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Good morning, morning So, today our topic is career planning. Interesting topic is it
not? Because during our work lives may be 30 years, 35 years, 40 years. May be we all
aspire when we start our career to progress in our career, and today’s topic will tell
you that to progress in your career, alright you cannot just leave it to fate and destiny.
There has to be some amount of planning which has to get into the process to see that your
career at the end of it. You consider as having been fulfilled. So, to that extent to the
individual that is each one of us, you and me. Career planning is indeed a very important
topic for the human resource management, and therein we have a responsibility as managers
within companies to not only manage our own careers, but also to try and plan the careers
of people within the organization in general, and in particular people within our own departments
people who report to us directly.
So, we start with the question, it is a provocative question, and that is WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY
is career planning? Alright, is it really the responsibility of the organization? Yes.
What do you think? WHOSE RESPONSIBILTY is it to plan your career? Is it organization’s
responsibility or yours? Well in the past, many companies assumed this responsibility.
Assume the responsibility for developing and planning career paths and growth opportunities
for their employees. The company determined to what position and at what speed people
within their organization would advance. So, you see it was very much accepted by the employer
and the organizations that career planning for their own employees would be part and
parcel of their own responsibility. However this approach cannot work nowadays.
This worked reasonably well in the corporate climate that we had at that time. Now what
do we mean by corporate climate? Well, yes, environment alright. So, the corporate environment
which prevail then and what was that environment? We have heard of lifetime employment. Have
you heard of that? Many organizations including many good companies, there the organization
more or less guaranteed that once you join the organization and perform reasonably well,
you would be in a position to stay there, grow there, and retire at the end of your
career in the same organization. That was a kind of climate and why was this climate
there? Yes because the rate and pace of growth in industry and business, the type of organizations
and the type of business environment that we saw was what, was relatively relatively
stable.
So, organization climate, when, let us say, yester years was relatively stable and relatively
certain. What do I mean by that, relatively certain? That means predictable, predictable.
You see organizations and managers within organizations code with a reasonable level
of certainty plan. Plan, make strategic plans, make annual plans, budget for their business
budget for their cost, and all within reasonably predictable. Alright, situational scenario
for what has happened today, so this is yester year and what has happened today, yes, yes,
yeah. Today, we have entered an area of, all right,
shall we say business and we have entered a time in the business continuum, where everywhere
we see uncertainty, and why do we see the uncertainty, because change hasn’t there
been a change, enormous change, and much of it technological driven. Is it not? The IT
industry is fast changing. In fact it has changed already considerably the nature of
business, the opportunities which are there, the types of businesses that are with us now,
and the type of businesses that will come in in the future bringing with them opportunities
as well as the threats. These are unknown, we have entered into a dark unchartered sea,
no maps.
So therefore, predictability is now not there, and therefore what is happening? Corporate
disruptions of the last decade, disruptions plans are not working out. People are continued
to do business in the same way, or trying to do that in the absence of better, making
the same types of plans but the paradigm has changed, so the plans do not work. There are
disruptions and this approach of employee career development is therefore now rendered
largely workable or largely non workable, non workable, any questions?
Ok, so remember the key words. Yesterday if I say, sir you had got relative stability,
relative certainty in the business scenario, and therefore you could reasonably plan into
what would happen in at least, let us say the 5 years, today that is gone. So, the very
underpinnings of your planning process has been swept away, therefore as in many other
areas of business even in the area of planning the careers of your employees,
you have to try certain new approaches. So, acquisitions, divestitures, rapid growth and
downsizing have left many companies unable to deliver on the implicit career promises
made to employees. Now what are these implicit promises? When
we take employees, even when we took them you know in the yester years, did we make
a promise that we will plan your career. ? No, we did not. So that explicit promise it will
not part of the employment contract, but at the same time did not an employee joining
a good company, highly reputed company, as we call it, did they not have expectations
and the expectations were implicit. It was unstated may be, but it was very much there
it was a powerful force and that expectation was now that I’ve got entry into a good
company, if I work hard, I do not have to worry about changing this job, and I do not
have to worry about my career growth. Everything is secure, now I can concentrate my efforts
on my work and not worry about my own career planning.
