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This article was downloaded by: [Dalhousie University] On: 13 September 2012, At: 04:38 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK British Journal of Guidance & Counselling Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbjg20 The new career: Issues and challenges John Arnold a & Charles Jackson b a The Business School, Loughborough University, Ashby Road, Loughborough, LEU 3TU, UK b National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling/Kingston Business School, c/o 9 Preston Park Avenue, Brighton, BN1 6HJ, UK Version of record first published: 16 Oct 2007. To cite this article: John Arnold & Charles Jackson (1997): The new career: Issues and challenges, British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 25:4, 427-433 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069889708253821 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

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Page 1: The new career: Issues and challenges

This article was downloaded by: [Dalhousie University]On: 13 September 2012, At: 04:38Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

British Journal of Guidance &CounsellingPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbjg20

The new career: Issues and challengesJohn Arnold a & Charles Jackson ba The Business School, Loughborough University, Ashby Road,Loughborough, LEU 3TU, UKb National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling/KingstonBusiness School, c/o 9 Preston Park Avenue, Brighton, BN1 6HJ, UK

Version of record first published: 16 Oct 2007.

To cite this article: John Arnold & Charles Jackson (1997): The new career: Issues and challenges,British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 25:4, 427-433

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069889708253821

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.

The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representationthat the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of anyinstructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primarysources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings,demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Page 2: The new career: Issues and challenges

British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, Vol. 25, No. 4, 1997 427

SYMPOSIUM: PERSPECTIVES ON THE NEW CAREER

The new career: issues and challenges

JOHN ARNOLD The Business School, Loughborough University, Ashby Road, Loughborough LEll 3TU, UK

CHARLES JACKSON National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling/Kingston Business School, c/o 9 Bes ton Park Avenue, Brighton BNl 6H3, UK

ABSTRACT The profound changes taking place in the way work is organised and structured mean that the traditional concept of the career need updating to take account of the widening diversity of career patterns and experiences that are occurring. The papers in this symposium are concerned with examining key aspects of the new career. These include the development of theory, the study of how people are cdrrently managing and developing their careers, and the types of career interventions that are most appropriate for the new career. They offer fresh perspectives on what is happening to careers and a range of insights about how the new career is qualitatively dtyerent jkom its predecessor.

A period of transition

To say that work is changing is merely a truism, as this has always been the case. However, as we are about to enter the 21st century, we have argued Uackson et al., 1996) that profound changes are taking place which affect all aspects of the way work is structured and organised. These changes have made it necessary to recon- ceptualise what we mean by the term ‘career’. Some people have argued that the term is obsolete. Many people working for organisations are reluctant to use it because they feel it describes an employment offer that no longer exists for the vast majority of their workforce. In reality, this type of career with its implied progression up an organisational hierarchy was always the preserve of only an elite group- mainly professionals and managers in large organisations. When there was evidence that mobility between employers was increasing among this group (Nicholson dz West, 1988), this was interpreted either as just another route for career progression, to be utilised when career opportunities were limited with a particular employer, or as a natural response to new employment opportunities in an expanding labour

0306-9885/97/040427-07 0 1997 Careers Research and Advisory Centre

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market. In retrospect, we might see this as one of the f is t signs that the ‘old’ career was breaking down.

In practice, most people did not pursue careers which offered progression up an organisational career ladder. Even some managers or professional people who had pursued the ‘old’ career chose to make radical career moves, perhaps to ‘opt out’ or to enter a new career area. As such, they were probably seen as deviant to a greater or lesser extent. On the other hand, over the last 20 years or so, more people have probably been aspiring to the traditional organisational career. This has been a function both of the increase in professional and managerial work opportunities, and of the expansion of numbers in higher education, especially women and mature students. Yet while both these trends look set to continue, there can be little doubt that opportunities to pursue the traditional career are in decline.

