Career Counseling in a Volatile Job Market: Tiedeman's Perspective Revisited

Abstract

This article explores implications of Tiedeman's original theory for career counselors. Some components of the theory seem to be compatible with existing volatile job market conditions. Notions of career path recycling, development in reverse, nonlinear progress, and parallel streams in career development are explored. Suggestions are made for counseling interventions and future research using this perspective.

Career Construction for Hephapreneurship1: Alternative Framework for Persons with Disabilities2

“…Career adaptability also promotes opportunities to learn about self through career exploration and planning (Klehe, Zikic, Van Vianen & De Pater, 2011). Career adaptability becomes more relevant to differently abled persons who may need to make changes constantly to accommodate their context, "…considering options and alternatives" (Duys, Ward, Maxwell & Eaton-Comerford, 2008). Opportunities to learn provide a chance to learn about career information and self in relation to the career chosen.…”

Career Advising in a VUCA Environment

“…," 2007). Career counselors have recognized this recent transformation of the job market but express the concept of a VUCA environment as chaos because they find chaos theory, based on physical sciences, to be a fruitful metaphor for developing an approach to counseling theory Duys, Ward, Maxwell, & Eaton-Comerford, 2008;McKay, Bright, & Pryor, 2005;Pryor & Bright, 2006;Pryor, Amundson, & Bright, 2008;Stone, 2007;Zikic & Hall, 2009). Either term-VUCA or chaos-used to describe the postindustrial economy illustrates that rapidity is not the only salient characteristic of change, but change also brings uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity as well.…”

“…However, these conditions cannot be met in a VUCA environment. Accurate forecasts of the future can only develop in environments that are sufficiently regular to provide valid indicators Duys et al, 2008;Pryor et al, 2008;Zikic & Hall, 2009). Tetlock's (2005) 15-year, longitudinal study punctuates the point: The study showed no consistent evidence that experts made better forecasts of future political or economic events than did untrained newspaper readers.…”

Introduction to the Special Section

“…A counselor who operates from Tiedeman's perspective would be quite comfortable helping a client simultaneously deal with issues associated with each endeavor. (Duys et al, 2008, p. 237) Duys et al (2008) contend that these ideas embedded in Tiedeman's (1961) original model address variables often ignored by other models. "The idea of nonlinear movement, flexibility, and individual development that Tiedeman's model explores makes it an excellent resource for counselors helping clients contend with a volatile labor market" (Duys et al, 2008, p. 239).…”