CONTENTS

1.0
2.0

INTRODUCTION
CAREER DEVELOPMENT

2
2

3.0

THE IMPORTANCE OF CAREER AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT

3.1 INDIVIDUAL
3.2 ORGANIZATIONALS
4.0

3
4

CAREER DEVELOPMENT POLICIES

5.0

4.1 TRANSFERS
4.2 PROMOTION AND TERMINATION
4.3 RELOCATION SERVICES
4.4 OUTPLACEMENT SERVICES
HOLLANDS MODEL OF CAREER CHOICES

5
5
5
6
7

6.0

STAGES OF CAREER

11

6.0

CONCLUSIONS

15

8.0

REFERENCES

16

1.0

INTRODUCTION
In an organization of school, career development is the important process to prepare

teachers for the high performance in educational systems.

Hall (1986) pointed out, the

organizations activities are generally directed at the management of

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career to meet the

requirement of the organization. In a Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 2015, the ministry
intends to enhance the existing Guru Cemerlang Scheme. Under the revised fast-track scheme
high-performing teachers are expected to progress from DG 41 to DG 52 within a much shorter
time frame compared to the current 25 years. Career development has strong implications for
individuals, employers and governments.

2.0

DEFINITION OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Refer to Oxford Dictionary, Career is a persons course or progress through life. It also

pertains to his occupational

or profession that usually involves special training or formal

education and is considered to be a persons lifework. According to Hackman (1986), Career

development is an ongoing process of managing learning, work, leisure, and transitions in order
to move toward a personally determined and evolving preferred future.
The study of career development looks at how individuals manage their careers within and
between organizations and how organizations structure the career progress of their members, it
can also be tied into succession planning within most of the organizations.

3.0
3.1

THE IMPORTANCE OF CAREER AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Individuals
Changes in the way work is structured and organised, together with the growth of the

knowledge-based economy, will require a reconceptualisation of what a career means to

people (Arnold and Jackson, 1997). For much of the 20th century, the term career was used
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primarily to describe the occupational choice and work history of managers and professionals. It
was often linked to ideas of progression up an organisational hierarchy. While many people
continue to pursue this kind of organisational career, many others will be leading very different
working lives.
New career concepts, such as the portfolio career (Handy, 1989) when someone has more
than one job (paid or unpaid) and the boundaryless career (Arthur, 1994) pursuing a career
across traditional boundaries, such as across organisations (i.e. not within a single
organisation), or across functional or job boundaries recognise that career has a subjective
component: the sense that people make of their own career, their personal histories, and the
skills, attitudes and beliefs that they have acquired. These concepts are also in part a response
to, and recognition of, the fact that professionals and specialists knowledge workers

may

pursue their careers somewhat differently from other groups and are often more loyal to their
professional community than to their current employer. For example, they may be more
motivated by the intrinsic interest and challenge of their work, and may be more prepared to
change employer for professional development. However, these changes apply equally to
people who are not knowledge workers. The new, more inclusive, model of a career recognises
both the changed objective realities in which (all) careers are being developed and also the
universality of peoples intense involvement with the subjective aspects of their career
(Arnold and Jackson, 1997).
3.2

Organizationals
Effective career development support is important not only for individuals but also for the

organisations that employ them. For both of them it is part of a strategy of achieving resilience

to handle change more effectively. The business argument, as Hirsh and Jackson (2004) point
out, is that careers are also:
(a)

how higher level and business specific skills and knowledge are acquired, through
employees undertaking a sequence of work experiences which progressively improve
those skills. Key writers on careers in organisations see careers and learning as
inextricably linked (Schein, 1978; Hall, 1976);

(b) how skills and knowledge are deployed and spread within organisations by employees
moving from one job to another, in response to where they are needed. Such deployment
and knowledge-sharing is critical to organisational flexibility;
(c)

career movement is how culture and values the glue of the organisation are transmitted,
and how personal networks are extended and strengthened. Corporate culture and
networks are often key to rapid and effective action;