This is, primarily, because technological change and global competition have created significant changes in the labour markets of the UK and other long- industrialised nations. For many people, working lives are less predictable and more fragmented than-until recently-they might reasonably have expected. Some phenomena which contribute to this are labour flexibility, project work, speedy obsolescence of skills and a consequent need for lifelong learning, job insecurity (perceived and actual), and increased workloads and pressures for short-term performance.

These trends have many consequences. The rewards and stresses typically associated with employment are likely to shift significantly. Unpredictable events and perhaps failures have to be faced more often. The ways of thinking which people bring to bear on their working lives may need to be more complex than was previously the case. As organisations become less stable and more blurred at the edges, models of professional careers may become more valid than organisational ones for some groups, particularly if more people see themselves as committed to either their own career or a professional group rather than their current employer. Whether government has a substantial role to play in helping people to come to terms with new realities, and if so what that role should be, are live issues (Watts, 1996).

What is the ‘new career’?

In the face of these very considerable changes in employment realities, how should the term ‘career’ be defined and what is meant by the term ‘new career’? Objectively, the changes taking place in the structure of employment opportunities mean that there will be a widening diversity of career patterns and experiences. The most obvious feature of this will be that more and different sorts of career transition will be taking place. One consequence may be that in the future more men will experience the kind of fragmented careers that many women have experienced (although whether they will take on a larger share of family responsibilities remains to be seen).

Some of the changes to careers have already been identified. The new career will involve more people pursuing portfolio (Handy, 1989) and boundaryless

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The new career 429

(Arthur, 1994) careers. More people will be working for small and medium-sized employers, and there will be more people who are self-employed. These changes are likely to result in the new career being more fragmented. They highlight the need for lifelong learning and an appropriate strategy for career guidance to support people, especially during career transitions.

However, perhaps the most significant aspect of the new career is the recog- nition of the importance of the subjective career: that is, the sense that individuals make of their careers, their personal histories, and the skills, attitudes and beliefs that they have acquired. Now that there are fewer societally agreed markers of good and appropriate career progress, it is more up to individuals to clarify their own values and to define what career success means to them personally. Crucial to this broader conception of what a career involves is an awareness that everyone is extremely concerned about these aspects of their career. The new career recognises both the changed objective realities in which careers are being developed and also the universality of people’s intense involvement with the subjective aspects of their career.

Once it is recognised that the new career potentially means that everyone has a career, then the importance of servicing these career needs and interests becomes apparent. At a personal level, it is about our well-being and quality of life. For employers, it is about harnessing and developing the potential of all their employees. For society, it raises issues about the importance of social cohesion and what the consequences will be if some groups are excluded from having careers in any meaningful sense. It has profound implications for our education and training systems, and represents a major challenge to providers of career guidance.

Developing a fkesh perspective

This symposium is an outcome of an interdisciplinary seminar series, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which brought together academics, personnel specialists, managers and consultants. Other outcomes of the seminar series aackson et al., 1996; Matts, 1996) were concerned to address practical and policy issues. The seminar series aimed:

0 to review what is happening, and what will happen, to careers as we enter the

0 to consider how individuals and organisations might best manage careers in 2 1 st century;

the light of current and future trends.

The papers in the symposium discuss aspects of unfinished business that the concept of the new career makes more salient. They are concerned with the development of theory, the study of how people are currently managing and developing their careers, and the types of career interventions that are most appro- priate for the new career. Earlier versions of several of the papers were first discussed at the seminars.

The papers focus on issues which it can be argued will affect the nature of the career as it is generally experienced. This is not to deny that careers and employment

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430 John Arnold 6’ Charles Jackson

will be affected by other issues, such as demographic changes in the labour force. The most notable of these will be the continuing greater participation of women in the labour market. It remains to be seen to what extent employers will respond in ways that facilitate women’s employment contribution, or whether women will continue to be faced with real dilemmas between choosing to make a personal commitment to work or not. Similarly, whether the increasing proportion of young people from ethnic-minority backgrounds entering the labour market for the first time will be offered employment opportunities commensurate with their skills and qualifications is unfortunately still open to question. However, it is clear that everyone who wishes to pursue a career in the early years of the next century will have to do so under changed employment realities. These are the challenges that the new career is concerned to address.

