Chapter

12

Special Challenges in
Career Management

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 Introduction
Supportive work-life culture – a company culture
that:
acknowledges and respects family and life
responsibilities and obligations
encourages managers and employees to work together
to meet personal and work needs
Helping employees balance work and life,
benefits the business and employees’ personal
lives

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 Work-Life Balance

Employee’s Perspective Employer’s Perspective

Trying to manage work The challenge of creating a
obligations as well as family supportive company culture
and life responsibilities where employees can focus
on their jobs while at work

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 If companies do not help their
employees with their personal
lives, they may leave for jobs
with other companies in other
areas that do.

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 Special Challenges in Career Management

Dealing With Socialization and

Older Workers Orientation

Dual-Career
Coping With Job Paths
Loss
Plateauing

Balancing Work
and Life Skills
Work and Non-work Obsolescence
Policies
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 Socialization and Orientation
Organizational socialization - the process by
which new employees are transformed into
effective members of the company

The purpose of orientation is to:

Prepare employees to perform their jobs effectively
Learn about the organization
Establish work relationships

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 Phases of the Socialization Process

Anticipatory Socialization

Encounter

Settling In

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 What Employees Should Learn and Develop
Through Socialization:

History

Company
Language
Goals

Performance
Politics People Proficiency

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 Socialization and Orientation
Programs
Play an important role in socializing employees
Effective socialization programs result in
employees having a strong commitment and
loyalty to the company
This reduces turnover
Effective orientation programs include active
involvement of the new employee
Effective programs have peers, managers, and
senior co-workers actively involved
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 Content of Orientation Programs
Company-Level Information Department-Level Information
Company overview Department functions
Key policies and procedures Job duties & responsibilities
Compensation Policies, procedures, rules
Employee benefits & services Performance expectations
Safety & accident protection Tour of department
Employee & union relations Introduction to co-workers
Physical facilities Miscellaneous
Economic factors Community
Customer relations Housing
Family adjustment

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 Characteristics of Effective
Orientation Programs
Employees are encouraged to ask questions
Program includes information on both technical and
social aspects of the job
Orientation is the responsibility of the new employee’s
manager
New employees are not debased or embarrassed
Formal and informal interactions with managers and
peers occur
Programs involve relocation assistance
Employees receive information about the company’s
products, services, and customers
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 Dual-Career Paths

A career path is a sequence of job positions involving

similar types of work and skills that employees move
through in the company

For companies with professional employees, a key issue

is how to ensure that they feel they are valued

The traditional career path model has limited

advancement opportunities for those in the technical
career path

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 Traditional career path for scientists and
managers:
Director

Assistant Director

Department Manager

Principal Research Scientist Manager

Research Scientist Assistant Manager

Scientist
Individual Contributor Career Path Management Career Path
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 A dual-career-path
system enables
employees to remain in
a technical career path
or move into a
management career
path.

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 Example of Dual-
Director Career-Path
System
Department
Fellow
Manager

Senior Research Senior Program

Leader Section Manager
Manager

Associate Program
Research Leader
Section Manager Manager

Principal
Senior Research Research Project Manager
Scientist Scientist

Research
Scientist

Researcher

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 Characteristics of Effective Career Paths
(1 of 2)

Salary, status, and incentives for technical

employees compare favorably with those of
managers
Individual contributors’ base salary may be lower
than managers’, but they are given opportunities to
increase their total compensation through bonuses
The individual contributor career path is not used to
satisfy poor performers who have no managerial
potential

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 Characteristics of Effective Career Paths
(2 of 2)

The career path is for employees with outstanding

technical skills
Individual contributors are given the opportunity to
choose their career path
The company provides assessment resources
Assessment information enables employees to make
comparisons between their interests and abilities with
those of employees in technical and managerial
positions

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 Plateauing
Plateauing means that the likelihood of the
employee receiving future job assignments with
increased responsibility is low
Mid-career employees are most likely to plateau
Plateauing becomes dysfunctional when the
employee feels stuck in a job that offers no
potential for personal growth
Such frustration results in poor job attitude,
increased absenteeism, and poor job performance
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 Reasons Employees Can Plateau

Discrimination based on age, gender, or race

Lack of ability
Lack of training
Low need for achievement
Unfair pay decisions or dissatisfaction with pay raises
Confusion about job responsibilities
Slow company growth resulting in reduced development
opportunities

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 Possible Remedies for Plateaued
Employees
Employee understands the reasons for plateauing

Employee is encouraged to participate in development

activities

Employee is encouraged to seek career counseling

Employee does a reality check on his or her solutions

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 Skills Obsolescence
Obsolescence – a reduction in an employee’s
competence resulting from a lack of knowledge of
new work processes, techniques, and technologies
that have developed since the employee
completed her education
Not just a concern of technical and professional
occupations
all employees are at risk
Obsolescence needs to be avoided if companies
are trying to become learning organizations
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 Factors Related to Updating Skills

Manager Company Climate

• Provide Challenging Work Assignments • Emphasis on Continuous Learning
• Encourage Employees to Acquire New Skills