(d) career development is a major tool for attracting, motivating and retaining good quality
employees. Purcell, J. et al. (2003) found that providing career opportunities is one of 11
key practices which influence organisational performance.
Career skills are important for both employees and employers, along with the career education
to acquire those skills (Tamkin and Hillage, 1999). Employees need career management skills to
navigate the labour market. Employers who have more skillful employees can expect them to
navigate their internal labour markets more effectively and for these employees to be more
aware of the need to keep their skills relevant.
4.0

CAREER DEVELOPMENT POLICIES

4.1 Transfer and Posting
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Arrangement in which a firm internally posts a list of open opposition (with

their description and requirement so that the existing employees who wish to move to
different functional area may apply.
4.2 Promotion and Demotion
A promotion is the advancement of an employee's rank or position in an
organizational hierarchy system. Promotion may be an employee's reward for good
performance, i.e., positive appraisal. Before a company promotes an employee to a
particular position it ensures that the person is able to handle the added responsibilities by
screening the employee with interviews and tests and giving them training or on-the-job
experience. A promotion can involve advancement in terms of designation, salary and
benefits, and in some organizations the type of job activities may change a great deal. The
opposite of a promotion is a demotion.
4.3 Relocation Services
Relocation services, employee relocation or workforce mobility include a range of
internal business processes to transfer employees, their families, and/or entire
departments of a business to a new location. Like other types of employee benefit, these
processes are usually administered by human resources specialists within a corporation.
Such business processes can include domestic residential services where an employee
moves within a country or state as well as international relocation services which include
planning for diplomats, managers etc. working abroad. An agency providing relocation
services directs and manages the process of relocation including arranging necessary

documents (visa, long-term stay permissions), finding a new house (accomodation),

finding a school for children (education), finding a job for the partner or "trailing
spouse", arranging a teacher for the family (language training) and introduce expatriates
to the local culture.
4.4 Outplacement Services
Outplacement is the efforts made by a downsizing company to help former employees
transition to new jobs and help them re-orient themselves in the job market. A
consultancy firm usually provides the outplacement services which are paid for by the
former employer and are achieved through practical advice and psychological support.
Outplacement is either delivered through individual one-on-one sessions or in a group
format. Topics include carer guidence, career evaluation, resume writing and interview
preparation, developing networks, job search skills and targeting the job market.

5.0

Holland's Model of Career Choice

The theory of vocational choice developed by John L. Holland is one of the most
widely researched and applied theories of career development. Based on the premise that
personality factors underlie career choices, his theory postulates that people project selfand world-of-work views onto occupational titles and make career decisions that satisfy
their preferred personal orientations. The theory incorporates several constructs from
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personality psychology, vocational behavior, and social psychology, including selfperception theory and social stereotyping.
Applications of Hollands theory involve assessing individuals in terms of two or
three prominent personality types and then matching the respective types with the
environmental aspects of potential careers. The theory predicts that the higher the degree of
congruence between individual and occupational characteristics, the better the potential for
positive career-related outcomes, including satisfaction, persistence, and achievement.
Holland's Theory of Vocational Choice typology inherent in Hollands theory organizes the voluminous data about people in different jobs and the data about different work
environments to suggest how people make vocational choices and explain how job
satisfaction and vocational achievement occur. Seven assumptions underlie the typology:
Most people possess one of six modal personality types: Realistic (R), Investigative
(I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), or Conventional (C). Table 1 summarizes each
of the six RIASEC types and gives examples of occupations associated with them.
Six modal occupational environments correspond to the six modal personality types:
Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional
(C). Each environment is dominated by a given type of personality and is typified by
physical settings posing special circumstances.
People search for environments that allow them to exercise their skills and abilities,
express their attitudes and values, and assume agreeable circumstances and roles.
A persons behavior is determined by an interaction between his or her personality
and the characteristics of the environment. Based on an individuals personality pattern and
the pattern of the environment, some outcomes of such a pairing can, in principle, be

