Special Challenges in

Career Management

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 Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Design an effective socialization program for

employees.
2. Discuss why a dual-career path is necessary
for professional and managerial employees.
3. Provide advice on how to help a plateaued
employee.
4. Develop policies to help employees and the
company avoid technical obsolescence.

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 Objectives (continued)
5. Develop policies to help employees deal with
work-and-life conflict.
6. Select and design outplacement strategies that
minimize the negative effects on displaced
employees and “survivors.”
7. Explain why retirees may be valuable as part-
time employees.

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 Introduction
 Many companies in Silicon Valley face serious
career management challenges.
 These companies are now paying more
attention to career management issues because
their work force is starting to age and pay more
attention to work-life balance.
 Many employees face long commutes because
they can not afford to live close to where they
work.

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Introduction (continued)

If companies do not help their

employees with their personal
lives, they may leave for jobs
with other companies in other
areas that do.

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 Special Challenges in Career Management
Socialization and
Dealing With Older Orientation
Workers

Coping With Job Dual-Career Paths

Loss

Balancing Work and Plateauing

Life

Skills
Work and Non-work Obsolescence
Policies
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 Socialization and Orientation
 Organizational socialization is the process
by which new employees are transformed
into effective members of the company.

 The purpose of orientation is to:

 Prepare employees to perform their jobs
effectively
 Learn about the organization
 Establish work relationships

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Phases of the Socialization Process

Anticipatory Socialization

Encounter

Settling In

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What Employees Should Learn and
Develop Through Socialization:
History Company Goals

Language

Politics

People
Performance Proficiency

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 Socialization and Orientation Programs

 Play an important role in socializing

employees.
 Effective socialization programs result in
employees having a strong commitment and
loyalty to the company.
 This reduces turnover.
 Effective orientation programs include active
involvement of the new employee.
 Effective programs have peers, managers, and
senior co-workers actively involved.
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 Content of Orientation Programs
 Company-Level Information
Company overview
Key policies and procedures
Compensation
Employee benefits & services
Safety & accident protection
Employee & union relations
Physical facilities
Economic factors
Customer relations
 Department-Level Information
Department functions
Job duties & responsibilities
Policies, procedures, rules
Performance expectations
Tour of department
Introduction to co-workers
 Miscellaneous
Community
Housing
Family adjustment
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Characteristics of Effective Orientation Programs
 Employees are encouraged to ask questions.
 Program includes information on both technical
and social aspects of the job.
 Orientation is the responsibility of the new
employee’s manager.
 Debasing and embarrassing new employees is
avoided.
 Formal and informal interactions with
managers and peers occur.
 Programs involve relocation assistance.
 Employees receive information about the
company’s products, services, and customers. 12 - 12
 Dual-Career Paths
 A career path is a sequence of job positions
involving similar types of work and skills that
employees move through in the company.
 For companies with professional employees, a
key issue is how to ensure that they feel they
are valued.
 The traditional career path model has limited
advancement opportunities for those in the
technical career path.

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Traditional career path for scientists and
managers:
Assistant Director

Assistant Director

Principal Research Scientist Department Manager

Research Scientist Manager

Scientist Assistant Manager

Individual Contributor Career Path Management Career Path

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A dual-career-path system
enables employees to
remain in a technical
career path or move into a
management career path.

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Example of a dual-career-path system

Executives Fellow

Functional Senior Technical

Management Staff Member

Senior Senior

Development Advisory

Project Staff

MANAGEMENT LADDER TECHNICAL LADDER

Senior Associate
Associate
Engineers, Programmers,
Scientists
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Characteristics of Effective Career Paths

 Salary, status, and incentives for technical

employees compare favorably with those of
managers.
 Individual contributors’ base salary may be
lower than managers’, but they are given
opportunities to increase their total
compensation through bonuses.
 The individual contributor career path is not
used to satisfy poor performers who have no
managerial potential.

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Characteristics of Effective Career Paths
(continued)

 The career path is for employees with outstanding

technical skills.
 Individual contributors are given the opportunity
to choose their career path.
 The company provides assessment resources.
 Assessment information enables employees to
make comparisons between their interests and
abilities with those of employees in technical
and managerial positions.

