When a new employee joins an organization, they have an underlying expectation that the organization will contribute in some major aspect to their career development. Organizations may have an influential effect on employees’ careers through their efforts of human resource management as well as professional development. Some of these human resource activities that may make such an impact will consist of recruitment, selection, training, development and appraising; along with retaining an employee’s career in one way or another. According to Rowley and Jackson (2010), “traditional programs may target managerial personnel, whereas in the contemporary business context; the career development programs target every employee”. A career refers to a person’s progress through a string of jobs throughout his or her work life. Career development, on the other hand, refers to an organized and planned effort that is made up of structured activities that will result in a joint planning effort between an employee and the organization in which he or she may work for. Career development involves various concepts, theories and programs that defines the career path that an employee should appropriately take.
Concepts of Career Development
Job management literature from various disciplines has underscored the importance of internal processes such as the concept of promotion to motivate employees. Sanfey and Hollands (2012) examines this theory of career development from the perspective of promotional efforts consisting of associate college professors. They argue that job promotions are usually the first step towards the motivation of employees’ and enhancing their career development. When employees are promoted, they perceive it as an opportunity and believe that they have a chance to enhance their career within the organization and most likely would look for other developmental opportunities within the organization.
The second concept of career development is succession planning. This is a process which is mostly designated for top management positions. It requires managers to recognize those specific workers who should be professionally developed and trained adequately enough to take their places once the existing manager decide to retire from the organization. A majority of contemporary organizations have succession planning systems in place where the members of management identifies and nominates particular employees for succession training. The employees who are selected are evaluated. But, it is through the evaluation system when the organization will determine the employees’ readiness to succeed (Rowley & Jackson, 2010).
Career Development Theories and Their Traits
Trait and Factor Theory
Frank Parson conceptualized the traits and factors theory in 1909. The theory stresses the need to match individual characteristics with their occupations. Parson emphasized the need for an employee to understand themselves regarding their skills, interests as well as the limitations. Moreover, the theory explains the need for a person to have the knowledge as well as requirements that meet their line of work (Patton & McMahon, 2014). This theory is consistent with the contemporary practice of career development. In contemporary practice, employees seek to find more about how their personal traits match their occupations. If these characteristics match the occupations, the employees have higher chances to develop their careers through the occupation. However, critics of the theory argue that Parson relied upon the self-study of his clients due to the lack of appropriate assessment instruments. Furthermore, this approach to career development may be viewed as superficial because it relays more contextual factors such as social influences and work adjustments (Sharf, 2013) which makes the theory more static rather than developmental.
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Theory of Vocational Personalities in Work Environment
John Holland coined this theory, and it evolved out of Parson’s earlier work on trait-factor theory. The theory emphasizes the significance of person-environment fit in career choice and development. Holland, categorized individuals into six personalities where he argued that these personalities determines a person’s career choices. Moreover, Holland was of the view that the difference in career choices can be attributed to personality. Like Parson, Holland argued that individuals seek out those work environments that match their personalities (Patton & McMahon 2014). This theory supports the view that employees strive to develop their careers in work environments tha
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