Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter 10
Managing Careers
2.
3.
Why are the characteristics and environment of an employees first job so important?
4.
5.
What steps can managers take to do a better job of responding to the special needs of
workers in their early, middle, and late career stages?
KEY TERMS
Career
Promotions
Career Success
Demotions
Organizational entry
Socialization
Impulsive quitters
Mentor
Comparison quitters
Reverse mentoring
Preplanned quitters
Plateaued worker
Conditional quitters
Career paths
Self-assessment
CHAPTER 10 OUTLINE
SELF-RELIANCE: KEY TO CAREER MANAGEMENT
In todays corporate environment, you are likely to crash into the ranks of the
unemployed with no safety net, and it could happen over and over again.
Career survival is up to younot the company. Consider yourself to be selfemployed, responsible for your own career development.
Working as a self-employed contractor, changing jobs frequently, learning cuttingedge skills, and working as a roving gun-for-hire over the long term can be a
detriment because it does not show loyalty or stability.
Acquisitions, divestitures, rapid growth, and downsizing have left many companies
unable to deliver on the implicit career promises made to their employees.
At the same time, there was been a massive realization that work isnt everything.
People in every industry are passing up opportunities for promotions so that they can
have a life.
Dalam lingkungan perusahaan saat ini, Anda cenderung masuk ke dalam rangking
atau masuk tahapan pengangguran tanpa net yang pengaman, dan itu bisa terjadi
berulang-ulang.
Pada saat yang sama, ada menjadi realisasi besar yang bekerja bukanlah segalanya.
Orang-orang di setiap industri lewat peluang untuk promosi sehingga mereka dapat
memiliki kehidupan.
Although the primary and final responsibility for career development rests with each
employee, the company has complementary responsibilities.
One of the most important contributions a company can make to each employees
development is to provide honest performance feedback about current job
performance.
Career self-reliance (career resilience) does not mean free agency. Rather, each
individual needs to become an informed opportunist, combining accurate
information with a flexible, opportunistic approach to his or her career.
Salah satu kontribusi paling penting sebuah perusahaan dapat membuat pembangunan
setiap karyawan adalah untuk memberikan umpan balik kinerja yang jujur tentang kinerja
pekerjaan saat ini.
Karyawan, pada gilirannya, bertanggung jawab untuk:
Mengetahui apa keterampilan dan kemampuan mereka
Mengetahui bantuan apa yang mereka butuhkan dari majikan mereka
Meminta bantuan yang
Mempersiapkan diri untuk memikul tanggung jawab baru.
Karir kemandirian (ketahanan karir) tidak berarti agen bebas. Sebaliknya, setiap individu
perlu menjadi "oportunis informasi," menggabungkan informasi yang akurat dengan
fleksibel, pendekatan oportunistik untuk kariernya.
Pendekatan untuk manajemen karir dapat disimpulkan sebagai berikut:
Menetapkan karyawan tanggung jawab untuk mengelola karir mereka sendiri, dan kemudian
memberikan dukungan yang mereka perlu lakukan itu.
CHALLENGE QUESTIONS
1.
Adalah pendekatan baru untuk manajemen karir perusahaan cenderung mode atau itu di sini
untuk tinggal?
Sejauh pendekatan baru ini adalah usaha koperasi yang mengintegrasikan keinginan individu
dan kebutuhan organisasi, mungkin di sini untuk tinggal. Tentu saja, kita tidak mungkin
untuk kembali ke paternalisme perusahaan dari masa lalu di mana individu mengandalkan
secara eksklusif pada niat baik dari perencana perusahaan untuk mengurus kepentingan karir
mereka.
3.
This question is answered partially in the conclusion to the case. The mechanisms
include self-assessment, career planning workshops, supervisory training in how to
"career path" employees, and succession planning to identify likely replacement
candidates for managerial positions. In addition, the organization needs an effective
performance appraisal system to provide candid feedback on the employee's current
performance and potential for advancement. Further, the organization needs a
strategic planning process and a means for communicating to employees the types of
KSAs that it will be needing in future workers based on the strategic direction the
firm is heading.
Apa jenis mekanisme dukungan yang diperlukan untuk membuat pekerjaan manajemen karir
diri?
