Effective Career Management and Planning Essay

For individuals career management is one of the important tasks which should be arranged in order for theme to be employable, and successful in their work and life. This essay introduces terms career management, career planning and explain how these two tasks are linked together. Subsequently it also explain how to effectively manage careers. Lastly conclusion and explanation will be given on who is responsible for managing careers, as well as who should plan individuals career to improve effectiveness. There is many ways to describe career management. As it is described by American Management Association it is a cycle of events that enables individuals and companies to achieve their goals (HR Focus 1999). Good management of careers would preferably put employees in most profitable and competitive situation for the businesses, at the same time employees are required to understand what skills will help them to improve and develop in order to achieve rewards from work and personal life. There are two different career managements: organizational and individual (De Vos, A et. all 2008). Organizational career management is set to improve workers effectiveness, this is achieved by findings what workers want and helping them in achieving the goals, at the same time selecting the employees who deserve opportunities the most, in order to motivate them. Individual career management is effort which individual puts to improve career aspiration, it is also very important that employees, while satisfying their personal goals, also satisfy the goals of the organisation. In changing economy of 21st century, people are not able to remain in only one job for the duration of their life. As Handy (1976) said traditional careers are not compatible with new organisation structures. It is also proven by Guest and Mackenzie (2006) that the number of the opportunities of work promotion decreased which would make it more difficult for the employees to move up the ladder in their organisation (Newell 2000). Due to the changes in the organisations, and the fact that employees are not able to work for one employer for the duration of their career, puts more responsibilities for managing careers on the employees themselves in order to achieve their life ambitions. Career management in today’s world requires people to learn continuously for the duration of their career due to increasing amount of technology being used in day to day work. To be competitive in the work, employees have to be current with new technologies and skills, which will increase their employability. Another very important skills employees have to develop are relationships with colleagues and competitors, which will help in observation how the industry is changing, to be modern and competitive in the workplace. Psychological contract is a mutual obligation of employees and employers, this obligation can include promises and expectation from both parties of the contract. Over the years Psychological contract has changed dramatically due to changes in the economy. Psychological contract no longer gives job security, and mainly focuses on short term financial relationship (Atkinson, 2002). These changes put more responsibilities on employees and demand from them to be highly skilled, and marketable. Career planning is a part of career management which consist of activities which lead to achieving career goals, as well as finding their strength and weaknesses (Orpen 1994). Tasks are associated with exploring people’s interests and abilities; it also should include identifying new skills people want to develop. Career planning also involves drawing action plans and making sure the plans are realistic. Planning is one of the tasks which are compulsory to remain employed and competitive in employment market. Planning of career must include variety of strategies carried out in order for the individual to be successful. In order to develop a career plan individual have to go through four steps: self assessment which helps people identify their skills and qualities, research which is design to introduce individual to job from inside, decision making requires individual to choose one of the options available, and lastly taking actions such as looking for jobs as well as keeping in touch with the people in the field (Zigelstain, T). Each of these steps is design to help individual find his ideal career based on skills and attributes of individual. Research conducted by Orpen (1994) shows that the employees who plan and use different tactics are more successful in their careers even if the tactics do not work. The responsibility of managing and planning the careers for individuals lies between the employers and employees, mainly because employment is seen as a relationship between these two parties. It is very important that there are different tasks assign to this two parties in order for them to work effectively. Then again career management on the organization side helps empl oyee become more successful, encourages workers to identify what they want, it also support self-development (Barnet & Bradley 2007). Involvement of the organisation in career management brings confidence to an employee which makes them feel their careers are better. Taking in the account the fact that in today’s world people will frequently change jobs- as indicated by Bureau of Labour Statistics 64% of individuals change job between 5 to 14 times in their life (Loretto 2010)- responsibility of managing career is principally placed on the individuals themselves. In the conclusion it is vital to saying that the career management and planning is very important in individuals’ career. Tasks associated with planning and managing help people to uncover their skills and attributes which then can be used in their career. Managing careers is broadly responsibility of employees, but in order for the employees to take the right steps in managing the career help from employers in form of various activities is needed. If the help from the organizations is not significant there will be only little progress made in managing the careers (Newell 2000). At the same time due to changes in economy and organizations themselves people have to take control in planning and managing their careers on their own in order to make career effective and gain benefits as well as satisfaction from work and personal life. Without participation in the tasks associated with planning and managing careers individuals will find it very difficult to find the precise occupation in which they will feel comfortable. Concurrently share responsibility of career management improves performance as well as increases benefit for organization and individuals. There will be help available from your employer in managing and planning career but before individual or graduates get job they should take control of their career and life.