MSB 440 Career Management Chapter 2

Chapter 2
Career Contexts and Stages

In this chapter we will study:

1. The Traditional Perspectives on Careers

2. Contemporary Perspectives on Careers: The Protean and Boundaryless Themes
3. Social Influences on Careers
4. The Different Meanings of Career Success
5. The Developmental Perspective on Careers
6. Stages of Career Development

We defined a career as the pattern of work-related experiences that span the course of a
person’s life. While this definition is straightforward, there are many different perspectives
and themes from which a career can be seen and analyzed.

As we move through the first decades of the 21st century, the concept of a career continues
to evolve. Accordingly, in this chapter we present a number of ways in which a career and
career related topics can be viewed.

The Traditional Perspectives on Careers

1. Advancement and Stability Theme

Post WWII as the industrialized world experienced unprecedented economic growth, demand
for human capital soared, and individuals had an abundance of job opportunities. This era
saw a mutual loyalty between the employer and employee resulting in relatively stable and
consistent jobs. Even with the uncertainty in employment and careers over the past four
decades, the theme of advancement and stability remains a central theme within many
definitions of a career.

Criticism: Such definitions are limiting because they imply that a person is pursuing a career
only if he or she exhibits steady or rapid advancement in status, money, and the like,
essentially with just one or two employers or within a particular industry. In addition, another
aspect of this theme revolves around the career as a source of stability within a single
occupational field or closely connected fields.

A person’s pursuit of closely connected jobs (teacher, guidance counselor, dean of students)
is often thought to represent a career, whereas a sequence of apparently unrelated jobs
(novelist, politician, advertising copywriter) violates a neat consistency of job content and
would not necessarily constitute a career. Incorporating stability into the meaning of a career
is also limiting, especially in today’s world in which organizational and occupational mobility
are likely to be the norm rather than the exception.

Fall Semester 2024 Instructor: Ms. Izza Imran

MSB 440 Career Management Chapter 2

2. Profession Theme

Another traditional theme places an emphasis on the career as a profession. A profession is

typically distinguished from an “ordinary” occupation based on the belief that a profession
represents a more desirable career choice and involves work that is of high economic status,
allows for a substantial degree of autonomy, and can provide an enhanced level of
compensation. For example professionals such as doctors and lawyers are thought to have
careers, whereas clerks and machinists typically are not.

Criticism: This traditional emphasis on the career as a profession is also restrictive, because it
suggests that one must achieve a certain occupational or social status for one’s work activities
to constitute a career.

3. Career as a Calling

A career can also be seen as a calling, whereby one primarily works for the fulfillment that
the job or profession brings into one’s life. In this sense, a person is “called” to a career based
on a strong attraction to (and passion for) particular work, such that the nature of the work
fulfills personal values and satisfies the person’s need to make the world a better place.

Occupations typically associated with a calling are those where there is a helping or nurturing
component to the work, although any type of a profession or job could be seen as based on
a calling.

Criticism: It would be a mistake to think that all careers are based on a calling because people
have many different motives for entering a career field.

Contemporary Perspectives on Careers: The Protean and Boundaryless

Themes

The combined effects over the past few decades of the mass downsizings of numbers of
workers, the resultant loss of job security, and the well-documented decline in loyalty
between employers and employees have wreaked havoc on traditional organizational careers
where the expectation of job stability, security, and advancement had been the norm.

In the new world of work, the nature of careers has changed, resulting in new and
nontraditional ways of looking at careers and career management. These new
conceptualizations recognize the need for individuals to be proactive in managing their
career, to view their career in broader terms than their current organization, and to be
adaptable as they navigate the uncertainties that exist not only in the general business
environment but within particular companies as well.

The two most widely recognized contemporary perspectives on careers are the protean and
the boundaryless career concepts.

Fall Semester 2024 Instructor: Ms. Izza Imran

MSB 440 Career Management Chapter 2

1. Protean Career

The protean career is managed by the individual rather than the organization, and guided by
the search for self-fulfillment. Named after the mythological Proteus, the Greek god who
could change his shape at will, the protean career has been characterized as self-directed,
flexible, adaptable, versatile, and initiated by the individual to achieve psychological success;
that is, success in reaching goals that are personally meaningful to the individual.

Moreover, the personal values and goals that protean-oriented careerists often attempt to
achieve are not exclusively tied to their job but rather are relevant to the individual’s life’s
work.