Pertanyaan ini dijawab sebagian dalam kesimpulan untuk kasus ini. Mekanisme termasuk
self assessment, lokakarya perencanaan karir, pelatihan pengawasan bagaimana "jalur karir"
karyawan, dan perencanaan suksesi untuk mengidentifikasi calon pengganti mungkin untuk
posisi manajerial. Selain itu, organisasi membutuhkan sistem penilaian kinerja yang efektif
untuk memberikan umpan balik yang jujur pada kinerja saat karyawan dan potensi untuk
kemajuan. Selanjutnya, organisasi perlu proses perencanaan strategis dan sarana untuk
berkomunikasi dengan karyawan jenis ksas bahwa hal itu akan membutuhkan pekerja masa
depan berdasarkan arah strategis perusahaan sedang menuju
Both of these perspectives, objective and subjective, focus on the individual and
assume that people have control over their destinies and that they can manipulate
opportunities in order to maximize the success and satisfaction derived from their
careers.
Both perspectives assume that HR activities should recognize career stages and assist
employees with the development tasks they face at each stage.
Traditionally, careers tended to evolve in the context of one or two firms and to
progress in linear stages, as one moved upward through the hierarchy of positions in
an organization.
Today, however, it seems appropriate to consider a new model, as more careers tend
to be cyclical in nature. That is, they involve periodic cycles of skill apprenticeship,
mastery, and reskilling.
Lateral, rather than upward movement, often constitutes career development, and
cross-functional experience is essential to multiskilling and continued employability.
In this new world, the ultimate goal is psychological success, the feeling of pride and
personal accomplishment that comes from achieving ones most important goals in
life, be they achievement, family happiness, inner peace, or something else.
There is little, if any, agreement about whether career stages are linked to age or not.
A career clock begins at different points for different individuals, based on their
backgrounds and experiences.
The lesson for managers is that all models of adult life-cycle stages should be viewed
as broad guidelines rather than as exact representations of reality.
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The fact is that responsibility for career development ultimately belongs to each
individual.
Unfortunately, few individuals are technically prepared (and willing) to handle this
assignment.
Very few college programs specifically address the problems of managing ones own
career.
You cannot manage your career unless you have a macro, long-range objective.
View every potential employer and position in terms of your long-range career goal.
Try to recognize when you and your organization have outlived your utility for each
other.
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Leave your current organization on good terms and not under questionable
circumstances.
Dont leave your current job until youve landed another one.
Up to this point it may sound as though managing your career is all one-sided. This is
not true; the organization should be a proactive force in this process.
Organizations must think and plan in terms of shorter employment relationships. This
can be done, as it often is in professional sports, through fixed-term employment
contracts with options for renegotiation and extension.
A second strategy for organizations is to invest adequate time and energy in job
design and equipment.
The most persuasive reason for helping employees manage their own careers is the
need to remain competitive. Such efforts can enhance a companys stability by
developing more purposeful, self-assured employees.
One of the most challenging career management problems organizations face today is
that of the dual-career couple.
Families in which both parents are working have become the majority among married
couples with children.
There may be an interaction effect that compounds the problems and stresses of each
separate career. This implies that career planning and development may be
meaningless unless an employees role as a family member also is considered,
particularly when this role conflicts with work activities.
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Firms are more likely to offer such benefits when work and family issues are
important to senior HR executives and when the executives believe that failure to
offer the benefits will detract from the ability of the organization to perform well in
the marketplace.
Families nationwide pay an average of about 7.5 percent of their annual pretax
income for child care.
Here are some reasons why employer-supported child care will continue to grow:
Dual-career couples now compose a preponderance of the workforce.
There has been a significant rise in the number of single parents, over half of
whom use child-care facilities.
More career-oriented women are arranging their lives to include motherhood and
professional goals.
Other variations include centers located in office and industrial parks for use by all
tenants, and centers sponsored by networks of businesses.
Providing family benefits promotes a dedicated, loyal workforce among people who
benefit directly from the policies, as well as from those who do not.
However, dont expect that a day-care center or a flexible schedule will keep women
managers from leaving corporations. They may be quite willing to throw corporate
loyalty to the wind if they arent getting adequate opportunities for career growth and
job satisfaction.
Socialization refers to the mutual adaptation of the new employee and the new
employer to one another.
