A career is the sequence of work-related positions a person occupies throughout life. People pursue careers to satisfy deeply individual needs. At one time, identifying with one employer seemed to fulfill many of those needs. Now, the distinction between the individual’s career as the organization sees it and the career as the individual sees it is very important.
Organization-Centered vs. Individual-Centered Career Planning
Career planning can be somewhat confusing, because two different perspectives exist. Career planning can be organization centered, individual centered, or both. Organization-centered career planning focuses on jobs and on constructing career paths that provide for the logical progression of people between jobs in an organization. These paths are ones that individuals can follow to advance in certain organizational units. For example, a person might enter the sales department as a sales counselor, then be promoted to account director, to sales manager, and finally to vice-president of sales.
Individual-centered career planning focuses on individuals’ careers rather than organizational needs. It is done by employees themselves, and individual goals and skills are the focus of the analysis. Such analyses might consider situations both inside and outside the organization that could expand a person’s career.
Organizational retrenchment and downsizing have changed career plans for many people. They have found themselves in “career transition”—in other words, in need of finding other jobs. Small businesses, some started by early retirees from big companies, have provided many of the new career opportunities.
Organization-Centered vs. Individual-Centered Career Planning
Career planning can be somewhat confusing, because two different perspectives exist. Career planning can be organization centered, individual centered, or both. Organization-centered career planning focuses on jobs and on constructing career paths that provide for the logical progression of people between jobs in an organization. These paths are ones that individuals can follow to advance in certain organizational units. For example, a person might enter the sales department as a sales counselor, then be promoted to account director, to sales manager, and finally to vice-president of sales.
Individual-centered career planning focuses on individuals’ careers rather than organizational needs. It is done by employees themselves, and individual goals and skills are the focus of the analysis. Such analyses might consider situations both inside and outside the organization that could expand a person’s career.
Organizational retrenchment and downsizing have changed career plans for many people. They have found themselves in “career transition”—in other words, in need of finding other jobs. Small businesses, some started by early retirees from big companies, have provided many of the new career opportunities.
How People Choose Careers
Four general individual characteristics affect how people make career choices.
- Interests: People tend to pursue careers that they believe match their interests.
- Self-image: A career is an extension of a person’s self-image, as well as a molder of it.
- Personality: This factor includes an employee’s personal orientation (for example, whether the employee is realistic, enterprising, and artistic) and personal needs (including affiliation, power, and achievement needs).
- Social backgrounds: Socioeconomic status and the educational and occupation level of a person’s parents are a few factors included in this category.
Less is known about how and why people choose specific organizations than about why they choose specific careers. One obvious factor is the availability of a job when the person is looking for work. The amount of information available about alternatives is an important factor as well. Beyond these issues, people seem to pick an organization on the basis of a “fit” between the climate of the organization as they perceive it and their own personal characteristics. Many factors may influence job choice, including the gender of the job informant who passed along job information.
Career Plateaus
Those who do not job-hop may face another problem: career plateaus. As the babyboom generation reaches midlife, and as large employers cut back on their workforces, increasing numbers of managers will find themselves at a career plateau. Plateauing may seem a sign of failure to many people, and plateaued employees can cause problems for employers when frustration affects performance. Perhaps in part because of plateauing, many middle managers’ optimism about opportunity for advancement has declined. Even though these managers have more responsibility and less influence in the decision-making process, the result has been leaner, more competitive organizations with few promotion opportunities.
Moonlighting As a Career Strategy
Moonlighting traditionally has been defined as work outside a person’s regular
employment that takes 12 or more additional hours per week. More recently, the
concept of moonlighting has been expanded to include such activities as selfemployment, investments, hobbies, and other interests for which additional remuneration is received. The perception that moonlighting is a fixed outside commitment is no longer sufficiently broad, because the forms that it may take
are varied and sometimes difficult to identify.
Moonlighting is no longer just a second job for the underpaid blue-collar worker but also a career development strategy for some professionals. A growing number of managers are dividing their work efforts by moonlighting as consultants or self-employed entrepreneurs. Consulting not only increases their income but also provides new experiences and diversity to their lives. Many individuals also view such activities as providing extra security, especially in these times of layoffs among middle managers.
Most moonlighting managers cannot afford to walk away from their corporate salaries, but they are looking elsewhere for fulfillment. An HR manager at a TV network moonlights by working for a training firm that she and a friend set up. An advertising executive at a cosmetics company accepts freelance assignments from his employer’s clients. A computer software expert secretly develops a home computer program to market on his own.
If someone is working for a company and freelancing in the same field, questions bout whose ideas and time are involved are bound to arise. Some organizations threaten to fire employees who are caught moonlighting, mainly to keep them from becoming competitors.36 But that does not seem to stop the activities. Other organizations permit freelance work so long as it is not directly competitive. Many believe that staff members should be free to develop their own special interests.
There is evidence that some people who hold multiple jobs work a second job in preparation for a career change. Whether or not a career change is sought, the concept of “job insurance” plays a role, as mentioned earlier. Moonlighting can be viewed in the same context as auto, car, home, or life insurance. The second job can serve as a backup in the event the primary job is lost.
Moonlighting is not without its problems. The main argument against moonlighting has been that energy is being used on a second job that should be used on the primary job. This division of effort may lead to poor performance, absenteeism, and reduced job commitment. However, these arguments are less valid with a growing number of employees.
Key for employers in dealing with moonlighting employees is to devise and communicate a policy on the subject. Such a policy should focus on defining those areas in which the employer limits employee activities because of business reasons.
Moonlighting traditionally has been defined as work outside a person’s regular
employment that takes 12 or more additional hours per week. More recently, the
concept of moonlighting has been expanded to include such activities as selfemployment, investments, hobbies, and other interests for which additional remuneration is received. The perception that moonlighting is a fixed outside commitment is no longer sufficiently broad, because the forms that it may take
are varied and sometimes difficult to identify.
Moonlighting is no longer just a second job for the underpaid blue-collar worker but also a career development strategy for some professionals. A growing number of managers are dividing their work efforts by moonlighting as consultants or self-employed entrepreneurs. Consulting not only increases their income but also provides new experiences and diversity to their lives. Many individuals also view such activities as providing extra security, especially in these times of layoffs among middle managers.
Most moonlighting managers cannot afford to walk away from their corporate salaries, but they are looking elsewhere for fulfillment. An HR manager at a TV network moonlights by working for a training firm that she and a friend set up. An advertising executive at a cosmetics company accepts freelance assignments from his employer’s clients. A computer software expert secretly develops a home computer program to market on his own.
If someone is working for a company and freelancing in the same field, questions bout whose ideas and time are involved are bound to arise. Some organizations threaten to fire employees who are caught moonlighting, mainly to keep them from becoming competitors.36 But that does not seem to stop the activities. Other organizations permit freelance work so long as it is not directly competitive. Many believe that staff members should be free to develop their own special interests.
There is evidence that some people who hold multiple jobs work a second job in preparation for a career change. Whether or not a career change is sought, the concept of “job insurance” plays a role, as mentioned earlier. Moonlighting can be viewed in the same context as auto, car, home, or life insurance. The second job can serve as a backup in the event the primary job is lost.
Moonlighting is not without its problems. The main argument against moonlighting has been that energy is being used on a second job that should be used on the primary job. This division of effort may lead to poor performance, absenteeism, and reduced job commitment. However, these arguments are less valid with a growing number of employees.
Key for employers in dealing with moonlighting employees is to devise and communicate a policy on the subject. Such a policy should focus on defining those areas in which the employer limits employee activities because of business reasons.
source by Human Resource Management 9th Edition Robert L. Mathis John H
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