forecast using knowledge of personality types and environmental models. Such outcomes
include choice of vocation, job changes, vocational achievement, personal competence,
and educational and social behavior.
The degree of congruence (agreement) between a person and an occupation
(environment) can be estimated by a hexagonal model (see Figure 1). The shorter the
distance between the personality type and the occupational type, the closer the relationship.
The degree of consistency within a person or an environment is also defined using
the hexagonal model. Adjacent types on the hexagon are most consistent, or have
compatible interests, personal dispositions, or job duties. Opposite types on the hexagon
are most inconsistent, or combine personal characteristics or job functions that are usually
unrelated.
The degree of differentiation of a person or an environment modifies predictions
made from a persons typology, from an occupational code, or from the interaction of both.
Some persons or environments are more closely defined than others; for instance, a person
may closely resemble a single type and show little resemblance to other types, or an
environment may be dominated largely by a single type. In contrast, a person who
resembles many types or an environment characterized by about equal numbers of workers
in each of the six types would be labeled undifferentiated or poorly defined.

Career development professionals who use Hollands theory of vocational choice

typically assess individuals interest profiles from three primary perspectives: coherence,
consistency, and differentiation. Holland has maintained that these factors correlate with
the clarity and focus of individuals vocational personalities. An analysis of a profile in this
way is customarily a prelude to a career development professionals subsequent application
of the theory, which involves translating an individuals Holland profile into occupational
alternatives for further consideration. Print, computer, and Internet based sources are
available to facilitate this latter process.

Coherence relates to the degree to which the Holland codes associated with an
individuals vocational aspirations or occupational daydreams conform to the Holland
occupational themes (i.e., Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional). The consistency concept involves analyzing the proximity of the individuals two
dominant Holland types with respect to the hexagonal scheme. Adjacent types on the
hexagon (e.g., Social and Enterprising) reflect high interest consistency; opposite types
(e.g., Artistic and Conventional) reflect low consistency. The concept of differentiation
relates to the variance between an individuals highest and lowest types, typically
computed by subtracting the extreme scale scores as assessed by a measure such as the
Self-Directed Search. The larger the difference, the more highly differentiated the
individuals occupational interests.

TABLE 1 : DESCRIPTION OF HOLLAND TYPES

6.0

STAGES OF CAREER
The proper way to analyze and discuss careers is to look at them as made up of stages.

We can identify five career stages that most people will go through during their adult years,

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regardless of the type of work they do. These stages are exploration, establishment, mid-career,
late career and decline.
6.1

Exploration
Many of the critical choices individuals make about their careers are made prior to

entering the workforce on a paid basis. Very early in our lives, our parents and teachers begin to
narrow our alternatives and lead us in certain directions. The careers of our parents, their
aspirations for their children and their financial sources are crucial factors in determining our
perception of what careers are open to us. The exploration period ends for most of us in our midtwenties as we make the transition from college to work. From an organisational standpoint this
stage has little relevance since it occurs prior to employment. However, this period is not
irrelevant because it is a time when a number of expectations about ones career are developed,
many of which are unrealistic. Such expectations may lie dormant for years and then pop up later
to frustrate both the employee and the employer.
6.2

Establishment
The establishment period begins with the search for work and includes our First job,

being accepted by our peers, learning the job and gaining the first tangible evidence of success or
failure in the real world. It is a time which begins with uncertainties, anxieties and risks.
It is also marked by making mistakes and learning from these mistakes and the gradual
assumption of increased responsibilities. However, the individual in this stage has yet to reach
his peak productivity and rarely gets the job that carries great power or high status.
6.3

