MSB 440 Career Management Chapter 4
Chapter 4
A Model of Career Management
In this chapter we will study:
1. An Overview of the Career Management Model
2. Indicators of Effective Career Management
Introduction
To manage a career is to make a decision or, more accurately, a series of decisions. These series of
decisions require active career management and decision-making. In today’s less certain business
environment, we all need to be proactive and responsible for our careers. Career management is
the process by which individuals can make reasoned, appropriate decisions about their work in the
context of their total life. It is also an approach to problem-solving that can be used to address a
wide variety of career decisions.
In this chapter, we discuss a model of career management. First, an overview of the model and the
research that forms the basis of the model are presented. Next, the value of using the career
management process in a continual manner is articulated. Finally, four indicators of effective career
management are outlined.
An Overview of the Career Management Model
In the social sciences, a model is a picture or representation of reality. A model contains a set of
variables that are related to each other in a specified manner to allow for a better understanding of
some piece of the world. The model of career management considered in this book is normative
in nature; that is, it describes how people should manage their careers. Not everybody manages a
career in this fashion, but the activities represented in the model can lead to desirable outcomes
for the individual. The reasons for this assumption will become clear as the model unfolds.
The career management model is portrayed in Exhibit 4.1. Before defining the key components in a
formal sense, the career management cycle is introduced with a brief example.
Fall Semester 2024 Instructor: Ms. Izza Imran
MSB 440 Career Management Chapter 4
Exhibit 4.1
Example
A young chemical engineer is pondering her future in her company. Although she enjoys her position
as a staff engineer, a career in management has intrigued her for a while. She could lay low and
follow the company’s “plan” for her. However, she decides to take a more active role in the
management of her career. She has some decisions to make.
- The first step in the career management model indicates that the engineer should engage in
career exploration (Box A in Exhibit 4.1). That is, she should begin gathering information.
She might collect information about herself and about her organization.
- Career exploration, if conducted properly, should enable the engineer to become more fully
aware of herself and her environment (Box B). She ought to gain insight, for example, into
her values, interests, and abilities in both her work and non-work lives. She should become
more aware of job options and their requirements and of opportunities and obstacles that
exist both with her current employer and with other companies.
-
Fall Semester 2024 Instructor: Ms. Izza Imran
MSB 440 Career Management Chapter 4
- A greater awareness of herself and her environment can help the engineer choose a career
goal or goals to pursue (Box C). First, greater self-awareness should prompt the engineer to
set reasonable conceptual goals. A conceptual goal represents a general summary of the
nature of the work experiences or outcomes the individual intends to attain, without
specifying a particular job or position.
- In addition, greater awareness of the work environment should assist in the setting of
operational goals. An operational goal translates the conceptual goal into a specific or
targeted job and is based on the individual’s understanding of the internal and external work
environments.
- The establishment of realistic conceptual and operational goals can facilitate the
development (Box D) and implementation (Box E) of career strategies; that is, courses of
actions designed to attain the desired career goals.
- The implementation of reasonable career strategies can produce progress toward the stated
conceptual and operational career goals (Box F). If the engineer chooses wise plans of action,
she is more likely to attain her goals than if she did not pursue any career strategies or if she
developed inappropriate strategies.
- The implementation of career strategies can provide useful feedback to the person. This
feedback, in conjunction with feedback from other work and non-work sources (Box G), can
enable the engineer to appraise her career (Box H). The additional information derived from
career appraisal becomes another vehicle for career exploration (see the arrow from Box H
to Box A) that continues the career management cycle.
- For example, the engineer might discover that she has performed poorly on the newly
acquired managerial portions of her job. This appraisal might lead the engineer to consider
changing her goal; she may no longer wish to enter management. Or she may retain the goal
but revise the strategies (see the arrow from B to D). For example, she might choose to
pursue a graduate degree in management to hone her skills.