This enhances the newcomers commitment, job satisfaction, job performance, and
desire for personal control.
Mentoring
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Organizations should actively promote such relationships and provide sufficient time
for mentors and new hires (or promising young executives) to meet on a regularly
scheduled basis.
Evidence indicates that a new employees satisfaction with the mentoring relationship
has a greater impact on job and career attitudes than whether the mentoring is formal
or informal.
Conversely, bad mentoring may be destructive, and worse than no mentoring at all.
The mentors role is to be a culture carrier, to teach new hires the ropes, to
provide candid feedback on how they are being perceived by others, and to serve as a
confidential sounding board for dealing with work-related problems.
If successful, mentor relationships can help reduce the inflated expectations that
newcomers often have about organizations; can relieve the stress experienced by all
new hires; and improve the newcomers chances for survival and growth in the
organization.
General Electric uses reverse mentoring, in which older managers meet with
younger subordinates to learn about the Internet and electronic commerce (ecommerce).
Dont be afraid to seek out different mentors at different career stages and levels in an
effort to build a diverse portfolio of mentors.
The positive impact of initial job challenge upon later career success and retention
has been found many times in a wide variety of settings.
The characteristics of the first supervisor are critical. He or she must be personally
secure; unthreatened by the new subordinates training, ambition, and energy; and
able to communicate company norms and values.
Beyond that, the supervisor should ideally be able to play the roles of coach, feedback
provider, trainer, role model, and protector in an accepting, esteem-building manner.
By reassessing their priorities so early in life, this generation could ultimately lead far
more balanced lives than their parents did.
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Nevertheless, the following issues may arise at some point between the ages of 35
and 55:
An awareness of advancing age and an awareness of death
An awareness of bodily changes related to aging
Knowing how many career goals have been or will be attained
A search for new life goals
A marked change in family relationships
A change in work relationships (one is now more of a coach than a novice or
rookie)
A growing sense of obsolescence at work
A feeling of decreased job mobility and increased concern for job security
Everyone experiences career transitions, but such transitions need not morph into full
blown crises. The key is to recognize the warning signs, such as:
Depression
A stagnant marriage
An unsatisfying career
Heavy emotional baggage from years past
While career success traditionally has been defined in terms of upward mobility, more
and more leading corporations are encouraging employees to step off the fast track
and convincing them that they can find rewards and happiness in lateral mobility.
While there are fewer middle managers at medium and large companies, their jobs are
more important because they focus less on supervision and more on decision making.
>From 2002 to 2012, many firms will face shortages of managers with leadership and
technical knowledge (such as engineers with MBA degrees) and those with expertise
in management and computer matters.
The rapid growth of technology and the accelerating development of new knowledge
require that a person in midlife make some sort of change for her or his own survival.
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Not everyone who goes through this period in life experiences problems, but
everyone does go through the transition. Some are better equipped to cope than are
others.
The older people are, the more control they feel in their work, finances, and
marriages, but the less control they feel over health, children, and sex.
Onestrategyistotrainmidcareeremployeestodevelopyoungeremployees.
Animportantpsychologicalneedatmidcareeristobuildsomethinglasting,
somethingthatwillbeapermanentcontributiontoonesorganizationorprofession.
Anotherstrategyforcopingwithmidcareerproblemsistodealwithorprevent
obsolescence.Thiscanbedonethrough:
Challenging initial jobs
Periodic changes in assignments, projects, or jobs
Work climates that contain frequent, relevant communications
Rewards that are closely tied to performance
Participative styles of leadership.
Threepersonalcharacteristicstendtobeassociatedwithlowobsolescence:
High intellectual ability
High self-motivation
Personal flexibility (lack of rigidity)
Thebrightsideofallthis?
Because of increased competition for fewer jobs, the quality of middle managers
should increase.
Those unwilling to wait for promotions in large corporations may become
entrepreneurs and start their own businesses.
Others may readjust their life and career goals, and attempt to satisfy their needs
for achievement, recognition, and personal growth off the job.
After20yearsonthejob,mostmanagershadgivenuptheirearlydreams,andmany
couldnotevenrememberhowhightheyhadaspiredinthefirstplace.
Midlifewasindeedacrisistosomeofthemanagers,butnottothemajority.