Ok, that is implicit, and that implicit, alright, promise was there. Whether we stated it explicitly
or not, and so what has happened you as managers, and we as managers sitting in organizations
of today and those which would be there in the future. We are embarrassed. Are we not
in a sense, what is it downsizing we talked about. Downsizing. It is a euphemism. It is
a nice word to say that you are asking people to go away, people who had joined you with
the implicit expectation of spending their lifetime working, lifetime within your company.
You are asking them to go away. That is downsizing. It is embarrassing in fact, it is downright
painful. So, painful position of having to renege career mobility opportunities.
Renege means, what renege is to go back on your word that implicit promise. We as managers
to the employee, the company is who, what is a face of the company. The manager, the
management of the company, the people who form the management, and they are in the painful
position of reneging on career mobility opportunities, that means where the career would have lead
the employees. But, today we cannot really guarantee that our employees had come to expect
it. In some cases employees who expect career
growth cannot even be guaranteed. The very jobs that is what downsizing and rightsizing
is all about cannot guarantee the job. I mean where’s the question of trying to make career
plans for that stay in the company, that implicitly implies that they are there for a long innings
and you cannot guarantee that.
So, if that approach is not going to work, we as HR managers, what are the approaches
can we explore, and THE NEW APPROACH TO CAREER PLANNING, alright may have to do with that.
Although the primary and final responsibility of career development rests with each employee
of the company, alright, we have to somehow tune their minds, and their expectations to
this principle. Because in the past, there was kind of a dependency. There was a kind
of expectation that the career planning, the career paths would be looked after by the
employer. So, although the primary and final responsibility
of career development rest with each employee the company has complimentary responsibilities.
So, two things we have to do. A. Let it be known. In whatever, we feel is a best way
in our organizations to each employee that look here. You are in our company, this is
a good company, but remember the primary responsibility of your growth and development and fulfillment
of your career aspirations depends on you primarily. But, we do have a complementary
role alright and we will fulfill that, but the lead the initiative has to be taken by
you this approach is a new approach, and this has to be taken the company is responsible
for what then, for communicating to the employees, where it wants to go and how it plans to get
which means what it means the corporate strategy. So, the employee must understand that the
responsibility primarily for his or her career growth is his or hers, but at the same time,
the company says that we will help you by telling you about the company. Because we
as management, we know what are the company’s plans, how the company is performing, to what
extent the market is changing, and our plans would succeed or not succeed. All such matters,
we will tell you, because they will have a great bearing on what you plan for your own
career, right, so that is the new approach to career plan.
One important contribution a company can make to each employees career development is to
provide him or her with honest performance feedback, so we said a little while ago, that
responsibility for the new approach.
New Approach: So, Employers responsibility. Employers responsibility we said, first strategic
plans, business plans, business performance. So, this is focusing on the company, and second
is feedback of the employees performance. So, this is employee focus.
So, honest performance feedback about current job performance, and having received that
from the employer, the employees in turn are responsible for knowing what their skills
and capabilities are, and what assistance they would need from their employers to improve
that to develop on that.
So that they can perform better and come up to the expectations and grow, and thereafter
the employee therefore are responsible to ask for that assistance and prepare themselves
to assume new responsibility. So, the new approach to career management
by companies can be summed up as assigned employees, the responsibility explained to
them of managing their own careers, and then provide the support they need to do it. Any
questions at this stage? So, I can see that many of you are thinking that one more responsibility
is added to us, to manage our own careers. Even if you join a very good company at the
start of our careers you’re very happy if on a campus interview, we just get our MBA
degree and we get a very good job , but our worry for our career does not end there, may
be it starts there, ok.
So as HR managers you have to give support to the employee, feedback and assistance for
them to improve, and plan their careers. So, SUPPORT MECHANISMS FOR CAREER PLANNING. The
word career remember can be viewed from a number of different perspectives. A career
is a sequence of positions occupied by a person during the course of a work lifetime, fine.
