The careers of university professional staff: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Purpose Human capital is a key component of the success of organisations, and career development of staff is a vital component to both increasing and retaining human capital. Universities are no different, their people are key to their mission. There has been limited rigorous study of the careers of professional staff in the academy. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review methodology resulted in a review of 23 articles dedicated to research on careers of professional staff in higher education (HE). Thematic analysis identified a series of enablers and barriers that influence career development and progression. Findings Career enablers and barriers have been found to exist at both the institutional and individual levels. Within the HE context, professional staff have a hybrid career mindset, desiring traditional and more contemporary career factors, leading to a reciprocal relationship between the organisation and the individual. Research limitations/implications There is a need for future research to investigate the hybrid career mindset, and the reciprocal relationship, both to add depth to understanding of careers for professional staff in universities, and to examine this in other settings. Practical implications Universities may need to consider ways to integrate institutional support for high performance work systems (HPWS) with opportunities for professional staff, while individuals may need to consider adopting career self-management behaviours (CSMB) to fit their hybrid mindset. Originality/value This review has highlighted organisations and individuals will benefit if the relationship between HPWS and CSMB is better understood for the hybrid career mindset.

The hybrid career concept: creating hybrid career pathways

“…It has been argued here that a form of contemporary career, the hybrid career with its various subjective and objective boundaries, may be useful in understanding employee expectations of organisations in the 21st century. Individuals have been shown to welcome a more reciprocal relationship between themselves and the organisation in terms of career management (Gander et al, 2019). By understanding staff working in organisations and their career requirements, employers can respond accordingly to meld the organisations' and employees' needs in a contemporary career manner and to move towards a more compassionate organisational relationship.…”

“…Gander (2018) found that CDI 26,7 university professional staff created hybrid careers, valuing job security, a career and promotion opportunities (traditional career concept), training for the external job market (boundaryless career concept) and meaningful work and autonomy (protean career concept). Table 1 outlines the different aspects of the traditional, protean, boundaryless and hybrid career (Gander, 2019;Clarke, 2013;Bridgstock, 2005).…”

“…The careers research that has been carried out on this cohort of staff has tended to investigate career enablers and barriers of particular groups, such as women in management (Sagas and Cunningham, 2004), student support administrators (Rosser and Javinar, 2003) and African American administrators (Gardner et al, 2014). There has been little written about the careers of the more general cohort (for a review see Gander et al, 2019). This study aims to understand what career preferences university professional staff hold, and if through this cohort, the empirical data can be used to explore the existing theoretical hybrid career model in order to develop and extend the understanding of this concept.…”

Can a professional learning community deliver career development learning?

“…The careers of these new cadre of university professional staff, as discussed above, have not been significantly studied (Gander et al , 2019). This is especially true of the area of professional development (Coomber, 2019), even though professional associations for university professional staff are common (for example, Association of University Administrators in the UK, Association for Tertiary Education Management in Australia and Canacian Association of University Business Officers in Canada).…”

Change of the Higher Education Paradigm in the Context of Digital Transformation: from Resource Management to Access Control

“…In the digital age, the importance of intellectual capital and knowledge management to survive in the face of growing competition has increased. Therefore, in recent years, the central object of many modern studies has become personnel as the carrier of the company's human capital (Gander et al, 2019). Another important component of the management system is knowledge management, which makes it possible to systematize and integrate knowledge and disseminate it in all departments of the organization.…”