MANAGEMENT OF INDIVIDUAL CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The stages of personal development make it possible to examine the professional growth of people. In order to understand the different attitudes and perceptions people have about their own careers, one must examine both the career challenges that people face at different points in their career paths and the changes they encounter in their personal life as they get older. Understanding the nature of career and life stages helps people deal more effectively with important transitions in their lives. The career stage and life stage models clarify a number of fundamental issues of career development. They outline three critical choice points in career development. The first critical point of choice appears around the age of thirty. A major decision that people need to make at this stage is whether to pursue a primarily technical career or whether to move on to pursue a broader managerial or administrative career. A career anchor functions as a coercive force when a person makes decisions about what career path to follow and how to balance their personal and work lives. There are strategies that people can use to more constructively manage their own moves outside the organization: clarifying work expectations; diagnosing the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction; diagnosing the reasons for turnover; discussing reconciling new work with personal life. The second critical point of choice appeared in the early forties. At this time, most people are faced with major career decisions: to accept the terms of how they want to develop professionally and what they themselves have to give to get it; whether to stay with the same organization or start their own career. There are steps people can take to avoid a career plateau or reduce its negative effects: moving from specialized technical jobs to more general administrative or management positions; reducing self-imposed career limitations; seeking feedback from upper levels of management regarding promotion ability and the organization's future career plans for them. The third critical choice point in career development occurs in the late fifties. At this time, most people are faced with important decisions about how to direct the rest of their lives; how to get involved in the lives of their children and grandchildren; whether to remain active at work until retirement or to withdraw gradually. The following main guidelines for managing career decline can be indicated: providing downward movements into areas of new job responsibility; providing demoted workers with realistic career information. the boot; placement of demoted employees with new colleagues and immediate supervisors; discussing various career options available to the employee. It is healthy for the organization to form an organizational career behaviour in which employees readily accept a decline in their professional status when they feel inferior in their job duties and do not perform effectively. A personally effective solution to these transition periods should leave people focused on the path ahead, not regretting the path they didn't take. The choices made at these stages greatly affect how productive and satisfied people will be for years to come.