’s theory involved a proposal of life developmental framework or mechanism that consisted of several stages (Blustein, 2014, p. 219). These steps include .personal growth, environmental exploration, self-establishment and disengagement. Each step requires one to manage properly his or her vocational developmental tasks that the work environment expects of him as per his or her chronological range of age. For instance, in the stage of exploration a young individual needs to be able to cope with several developmental tasks. Such works include crystallisation that is a cognitive process that entails one understanding their interests, skills and values and to follow career goals that tie in with that understanding. Another task is the specification i.e. the making of appropriate and tentative career choices and implementation that where one takes steps to actualize career opportunities by engaging in training and a variety of job positions. Thus, the concept of career maturity denotes the degree of the ability of the individual to fulfil vocational developmental tasks expected of him at every developmental stage. Empirical research studies on career maturity suggest the substitution of career maturity with the concept of flexibility. Super’s theory is most clearly showcased through his postulation of life roles in the physical environment. Life involves an aggregation of tasks that one assumes as he grows up such as the child, student, citizen, worker, and parent and as a home-builder. With each transition, there is also a shift in the specification of the roles. However at any one moment, two or three roles assume a central place while other roles assume a more peripheral position. Thus, life roles are the integration of the different roles that one plays in real life basing on different contexts and settings e.g. home, society school and in the workplace (Wee, 2014, 593). A conflict in roles would only happen when there is a constraint on people's ability to cope with the expectations required of their roles. The development of the international collaborative research termed Work Importance Study relied on a lot of super’s theory of career management. The WIS involved several countries in Europe, Australia, Asia and North America. It resulted in the measures of career values and cried roles with structures and constructs that were similar. International career guidance professional researchers draw a lot from the Super’s theory including the vocational developmental tasks for self-concept described above. Recently, researchers anchored the theory on developmental contextualise which takes into account the reciprocity between the individual and his or her social ecology (such as culture). Likewise for sufficient career management, one needs to recognise the impact of subjective cultural values that are critical in the development of the vocational self-concepts (Blustein, 2014, p. 219). There was an examination of career maturity in two recent studies that happened in Australia. Creed, Patton and Muller administered the county’s version of Career Development Inventory (CDI) to students. They then did a measure of their psychological wellbeing. They then conducted a survey of their occupational and educational status after a period of ten months. The results supported the hypotheses that there would be higher career maturity levels, school achievement and psychological stability for students who proceeded to full-time study while still at school compared to the students who did not transition smoothly to employment after high school (Wee, 2014, p. 593). The researchers concluded that school-based intervention was a necessity to help students who might not be making a full transition to full-time studies after high school (Kang and Gottfredson, 2015, p. 28). In 2003, Creed and Patton conducted a different study that involved administration of the CDI-A to senior high school students. Other career-related measures that they also administered include career decision-making, career decidedness, self-esteem, self-efficacy, work value and work commitment. They then did regression analysis. They found that the factors most critical in forecasting career maturity attitudes were age, career decidedness and decision-making, the value of work and commitment to work. Age, career certainty, work commitment and indecision predicted the career knowledge scales i.e. career maturity knowledge. Different grade levels resulted in different maturity scores (Maiden, 2014, p. 91). Another study involved the measurement of career maturity using the Spanish version of the career development inventory. The researchers incorporated aspects from Super’s theory of self-conceptualization of career maturity. The results suggested that the intervention was successful in increasing the maturity levels of students. Career maturity is not the only aspect that needs examination in super theory. For instance, self-concept should is a critical feature in the implementation of one’s interests, values, and skills in an individual’s vocational development and satisfaction. However, the importance of self-decision making is viewed differently in different cultures. In some societies, one has to have considerations that are collective and familial in nature. One needs to integrate the environment in order for him to find the most appropriate solutions to career problems. As a result, Super’s concept is not a straight up linear process of implementation of the aspects of self-concept but one needs to be able to compromise and make certain sacrifices. Doing so involves consultation of both self and the environment. Gottfredson’s theory Another career theory that is critical in the process of career management is the Gottfredson’s theory of Circumscription and compromise. When compared to the more established Super’s theory, Gottfredson’s theory of career management and development is a more recent development. Gottfredson believed that proper career management and development relies on a lot on an individual’s level of cognitive proficiency (Blustein, 2014, p. 219). A child’s ability to process and synchronise occupational information comes both with age and his or her general intelligence. Cognitive competence i.e. growth and development factors a lot in the development of a cognitive layout of occupation and self-conceptions that evaluate the appropriateness of different factors in the workplace. Gottfredson’s recently made revisions of her theory in which she elaborates on the dynamic interaction between the genetic constituent of an individual and the work environment. The genetic makeup of an individual contributes a lot to shaping the characteristics of an individual such as the skills, interests and values. However, she affirms