Recently, there has been considerable media attention granted to "the opt-out revolution," a term coined to describe the alarming talent drain of highly trained women, largely working mothers, who choose not to aspire to the corporate executive suite. This article critically reviews explanations for this phenomenon, and posits an alternate explanation of the kaleidoscope career model that fits workers' concerns for authenticity, balance, and challenge, vis-à-vis the demands of their careers in this new millennium. In particular, the kaleidoscope model fits women's careers well as a means of understanding how women operate relationally to others in both work and non-work realms. Like a kaleidoscope that produces changing patterns when the tube is rotated and its glass chips fall into new arrangements, women shift the pattern of their careers by rotating different aspects in their lives to arrange their roles and relationships in new ways. The article concludes with guidelines on how women executives can increase their career success and how organizations can create an improved workplace that will attract and retain talented women given the anticipated labor shortages beginning in 2012.

Womenface a complex panorama of choices and constraints in their career and life development. This article presents an approach to the understanding of women's careers that (a) takes into account non-work as well as work issues; (b) incorporates subjective as well as objective measures of career and life success; (c) incorporates the influence of personal, organizational, and societalfactors on women's choices and outcomes; and (d) does not assume that women's careers go through a predictable sequence of stages over time. Such an approach is vastly differentfrom traditional models of men's careers. Implications of this approach for research, organizations, and men's careers are discussed.

The problem and the solution. This article explores how a new model of careers can be used to suggest human resource development (HRD) programs that better match the unique career patterns of women. Traditional career stage models, which form the basis of many modern HRD practices, were created by studying men's careers and do not fit the complexities of women's careers. The purpose of this article is to discuss the Kaleidoscope Career Model as a means of understanding the needs of women workers and how organizations can systematically fulfill those needs to gain a competitive advantage. In addition to HRD implications, we also discuss directions for future research.

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to examine, utilising the Kaleidoscope Career Model, whether members of the Baby Boom generation and Generation X differ in their needs for authenticity, balance, and challenge. Design/methodology/approach-Survey data were obtained from 982 professionals located across the USA. Correlations, t-tests, and multiple regressions were performed to test the hypotheses. Findings-Members of Generation X have higher needs for authenticity and balance than Baby Boomers. There was no difference in needs for challenge between Baby Boomers and members of Generation X. Research limitations/implications-A limitation in the study, as well as in most of the research on generational differences, is the use of cross-sectional designs that fail to capture the influence of the aging process. A longitudinal, multi-survey design over the lives of individuals would enable scholars to capture within-and between-person differences and to permit a better understanding of whether differences are in fact due to generational effects or to aging. Practical implications-Knowledge of the differences and similarities among the various generations in the workforce can help organizational leaders make important decisions about human resource policies and practices. Originality/value-Many studies in the popular press stress the prevalence and importance of generational differences in the workplace. However, the little academic research that has been conducted has shown mixed results. The study uses the theoretical framework of the Kaleidoscope Career Model to examine generational differences in work attitudes.

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