Table 8.3 The differences between the old and new career development models
S/N Old model New model
1 You have an office You have a virtual space
2 Success is found on the career ladder Success is found in valued skills
3 The power of position is used to get a job
doneInfluence is used to get a job done4 Influence as a manager Influence as a leader
5 Job gives entitlements Marketability gives entitlements
6 Loyalty to the company matters Loyalty to work and yourself matters
7 You enjoy salaries and benefits You enjoy contracts and fees
8 You have job security You have personal freedom and control
9 You get identity from the job and position You get identity from contribution to work,
family and community
10 You pay attention to bosses and managers You pay attention to clients and customers
11 We have employees We have vendors, entrepreneurs, team members
12 You will have retirement You will have second career- Self employment
Source: Jarvis (2003).
The comparison between career changes depict a situation where the relationship be-
tween employees and employers and the expectations have changed, suggesting that
individuals are more responsible for managing their own careers than the organisation
although the role of the organisation is still important in terms of providing career guid-
ance, information, mentoring, coaching and opportunity for advancement.
African experience in general
As a general observation, human resource development in Africa has taken more prom-
inence than any other area of human resource functions. Since independence, African
countries started capacity building programmes to develop local staff as part of the
strategy to become self-sufficient in human resources. However, the type of training
was basically Eurocentric and not compatible with the local cultural, political and eco-
nomic development environment. After the economic hardships in the 1980s and the
major reform programmes in the 1990s, under the support of the World Bank, there
were massive retrenchment programmes to get rid of excessive human resources and at
the same time control recruitment and build the capacity of the remaining staff. This has
been the trend throughout the 1990s. However, throughout the 2000s the volume of la-
bour force has been increasing and the staff training and development has continued to
take the lion’s share of capacity building grants in both central and local government
authorities. However, the control of recruitment in the 1990s did paralyse succession
planning, which has led to a lack of sufficiently experienced staff to take up senior posi-
tions in most public institutions, particularly in Tanzania. Nonetheless, as some scholars
(Kamoche et al. 2004) observed, even after the public service reforms of the 1990s and
2000s, training is usually done without systematic training needs analysis, as it’s seen as
a reward rather than a need and hence subjected to favouritism, corruption and use of
managerial judgment on the type of training, place, trainer and selection of staff for
training. Even where some employees aspire towards developing their careers, lack of
an enabling environment and attractive reward systems stifle individual motivation for
career development. A study conducted in the Tanzanian construction industry (Ofori &
Debrah 2005) reveals many constraints to career development, including lack of institu-