Contemporary Global Issues in Human Resource Management

Mehmet Ali Turkmenoglu, Berat Cicek, Mehmet Ali Turkmenoglu, Berat Cicek, Mehmet Ali Türkmenoğlu, Berat Cicek

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781800433939
• eBook ISBN: 9781800433946
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Globalization, digitalization and social changes are rapidly impacting the world of business and in-turn, Human Resource Management practices. The book examines issues that employees encounter in the workplace: ethics, diversity, discrimination, generational differences, conflicts, participation, digitalization and work-life balance.

Practitioners and researchers will gain enhanced understanding and awareness of these issues and more as they are investigated through an interdisciplinary, international and critical point of view.

Chapter 1

Contemporary Career Approaches for the Needs of Today’s Individuals and Organizations

Berat Cicek

Abstract

In this study, the concept of career, which is one of the most significant functions of human resources, is examined. Toward the end of the twentieth century, restricted models, in which individuals work in a workplace in a classical manner, have been replaced by more flexible models. Due to certain reasons such as changing environmental conditions, increasing education levels, and the impact of employee’s values on his/her work life, individuals’ work life have been dramatically changed. Therefore, some career approaches oriented for these changing conditions and current requirements have been proposed by both academicians and professionals. These approaches mostly include removing workplace limits, offering the opportunity to work from anywhere, using various skills at different departments without any limitations. Basing on the aforementioned changes in theory and practice, this study investigates up-to-date career approaches in a holistic manner. In this context, the background and practicability of these theoretically framed approaches are also discussed in the present study.

Keywords: Protean career; boundaryless career; inter-organisational career; portfolio career; dual ladder; customized career

Introduction

When the concept of career management was first introduced, career was seen as a phenomenon that proceeded in a hierarchical way. However, in the course of time, new theories were proposed. Particularly, the theory, which suggested that the traditional organizational career was impractical and undesirable in an unsettled competition environment, came into prominence (Michael B Arthur, 1994). According to McDonald and Hite (2005), career is a concept that involves more meanings than a hierarchical ladder. The main reason for the emergence of these approaches is the fact that modern business administration leads individuals and organizations to a different expectation regarding their career. Therefore, various approaches relating to career have been put forward. Changing organizational conditions and individuals’ expectations have also played a significant role in promoting different career approaches.

These new approaches often consider career as an alternative model that is physically and psychologically independent from organizations (Rodrigues, Butler, & Guest, 2019). Therefore, the results of these approaches for individuals and corporations are being discussed in an inclusive way and even empirically researched. According to these researches, new career approaches are found to be really important in terms of proactive behavior (Porter, Woo, & Tak, 2016), career adaptation (Chan et al., 2015), psychological well-being (Briscoe, Henagan, Burton, & Murphy, 2012), and work, career and life satisfaction (De Vos, De Hauw, & Van der Heijden, 2011).

It is significant to understand career dynamics. For example, not only all employees have a career, but also the career has significant impacts on corporate performance (Higgins & Dillon, 2007) personal identity, health and welfare (Valcour, Bailyn, & Quijada, 2007). Moreover, since career involves certain social contexts including individuals’ families, employers and national identities, understanding how careers develop enables us to broaden our viewpoints regarding the bonds between individuals and bigger societies that they live in (Mayrhofer, Meyer, & Steyrer, 2007).

Due to its magnetism, career is a highly debated concept. This is not surprising when the fact that people spend most of their time in a workplace is taken into consideration. The present chapter also studies the concept of career by examining and discussing it through different perspectives. However, rather than the traditional model, defined as the vertical career approach, its main focus is centered upon new career approaches which examine human resources that today’s innovative and creative work environment needs. For example, to survive in this competitive world market, one needs to have influential human resources. Therefore, new career models that better understand the expectations of human resources and address their modern needs are desired. In these contexts, this chapter mainly defines some well-known modern career models and examines similarities/differences among them.

The Term “Career”

Career is a long-termed phenomenon. It is a process that includes individuals’ all occupations that they have throughout their life. It is wrongly known by people that while promotions are a part of career, some negative circumstances and demotions are not included in one’s career journey. However, like promotions, demotions are also a part of career. Hall (2004, p. 4) defines career as “individual’s perceptions of workplace experiences and their attitudes to work through his work life.” Judging by its definition, it can be argued that the career concept has a profound meaning. In this respect, Werther and Davis (1993, p. 158) broaden its definition by suggesting that career “is the whole jobs that one might have in his work life.”

By combining all career definitions, Werner and DeSimone (2011) propose a five-step career definition which includes:

• The Characteristics of Job or Organization: When considered from this point of view, career defines the job itself (i.e., sale or accounting) or an employee’s tenure in an organization (i.e., managerial career).

• Promotion-Progress: In this respect, career demonstrates an individual’s progress and enhancing success in a job or organization. Promotions are the best examples of this definition.