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 Plateauing
 Plateauing means that the likelihood of the
employee receiving future job assignments with
increased responsibility is low.
 Mid-career employees are most likely to plateau.
 Plateauing becomes dysfunctional when the
employee feels stuck in a job that offers no
potential for personal growth.
 Such frustration results in poor job attitude,
increased absenteeism, and poor job
performance.

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 Reasons Employees Can Plateau
 Discrimination based on age, gender, or race.
 Lack of ability.
 Lack of training.
 Low need for achievement.
 Unfair pay decisions or dissatisfaction with
pay raises.
 Confusion about job responsibilities.
 Slow company growth resulting in reduced
development opportunities.
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Possible Remedies for Plateaued Employees

 Employee understands the reasons for plateau.

 Employee is encouraged to participate in

development activities.

 Employee is encouraged to seek career

counseling.

 Employee reality-tests his solutions.

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 Skills Obsolescence
 Obsolescence – a reduction in an employee’s
competence resulting from a lack of knowledge
of new work processes, techniques, and
technologies that have developed since the
employee completed her education.
 Not just a concern of technical and professional
occupations. All employees are at risk.
 Obsolescence needs to be avoided if companies
are trying to become learning organizations.

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 Factors Related to Updating Skills

Manager Company Climate

• Provide Challenging Work Assignments • Emphasis on Continuous Learning
• Encourage Employees to Acquire New Skills

Updated
Skills
Peers Reward System
• Discuss Ideas • Sabbaticals

• Share Information • Pay for New Ideas

• Pay for Employee
Development

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 Balancing Work and Life
 Families with a working husband, homemaker
wife, and two or more children account for
only 7 percent of American families.
 The increasing number of two-career couples
and single heads of households creates a
challenge for companies.
 Companies have to carefully consider how to
manage employees who are simultaneously
meeting the needs of both work and family.

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 Balancing Work and Life (continued)
 There are two roles that training can play in
balancing work and non-work.
 Trainers and managers may be responsible for
developing policies and procedures.
 Trainers may be responsible for developing training
programs to teach managers their role in
administering and overseeing the use of work-life
policies.

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Types of Work-Life Conflict

Time-based Conflict

Strain-based Conflict

Behavior-based Conflict

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Company Policies to Accommodate
Work and Non-work:
 Communicating information about work and
non-work policies and job demands.
 Flexibility in work arrangements and work
schedules.
 Redesigning jobs.
 Support Services.

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For job sharing to be effective:
 The impact of job sharing on clients and customers
must be determined.
 The employee interested in job sharing must find
another employee performing the same job who wants
reduced work hours.
 The two people sharing the job need to have similar
work values and motivations.
 The manager must actively communicate with the job-
sharing employees.
 All schedules and work assignments need coordination.
 Performance measurement should be both team and
individual.

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 Coping With Job Loss
 Important career management issue because of
the increased use of downsizing to deal with
excess employees resulting from corporate
restructuring, mergers, acquisitions, and
takeovers.
 Companies that lay off employees can experience
lowered job commitment, distrust of
management, and difficulties recruiting new
employees.
 Job loss causes stress and disrupts the personal
lives of laid-off employees.
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 Coping With Job Loss (continued)
 From a career management
standpoint, companies and managers
have two major responsibilities:
 They are responsible for helping
employees who will lose their jobs.
 Steps must be taken to ensure that the
“survivors” of the layoff (remaining
employees) remain productive and
committed to the organization.
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Coping With Job Loss: Outplacement

 Companies need to provide outplacement

services to help prepare employees for layoffs:
 Advance warning and explanation for a
layoff.
 Psychological, financial, and career
counseling.
 Assessment of skills and interests.
 Job campaign services.
 Job banks.
 Electronic delivery of job openings.
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 Dealing With Older Workers
 Meeting the needs of older workers.
 Pre-retirement socialization.
 Retirement.
 Early retirement programs.

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 Meeting the Needs of Older Workers
 Flexibility in scheduling to allow for care of sick
spouses, return to school, travel, or reduced work
hours.
 Older workers should receive the training they
need to avoid skill obsolescence.
 Older employees need resources and referral help
that addresses long-term care and elder care.
 Companies need to ensure that employees do not
hold inappropriate stereotypes about older
employees.

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