Now the perspective which is being talked about here , if there is a OBJECTIVE career,
this is the objective career. From another perspective a career consist
of a sense of where one is going in one’s work life. This is called the subjective career.
So there are two, objective career and subjective career. These are two perspectives and this
is held together by the self concept of
what comprises of perceived talents and abilities. Your own self conception, basic values, what
are each individual, basic values, career motives and career needs. You see, this is
where the second perspective is very important, for you and her the values may be different.
The self concept of what makes you happy in a career may be different. So, motives may
be different and your basic values will dictate what would be your motives, and what would
be your, shall we say coefficient of satisfaction, or the satisfaction index. When at the end
of the career, you take stock and say when and had this 30 years, 35 years career, was
I successful? Each one of you will measure that success in different terms with different
yardsticks, so, this is what is known as the subjective perspective.
So, both these perspectives OBJECTIVE and SUBJECTIVE focus on the individual. So, you
come back to the individual being responsible for career planning, and the framework in
which we plan is the yardstick that we set up. The reference point, the check point - that
we set up alright for ourselves, and they are different from those of other people.
So, both these perspective objective and subjective focus on the individual. Both assume that
people have some degree of control over their destinies. Think about that. This is an implicit
assumption that each one has some degree of control over their destinies, and can manage
opportunities in order to maximize success and satisfaction which they derived from their
careers. And as you know, you studied this in human
behavior class that there are different types of personalities. Some people have what we
called internal locus of control. Remember and what is that what typifies that for a
personality that they are in control of their own lives, and their destiny and the other
way around some people and have an external locus of control, and to them they have very
little control over their lives, and hence their careers. So these come back to the individual
subjective focus on the individual any questions.
There’s another assumption the assumption is that HR activities should recognize stages
. The career has 7 STAGES and the HR activities should not only recognize, but assist the
development tasks they face at every stage. They means the employees face at every stage
in the career. Career planning is important because consequence
of career success or failure are linked closely to each individual’s self concept which
we just discussed about that is perceived talents and abilities, basic values career
motives and needs, alright and identify and satisfaction with career life. So, career
planning is important because of the consequence of career success or failure are linked closely
to each individual’s, alright, self concept identity and satisfaction with career life.
Any questions?
Ok. So, having said that let us see, do we sit back and wait for some of our careers
to be planned as it comes we played by the year. No, we say PROACTIVE CAREER PLANNING.
So, our career cannot be left to chance, instead in the evolving world of work, it should be
shaped and managed more by the INDIVIDUAL, than by the ORGANIZATION.
So, imagine an analogy. You have a potter sitting at his wheel and there’s a clay
which is the career and the potter’s wheel is turning and the potter with his skilled
hands is shaping, alright, and molding, and managing, alright, to make that object or
the article which is there on the wheel. Can you visualize that? A potter’s wheel making
a bowl, or a , alright. So, it is the potter which is you, you have to be proactive and
manage to shape the career. Traditionally, careers tended to evolve through one or two
firms and to progress in linear stages, as one moved upward through the hierarchy of
positions in an organization
Now, what is this saying, that traditional approach, alright, to planning was Traditional
approach was one or two firms. Say you spend in firm A the first 10 years, then you go
to firm B, because you get a opportunity, better pay, better position, and may be you
spend 30 years or 25 years right and at the end of 35 or 40 years, you retire, and what
else, so number of jobs few and the growth is linear.
Linear and distinct from Non-Linear. May be a non-linear growth is something which will
like this, or may be a growth. So this is time, and this is, let us say promotions and
pay. This is what you are saying as growth which means responsibility because these two
are tied up to responsibility. So, maybe you could see a career like this, these are non-linear.
