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This paper proposes a competency-based view of careers, derived from competencybased models of employcr firms. The implications for boundaryless careers are cxplored by reference to changing organizational. occupational and industry community contexts. All of these contexts are seen as likely to promote boundaryless career behaviors. Future research possibilities for each of three career competencies, and for interdependence among the competencies. are briefly examined.We are indebted to Suzyn Ornstein, Denise Rousseau. and three anonymous reviewers of the Juurnid q/ 0rguni:itfiwiuI &huvior for helpful comments on earlier drafts ofthis paper.' An employment setting, as viewed in this paper. is any setting with independent authority to engage in employment contracts. This can either mean an independent firm or a business unit o f a larger firm where employment responsibility is decentralized. The latter meaning can be linked to General Electric head Jack Welch's vision of the 'boundaryless organization'. that is of multiple high-autonomy employment settings (Hirschhorn and Gilmore. 1992). Moves both within and beyond these settings would represent houndaryless career behavior. (Miles and Snow, 1986;Nohria and Eccles, 1992). One such set of ideas focuses on the cultivation of firm-specific, rather than generic, competencies. This competency-based view of the firm emphasizes how collective employee competencies link to a firm's past and present activities, and in turn extend to future strategic possibilities (e.g. Grant, 1991; Nelson and Winter, 1982;Prahalad and Hamel, 1990;Winter, 1986; Hall, 1992).An emerging theme behind the competency-based view of the firm is a retreat from old ideas about vertical coordination. That is, instead of relying on centralized or corporate decisionmaking, lirms or business units are seen to benefit from relatively uninhibited interaction with partners. suppliers and customers. This alternative, horizontal model of coordination is seen as better accommodating each firm's unique and shifting interests (Quinn, 1992). However, current writings in career and human resource managementincluding those in 'strategic human resource management' (e.g. Schuler, 1992) -persist in emphasizing a vertically-coordinated approach. In this paper we challenge the apparent inconsistency between the firm-centered and person-centered levels of analysis. We do so by arguing that competency accumulation at the level of the person is better served by boundaryless career principles. In turn, we argue that competency accumulation through boundaryless careers can make a critical contribution to the unfolding competencies of firms and their host industries. New kinds of research will be needed if this contribution is to be better understood.This paper is organized as follows. First, we derive a view of career competencies inspired by the competency-based view of the firm. Next, we explore organizational, occupational, and industry community contexts to suggest how career competencies unfold, and with what boundar...

Project-based organizations refer to a variety of organizational forms that involve the creation of temporary systems for the performance of project tasks (Lundin and Söderholm 1995; DeFillippi 2002). Project-based organizations have received increasing attention in recent years as an emerging organizational form to integrate diverse and specialized intellectual resources and expertise (DeFillippi and Arthur 1998; Hobday 2000; Gann and Salter 2000; Keegan and Turner 2002; Lindkvist 2004). Recent interest in the emerging knowledge economy has reinforced the view that project organizations in their many varieties are a fast and flexible mode of organizing knowledge resources. Project-based organizations can circumvent traditional barriers to organizational change and innovation, since each project is presented as a temporary, relatively short-lived, phenomenon. As such, it does not pose the same threat to vested interests as would the creation of a permanent new department or division. Moreover, project-based organizations allow for low-cost experiments. Because of their limited duration, project-based organizations do not constitute irreversible resource commitments of fixed costs. Hence, companies and other types of organization may launch a variety of ventures through project-based organizations and may terminate unsuccessful ventures at low cost and little disturbance to the organizational sponsor (DeFillippi 2002). Project-based organizations are found in a wide range of industries. These include consulting and professional services (e.g. accounting, advertising, architectural design, law, management consulting, public relations), cultural industries (e.g. fashion, film-making, video games, publishing), high technology (e.g. software, computer hardware, multimedia), and complex products and systems (e.g. construction, transportation, telecommunications, infrastructure). For many of these industries, project-based organizations are employed to meet the highly differentiated and customized nature of demand, where clients frequently negotiate and interact with project organizers over the ofteninnovative design of products and services (Hobday 1998). However, firms in all types of industries are undertaking projects as a growing part of their operations even while their primary 'productive' activity might be volume-based or operations-oriented (e.g. Midler 1995; Keegan and Turner 2002). Hobday (2000) refers to these as project-led organizations and

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