In the contemporary business environment, the traditional notions about career and career management have taken on entirely new dimensions for both employees and organizations. Business decisions such as mergers, acquisitions, layoffs and restructuring all have influenced the way individuals and organizations views careers and careers management (Agarwala, 2010) More opportunities have become available for the high performing employees who are valuable to the firm. High performers, who are in short supply, get many job offers from other companies due to their competencies and skill sets. Employees are changing jobs more often than in the past and job hopping has become an acceptable reality today. Employee loyalty today extends more to the individual’s career rather than to the organization. If an individual’s career aspirations are not fulfilled by the organization, he/she is likely to seek fulfillment in some other organization (Agarwala, 2010) Therefore, organizations are confronted with challenge of attracting and retaining this group of employees. Job and career are not viewed as equivalent any more. Employees are no longer content with just having a secure job with time – bound upward mobility. Today, employees are looking for a career and are not willing to take any chances with it. Employees do not let their careers just happen instead; they want a more active control over their careers. They also want their firms to provide them with career development opportunities. Changing workforce expectations and the changing psychological contract between the employer and the employees have led organizations to direct more attention towards career management interventions (Agarwala, 2010, pg.574) The essay explore the meaning of career as a concept, career choice, career path, career planning, career stages, Literature review on managing careers as well as reviewing one case study on the topic.

1. i
DONASIAN MBONEA
ID: 44132BHU52973
PhD in Human Resource Management
Essay on Managing Careers
ATLANTIC INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
HONOLULU, HAWAII
July, 2017

2. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………………………...II
1.0 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................1
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ON MANAGING CAREERS .................................................2
3.0 CAREER STAGES............................................................................................................3
4.0 FOUR CAREER STAGES ...............................................................................................5
5.0 CAREER PLANNING .......................................................................................................6
6.0 CAREER DEVELOPMENT..............................................................................................9
7.0 CAREER MANAGEMENT ...............................................................................................9
8.0 CAREER MANAGEMENT FOR SPECIFIC HR ISSUES ........................................10
9.0 CAREER MANAGEMENT AS SHRM APPROACH ..................................................11
10.0 CASE STUDY..................................................................................................................12
11.0 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................................15

3. 1
1.0 INTRODUCTION
In the contemporary business environment, the traditional notions about career and
career management have taken on entirely new dimensions for both employees and
organizations. Business decisions such as mergers, acquisitions, layoffs and
restructuring all have influenced the way individuals and organizations views careers
and careers management (Agarwala, 2010)
More opportunities have become available for the high performing employees who are
valuable to the firm. High performers, who are in short supply, get many job offers from
other companies due to their competencies and skill sets. Employees are changing jobs
more often than in the past and job hopping has become an acceptable reality today.
Employee loyalty today extends more to the individual’s career rather than to the
organization. If an individual’s career aspirations are not fulfilled by the organization,
he/she is likely to seek fulfillment in some other organization (Agarwala, 2010)
Therefore, organizations are confronted with challenge of attracting and retaining this
group of employees. Job and career are not viewed as equivalent any more. Employees
are no longer content with just having a secure job with time – bound upward mobility.
Today, employees are looking for a career and are not willing to take any chances with
it. Employees do not let their careers just happen instead; they want a more active
control over their careers. They also want their firms to provide them with career
development opportunities. Changing workforce expectations and the changing
psychological contract between the employer and the employees have led organizations
to direct more attention towards career management interventions (Agarwala, 2010,
pg.574)
The essay explore the meaning of career as a concept, career choice, career path,
career planning, career stages, Literature review on managing careers as well as
reviewing one case study on the topic.