All these are non-linear. So, what is the concept that they are trying
to say here. They are bringing out the same concept that traditional careers have come
to an end. You cannot think of them any more. Why? Because this one or two firms concept
has gone. Why has it gone? Down -sizing. Right sizing, mergers, acquisitions, the company
that you joined today may not exist there tomorrow. So, where is the question of your
not changing jobs? So, there are a host of reasons arising out
of the unstable environment that makes this, alright, an anachronism, one or two terms,
forget about it. May be in a career of 35 years, there may be 7 or 8 or 10 firms that
you have to join nimbly, go from one firm to the other and progress is not linear, therefore
it may so happen and you have to be prepared for it, that you have come up to this point,
and then suddenly, alright, there is a downsizing, and you’re part of that, and then what happens
thereafter, this is where you may get the next job, so be prepared for dips.
Again, there is an opportunity which comes from here, because you have got this as a
parking job. Get an opportunity, and you go there, that means had you been in this same
path, you would have been here. So, you have made this gain. So, there are down size There
are the ups, and there are the downs. Here you went down in your career objective, if
you follow this traditional path you would have been here, instead you are here, here
you gained from Traditional. You see you came up here. So, there are ups,
and there are downs, and when you when you think about it, now you see is very very apparent,
that it takes a lot of planning for your proactive planning, to be first prepared for this ups
and downs, and then to equip yourselves with skills, alright, knowledge, ok. But first
your attitude, you have to change that attitude, and accept that these conditions have changed,
otherwise you will be be mourning your fate and getting depressed. So, acceptance that
things have changed is a first requirement.
So, hierarchical position in an organization, but, today as we have just explained given
the disruptions caused by the downsizing, restructuring, technological advancements,
and global competition, careers span MULTIPLE ORGANIZATIONS. So first tenet number one that
we have to accept is don’t expect your career to be only in one or two organization. Accept
the fact it’ll be multi organizations. What does that mean for you?
Every organization that you join, new organization, yes, brings with its own challenges for you.
You go into another environment. Don’t you? You go into another culture in the new organization.
You face new challenges. Do you not? Because in your old organization you had established
your credentials, so to say and your credibility as a good performer, a fine manager, but when
you join another organization, isn’t that an uncertainty, because there’s a fresh
challenge. With the new set of people, new bosses and then the new job within the new
culture, once again, you have to establish your credentials. Is it not?
So, there is a tension for you and when you go for multiple organizations which will happen
during your careers, you have this tension compounded, and how you deal with this tension,
alright, gives you success or failure in your careers. If you deal with it in such a manner
that it becomes a constructive tension, whereby you perform better, then you can convert a
so called threat into an opportunity, and progress better unity than you would have.
If you continued in the traditional career path with one company or two companies, all
right, where after sometime you have the complacency syndrome setting in, you have a steady career
progress. May be you have a halo effect. You are a good performer. No one challenges that
now all that has got. Ok, so multiple organizations are Non-Linear
as we have discussed, any questions at this stage? So it says, here they are BOUNDARY
LESS, and tend to be characterized by features such as the following. What are we talking
about here? Organization business environment of today, and into the future, boundary less,
portable knowledge, and skills and abilities, across multiple firms.
What is this portable knowledge? Portable, well portable is something you can easily
carry away. Is it not? Pack it up, carry it away like your briefcase. And portable knowledge
skills and ability that means you have to have today multiple skills. Alright, which
are not connected and rooted to one organization that means there is special machinery which
only this organization has others, do not have it. You are an expert in this special
machine operation. That’s not good enough. You have to have
an expertise in machine operations. So that you can carry away in your briefcase that
knowledge if you leave this organization. That if this is a special machine and these
are the principle operations. These principles are my portable knowledge. I take these away
go to another company, where they have another special purpose machine, use this same principles
and work that machine well. So, this is just an analogy conceptual. That is the kind of
knowledge which you have to develop today. That is the kind of skill you have to develop.
Let us name one skill which you can call a portable skill, name one.