In sum, the career management cycle is a problem-solving, decision-making process. Information is
gathered so individuals can become more aware of themselves and the world around them. Goals
are established, plans or strategies are developed and implemented, and feedback is obtained to
provide more information for ongoing career management.
Fall Semester 2024 Instructor: Ms. Izza Imran
MSB 440 Career Management Chapter 4
Indicators of Effective Career Management
How can people tell whether they are managing their careers effectively? Because career
management is a problem-solving, decision-making process, it is tempting to examine the outcomes
of career decisions at a particular point in time to assess the effectiveness of career management
practices. We could, for example, look at our advancement in title or responsibility, or level of job
performance to gauge the effectiveness of our career management.
Because career management is an ongoing, adaptive process, a snapshot view of a person’s
performance, status, or mobility does not necessarily reveal the manner in which the career has
been managed. Following are four indicators of effective career management that can serve as a
review of the career management model itself:
1. Effective career management requires a deep knowledge of oneself and an accurate picture
of the environment. Some people have little insight into themselves and alternatives in the
work environment. Without such knowledge, they may be fortunate enough to fall into a
job that meets their needs and permits the use of valued abilities. Over the long run,
however, we cannot count on luck alone
2. Effective career management requires the development of realistic conceptual and
operational goals that are compatible with one’s values, interests, abilities, and desired
lifestyle. While gaining accurate knowledge about self and the environment is a necessary
process, it is not enough for effective career management. This knowledge has to be
translated into a decision to pursue particular goals that, if accomplished, have a reasonable
chance of meeting one’s personal needs. There is a tendency for some people, especially
college students making initial career plans, to choose career goals that others (parents,
spouses, professors, supervisors) think are appropriate, regardless of whether the goals
meet their own needs. It is the compatibility or fit of goals and accomplishments with
personal needs and values that characterizes effective career management.
3. Effective career management requires the development and implementation of appropriate
career strategies. It is one thing to develop valid career goals; it is another to attempt to
accomplish the goal according to a plan. Again, some people may, on occasion, achieve a
goal without any conscious strategic plan, but such good fortune is not likely to recur
regularly. Since careers require many diverse types of decisions to be made over the long
haul, skills in the development and implementation of career strategies are essential for
effective career management.
4. Perhaps most important, effective career management requires a continual feedback
process that permits adaptation in the face of changing circumstances. No one possesses
totally accurate information about themselves or the environment, especially when people,
families, and the world are in a state of flux and change. Moreover, goals and strategies may
need fine-tuning or even a major overhaul. At different points, we might feel stuck in our
careers, or feel as if we have hit a roadblock. A situation like this may help us to realize that
our career goals or strategies are inappropriate in light of a dynamically changing work and
non-work environment.
Fall Semester 2024 Instructor: Ms. Izza Imran
MSB 440 Career Management Chapter 4
Our career management model is based on rational thinking and actions. We recommend that
individuals explore themselves and their environment in a systematic manner, select career goals
and strategies in a conscious way, and pay close attention to changes in themselves and the world
around them. A rational approach to career decision-making can be useful, and a proactive, self
confident orientation to career management can reap lifelong benefits.
Nevertheless, to say that career management should be rational and systematic does not mean that
it is mechanical, unemotional, or clear-cut. Career management is, by its very nature, a “messy”
endeavor. Information is never complete, awareness is difficult and can come in fits and spurts, and
goals and strategies may have to be revised many times before they make sense. Most significantly,
events in the environment and in our personal and professional lives can cause major career
disruptions and obviate even the best-laid plans. Accordingly, individuals should not become robots
when managing their careers, and “gut” feelings should, at times, take precedence over analytical
procedures.
Assignment
Interview a friend (perhaps a classmate or a co-worker) about his or her career management
activities. Has your friend recently engaged in career exploration? What is his or her level of
awareness of self and environment? Has your friend set a career goal? Developed a career strategy?
Why or why not? What should he or she be doing next?
Fall Semester 2024 Instructor: Ms. Izza Imran