challenges if career management

1. 12 - 1
Special Challenges in
Career Management

2. 1. Design an effective socialization program for
employees.
2. Discuss why a dual-career path is necessary
for professional and managerial employees.
3. Provide advice on how to help a plateaued
employee.
4. Develop policies to help employees and the
company avoid technical obsolescence.
12 - 2

3. 5. Develop policies to help employees deal with
work-and-life conflict.
6. Select and design outplacement strategies that
minimize the negative effects on displaced
employees and “survivors.”
7. Explain why retirees may be valuable as part-
time employees.
12 - 3

4.  Many companies in Silicon Valley face serious
career management challenges.
 These companies are now paying more
attention to career management issues because
their work force is starting to age and pay more
attention to work-life balance.
 Many employees face long commutes because
they can not afford to live close to where they
work.
12 - 4

5. 12 - 5
If companies do not help their
employees with their personal
lives, they may leave for jobs
with other companies in other
areas that do.

6. 12 - 6
Socialization and
Orientation
Dual-Career Paths
Plateauing
Skills
Obsolescence
Work and Non-work
Policies
Balancing Work
and Life
Coping With Job
Loss
Dealing With
Older Workers

7.  Organizational socialization is the
process by which new employees are
transformed into effective members of
the company.
 The purpose of orientation is to:
 Prepare employees to perform their jobs
effectively
 Learn about the organization
 Establish work relationships
12 - 7

8. 12 - 8
Anticipatory Socialization
Encounter
Settling In

9. 12 - 9
History Company Goals
Language
Politics
People
Performance Proficiency

10.  Play an important role in socializing employees.
 Effective socialization programs result in
employees having a strong commitment and
loyalty to the company.
 This reduces turnover.
 Effective orientation programs include active
involvement of the new employee.
 Effective programs have peers, managers, and
senior co-workers actively involved.
12 - 10

11.  Company-Level
Information
Company overview
Key policies and
procedures
Compensation
Employee benefits &
services
Safety & accident protection
Employee & union relations
Physical facilities
Economic factors
 Department-Level
Information
Department functions
Job duties & responsibilities
Policies, procedures, rules
Performance expectations
Tour of department
Introduction to co-workers
 Miscellaneous
Community
Housing
Family adjustment
12 - 11

12.  Employees are encouraged to ask questions.
 Program includes information on both technical
and social aspects of the job.
 Orientation is the responsibility of the new
employee’s manager.
 Debasing and embarrassing new employees is
avoided.
 Formal and informal interactions with
managers and peers occur.
 Programs involve relocation assistance.
 Employees receive information about the
company’s products, services, and customers.
12 - 12

13.  A career path is a sequence of job positions
involving similar types of work and skills that
employees move through in the company.
 For companies with professional employees, a
key issue is how to ensure that they feel they
are valued.
 The traditional career path model has limited
advancement opportunities for those in the
technical career path.
12 - 13

14. 12 - 14
Individual Contributor Career Path Management Career Path
Scientist
Research Scientist
Principal Research Scientist
Assistant Manager
Manager
Department Manager
Assistant Director
Assistant Director

15. 12 - 15
A dual-career-path
system enables
employees to remain in a
technical career path or
move into a management
career path.

16. 12 - 16
MANAGEMENT LADDER TECHNICAL LADDER
Senior Associate
Associate
Engineers, Programmers,
Scientists
Project
Development
Senior
Functional
Management
Executives
Staff
Advisory
Senior
Senior Technical
Staff Member
Fellow
Example of a dual-career-path system

17.  Salary, status, and incentives for technical
employees compare favorably with those of
managers.
 Individual contributors’ base salary may be lower
than managers’, but they are given opportunities
to increase their total compensation through
bonuses.
 The individual contributor career path is not used
to satisfy poor performers who have no
managerial potential.
12 - 17

18.  The career path is for employees with
outstanding technical skills.
 Individual contributors are given the
opportunity to choose their career path.
 The company provides assessment
resources.
 Assessment information enables employees
to make comparisons between their
interests and abilities with those of
employees in technical and managerial
positions.
12 - 18

