relevant for ‘less brainy’ students. Most of these students ended up pursuing science
related disciplines and hence have anchored their career life in science although
today they may not feel that their jobs are challenging enough. One of the reasons
why some people are ready to sacrifice their social life to achieve scientific
discovery is the drive for achievement through a challenging job.- Lifestyle. Every human being has a lifestyle preference and may not be willing to
lose that through career choices. For example, a person may prefer to pursue a less
rewarding job career with flexibility to have more time to stay with their family than
have a better rewarded job. - Management competence. Some people make better managers than others because
they have managerial attributes which are either inherent or learned. Therefore,
motivation to play a managerial role in an organisation tends to influence career
choices and the development of some people.
Rationale for career development
It is becoming increasingly clear that an organisation‘s competitive advantage lies in its
people. In the global economy of the 2000s the effective development of human re-
sources – employees’ skills, creativity, and commitment – will spell the difference be-
tween organisational success and failure. Taken collectively, successful individual ca-
reers help create successful organisations and shape the economic prospects of a nation.
Careers provide organisations with a way to channel people into needed areas and to
develop their skills so that they can continue to perform much needed organisational
functions. When done right, both employers and employees also gain. Careers provide
the chance to gain experiences and jobs that offer valuable rewards and develop compe-
tencies that lead to more opportunities and a brighter future. Indeed, it is now well es-
tablished that career development should be part of the strategic human resource man-
agement and be linked to business strategy (McDonald & Hite 2005). Therefore, man-
agers should create enough opportunities and support systems to develop and sustain
career development programmes.
Stages in career development
Johns (1996) with his extensive and well-articulated approach to career development
defines a career as an evolving sequence of work activities and positions that individu-
als experience over time, as well as the associated attitudes, knowledge, and competen-
cies that develop throughout one’s life. This same notion is shared by Morrison & Hall
(2002) and Torrington et al. (2005), in which a career is seen to involve life stages from
childhood to adulthood. The pattern for career development in a lifetime is presented in
Table 8.2.
Career stages seem to tell something close to reality in our own life. This starts from
primary school, and proceeds to secondary, college and finally university. However,
depending on the level of education one wants to attain or the opportunity available, in
some cases employees may be stuck in some stages. Sometimes people may even
change career at later stages in pursuit of what might be the available career opportunity
rather than what is wished for. Initially a career as a concept has also been used to mean
advancement of senior employees up the organisational ladder. However, as more fea-
tures of strategic human resource management influence policy choices on people man-
agement, career advancement is becoming more of a concern for individuals than for