The context of careers

In the first paper, Audrey Collin argues that most existing career theory treats the environment as entirely separate from the person and as describable in objective terms. She sets out an alternative way of thinking about career theory that draws on Pepper’s (1942) contextualist world hypothesis. In particular, she is concerned to present a way of thinking about careers that gives more attention to the environ- mental context in which they take place and puts great emphasis on the process of interaction between individual and environment. In her view, the environment is not something passive or objective that influences individual behaviour, but something with which individuals have a dynamic relationship and which they shape. Collin argues that the process of interpretation is itself the key issue: that is, how indi- viduals conceptualise and make sense of the multiplicity of meanings that can be given to a particular set of circumstances.

Some readers may find such an approach subjective and wonder how con- textualism would help us evaluate alternative courses of action. It does, however, place issues concerned with how we think about careers centre-stage. These issues are developed further in John Arnold’s paper, which sets out to review the implica- tions of recent research on post-formal thinking, wisdom and expertise for career theory and practice. If many of the old certainties about how careers should be managed are to be questioned by the new employment realities, then developing an understanding of the thought-processes associated with effective career management would certainly seem to be required. From his review of the literature, Arnold sets out 19 propositions which, he argues, characterise the thought-processes required by individuals for effective career management. Although these propositions are not necessarily straightforward to test, they are at the very least open to debate, and have implications for practice.

Both these papers attempt to bring to bear developments in the wider social science research literature to career theory and practice. They aim to widen our horizons and to help us generate new perspectives for our theory and new rationales for our interventions.

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In the next paper, David Sonnenberg adopts a psychoanalytic perspective in describing and explaining the impact of the new career on individuals’ emotional functioning. His starting-point is that work provides a context in which a person’s psychological needs may be met and their conflicts played out. Sonnenberg argues that recent workplace changes may give some people more opportunity to use work as an outlet for aggression and hostility. For others, however, increased demands to tolerate uncertainty and behave proactively may exceed their ability to contain anxiety and to perceive self as an autonomous entity. He suggests that there will be dilemmas for both individual counsellors and public policy makers concerning whether it is appropriate to try to enable people to compete in the world of work, or instead to help them through the process of mourning lost opportunities and seeking new arenas for fulfilment. Sonnenberg feels that counsellors need to experience personal and professional relationships which enable them to contain their own anxiety in order for them to be in a position to do the same for their clients. He also cautions that counsellors must expect to be on the receiving end of considerable hostility and blame from some clients whose emotional needs are no longer being met by work.

The new career experience

The next two papers present findings from empirical research. Both studies can be considered exploratory: that is, they set out to discover how careers are currently being managed by individuals. In adopting this approach, they are endeavouring to discover directly the experience of work in people’s lives (Richardson, 1993) and using this inductively to develop theory about aspects of the new career process. In the first of the two papers, Valmai Bowden draws on her research into the changing careers of research scientists. She sets out a new approach to analysing careers: the career states system model. Drawing on the work of Gunz (1989), this model aims, by its dynamic nature, to accommodate the new career paths and roles that scientists are experiencing. Their difficulties in coming to terms with their new situation and findings ways of describing it are well illustrated by one scientist who describes himself in quick succession as ‘having missed the boat’ and ‘reached the end of the road’. Extending Gunz’s framework, she identifies a new group, in addition to the other three states of builder, searcher and subsister. She labels this group the ‘organisational stalwarts’ or ‘sustainers’, and suggests they are often key to an organisation’s survival, although their needs are frequently overlooked. In some ways this group is analogous to the plateaued but effectively performing ‘solid citizens’ described by Ference et al. (1977).