Yes, that is right, computer knowledge. Computer knowledge working with a computer environment,
working on a computer platform, knowledge of that. Isn’t it portable? Because all
firms, all companies, that you go into you’ll have computers and if you have the basic knowledge
of computer operations, computer software, computer database, you’ll be able to use
that knowledge across multiple, so that is the kind of BOUNDARY LESS.
You go seamlessly from company to company without the travails and tribulations of trying
to learn the job again and again and again. So, personal identification with meaningful
work. So, you have to then identify for yourself certain areas may be niche of work which you
think you are an expert, and which you can carry away from organization to organization.
Remember when we join organizations, alright, usually say at first level, we join as trainees.
What does that means? That means we have a general education. We have a professional
degree. Let us say, but we are taken as trainees. Why? Because to induct and train you into
the special knowledge, the special skills which that organization has, and if you learn
that, and you are complacent, and you forget other portable knowledge and skills, then
you are going to pay a heavy price in your career. Because, now you not only have to
have those knowledge and skills for which that organization which you have joined trains
you, but you also have to develop other skills which are portable ok.
And personal identification with work that is, what are those knowledge and skills which
you as a person would like to develop and take away with you in your briefcase portable.
Next, on the job action learning. On the job action learning. So, the thought here is as
you are working, do not routinize your work. Every time you’re working, ask questions.
We have done this work or I have done it in this manner. This year is there any better
way to do it, so on the job action learning is to do with innovation being brought into
the job. Today it is important issue. Innovation is
not the responsibility with someone else, in some department of the company to manage
your own career, innovative thinking, innovative processes which are hidden and locked within
your own mind. You have to release this processes on your job and the formula is try and do
your job differently. So that it yields better results, each year that you’re doing the
same job if you are in the same job. Development and multiple networks of associates
and peer learning relationships: What does that mean? Yeah, networking. May be if you
are a software engineer , you have to network within your special expertise area. That is
other software engineers, peer learning relationships, other software engineers are working in different
companies, so you network with people doing similar jobs. What are the computer platform
they are working with? Your other colleagues who are also fewer engineers,
what are the type of applications they are dealing with? What are the kind of problems
they are facing? So development of multiple network of associates and peer learning relationships.
And then responsibility for managing one’s own career, we come back to it again. You
have to internalize that concept that I am now responsible for managing my own career.
Any questions?
Ok, So, WHAT IS CAREER SUCCESS? We say that a little while ago that each individual has
to more or less define what he or she thinks, all right, is considered by he or she as a
career success. Because there isn’t just one prototype which
fits everyone’s idea of a career success. Now you see here the old concept of organization
man of the 1950s or 60s, had a clear definition of success and a stable model for achieving
it, we’ve discussed this before. Today’s turbulent business world has forced
employees to explore alternative models of career success, clear. Question such as is
career success occupational? is it job satisfaction, is it growth and development of skills, yeah
these are a kind of questions which we have to ask , what is it, what is that framework
which you will define as success.
Is it successful movement through various life stages? Yeah, what is it? So, traditionally
career development and success were defined in terms of occupational advancement. You
join as a assistant engineer let us say, and then you are promoted after 2 or 3 years into
engineer, and then after 3 or 4 years into engineering executive, and then into a manager
and so on. So, it is occupational which is clear, and easy to measure.
Today, however it seems appropriate to consider a new model as more careers tend to be CYCLICAL
in nature. Now here is a new concept being introduced. Careers are not non linear or
not linear. They are non linear we have said that before. There can be breaks in the career.
There can be gains and there can be losses, ups and downs, but here is another concept
that it is cyclical in nature. This is another new model, that is they involve periodic cycles
of skill, apprenticeship, mastery and re skilling. What does that mean? It means you’re learning
process does not end. You are talking here of periodic cycles. So, this is time and this
is career path alright.
So, let us say you start here, and then you have a side rode at this point. Your career
changes. What are we trying to portray here? You have a career here, alright, and you come
up to 20 years, you start at age 22, and at age 42, you find that you’re more or less
got skills and knowledge etc. in an area where the business has disappeared.
