Organizational Career Development Theory: Weaving Individuals, Organizations, and Social Structures
Organizational career development theory highlights three different perspectives on career. First, and most commonly, organizations are seen as the context that constrains and enables individual careers. Second, careers may be valued as enhancing or limiting organizational performance and subject to talent management practices. Third, careers can be conceptualized as an ongoing process of interaction between individuals, organizations, and the broader social context. The move from a focus on organizational careers to self-driven, boundaryless careers in the 1990s overemphasized individual choice and individual responsibility. These ideas became normalized and prescriptive, leading to a divided workforce, with real choice available only to some categories of workers. The psychological contract between individual and organization was to a greater or lesser extent undermined. The responsibilities of the organization and the importance of contextual and structural factors had been relatively neglected. To move forward, a dualist opposition between structure and agency is best avoided. The future of organizational career development theory requires an understanding of individual agency, social context, and their interaction over time. The universality of concepts of career can be questioned. Abandoning attempts to find a single, dominating career theory allows us to recognize the richness of diverse perspectives.