19.  Plateauing means that the likelihood of the
employee receiving future job assignments with
increased responsibility is low.
 Mid-career employees are most likely to plateau.
 Plateauing becomes dysfunctional when the
employee feels stuck in a job that offers no
potential for personal growth.
 Such frustration results in poor job attitude,
increased absenteeism, and poor job performance.
12 - 19

20.  Discrimination based on age, gender, or
race.
 Lack of ability.
 Lack of training.
 Low need for achievement.
 Unfair pay decisions or dissatisfaction with
pay raises.
 Confusion about job responsibilities.
 Slow company growth resulting in reduced
development opportunities.
12 - 20

21.  Employee understands the reasons for plateau.
 Employee is encouraged to participate in
development activities.
 Employee is encouraged to seek career counseling.
 Employee reality-tests his solutions.
12 - 21

22.  Obsolescence – a reduction in an employee’s
competence resulting from a lack of knowledge of
new work processes, techniques, and technologies
that have developed since the employee completed
her education.
 Not just a concern of technical and professional
occupations. All employees are at risk.
 Obsolescence needs to be avoided if companies are
trying to become learning organizations.
12 - 22

23. 12 - 23
Update
d Skills
Manager Company Climate
Reward System
Peers
• Provide Challenging Work Assignments
• Encourage Employees to Acquire New
Skills
• Discuss Ideas
• Share Information
• Emphasis on Continuous Learning
• Sabbaticals
• Pay for New Ideas
• Pay for Employee
Development

24.  Families with a working husband, homemaker
wife, and two or more children account for
only 7 percent of American families.
 The increasing number of two-career couples
and single heads of households creates a
challenge for companies.
 Companies have to carefully consider how to
manage employees who are simultaneously
meeting the needs of both work and family.
12 - 24

25.  There are two roles that training can play in
balancing work and non-work.
 Trainers and managers may be responsible for
developing policies and procedures.
 Trainers may be responsible for developing training
programs to teach managers their role in
administering and overseeing the use of work-life
policies.
12 - 25

26. 12 - 26
Time-based Conflict
Strain-based Conflict
Behavior-based Conflict

27.  Communicating information about work and
non-work policies and job demands.
 Flexibility in work arrangements and work
schedules.
 Redesigning jobs.
 Support Services.
12 - 27

28.  The impact of job sharing on clients and
customers must be determined.
 The employee interested in job sharing must find
another employee performing the same job who
wants reduced work hours.
 The two people sharing the job need to have
similar work values and motivations.
 The manager must actively communicate with
the job-sharing employees.
 All schedules and work assignments need
coordination.
 Performance measurement should be both team
and individual.
12 - 28

29.  Important career management issue because of the
increased use of downsizing to deal with excess
employees resulting from corporate restructuring,
mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers.
 Companies that lay off employees can experience
lowered job commitment, distrust of management,
and difficulties recruiting new employees.
 Job loss causes stress and disrupts the personal
lives of laid-off employees.
12 - 29

30.  From a career management standpoint,
companies and managers have two
major responsibilities:
 They are responsible for helping
employees who will lose their jobs.
 Steps must be taken to ensure that the
“survivors” of the layoff (remaining
employees) remain productive and
committed to the organization.
12 - 30

31.  Companies need to provide outplacement
services to help prepare employees for layoffs:
 Advance warning and explanation for a
layoff.
 Psychological, financial, and career
counseling.
 Assessment of skills and interests.
 Job campaign services.
 Job banks.
 Electronic delivery of job openings.
12 - 31

32.  Meeting the needs of older workers.
 Pre-retirement socialization.
 Retirement.
 Early retirement programs.
12 - 32

33.  Flexibility in scheduling to allow for care of sick
spouses, return to school, travel, or reduced work
hours.
 Older workers should receive the training they
need to avoid skill obsolescence.
 Older employees need resources and referral help
that addresses long-term care and elder care.
 Companies need to ensure that employees do not
hold inappropriate stereotypes about older
employees.
12 - 33