The idea the boundaryless career has recently permeated the careers literature. However, critics have claimed that the concept is fuzzy and difficult to operationalize. Moreover, one of the core assumptions, namely the collapse of traditional organizational careers allied to increasing mobility across organizational boundaries, has rarely been seriously analysed in the careers literature. This article aims to take forward the analysis of the boundaryless career concept in two ways. First, we discuss its conceptual and operational problems. We argue that the current debate, focused on the permeability of organizational boundaries, fails fully to address the complexity of contemporary careers. Second, we integrate contributions from labour economics on job stability to argue that the assumption of the collapse of the traditional career model is not supported by the evidence. In our conclusions, we draw on boundary theory to outline the potential of a different approach to the conceptualization of career boundaries.
Signalling theory is presented as an approach to advance the study of human resource management (HRM) processes highlighting line managers as signallers of HR messages and employees as receivers. Signalling theory is also offered as a framework to integrate the two attributional approaches to HRM focusing on HRM strength and HR attributions. A study of employees in 83 bank branches confirms that strong HR signals, reflected in implementation of a coherent set of high-commitment HR practices and consensus about their implementation have a positive association with the HR attributions and attitudes of employees as signal receivers. We found no link with branch performance. The study confirms the utility of signalling theory as a framework for advancing our understanding of HR processes.
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