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Itispossibletomovethroughthemiddleyearsoflifewithoutreevaluationofones
goalsandlife.Butitisprobablyhealthiertodevelopaneworrevisedgameplan
duringthisperiod.
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Longevityincreasedby27yearsinthe20thcentury.Theresult:anarmyofhealthy,
over65,unemployedadults.
Legally,theeliminationofmandatoryretirementatanyagehasmadethisissueeven
moresignificant.
Managerscanexpectfeweryoungerworkersandmoreolderworkers.
Inshort,thebabyboomofthepostwarperiodwillbecometherockingchairboom
oftheearly21stcentury.
Agestereotypesareanunfortunateimpedimenttothecontinuedgrowthand
developmentofworkersovertheageof55.
Herearesomecommonmythsaboutage,alongwiththefacts:
Myth. Older workers are less productive than younger workers.
Fact. Age and job performance are generally unrelated.
Myth. It costs more to prepare older workers for a job.
Fact. Studies show that mental abilities, such as verbal, numerical, and reasoning
skills, remain stable into the seventies.
Myth. Older workers are absent more often because of age-related infirmities
and above-average rates of illness.
Fact. Older workers tend to be absent less frequently, at least in non-illness
situations, but the duration of the absences that do take place tends to be longer.
Myth. Older workers have an unacceptably high rate of accidents on the job.
Fact. Persons aged 55 and over had only 9.7 percent of all workplace injuries;
among healthy workers aged 2375, age was not associated with increased
accidents and illnesses at work; regardless of length of experience, the younger
the employee, the higher the accident rate.
Myth. Older workers do not get along well with other employees.
Fact. Owners of small and large businesses alike agree that older employees
bring stability and relate well.
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Myth. The cost of employee benefits outweighs any other possible benefits from
hiring older workers.
Fact. True, when older people get sick, the illness is often chronic and requires
repeated doctors visits and hospitalization. However, the costs of health care for
an older worker are lower than those for a younger, married worker with several
children.
Myth. Older people are inflexible about the type of work they will perform.
Fact. A study found that 55 percent of those under age 50, 63 percent of those
aged 5059, and 78 percent of those over age 60 changed industries.
Myth. Older people do not function well if constantly interrupted.
Fact. Neither do younger people.
Implications of the Aging Workforce for HRM
Not all older workers are model employees, just as not all older workers fit traditional
stereotypes.
We know what the future labor market will look like in general terms:
Both the demand for and the supply of older workers will continue to expand.
To capitalize on these trends, one approach is to recruit workers from among those
individuals who would otherwise retire.
Make the job more attractive than retirement in order to keep the employee who
would otherwise need replacing.
A second approach is to survey the needs of older workers and, where feasible, adjust
HRM practices and policies to accommodate these needs:
Keep records on why employees retire and on why they continue to work.
Implement flexible work patterns and options.
Where possible, redesign jobs to match the physical capabilities of the aging
worker.
Develop career paths that consider the physical capabilities of workers at various
stages of their careers.
Provide opportunities for retraining in technical and managerial skills.
Examine the suitability of performance appraisal systems as bases for
employment decisions affecting older workers.
Despite the encouraging findings presented earlier, research has indicated no overall
improvement in attitudes toward older workers over a 40-year period.
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For their part, older workers say their biggest problem is discrimination by would-be
employers who underestimate their skills.
To change this trend, workers and managers alike need to know the facts about older
workers, so that they do not continue to espouse myths.
CAREER MANAGEMENT:
ORGANIZATIONS FOCUSING ON THEIR OWN MAINTENANCE AND GROWTH
Ultimately, it is top managements responsibility to develop and implement a costeffective career planning program.
The program must fit the nature of the business, its competitive employment
practices, and the current (or desired) organizational structure.
Career paths represent logical and possible sequences of positions that could be
held, based on an analysis of what people actually do in an organization.
Data derived from HRM research are needed to define career paths in this manner.
Once this is done, the next task is to identify career paths within an among the job
families and to integrate the overall network of these paths into a single career
system.
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From the organizations point of view, there are four broad types of internal moves:
Up
Down
Over
Out
Promotions
Promoted employees usually assume greater responsibility and authority in return for
higher pay, benefits, and privileges.