Interestingly, many of the pressures that the organisations Bowden studied had experienced over the last few years are all too familiar-increased use of temporary contracts, early retirement and redundancies. These have helped to change, prob- ably irrevocably, the expectations that scientists have of their careers. Her model is likely, therefore, to have widespread application not only for organisations seeking a framework for understanding careers but also for individuals trying to manage and develop their own careers. Although the portfolio career is not a realistic option for

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most scientists, she reports that entrepreneurial activity is becoming increasingly important, particularly at senior levels.

Surely we all learn to some extent from trial and error, and can there be anyone who has not had some setback in their career? David Cannon presents a fascinating account of how people may or may not learn from failures and mistakes. It is apparent that people commonly recall their failures in great detail, which reflects their highly charged emotional nature. Perhaps of even more interest are the reasons people give for their failures and why they so often find it difficult to forgive themselves. These learned ways of conceptualising failure, identified by Cannon, may be quite dysfunctional and lead individuals to misattribute the causes of their failures. This inhibits genuine learning. He argues, therefore, for a significant role for guidance interventions to help us put aside our preconceptions, so that we really learn from our mistakes. At a time when organisations seem to be making ever-increasing demands on their employees, he also calls for more time and space for individuals to learn from failure and for better-defined organisational processes which allow people to recognise and recover from their errors. Only in this way can they be coped with more effectively both by individuals and by their employers.

Interventions for the new career

If one of the characteristics of the new career experience is that we make more career transitions, the acquisition of skills for effective career management is going to become more important for all of us. In the h a 1 paper in the symposium, Ben Ball and Mary Jordan describe their experiences of developing and using open- learning materials for career guidance with university students. In their initial trial, students were supplied with open-learning materials and expected to complete a module over a 4-week period. They were also offered two brief tutorial sessions by careers service staff. The feedback received from students who have completed one of the open-learning modules is extremely positive and substantially justifies their aim to offer a more proactive and developmental approach to the delivery of career guidance services. However, it is apparent that a considerable commitment is required in terms of time and effort from both the students and the careers service staff, and that the wide range of student expectations can make it difficult to pitch the open-learning material at an appropriate level. Ball & Jordan point out that open-learning may cater for high volumes but is not necessarily low-cost, particu- larly since the tutorials turned out to be a very important element of the module.

A key challenge for practitioners is to develop new kinds of career interventions to support the new career. The open-learning approach described by Ball & Jordan seems particularly promising and to be readily transferable, not only to other educational settings but also to the provision of guidance services for adults both inside and outside organisations. Other interventions are needed if the challenge of supporting the new career is to be met.

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Conclusion

We hope that readers will find that the papers address issues of academic, pro- fessional or personal concern. We have chosen them because they seem to us to offer refreshing and new perspectives on what is happening to careers. We suggest that their value lies in the range of new insights that they offer-insights particularly well geared to the new career. We do not claim that they provide complete answers to the issues and challenges with which theorists and practitioners are currently grap- pling-for example, how best to develop lifelong guidance strategies. Instead of seeking convergence in career development theory, we would argue that there is a need to explore diverse and new approaches to careers in order to enhance our understanding at a time of profound change. This does not mean ignoring previous work in the careers field, but it seems to us that this is a particularly useful time to draw on developments and thinking from beyond the boundaries of our traditional disciplines and to look afresh at what we do and do not know. We believe that the papers in this symposium do exactly that.

References

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GUNZ, H. (1989). The dual meaning of managerial careers: organisational and individual levels of analysis. Journal of Management Studies, 25, 225-250.

HANDY, C. (1989). The Age of Unreason. London: Hutchinson. JACKSON, C., ARNOLD, J., NICHOLSON, N. & WATS, A.G. (1996). Managing Careers in 2000 and Beyond.

NICHOLSON, N. & WEST, M. (1988). Managerial Job Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PEPPER, S.C. (1942). World Hypotheses: a Study in Evidence. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. RICHARDSON, M.S. (1993). Work in people’s lives: a location for counseling psychologists. Journal of

WATTS, A.G. (1996). Careerquake: Policy Supports for SelfManaged Careers. Arguments 11. London:

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Demos.

(Accepted 24 June 1997)

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