4. 2
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ON MANAGING CAREERS
This section examined relevant literature from works that have already been done on
the topic. The literature was structured in the following form: definitions of key concepts
such as career, career choice, career path, career planning, career development and
career management as well as studies on managing careers from other researchers.
2.1 The concept of Career
Career refers to a series of work related to positions occupied by an individual
throughout work life and associated activities, behavior, attitudes, values and
aspirations (Agarwala, 2010).
A career involves a long term view of work experiences and a related sequence of jobs
that an employee performs during the span of work life, not necessarily with the same
company.
Career is composed of jobs held, titles earned and work accomplished over a long
period of time.
Furthermore, a career can be defined as a sequence of positions, roles or job held by
one person over a relatively long time span.
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defined career as the series of jobs
that a person has in a particular area of work, usually involving more responsibility as
time passes. For example, a career politics, medical career, a teaching career.
Therefore, Career refers to job or series of jobs that you do during your working life,
especially if you continue to get better jobs and earn more money.
2.2 The concept of Career Choice
According to Agarwala (2010), defined career choice as a profession or occupation
chosen as one's life's work.
How does one determine their career choice after college? Or how do people choose
careers?
Career choice is determined by the interest of the candidate. This is because you spend
most of our time in the work place and you better be happy with what you do every day.
Otherwise you will be unhappy and spread negative energy in the workplace. Your
performance could also be greatly compromised. The education qualification also
determines the career choice. This decision is best taken early enough when you are
choosing the course to take either at universities or tertiary colleges.
Marketability of the career is also a factor to consider .Some careers are saturated since
there is more supply than demand. Other factors to consider include self – image,
personality, family background and qualification.

5. 3
Career choice involves four main stages; these are self – awareness, opportunity
awareness, decision making and taking action.
The first stage of career choice is self-awareness. This involves looking at your skills,
values, interests and personality and analyzing where your strengths and weaknesses
lie. This is important in both choosing the right career and also for success in
applications and interviews where you will find many questions which test whether you
have been through this process.
The second stage is opportunity awareness: Once you have done some preliminary
self-analysis, the next stage is to gather information on the opportunities open to you.
2.3 The concept of Career path
Career path consists of a logical sequence of job progression through which an
individual moves during employment with an organization. Furthermore, career path
refers to the growth of the employee in an organization. Career path basically means
the various positions an employee moves on one by one as he grows in an
organization. The employee may move vertically most of the time but also move
laterally or cross functionally to move to a different type of job role.
3.0 CAREER STAGES
Career stages are gradual changes that occur over time in careers. Moorhead and
Griffin (1995) defined career stages as “periods in which an individual’s work life is
characterized by distinctive needs, concern, tasks and activities”. Huse and Cummings
(1980) proposed that as individuals move from one stage to another, needs and
expectations evolve and change. Each stage is also marked by significant personal life
transitions. Individuals enter and exit each stage of their career at different ages. The
age ranges shown below for each stage of career are approximations.
There are four career stages, these are: Establishment stage, advancement stage,
maintenance stage and withdrawal stage.
Establishment Stage: (age 20-26 years); the first stage of an individual’s career marks
the onset of his/her career. At this stage, individuals are often unsure of their
capabilities, competence and potential. Hence, they show high levels of dependence on
their superiors for guidance, support, and feedback. Being newcomers, they may be
unsure about their choice of career and may continue to explore alternative career
options and available choices regarding organizations and jobs. Their main concerns,
however, are directed towards learning the job and adjusting to the organization.
Towards the end of this stage, newcomers manage to adjust within the organization.
Life transitions, in the establishment stage, individuals move from educational institutes
to work, that is, from non – work to work life. They also become less emotionally and
financially dependent on their parents (Agarwala, 2010)