2. Boundaryless Career

Michael Arthur and his colleagues introduced the boundaryless career concept in the 1990s.
Unlike a traditional organizational career, a boundaryless career is detached from a single
employment setting and is not bound by traditional organizational career paths and
expectations. In other words, employees who pursue boundaryless careers go beyond the
boundaries of their current organization for employment opportunities, social contacts,
indeed their very identity.

A boundaryless career is thought to have five different elements or meanings, each of which,
in its own way, involves “nontraditional” boundary-crossing.

1. Moving frequently between employers is the most prevalent way of characterizing a

boundaryless career because the boundary-crossing (from one organization to
another) is an obvious departure from the “traditional” practice of staying with a
single employer for an extended period of time.

2. Drawing validation from outside the organization is another form of nontraditional

boundary-crossing because employees derive their identity primarily from their
profession (e.g., IT, marketing, consulting) rather than from their current employer.

3. Sustaining the career through external networks of relationships involves

nontraditional boundary-crossing in the sense that individuals rely on social
relationships outside the organization (in their profession, other employers,
neighbors, and friends) rather than relying exclusively on networks or sources of
information in their current organization, such as their manager or mentor.

4. Departing from traditional mobility expectations in one’s current organization, such

as opting for a lateral move (nontraditional boundary-crossing) rather than a
promotion.

5. Rejecting career opportunities for family or personal reasons, a form of nontraditional

boundary-crossing because family or personal considerations cross boundaries to
influence a career-related decision.

Fall Semester 2024 Instructor: Ms. Izza Imran

MSB 440 Career Management Chapter 2

The emergence of boundaryless careers is due to changes in the worldwide economy

(increased global competition and advances in technology). If these forces increase the
likelihood that employees move from one organization to another (voluntarily or
involuntarily), it is understandable why many employees derive their work identity from their
profession or occupation rather than from their current organization, and why they develop
networks of relationships that extend beyond the border of their current employer.

Social Influences on Careers

Careers and career choices do not occur in a vacuum. Social institutions, such as a person’s
family and community groups, have a significant influence on an individual’s interests, values,
and preferences that eventually translate into specific career choices. Research on careers
also recognizes the role that social networks play in career decision-making and
advancement. By engaging in these networks, individuals build social capital that facilitates
connections with people of influence who can help the individual in various career-related
tasks.

The Different Meanings of Career Success

Contemporary career concepts expand the meaning of career success. Traditionally, career
success was viewed primarily in objective terms, with such tangible outcomes as
compensation level, job title, promotion record, and executive perks being seen as indicators
of success. It is now recognized that career success also has a subjective component that takes
into account an individual’s feelings of success in his or her career. The subjective element
can include feelings of satisfaction with the individual’s career accomplishments or with his
or her total life. This expansion in the meaning of career success recognizes that individuals
have multiple demands both from the work and non-work spheres of their lives and that they
take into account accomplishments in both areas when gauging their success.

The Developmental Perspective on Careers

The research of Erik Erikson and Daniel Levinson suggests that the early, middle, and late
stages of adulthood present somewhat different tasks and challenges that need to be
addressed. Early adulthood is characterized by a preoccupation with establishing oneself as
an adult and “making it” in the adult world. Middle adulthood often involves a reappraisal of
one’s life situation and a concern with building a lasting contribution to the world. In late
adulthood, one needs to come to terms with the meaning and value of one’s life. More recent
research has focused on the varying career experiences and the challenges faced by people
in different generations as based on the years when those individuals were born. As with
career stages, a person’s chronological age and generation can influence attitudes toward
work, the desire for leisure and family time, the level of work ethic, and a host of other
dispositions and outcomes.

Fall Semester 2024 Instructor: Ms. Izza Imran

MSB 440 Career Management Chapter 2

Stages of Career Development

Four stages of career development were identified:

1. Occupational and organizational choice, during which time one develops an

occupational self‑image, explores alternative occupations, forms an occupational
decision, and selects and enters an organization;

2. Early career, in which one is concerned with establishing himself or herself in a career
field and achieving competence and recognition;

3. Midcareer, during which time one may need to reexamine the course of one’s career
and life and perhaps make adjustments for the future; and

4. Late career, in which one needs to maintain a satisfactory level of productivity and
self‑esteem and plan for an effective retirement.

Fall Semester 2024 Instructor: Ms. Izza Imran