Hi, this is the third post written to address why a new way of thinking about career management and development has to be introduced. As before, the Integrative Life Planning (ILP) perspective will be used as framework for this discussion.
As soon as one starts scanning all media forms, you are guaranteed to find various references to how demographics are changing – this does not only refer to the South African context, but includes the global picture. In terms of the line of argumentation set in the previous postings, global demographic CHANGE is said to have a direct impact on the way career professionals – regardless of the specific context within which they are active – have to fulfil their roles. It can almost go unchallenged to state that changes in areas such as migratory patterns, gender and age, workforce participation, income, and access to training and career opportunities, will and should have a direct bearing on how careers are managed and developed – both from an organisational and individual perspective.
The work of Hansen (1997) suggests that we are living in an increasingly diverse and multi-cultural society; it is within this same (changing) environment that career professionals are offering their assistance to organisations and individuals. In addition to the above, the ILP model indicates that another shift is impacting on how careers are defined: in the previous era, a more pronounced emphasis was placed on interpersonal relationships; the new era is requiring increased skills with regards to issues such as “trust, respect, self-esteem, and value differences”.
Take a moment to think how individuals can be better equipped to deal with the challenges brought on by the above shift. Clearly, some form of assistance is to be provided to such individuals – career professionals will be required to offer individual and organisational clients help with building and maintaining trust, respect, self-esteem, and value differences within this space in time.
Now that we have started looking at how changes in career definitions are necessitating changes in the way career professionals are required to offer assistance, it would be appropriate to take a peek at some of the Critical Tasks to be addressed within the ILP model: Critical Task 1 addresses The Changing Workplace; Critical Task 4 sheds some light on how to value pluralism and inclusivity; and Critical Task 6 will offer some guidance with regards to managing changing demographics in the context of the workplace. The common denominator is found in how ILP enables a big picture understanding necessitated by large-scale and pervasive change.
In closing, let us briefly consider the IMPLICATIONS of the above for organisational and individual career development: Changing demographics are offering yet another rationale for the development and implementation of new approaches to career development and counselling.
The next posting on the current topic will address the fourth reason, indicated in terms of the ILP model, as Changing Lives.
(Based on the work of Sunny Hansen: Integrative Life Planning: Critical Tasks for Career Development and Changing Life Patterns
).
Cool post, thank you. I am always amazed at how shortsighted the education system (at least the one I was exposed to) is regarding careers.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up I always had the impression that I will graduate and get a job and build a career. Yet, more and more people in my cohort (white South Africans) seems to be doing work other than traditional organisational work.
Many work on contracts, run own businesses, or free-lance. Up to this point I never had a traditional job with all the promotional possibilities we would expect from the old model of work.
The NEW world of work requires different thinking about CAREERS. It seems like organizations will require more and more people to do non-permanent work. What organisations are able to offer staff, with regards to a career has also changed.
Job security is a myth, and many people suffered the pain on lay offs. This may have painted a picture in the mind of today's workers that corporate companies really do not care about their employees. In essence then managing the trust between the employer and employee is very difficult and a great challenge. This, in my opinion, is not the fault of the organisation, it has much today with the trends at work in today's world.