6. 4
Advancement stage: (age 26-40 years); In this stage, Individuals become independent
contributing members of the organization and are no longer dependent on their
superiors or co – workers. Advancement is a highly achievement – oriented stage
during which employees are mainly concerned careers. The employees also seek to
advance in life. Developing closer ties with peers and integrating career choices (such
as promotions or transfers) and personal spheres also emerge as important concerns
for employees in this stage. Vertical (promotions) and lateral (transfers) movements
frequently occur during this stage. These movements broaden the sphere of experience
for the employees as they learn different jobs. Life transitions, when individuals reach
and cross the age of 30, it marks an important personal life transition. It is during this
stage that most individuals settle down with a partner. These include working out dual
career partnerships (Agarwala, 2010).
Maintenance stage: (age 40-60 years); by the time an employee reaches this stage,
he/she has usually achieved career ambitions and created a place in the world of work.
Individuals are therefore, no longer concerned with advancement. Most of their efforts
are directed towards maintaining employee career gains. Some people, however,
continue to grow during this stage. He/she reaches a career plateau, i.e., the point
where the probability of moving up the hierarchy is low. Not all individuals, however,
manage career plateau equally well. Some employees may become frustrated and
dissatisfied with their jobs and achievements. These individuals go through what may
be termed as mid – career crisis. Wherein they perceive a threat to their career identity.
These individuals experience this career stage as one of conflict and crisis. In an
organization, these employees may be identified as those who have not achieved their
career goals probably because of a mismatch between their aspirations and reality.
Newcomers to the organizations are perceived as threats by these employees.
Withdrawal stage: (age 60 and above); during this stage, individuals seriously begin to
consider and plan withdrawal from active employment. This stage involves gradually
leaving the career behind, career needs limited to using their experience and wisdom to
help others, the employees move from work to non-work life.

7. 5
4.0 FOUR CAREER STAGES
Figure 4.1: Four Career Stages (Source, Agarwala, 2010)
20 – 26 years
Dependence on
superiors for
guidance, support
and feedback
To learn the job
To adjust to the
organization
Movement from
non –work to work
life
26 – 40 years
To increase their
competence
To achieve and
advance in the
career
To integrate work
and personal
spheres
Settling down
with a partner in
personal life
Manage time
between
demands of
works and home
40 – 60 years
To maintain
career gain
To search for
alternatives and
redirect efforts
Mid – life
transition/crisis
60 years
and above
To gradually
leave the
career behind
To let go of
organizational
identity
To establish
productive
leisure life
during
retirement
To use one’s
experience to
help others
Movement
from work to
non-work life
Career Stage I:
Establishment
Career Stage II:
Advancement
Career Stage
III: Maintenance
Career Stage
IV: Withdrawal

8. 6
5.0CAREER PLANNING
Career Planning is a personalized ongoing process whereby an individual establishes
career goals and identifies the means for achieving these goals. Career planning is
concerned with individuals choosing occupations, organizations and jobs. In planning
their careers, individuals set career objectives and determine the methods to achieve
those objectives. Individual career planning generally include the following: individual’s
assessment of his/her own interests, abilities and goals, examining alternative career
opportunities, establishing personal career goals, developing a career path and
planning how to progress through the career path.
Career path refers to a line of progression through which an individual moves during
employment within an organization. Career paths are the logical sequence of job
progression tracks for employees to follow. For example, the progression of a sales
representative to account director to sales manager to vice president sales constitutes
one such track.
Career planning consists of activities and actions that you take to achieve your
individual career goals.
Career goals are the future positions that an individual strives to reach as part of a
career.
Career planning involves establishment of individual career objectives based on an
assessment of career goals, aspirations, performance and potential. It is a personalized
and ongoing process whereby an individual establishes career goals and identifies the
means for achieving these goals. Career planning should focus on matching personal
goals with opportunities that are realistically available. Since numbers of positions at
senior levels are scarce, upward mobility cannot be a reality for every employee. Hence,
career planning need not focus only on success related to promotions.

