Advances in Career Theory and Research: A Critical Review and Agenda for Future Exploration

Abstract

In this review the authors critically examine the nature of contemporary careers and the direction in which careers research has developed over the past decade. Specifically, career concepts that emerged in the 1990s, including the protean and boundaryless career frameworks, as well as the next generation of career concepts, including integrative frameworks, hybrid careers, and the kaleidoscope career model, are discussed. The authors examine conceptualizations and measures of these models as well as related research. This review aims to improve our understanding of careers in today’s dynamic work environment, provide a comprehensive discussion of current discourse, and offer major directions for future research.

(Re)Constructing Career Strategies After Experiencing Involuntary Job Loss

“…Consequently, there has been a noticeable evolution in the way career has been described. Traditionally, careers were typically characterized in terms of an individual's relationship to an employing organization (Sullivan & Baruch, 2009). For example, a career was conceived of as a 'succession of related jobs, arranged in a hierarchy of prestige, through which persons move in an ordered (more-or-less predictable) sequence' (Wilensky, 1961, p. 523) or a 'sequence of positions held during the course of a lifetime' (Super, 1980, p. 286).…”

“…The Chicago School of Sociologists was a notable exception to this organizational focus, maintaining that a career consisted 'objectively, of a series of status and clearly defined offices' (Hughes, 1937, p. 409) and 'subjectively ... is the moving perspective in which the person sees his life as a whole and interprets the meaning of his various attributes, actions, and the things which happen to him' (p. 411). Environmental fluidity, such as increased globalization, rapid technological advancements, greater workforce diversity, expanding use of outsourcing, flatter hierarchical structures, flexible employer -employee relationships and an altered work context, has created changes in how individuals enact their careers (Sullivan & Baruch, 2009). To reflect this varied landscape, a consensus seems to have emerged that the established description of career emanates from Arthur, Hall and Lawrence (1989, p. 8) as 'the unfolding sequence of any person's work experiences over time' (e.g.…”

“…Measures of subjective career success include a person's reactions to actual and anticipated career-related attainments across a wide range of outcomes, such as job satisfaction (Nicholson & De Waal-Andrews, 2005). It has been suggested that the depth and breadth of the career success construct can be harnessed by looking through both lenses simultaneously, typifying the duality and interdependence between the objective and subjective sides of career (Arthur et al, 1989;Maurer & Chapman, 2013;Sullivan & Baruch, 2009).…”

“…Integrating the concept of the fateful moment (Giddens, 1991) into the article's analysis permits an examination of the relationship between the participants' agency, a critical component of the contemporary career (Sullivan & Baruch, 2009), and how they interpret their career experience. In examining how job loss shapes the CE participants' (former professionals) career stories, a sense of how they experience the world is captured.…”

“…Arnold & Cohen, 2008;Sullivan & Baruch, 2009). By understanding how change affects career structures and career actions, individuals can devise strategies appropriate for altered career structures (Barley, 1989;Weick, 2001).…”