Updated
Skills
Peers Reward System
• Discuss Ideas • Sabbaticals

• Share Information • Pay for New Ideas

• Pay for Employee Development

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 Additional Steps to Avoid Obsolescence
(1 of 2)

1. Provide employees with the opportunity to

exchange information and ideas
2. Give employees challenging job assignments
early in their careers
3. Provide job assignments that challenge
employees and require them to “stretch” their
skills
4. Provide rewards for updating behaviors,
suggestions, and innovations
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 Additional Steps to Avoid Obsolescence
(2 of 2)

5. Allow employees to:

 attend professional conferences
 subscribe to professional journals and magazines
 enroll in university, technical school, or
community college courses at low or no cost
6. Encourage employees to interact in person or
electronically to discuss problems and new
ideas

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 Balancing Work and Life (1 of 2)
Families with a working husband, homemaker
wife, and two or more children account for only 7
percent of American families
The increasing number of two-career couples and
single heads of households creates a challenge for
companies
Companies have to carefully consider how to
manage employees who are simultaneously
meeting the needs of both work and family
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 Balancing Work and Life (2 of 2)
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
There are two roles that training can play in
balancing work and non-work:
trainers and managers may be responsible for
developing policies and procedures
trainers may be responsible for developing training
programs to teach managers their role in administering
and overseeing the use of work-life policies

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 Types of Work-Life Conflict

Time-Based Conflict

Strain-Based Conflict

Behavior-Based Conflict

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 Company Policies to Accommodate Work
and Non-work:
Identifying work and life needs and communicating
information about work and non-work policies and job
demands
Flexibility in work arrangements and work
Schedules
Redesigning jobs
Managerial support for work-life policies
Dependent care support: child and elder care

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 Example of work-life programs at Bank of
America:

Child Care Plus

Adoption Reimbursement
Tuition Reimbursement
Flexible Work Arrangements
Time Off and Leaves
Employee Assistance Program
LifeWorks©

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 Examples of Alternative Work
Schedules and Work Arrangements
Traditional Part-Time Work
Flextime Shift Work
Compressed Workweek Telecommuting
Temporary Work Reduced Work Hours
Job Sharing Hoteling

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 For Job Sharing to be Effective:
(1 of 2)

1. The impact of job sharing on clients and

customers must be determined
2. The employee interested in job sharing must
find another employee performing the same job
who wants reduced work hours
3. The two people sharing the job need to have
similar work values and motivations

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 For Job Sharing to be Effective:
(2 of 2)

4. The manager must actively communicate with

the job-sharing employees and accept the fact
that they might not be immediately available
for consultation
5. Meeting schedules, work assignments, and
vacation schedules need to be carefully
coordinated
6. Performance evaluation of job sharers needs to
include both an individual and team appraisal
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 Recommendations for the Development of
Dependent Care Assistance Programs:
1. Use surveys and focus groups to determine need
2. Develop a philosophy or rationale related to
business objectives
3. Solicit employees’ participation in designing and
implementing the program
4. Allocate resources for communicating the program
to employees and managers
5. Request feedback from users to make adjustments
to the program
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 Coping With Job Loss (1 of 2)
Important career management issue because of
the increased use of downsizing to deal with
excess employees resulting from corporate
restructuring, mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers
Companies that lay off employees can experience
lowered job commitment, distrust of management,
and difficulties recruiting new employees
Job loss causes stress and disrupts the personal
lives of laid-off employees

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 Coping With Job Loss (2 of 2)
From a career management standpoint, companies
and managers have two major responsibilities:
They are responsible for helping employees who will
lose their jobs
Steps must be taken to ensure that the “survivors” of
the layoff (remaining employees) remain productive
and committed to the organization

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 Outplacement services should include:

Advance warning and explanation for a layoff

Psychological, financial, and career counseling
Assessment of skills and interests
Job campaign services (e.g., résumé-writing assistance)
Job banks
Electronic delivery of job openings, self-directed career
management guides, and values and interest inventories

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 Dealing With Older Workers

Age Discrimination in Employment Act

Meeting the needs of older workers
Pre-retirement socialization
Retirement
Early retirement programs

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 Meeting the Needs of Older Workers
(1 of 2)

Flexibility in scheduling to allow for care of sick

spouses, return to school, travel, or reduced work
hours
Older workers should receive the training they
need to avoid skill obsolescence and to be
prepared to use new technology
Older employees need resources and referral help
that addresses long-term care and elder care

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 Meeting the Needs of Older Workers
(2 of 2)

Assessment and counseling to help older workers

recycle to new jobs or careers, or
Transition to less secure positions whose
responsibilities are not as clearly outlined
Companies need to ensure that employees do not
hold inappropriate stereotypes about older
employees

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 Preretirement Socialization Programs

Typically address the following topics:

Psychological aspects of retirement
Housing (i.e., transportation, costs, proximity to
medical care)
Health during retirement
Financial planning, insurance, and investments
Health care plans
Estate planning
The collection of benefits from company plans and
Social Security
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 Early Retirement Programs
To avoid costly litigation, companies need to
make sure that their early retirement programs
contain the following features:
The program is part of the employee benefit plan
The company can justify age-related distinctions for
eligibility for early retirement
Employees are allowed to voluntarily choose early
retirement

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