9. 7
5.1 Career Planning Methods/Practices
Figure 5.1: Career Planning Methods used by organizations (Source, Agarwala, 2010)
Career Planning Methods; Organizations may use various ways to support employees
in deciding their career goals and career plans. The career planning methods that may
be used by organizations to help individuals in career planning include communication,
counselling, career planning workshops, self- development materials and assessment
programmes (Figure 5.1)
Career
planning
methods
used by
organizations
Assessment
programmes
Counselling
Communication
Self-
development
materials
Career
planning
workshops

10. 8
5.2 Career Planning Process
Figure 5.2: Career Planning Process. (Source: Agarwala, 2010)
The career planning process consists of four stages: self – assessment,
academic/career options, relevant/practical experience and Job search.
Self-Assessment
The first step in the Career Planning Model involves gathering information about
yourself to assist in making a decision about a career. You should develop an
understanding of self-including values, interests, aptitudes, abilities, personal traits, and
desired life style, and become aware of the interrelationship between self and
occupational choice.
Academic/Career Options: The second step allows individuals to investigate the world
of work in greater depth, narrow a general occupational direction into a specific one
through an informed decision making process, and declare a major.
1. Self - Assessment
4. Job Search
2. Academic/Career
options
3. Relevant/Practical
Experience
Career
Planning
Process

11. 9
Relevant/Practical Experience: In Step III individuals evaluate occupational choices
and gain practical experience through internships, cooperative education, relevant
summer employment, volunteer work and campus activities. In addition, more specific
decisions about occupational choices are made.
Job Search: An initial occupational choice is made in Step IV. Individuals prepare for
and begin conducting a job search.
6.0 CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Career development consists of those activities and processes which are undertaken by
organizations to help individuals attain their career objectives. It is the process by which
career plans are accomplished.
Career development is a formal approach taken by an organization to help employees
in achieving their career objectives. Thus, career development includes all those
activities undertaken by the organization which prepare an employee to meet the
current and future needs of the organization. Career development, therefore, benefits
both the employee and the organization. While employees become better equipped to
meet their goals, they also add value to the organization through superior performance,
higher motivation and commitment. Career development may include various
organizational practices such as skills training, performance feedback, coaching and
planned job rotation.
7.0 CAREER MANAGEMENT
Career management is a life - long ongoing process that involves setting personal
career goals, developing strategies for achieving the goals and revising the goals based
on work and life experiences. Career management programmes include counselling
employees in their individual career planning, offering career planning workshops,
assessment centres, developmental performance appraisals, providing mentors to
individuals and developing career paths for employees.
Career management is the process of designing and implementing goals, plans and
strategies that enable HR professionals and managers to satisfy workforce needs and
allow individuals to achieve their career objectives.
Agarwala (2010) defined career management as a continuous process that involves
setting personal career goals, developing strategies for achieving these goals, and
revising the goals based on work and personal experiences. McMahon and
Merman(1987) defined career management as an ongoing process of preparing,
implementing, and monitoring career plans undertaken by the individual alone or in
concert with the organization. Since careers are made up of exchanges between
individuals and organizations, career management incorporates a partnership between
individuals and organizations. Baruch and Peiperl (2000) defined organizational career
management as the design and implementation of activities relevant to the career
development of its employees.

12. 10
8.0CAREER MANAGEMENT FOR SPECIFIC HR ISSUES
The current business environment has challenged the human resource function to
provide competitive advantage to organizations. Career planning and development can
be a powerful means of dealing with some of the issues related to managing a stable or
shrinking organization in a stagnant economy. Various HR issues have emerged which
demand attention. Some of these are, ensuring the continuance of newly hired
employees; development and retention of high potential employees; providing growth
opportunities in a stable organization; rewarding and retaining technical and
professional employees; and motivating plateaued employees.
Figure 8.1 Career Management Techniques for Specific HR Issues (Source:
Adapted from Agarwala, 2010, pg.618)
HR Issues
Career Management Techniques
How to reduce turnover among
recently hired employees
Challenging first job, Job enrichment,
Assign new employee to demanding
bosses and realistic job preview
How to develop high – potential
candidates for management
positions
 Assessment centres
 Job pathing
How to provide promotion
opportunities in a stable or
contracting organization
 Cross – functional moves
 Fall back positions
How to reward and retain
technical and professional
employees
 Dual career paths
How to motivate plateaued
employees
 Lateral movements
 Skill –based pay systems
 Seminars and university courses
 Rotation