Organizations must continue to live with those who are bypassed for promotion.
Research indicates that these individuals often feel they have not been treated
fairly, their commitment decreases, and their absenteeism increases.
To minimize defensive behavior, it is critical that the procedures used for promotion
decisions be acceptable, valid, and fair to the unsuccessful candidates. Further,
emphasize the greater merits of the promoted candidates, relative to those who were
not promoted.
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In unionized situations, the collective bargaining contract will determine the relative
importance given to seniority and ability in promotion decisions.
Management tends to emphasize ability, while unions favor seniority.
If one candidate is clearly a superior performer relative to others, many contracts
will permit promotion on this basis regardless of seniority.
A further issue concerns promotion from within versus outside the organization.
Professional Service Firms (PSFs) trade mainly on the knowledge of their human
capitalemployees and producer-ownersto develop and deliver solutions to client
problems.
It also leaves career paths inside the firm relatively clear by exiting those not elected
to the top jobs, thereby helping to attract ambitious entrants who do not want to be
stuck in a promotion logjam.
However, up-or-out also involves losing talented and knowledgeable staff in whom
the firm will have invested not only formal training (and possibly signing bonuses),
but also the time and effort associated with mentoring and developing them.
In general, the more that firms value their knowledge base and see it as a source of
competitive advantage, or where the knowledge loss represents a competitive threat,
the greater the costs of losing that knowledge that exiting unsuccessful candidates
take with them.
There are costs to this strategy as well, in the form of the need for higher-powered
incentives linked to the performance of the firm for those in permanent career
positions (to reduce the risk of shirking or loafing) and higher compensation to attract
and retain good-quality staff.
Where firms perceive their knowledge base as distinctive and a source of competitive
advantage, a promotion system like up-or-out may be less appropriate.
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Demotions
In either case, careful planning, documentation, and concern for the employee should
precede such moves.
Reduced mobility, like leave of absence, tends to retard womens salary progression
relative to that of similarly situated men.
Fully 81 percent of all relocation refusals are due to family and spousal issues.
For the employee, relocation often means increased prestige and income. However,
the costs of moving and the complications resulting from upsetting routines, loss of
friends, and changing schools and jobs are borne by the family.
Uprooted families often suffer from loss of credentials as well. They do not enjoy the
built-in status that awaits the employee at the new job; they must start from scratch.
Wives now account for about 25 percent of corporate moves, up from 5 percent in
1980.
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Mobil Corporation finds that a man generally will follow his wife only if she earns at
least 25 percent to 40 percent a year more than he does.
Research has shown that transfers produce little short-term impact on the mental or
physical health of children.
Transferred employees who are promoted estimate that it will take them a full 9
months to get up to speed in their new posts. Lateral transfers take an average of 7.8
months.
The actual time taken to reach competency varies with (1) the degree of similarity
between the old and new jobs and (2) the amount of support from peers and
superiors at the new job.
To reduce this downtime, companies are taking some unusual steps, such as:
Replacing a relocated spouses income for 60 days
Installing a computerized job-posting system that tracks its managerial vacancies
nationwide
Developing frequency standards whereby no manager can be relocated more than
once in 2 years or three times in 10 years.
Setting up one-stop rotational programs at its larger facilities to replace what used
to be four stints of 6 months each at different plants over a 2-year training period.
The financial implications of relocation are another major consideration; the average
cost of moving a home-owning employee now exceeds $60,000.00.
Organizations are well aware of these social and financial problems and in many
cases they are responding by providing improved support systems, including:
Special online relocation programs
Intranets
House-hunting on the Internet
Electronic data interchange (EDI) that lets relocation professionals keep track of
every detail of every move.
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Its becoming clear that corporate cutbacks were not an oddity of the 1990s but rather
are likely to persist through this decade as well.
Management policies must consider the impacts on those who leave, on those who
stay, on the local community, and on the company.
For laid-off workers, efforts should be directed toward a rapid, successful, and orderly
career transition.
Psychological stages of career transition include anger, grief, depression, and family
stress.
How long does it take on average to find a new job? The older they were, the fewer
interviews they got, and the longer it took them to find a job.