Mid-career

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Most people do not face their first severe dilemmas until they reach their mid-career
stage. This is a time when individuals may continue their prior improvements in performance or
begin to deteriorate. At this point in a career, one is expected to have moved beyond
apprenticeship to worker-status. Those who make a successful transition assume greater
responsibilities and get rewards. For others, it may be a time for reassessment, job changes,
adjustment of priorities or the pursuit of alternative lifestyles.
6.4

Late career
For those who continue to grow through the mid- career stage, the late career usually is a

pleasant time when one is allowed the luxury to relax a bit. It is the time when one can enjoy the
respect given to him by younger employees. During the late career, individuals are no longer
learning, they teach others on the basis of the knowledge they have gained. To those who have
stagnated during the previous stage, the late career brings the reality that they cannot change the
world as they had once thought. It is a time when individuals have decreased work mobility and
may be locked into their current job. One starts looking forward to retirement and the
opportunities of doing something different.

6.5

Decline
The final stage in ones career is difficult for everyone but it is hardest for those who have

had continued successes in the earlier stages. After several decades of continuous achievements
and high levels of performance, the time has come for retirement. Managers should be more

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concerned with the match for new employees and those just beginning their employment careers.
Successful placement at this stage should provide significant advantages to both the organisation
and the individual. Many employees lack proper information about career options. As managers
identify career-paths that successful employees follow within the organisation, they should
publish this information. To provide information to all employees about job openings, managers
can use job posting. Job posting provides a channel by which the organisation lets employees
know what jobs are available and what requirements they will have to fulfill to achieve the
promotions to which they may aspire. One of the most logical parts of a career development
programme is career counseling. This can be made part of an individuals annual performance
review. The career counseling process should contain the following elements:
(a) The employees goals, aspirations and expectations with regard to his own career for the next
five or six years;
(b) The managers view of the opportunities available and the degree to which the employees
aspirations are realistic and match with the opportunities available;
(c) Identification of what the employee would have to do in the way of further self-development
to qualify for new opportunities;
(d) New job assignments that would prepare the employee for further career growth.
Training and educational development activities reduce the possibilities that employees
will find themselves with obsolete skills. When these development activities are properly aligned
with an individuals aspirations and organisational needs, they become an essential element in an
employees career growth. In addition to encouraging employees to continue their education and
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training so as to prevent obsolescence and stimulate career growth, managers should be aware
that periodic job changes can achieve similar ends. Job changes can take the form of vertical
promotions, lateral transfers or assignments organised around new tasks. Available evidence
suggests that employees who receive challenging job assignments early in their careers do better
on their jobs. The degree of stimulation and challenge in a persons initial job assignment tends
to be significantly related to later career success and retention in the organisation. Initial
challenges, if they are successfully met, stimulate a person to perform well in later years. There
are definite benefits for managers who correctly fill positions with individuals who have the
ability and interest to satisfy the jobs demands.

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7.0

CONCLUSION
The process of organizational career development is important for both employees and

employers. There may be several unintended and undesired changes as well as consequences that
can change the entire scenario. In such a situation both employees and employers must be ready
to keep with the changing environment and act accordingly. Employees continuously need to
upgrade their skills and competencies to meet the current demands where as organizations must
be ready with those employees who can handle the pressure efficiently and cease the risk of
falling prey to the changed scenario. Therefore, understanding the importance of career
development is very necessary for both the parties.
8.0

REFERENCE

Walsh, W.B & Savicks, M.L. (2005). Handbook of Vocational Psychology. London. Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Roberts, G. (2010). Recruitment and Selection. Mumbai. Jaico Publishing House.
Stone, R. J. (2010) Human Resource Management. Australia. John Wiley and Sons.
http://www.zairedin.com/2013/09/ringkasan-pelan-pembangunan-pendidikan_8.html
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/interview.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion_(rank)
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/job-posting.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relocation_service
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outplacement
http://career.iresearchnet.com/career-development/hollands-theory-of-vocational-choice/
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/business-management/5-different-career-stages-for-anemployee/2500/

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