CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN A LEARNING ORGANIZATION

development. This will ensure long term association of individuals to the organizations
they work for, but this long term association requires commitment from both i.e.
individuals and organization. Presently, although the practice of organizational
commitment towards the development of individual career development could be
partially seen in those organizations where modern management techniques are
employed; yet they are informal. According to Armstrong (2006) quality enhancement
needs greater commitment from the employees and fuller use of their abilities. Therefore,
this study is focused on establishing the fact that organizations should pledge their
resources formally to this process. Theoretical model of this study therefore considers
organizational commitment and organization’s commitment as the moderating variables
in this model.
It is worth mentioning here that the context of the learning organizations has been
chosen for the promotion of this process because of the current global trends that equally
impact countries such as Pakistan. According to Thompson (1994), the developing
countries are confronted with rapid change for which they need rapid adaptation as
compared to bureaucratic models that allow slow change process (Kiggundu and Hafsi,
1983).
The present trend shows that the existing conventional organizations in terms of
their philosophical, strategic and operational patterns are at the verge of their orthodox
era. Many of these have already started entering into transformational stage where
upholding a status quo and inert style is being abandoned in favor of more dynamic and
rigorously responding patterns of behavior. Though this movement is risky and may
appear to be chaotic; the drive for survival and growth shall enable many to achieve
sustainability in their business. The features mentioned in Senge’s Model of a learning
organization are manifestation of that lasting stability. Those organizations are
sustainable in the markets that respond effectively to the ever changing external
environment through the strategy of continuous adaptation. (Senge, 1999).