• Occupational Status: Some use the term career to distinguish certain occupations such as engineering and law from other jobs like plumber, carpentry, or some desk-bound jobs. According to this approach, it is argued that while a lawyer has a career, a carpenter does not.

• Job Devotion: In some cases, career is used for a negative situation in which an individual is extremely devoted to his job. A negation like “Do not build a career in this area, otherwise your life would be your job” can be given as an example for such a definition.

• Job Order Sustainability: To describe a job, many related things are told. However, there are certain things that are not included in this career description. For example, decision-making and planning are parts of a managing career, whereas controlling the quality of the parts that will be used in manufacture is not part of a managing career.

In these contexts, it is convenient to define career in association with personal and organizational goals and in relation to work experiences and activities that an individual will have and partly control throughout his life. Although, career sometimes connotes a job, a status, or a negative circumstance; it represents all jobs that individuals have in their life, their promotions and demotions, or their successes and failures in these jobs.

Although it seems that studies regarding career are mostly focused on the discipline of management, it should be underlined that different disciplines often examine the career phenomenon and try to define it (Khapova & Arthur, 2011). For example, in the field of sociology, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1977) was first to study the career phenomenon. Rather than researching causality, Bourdieu’s studies centered on the duality of the relationship between structure and agency in sociology. In other words, his arguments mostly addressed an ongoing discussion about how an agency or social structure influenced each other. However, today’s sociological studies are busy with developing social network theories, distinguishing strong and weak bonds (Granovetter, 1977) and investigating structural holes (Burt, 2009). Moreover, they deal with individuals and groups of individuals within the framework of bigger social structures and processes such as worry, social roles, race, class, gender, ethnicity and socialization (Khapova & Arthur, 2011).

Within the framework of psychology, career is focused on people’s emotions, opinions and behaviors. Moreover, psychology also investigates how these emotions, opinions and behaviors are affected by others’ real, imagined or implied existence (Allport, 1985). On the other hand, when an economical perspective is adopted, career studies can be divided into three categories. These are: (i) physical and intellectual labor that is exerted for the production of goods and services, (ii) human capital that symbolizes knowledge and skills which help people produce, and (iii) entrepreneurship defined as the ability to combine various sources to have a better product or service (Khapova & Arthur, 2011). As seen above, career is associated with various disciplines and so of great importance for both individuals and corporate.

Protean Career

The protean career model signifies the level of one’s desire to demonstrate his self-oriented and value-based career inclinations in his individual career management (Briscoe & Hall, 2006). As is understood from its definition, this career approach proposes that individuals’ career is a process managed by their own values and efforts rather than any organizations. This model is first concentrated on the subjective perspective of the individual career actor that is faced with external career facts of a modern work environment (Hall, 2002). Some individuals, adopting a more traditional career attitude, tend to have a passive role in their career management; and their workplace becomes inclined to direct them. However, in the protean career model, it is the other way round. In this model, employees pull the strings (Inkson, 2006). They basically conceive each step of promotions as an opportunity to learn (Granrose & Baccili, 2006). There are two main dimensions in this career model. These are value-based career and career self-management (Briscoe & Hall, 2006; Hall & Moss, 1998). Value-driven career means that a career actor defines his career values according to his own conditions and evaluates his career success in accordance with these conditions. On the other hand, career self-management suggests that a career actor actively manages his own career development in accordance with personal values (De Vos & Soens, 2008; Greenhaus, Callanan, & Godshalk, 2010; Hall, 2002).

In this model, organizations’ tr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Contemporary Career Approaches for the Needs of Today’s Individuals and Organizations
• Chapter 2: Exploring Appearance-based Discrimination in the Workplace
• Chapter 3: Diversity Management: Revealing the Need for a Context-specific Approach
• Chapter 4: Work–Family Life Balance in the Changing Business World
• Chapter 5: Human Resources Information Systems: A Recent Literature Survey
• Chapter 6: Digital Transformation and Creation of an Agile Workforce: Exploring Company Initiatives and Employee Attitudes
• Chapter 7: Human Resource Management in Knowledge Intensive Firms
• Chapter 8: Human Resource Development Requirements in Industrial Revolution 4.0
• Chapter 9: Addressing Training and Development Bottlenecks in HRM: Facilitating a Paradigm Shift in Building Human Capital in Global Organizations
• Chapter 10: Educating the Global-Minded Business Professional and Manager
• Chapter 11: Dealing with Contemporary Failings of Ethics, Training, and Wellbeing: A Developmental Foundation of Authentic Relations
• Chapter 12: A Sociological Perspective for Understanding the Transition to Retirement
• Chapter 13: The Future of Seafarers and the Seafarers of the Future from the Perspective of Human Resources Management
• Chapter 14: Understanding Organizational Culture and Managing the Effectiveness of Knowledge Transfer: A Case Study on Japanese Firms and their Business Affiliates in Malaysia
• Chapter 15: Human Resources Management in Non-profit Organizations: An Effective Approach to Manage Volunteers
• Index