How Individuals Construct their Career Stories? A Conceptual Review on Individual Career Management Behaviors

Abstract

A career is, seen as a central part of an individual’s life in that it contributes to the development of one’s identity, and it is suggested that individuals, to a larger extent today than before, are looking for personal development and growth in their working environments and careers (Baruch & Budhwar, 2006). This increasing emphasis placed on individual’s career related needs can be argued to constitute new challenges for employers with regard to the choice and delivery of human resource management (HRM) activities such as career management. The death of traditional onward and upward, centrally managed career lead to the emergence of 3 major concepts, ‘career self-management’, ‘employability’, and ‘marketability’. The responsibility of career development shifted more towards employees. So in this changing career scenario, the role of the organization in understanding and managing the career development practices of individuals became highly relevant. This paper is a qualitative research study which deals with the changing nature of careers and it primarily addresses various individual career management practices in the changing organizational career context and its major antecedents. The study is intended to develop a New model for career self-management. The article concludes by considering the implications for future research.

Keywords:  Careers, Career Self-Management, Organizational Support, Career Goal