13. 11
9.0CAREER MANAGEMENT AS SHRM APPROACH
Business planning which was traditionally concerned with marketing and finance has
now expanded to include human resources to meet business objectives. Integration of
human resource planning with business objectives has led to the inclusion of HR
managers on corporate business planning teams. All corporate plans are interpreted for
their human resource implication. Human resource planning may be appropriately
viewed as a macro HR system that provides guidance for the optimum use of the
organization’s human resources. Human resource planning systems must also
incorporate those HRM subsystems that ensure growth and development of potential of
all the employees in the organization. It must also determine linkages between
individual growth and maximum utilization of human resources and the interaction
between these two aspects.
Human resource planning complements individual career planning. Career planning
practices help individuals set career goals. Human resource planning, on the other
hand, is aimed at creating and maintaining an effective work force to meet the business
goals of the organization. It involves strategies for attracting, selecting and orienting
new employees to the firm. It also formulates approaches for matching individuals’
needs with job opportunities, methods for helping employees develop and perform
effectively and ways to smoothen the separation of employees through retirement. By
integrating career planning with HRP employees’ needs can be merged with those of
the organization.
Long – term goals and objectives of the firm are analyzed in terms of their implications
for manpower requirements - both qualitative (type of skills, such as technical skills,
interpersonal skills, etc) and quantitative (the number of people required) for the
organization to achieve those objectives. By linking employees’ career plans with the
firm’s human resource needs and business objectives, career plans become more
realistic and improve the organization’s human resource plans. For example, setting up
of individual career objectives should be aligned with the organization’s business plans.
An individual’s concern for performance feedback and development planning may be
complemented by organizational activities for helping employees to develop and
perform effectively.
Today, an increasingly growing number of people seek jobs that offer challenge,
responsibility, opportunities for advancement and quality of work life. Employees prefer
to work for organizations which demonstrate concern for employees’ future.

14. 12
10.0 CASE STUDY
Career Development at Dataware Services and Systems
This case study looks at Dataware Services and Systems (DSS) as one of the largest
producers of silcon chips for the computer industry in India. The company has it’s
headquarter in the hi-tech city of Hyderabad. It was founded in 1985 and since the DSS
has grown rapidly in terms of sales and profits. As a result, the company’s stock price
has also shot upwards many times over.
However, human resources have not been on top of the agenda for DSS. Therefore,
human resource policies of the firm have failed to keep pace with the company’s
growth. The emphasis in DSS has been on developing policies to meet the
requirements of external organizations such as the government regulations for IT firms.
The company recently hired Arun Baijal as the Director of Human Resources for the
company. Prior to joining DSS, Baijal was working with a large blue – Chip Company in
Bangalore as an Assistant Personnel Director. His present position offered him a
substantial increase in pay and responsibility. However, that was not the only reason
Baijal had joined DSS. He was aware that DSS had never paid much attention to
human resources. Therefore, he believed that his position as the Director (HR) would
provide him with the challenge to change the mindset of the company from a 1950s
human resources outlook to one more compatible with the realities of the 21st century.
Baijal has been with the company for the past six months. During this period, he has
been assessing the situation to determine the significant human resource problems at
DSS. One HR problem that he believes is significant is the high turnover among
software engineers who work in the R&D department. This is the core function of the
company and turnover rates have averaged about 30 per cent per year over the past
three years.
Baijal set out to systematically assess the cause(s) of the high turnover problem. He
checked area wage surveys and found that DSS was paying five to eight per cent above
the market for software engineers. Since a formal exit interview system was not in place
in the company, he could not check out what other factors or causes could possibly
explain the high turnover. Therefore, he engaged in informal conversations with a large
number of employees, including the engineers themselves. He was disconcerted to find
out that many of the engineers felt to have reached a dead end in the technical aspects
of engineering.
The R&D department, in the last three years, had lost some of the younger engineers
who had been considered to be on the fast track. Most of these high achievers had
joined the competitors in the local area.
One particular R&D engineer who impressed Baijal was Rubina Chatterjee. Rubina was
29 years old and a B.Tech in Electronics Engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT), Mumbai. Along the job, Rubina was pursuing her part – time post –
graduate studies in management. She had been with DSS for the last seven years. Out
of these seven years, Rubina spent the first three years in an entry – level engineering
position and the remaining four as the section chief of one of the divisions of R&D. This