Let us say, you started, alright, as a drilling engineer, alright, of oil field etcetera,
and let us take a hypothetical example. You find that energy which is alright solar energy
has taken over in the next 20 years of your career. No one uses oil anymore because it
pollutes the environment and you cannot renew it. You’ll deplete that source of energy.
Solar energy technology has advanced is cheaper, is cleaner and then what happens you as a
drilling oil field engineer. What happens to your career, alright, at half cycle, your
career is finished. So, what have you to do then? You still got
fifteen years of your career left or 20 years. May be you have to learn new skills, new knowledge.
Can you do it immediately? No May be the way you are drilling, all right, in your last
industry, may be certain portable skills that you had acquired could be applied into another
industry, and then you begin another cycle. So, what are we saying here? Periodic cycles
of skill, apprenticeship, mastery, and re skilling.
You have acquired some skills, but again when you join the new, you have, you are not a
master. You have to learn again and then after certain time, you have another situation.
Let us say after another 10 years, now you have 30 years, and now you retire. Does it
mean your career has stopped, because you are only 52 years old. Now, may be the portable
skills you have acquired, now both in this industry where you operate as well as that
next industry 20 years, here 10 years. You have picked up skills, and knowledge alright,
which are portable and which can be, let us say imparted into new people who are coming
up you know in educational institutions students. So, then you can start another career here
as an instructor. So, this career is instructor and may be you go 10 years here, till your
62, and then you decide that you’ll manage your own business portfolio, and you are not
going to work for anyone else you’re going to be self employed.
Now the concept here is instead of having a career which is in one skill, this is a
career you’ve to build on portable skills. Instead of having a career which is linear
or which is non linear, we have cyclical nature of career. That means you can migrate from
one career to another career. You can migrate from university, let us say into industry
from industry back to university which was not there in the past. Why? Because there
was no earthly reason for you to do it. Now that you’ve powerful reasons and the career
pattern which is being predicted now will be one for knowledge workers, basically cerebral
driven work. The second will be for people who have portable
knowledge and skills with they can carry easily, seamlessly, across organizational boundaries,
all right, in a certain domain they have that knowledge organizational boundaries, so that,
they can think of having cyclical careers instead of one linear career. Is that concept
acceptable to you or one wants, someone wants to debate that. Look at my own case. I had
a long career in two companies just two companies, but at the end of it, I went into the academic
line where again there is a kind of apprenticeship, there’re new skills, which we’ve to learn
alright and whatever we’ve experienced and carried away, alright, portable knowledge
from the previous career in industry, it can be applied in the same domain.
So, if you are in business and business teaching, so to an extent then it is a cyclical career,
and then may be from this, another cyclical career would be in consulting, where the same
knowledge which you carry, portable knowledge, across industries, boundary less to academia
from academia again across multiple industries does not consultant. Instead of one or two
industries where you gain this knowledge. So, is that example clear? This is the kind
of cyclical careers that you have to plan. You have to acquire those portable knowledge
and skills, alright, and in the process which ever employer that you are working with will
help you to do that alright. Carrying away portable knowledge and skills,
all right, seamlessly across organizational boundaries that means boundary less, laterally,
rather than upward movement. When I showed you the cycle, you see more or less, more
or less it is, lateral it is, not going up, it is not going up, more or less lateral.
often constitutes career development, lateral and cross national experience is essential
to multi skilling and continued employability. Now why cross national? Because the world
has become a global village right globalization. Late careers increasingly are defined in terms
of phased retirement, as I gave you the example that in in incase from teacher you can become
consultant right from consultant you can go and become developers of children. You know
that means you no longer teach in a high level institution, you can carry that knowledge
which you have gain into simple language alright and teach in schools, so phased retirement.
In this new world model the ultimate goal is PSYCHOLOGICAL SUCCESS. Very important.
Please internalize this concept that is the feeling of pride and personal accomplishment
that comes from achieving one’s most important goals in life, be it family happiness, inner
peace, or something else, ok, right. So, we will take a break and continue this topic,
alright, after a little while, thank you.