How much longer? Compared to a 35- to 40-year-old job seeker, it took almost 25
percent longer for a 46- to 50-year-old, and 65 percent longer for a 50- to 60-year-old.
It is important that those who remain retain the highest level of loyalty, trust,
teamwork, motivation, and productivity possible; this requires a good deal of face-toface, candid, open communication between senior management and survivors.
Although layoffs are intended to reduce costs, some costs may in fact increase.
Direct costs include:
Severancepay,payinlieuofnotice
Accruedvacationandsickpay
Supplementalunemploymentbenefits
Outplacement
Pensionandbenefitpayoffs
Administrativeprocessingcosts
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Recruitingandemploymentcostofnewhires
Trainingandretraining
Increaseinunemploymenttaxrate
Potentialchargesofunfairdiscrimination
Lowmoraleamongremainingemployees
Heightenedinsecurityandreducedproductivity
One option is to initiate a program of job sharing. While no one is laid off, everyones
workweek and pay are reduced.
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Retirements
For some employees, early retirement is a possible alternative to being laid off.
Early retirement programs are intended to provide incentives to terminate; they are
not intended to replace regular retirement benefits.
The keys to success are to identify, before the incentives are offered, exactly which
jobs are targeted for attrition and to understand the needs of the employees targeted to
leave.
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Resignations
The National Quit Ratethe percentage of people currently unemployed who left
their jobs voluntarilyaveraged 1.7 percent per month in 2004.
Impulsive quitters quit on the spot.
Comparison quitters rationally evaluate alternative jobs and are relative free of
strong negative emotions toward their former employers.
Preplanned quitters plan in advance to quit at a specific time in the future.
Conditional quitters hold the view I will quit as soon as I get another job offer
that meets certain conditions.
While the motives for voluntary resignation may vary, the rules for how to do it have
not.
Leave gracefully and responsibly, stressing the value of your experience in the
company
Give plenty of notice
Work hard to complete all your outstanding obligations
Consider sending your former boss a thank-you note, focusing on the positive
aspects of your work there
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SELF-RELIANCE:
KEY TO CAREER MANAGEMENT
Corporate career management programs often include one or more of the following
support mechanisms:
Self-assessment
Career planning
Supervisory training
Succession planning
SUMMARY
This requires the development of career management systems based on career paths
defined in terms of employee behaviors.
It also involves the management of patterns of career movement up, down, over, and
out.
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10-5. A friend of yours is considering accepting a new job offer but cant figure out
how to tell his current boss hes leaving, or what steps to take. What advice
would you give him?
I would advise him/her to plan a graceful exit. First, meet with the immediate
supervisor and explain that while you have enjoyed your current position and the
opportunities it presented, youve decided to pursue a new opportunity with another
company. Do this at least two weeks before you plan to depart, and assure him/her
that you plan to complete your obligations before you leave. Also offer to train your
replacement, should they arrive before you leave. After youve left, send the
supervisor a note thanking them for the opportunity to work with them.
10-6. What does the concept of loyalty mean in todays world of work?
Student answers will vary, depending on their viewpoint. Sample answer:
The concept of loyalty depends on which viewpoint you are taking. From the
companys viewpoint, they want employees who have a solid and stable track record
with other companies. They are often not willing to invest time and money in people
who frequently switch jobs.
From an employee viewpoint, workers are often most loyal to companies that are
known for not laying off workers with every dip in market share. Further, they want
to work for companies that invest time and money in training their employees and in
promoting from within.
10-7. Identify some telltale signs that its time to quit your current job.
The primary signs are depression, a stagnant marriage, an unsatisfying career, and
emotional baggage from years past. Although not mentioned in the text, other signs
can include boredom, restlessness, disturbed sleep patterns, frequent headaches,
changes in temperament, and weight fluctuations.
10-8. Working in small groups, develop a corporate policy that specifies how training,
performance appraisal, and reward systems might integrate career-planning
considerations.
Shorter employment relationships imply that training will have to be more effective
more quickly, performance feedback will have to be more focused, and reward
systems will have to be short-run oriented. All of these steps may create long-run
problems, and career planning tends to be longer run in its orientation. Therefore, if
organizations want to focus on the long run, they will need to treat employees as if
theyre going to be around awhile (i.e., train, appraise, and reward them
appropriately).
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