The Dual Meaning of Managerial Careers: Organizational and Individual Levels of Analysis

Gunz, Hugh

doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1989.tb00726.x

Cited by 94 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…In this article, we consider that the contrast between the bounded and boundaryless careers is simplistic in its viewpoint regarding structures (i.e., environmental constraints) and individual agency (i.e., individual choices) and overlooks the constant meshing of the two in shaping actual careers (Evetts, 1992;Gunz, 1989). With this in mind, we call for a more nuanced view of career, one that acknowledges individual agency without jumping to the false conclusion that people's current careers depend mainly on their individual choices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic careers: The limits of the ‘boundaryless approach’ and the power of promotion scripts

2011

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Despite serious criticism, the boundaryless view of careers still heavily influences research. This article aims to do more than just challenge the claim that careers are becoming more boundaryless: our goal is to make clear that careers need to be thought of in alternative terms. To this end, we build on an analysis of academic careers to explain why regarding careers as either bounded or boundaryless is too simple and why more attention should be paid to the scripts that influence career choices. We draw from an empirical study carried out in two French universities that shows that promotion scripts operate under three conditions — credibility, legibility, and legitimacy of promotion models. We conclude that scripts are potentially very useful in understanding a wide range of careers.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic careers: The limits of the ‘boundaryless approach’ and the power of promotion scripts

2011

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“…Career ladders are disappearing (Inkson & Coe, 1993). Instead, alternative metaphors such as 'hopping from job to job' (Kanter, 1989: 299) or 'climbing on a jungle gym' (Gunz, 1989) (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996 The 'disloyalty syndrome' may be treated by a new platform of employment relationships grounded in communal interests and short-term project arrangements. These retain the basis of employment close to prevailing external market mechanisms for peoples' security and mobility.…”

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confidence: 99%

New Forms of Career: The Challenge to Human Resource Management

Parker

Inkson

1999

Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources

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The concept of 'career' has recently undergone massive change. Traditionally, careers have been, in Kanter's (1989) terms, either 'bureaucratic'-constructed on a logic of loyalty to an employing organization and ascent of a hierarchy of status and responsibility; or 'professional'-constructed on a logic of increasing competence within a specific occupational frame of reference. To secure and maintain a stable workforce, companies have come to rely on predictable career behaviour built around stable organizational and occupational institutions.

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“…They should try to overcome the fragmentation and noncumulative nature of previous work. These prescriptions can be applied without qualification to entrepreneurship, and likely to any issue of human agency and contextual constraint (Gunz 1989). …”

Section: Case Replication Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Bigman Metaphor for Entrepreneurship: A “Library Tale” with Morals on Alternatives for Further Research

Stewart

1990

Organization Science

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Melanesian Bigmanship (a meritocratic, enacted career of political-economic leadership) is recounted as an anthropological metaphor for entrepreneurship. This “library tale” has two purposes. The first is a demonstration of conceptual uses of ethnographies for developing grounded theory. Propositions are generated on entrepreneurial orientations and opportunity structures. Opportunities are seen to arise in the creation of linkages between spheres of exchange, or fields in which an object exchanges at different values. Entrepreneurial tactics, such as converting between spheres, call for skills in informal planning, astute use of timing, and networking. These “tactical” skills coexist with “moral” skills, in persuasiveness, the manipulation of norms, and recognition of culturally specific opportunities. The entrepreneur's acts thus create a dialectic of moral (normatively approved) and tactical (instrumentally enacted) changes. The second purpose is a demonstration of methodological implications of ethnographies. Library tales are helpful in the process of “constant comparison” (Glaser and Strauss 1967), by augmenting available, within-site observations with other sources of insight, and of potential disconfirmation of emerging ideas. However, there are limits to the “translation” of library tales. There thus arises a need for observations tailored to specific comparative questions. Multiple site case replication research is suggested for tailoring observations to synchronic, comparative uses. Processual, continuous contextual analysis is suggested for diachronic, intensive followups to such questions as the relationships amongst constraints and individual agency.

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The Dual Meaning of Managerial Careers: Organizational and Individual Levels of Analysis

Cited by 94 publications

References 57 publications

Academic careers: The limits of the ‘boundaryless approach’ and the power of promotion scripts

Academic careers: The limits of the ‘boundaryless approach’ and the power of promotion scripts

New Forms of Career: The Challenge to Human Resource Management

The Bigman Metaphor for Entrepreneurship: A “Library Tale” with Morals on Alternatives for Further Research

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