that the genetic expression undergoes moderation by the environment that the individual gets exposed to. Despite the significant influence that the genetics and the environment have on the person’s career development and management ability, she adds that the individual is still an active agent on what or who can influence their environment. Consequently, the theory advocates that career management be viewed as a self-reaction process. That is the individuals look for niches in the environment to express their genetic proficiencies within the boundaries of their cultural environment. The current notion has it that career development and successful management depends on the initial selection. Gottfredson’s theory views career management and development as a continuous process of elimination and circumscription where a person continuously does away with individual work alternatives from his options. Circumscription involves certain aspects of self-conceptualisation coming up at different developmental levels. Gottfredson’s continues saying that choices in one’s career depend more on the public than the private aspects of their self-concept. General public factors include factors such as gender while private individual factors involve skills, value and interests. Gottfredson’s proposed a developmental model consisting g of four levels of circumscription. Orientation to size and power is the first stage. At this level, one perceives the occupation as roles taken up by other senior people in the organisation (Wee, 2014, p. 519). The second step in the model is the orientation to sex and roles where one grapples with the sex-role norms and attitudes that defines oneself concept. This is where one evaluates careers based on whether it is appropriate for a certain gender and disassociates himself or herself from considerations that are not appropriate for his or her individual sex. Orientation to social valuation involves the recognition of the concepts of social class and social status as part of the individual. Here, the person will perceive some choices as too low in social status or too high in prestige. Finally, the fourth stage involves the individual’s orientation to his or her unique self. The young individual worker learns to recognise, appreciate and make use of his or her personality, skill, interests and values. Consequently, when the individual makes a career choice or career developmental choice, he considers alternatives that will suit his or her internal self’s character. Gottfredson added compromise as a career developmental process in her theory. Individuals have to adapt appropriately in response to external realities or hindrances such as alterations in the labour market, family obligations, and economic crises such as a recession. Accommodation is necessary for the individual choices to be achievable in the practical word. In this developmental process, one has to compromise his or her interests first so that his or her preferences continue to augur well with her career. Gottfredson’s theory has received limited attention in economic literature despite it being a very valuable approach. Most of the research that entailed the use of Gottfredson’s theory yielded results supporting it. A search of the literature using PSYINFO research method asserted that Gottfredson’s theory is one of the few human attempts that study the period corresponding to super's growth stage specifically. Studies by Swanson and Gore affirm the fact that the theory of Gottfredson’s offers a unique insight into career management professional across the world. According to their research, many cultures measure success in education and attainment of career positions of higher social status and influence as levels of life accomplishment (Swanson & Fouad, 2014, p. 76). Similarly, many cultures have a degree of gender stereotyping, for example, the Asian cultures. Thus, individual’s decisions in their careers are a result of what the society expects of them as per their gender. For example, managerial positions in banks might be deemed too masculine in some cultures, and this would prevent female workers from working towards the attainment of such career positions and statuses. The Gottfredson’s theory could be a conceptual guide for career development. Gottfredson encourages individuals to ensure optimum learning and gathering of experience as a tool for developing one’s cognitive prowess in his or her career field. The theory advocates that one first understands his or her career-related personal traits and performs a self-insight in order to construct a path in career development and management that is feasible and practical. The theory also requires that an individual express wisdom and knowledge in self-investment in order to raise the chances of successfully implementing the decisions he or she makes in his career. Many more theories exist that are useful in critical career analysis. Examples are the famous Holland theory, the theory of work adjustment and the social cognitive career theory that all talk about similar things (Maiden, 2014, p. 100). The above career analyses provide a scrutiny of nearly all occupations. They are applicable in the banking profession, marketing business, teaching profession and others. All in all, the theories focus on the importance of self-actualization and conceptualisation as a critical tool for a favourable outcome in career management. Individuals need to tie in their career decisions with their inner strengths, competencies and talents to succeed. Individuals also need to possess the ability to compromise when need be when making decisions in the process of career management so that they can achieve practicality in the economic world. References Bluestein, D. L., 2014. 18 Implications for career theory. Women's Career Development throughout the Lifespan: An International Exploration, 219. Kang, Z. and Gottfredson, G. D., 2015. Using Holland's theory to assess environments. Maiden, R. J., 2014. Vocational rehabilitation counsellors’ perceptions and experiences of career theory usage with people with a disability and a criminal record. Muratori, M. C. and Smith, C. K., 2015. Guiding the talent and career development of the gifted individual. Journal of Counseling & Development, 93(2), 173-182. Swanson, J. L. and Fouad, N. A., 2014. Career theory and practice: Learning through case studies. Sage publications. Wee, S., 2014. Compromises in career-related decisions: Examining the role of compromise severity. Journal of counselling psychology, 61(4), 593. Wong, S. W. and Yuen, M., 2015. Super's Work Values Inventory: Issues of Subtest Internal Consistency Using a Sample of Chinese University Students in Hong Kong. Journal of Employment Counseling, 52(1), 29-35. Read More