15. 13
promotion was the highest position in the department other than the position of Director
of R&D.
When Baijal spoke to Rubina, he was amazed at what she had to say about the
company. Rubina claimed that the company does not really care about its good people.
She went on to express her personal view about the present Director of the R&D
Department of the company, John D’Souza. According to her, D’Souza did not want his
good people to move up in the organization. Instead, he was more interested in keeping
them in his own department, thus ensuring that he meets his own goals. At the same
time, he did not have to spend time and resources in orienting and training new people.
Rubina further informed Baijal that she had been told by both D’Souza and the former
Personnel Director that she had a bright future with the company. Her performance
appraisal had also been uniformly excellent.
With respect to the appraisal system of the company, Rubina was particularly critical of
the appraisal form being used for the purpose. This appraisal form had no section on
identifying the future potential or future goals of the employee being appraised. Further,
the appraisal also had no rewards for supervisors who develop their subordinates, no
human resources planning to identify future job openings, no centralized job information
or job positioning system, and no career paths or career ladders. To top it all, there
were attitudinal barriers against women in management positions.
Baijal checked the information that Rubina had provided him. He found that the
information was accurate. He also heard through the grapevine that Rubina had a very
good offer for an excellent position with a competitor of DSS.
The analysis: The case study highlights that Dataware Services and Systems (DSS)
Company was facing problem concerning high turnover of high performing employees.
Also, a series of interconnected problem associated with career development.
11.0 CONCLUSION
Today's employees are more career conscious than ever. They are demanding more in
terms of personal growth and development. Organizations that fail to allow employees
to meet their individual needs will be losing valued employees. A Career Development
Program seeks to match to needs of the employee with those of the organization with
the major components being counseling and training. Counseling provides employees
with the opportunity to define career goals and to create plans within the context of
organizational realities. Training allows the employee to develop and acquire
knowledge, skills and abilities required to enhance his/her current job and prepares
them for future job opportunities. As we approach the 21st Century, it is essential that
organizations place a high value on career development. This will allow employees to
fulfill their career needs, and organizations will benefit by retaining a greater number of
their competent and qualified employees. Work today is seen as more than just a
means of livelihood. Work and career are seen as expressions of self and values and as
aspects of life that should fit harmoniously with other priorities such as family, health,
etc. Traditional notions about career, career success and career management have
been radically redefined due to several factors. Business decisions such as mergers,

16. 14
acquisitions, lay –offs and restructuring, changing workforce expectations and career
aspirations, altered psychological contract between the employer and employee, and a
volatile environment have all contributed to this redefinition.
Also, this essay will help me to design and implement a suitable career management
programme that can assist employees to attain their career goals at the organization
level.

17. 15
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Baruch, Y & M.Peiperl (2000). Career Management Practices: An Empirical Survey and
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Brown, D. (Ed.). (2002). Career choice and development. John Wiley & Sons.
Collin, A., & Young, R. A. (2000). The future of career. Cambridge University Press.
Holbeche, L. (2001). Aligning Human Resources and Business Strategy, Butterworth
Heinemann, Oxford, UK
Hornby, A. S. (2010). Oxford advanced learner's dictionary (Vol. 1428). Oxford: Oxford
university press.
Moorhead, G & Griffin, R.W. (1995). Organizational Behaviour: Managing People and
Organizations, 4th edition, Houghton Mifflin Co, Toronto, Canada.
Otazo, K. (2006). The truth about managing your career.. and nothing but the truth. FT
Press
Young, R. A. (1998). Managing Careers into the 21st Century. Human Resource
Management Journal, 8(1), 91.