17
CAREER MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER SCAN
This chapter emphasizes the increasing responsibility that employees are taking for their own
career management. It describes the four stages of career advancement and the typical
characteristics for each stage. In addition, it provides an overview of Holland's six types of
personalities and occupational choice, and describes the role of psychological contracts and
mentors on career development, career paths, and career anchors.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Define career and career management.
Explain occupational and organizational choice decisions.
Describe the four stages of the career model.
Explain the psychological contract.
Describe how mentors help organizational newcomers.
Describe ways to manage conflicts between work and home.
Explain how career anchors help form a career identity.
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KEY TERMS
Chapter 17 introduces the following key terms:
career
career management
realistic job preview (RJP)
establishment
advancement
maintenance
withdrawal
psychological contract
career path
career ladder
mentor
dual-career partnership
flexible work schedule
eldercare
career plateau
bridge employment
career anchors
THE CHAPTER SUMMARIZED
I.
THINKING AHEAD: Brinker’s Mentoring Philosophy Attracts the Brightest and Best
Talent
II.
CAREERS AS JOINT RESPONSIBILITIES
A career is the pattern of work-related experiences that span the course of a person’s life.
Career management is a lifelong process of learning about self, jobs, and organizations; setting
personal career goals; developing strategies for achieving the goals, and revising the goals based
on work and life experiences. With the onset of widespread reductions in force, employers are
beginning to invest in programs that enable employees to be more self-sufficient. The
responsibility for managing careers is shifting away from the organization and toward the
individual.
III.
THE NEW CAREER
As the environment demands leaner organizations, shifts occur in the design of careers.
Employees can no longer depend on the promise of lifetime employment in one organization, and
they must continually develop their job skills to meet the changing needs of organizations.
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A.
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Becoming Your Own Career Coach
To stay employable in this new career environment, it helps to view yourself as being in
business for yourself. Keeping skills current and packaging them properly will increase
your value to other employers. Success will depend on the ability to be flexible, team
oriented, comfortable with change, and tolerant of ambiguity. It is important to be
committed to lifelong learning in order to survive this paradigm shift.
B.
Emotional Intelligence and Career Success
Emotional intelligence (EQ), introduced in Chapter 13, and emotional competencies may
be twice as important as raw intelligence or technical know-how for success in today’s
work environment. Emotional intelligence can be developed and tends to improve
throughout life.
C.
Occupational Choice
Holland's theory of occupational choice separates six types of personalities by interests
and values. The six types are realistic, artistic, investigative, enterprising, social, and
conventional. Holland's assumption is that people choose careers that match their
personalities.
D.
Organizational Choice and Entry
Four types of conflict can occur as individuals and organizations choose each other. The
first conflict is between the organization’s effort to attract candidates and the individual’s
choice of an organization. The second conflict is between the individual’s attempt to
attract several organizations and the organizations' need to select the best candidate. The
third conflict occurs within the organization between its desire to recruit a large pool of
qualified applicants and its need to select and retain the best candidate. The fourth
conflict occurs within the individual between the desire for several job offers and the
need to make a good choice. These conflicts substantially complicate the organizational
choice and entry process.
E.
Realistic Job Previews
The realistic job preview (RJP) is an attempt to expedite the socialization process by
giving the potential employee an honest appraisal of the position for which he or she is
applying. In a realistic job preview, both positive and negative information is given to
potential employees about the job they are applying for, thereby giving them a realistic
picture of the job. RJPs benefit both the employer and the potential employee. The cost of
recruiting, training, and developing one employee averages $40,000.
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IV.
THE CAREER STAGE MODEL
Most individuals pass through stages of careers in a logical progression. The establishment stage
is the entry stage in which individuals learn the job and the discipline, and begin to fit into the
organization. The advancement stage is typically the high achievement phase in which people
focus on their competence. In the maintenance stage, individuals attempt to maintain
productivity while evaluating progress toward career goals. The withdrawal stage involves the
process of retirement or possible career change. These stages correlate with other maturity and
life changes.
V.
THE ESTABLISHMENT STAGE
The establishment stage involves beginning a career as a newcomer to an organization.
Newcomers depend on others for information on what is expected in the job and in the
organization.
A.
Psychological Contracts
During the establishment stage, a psychological contract, or implicit agreement, between
an individual and an organization is developed that specifies what each is expected to
give and receive in the relationship.
B.
The Stress of Socialization
The most likely stressor during the anticipatory socialization stage is ambiguity about the
job and the organization. During the encounter stage, the demands of the job and the
shock of reality create the majority of stress. Stress often arises from the need to control
job demands during the change and adjustment stage.
C.
Easing the Transition from Outsider to Insider
1.
Individual Actions
Seeking support from coworkers and networking with other newcomers can help
reduce stress.
2.
Organizational Actions
Organizations should provide early opportunities for newcomer success, provide
encouragement and feedback, and explicitly tie rewards to performance.
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VI.
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THE ADVANCEMENT STAGE
A.
Career Paths and Career Ladders
The traditional analogy for the advancement stage is one of climbing the corporate ladder.
The career path is a sequence of job experiences that an employee moves along during
his or her career. A career ladder is a structured series of job positions through which an
individual progresses in an organization. With the restructuring of many large, wellknown companies, the career ladder may no longer be as salient as it once was. This can
be an additional socialization stressor for those expecting a fast track career.
B.
Finding A Mentor
A mentor is an individual who provides guidance, coaching, counseling, and friendship
to a protégé. Some organizations have mentor programs that pass employees upward as
they reach certain stages of development. Other organizations form multicultural mentor
groups, so that diversity will be firmly ingrained in their interactions. Most mentor
relationships progress through a series of stages that include initiation, cultivation,
separation, and redefinition.
C.
Dual-Career Partnerships
Another new element in the work—life combination is the increase of dual-career
partnerships. A dual-career partnership is a relationship in which both people have
important career roles. Dual-career relationships have stresses of competition,
organizational loyalty, and location selection to contend with throughout their
organizational affiliations.
D.
Work—Home Conflicts
Work—home conflicts increase when the adults in a relationship both work. The U.S.
culture has mixed role expectations for women. Other countries, such as Japan, have a
more pronounced set of expectations for working women. Organizations are increasingly
considering providing benefits for the working couple to encourage them to remain with
the organization.
One of the solutions for work—home conflicts may be flexible work schedules. Flexible
work schedules allow employees discretion in setting their working hours in order to
accommodate personal concerns. Another consideration related to the work—home
conflict is the increase in needs for eldercare. The sandwich generation is responsible for
caring for both children and elderly parents. An increasing number of organizations are
providing employees with eldercare to assist them in caring for elderly parents and/or
other elderly relatives.
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VII.
THE MAINTENANCE STAGE
The wide range of options that exists during this stage has helped individuals through potential
midlife transitions and burnout. One of the options being considered in corporations is the
concept of sabbaticals: a time for rejuvenation and revival.
A.
Sustaining Performance
Most individuals in the maintenance stage reach a career plateau, a point in one’s career
at which the probability of moving further up the hierarchy is low. Keeping work
stimulating and continued appreciation of contributions are keys to maintaining
employees’ productivity during this stage.
B.
Becoming A Mentor
Mentoring gives individuals in this stage an opportunity to contribute to the development
of newer and younger employees by sharing their wisdom, knowledge, and experience
with those employees. Mentoring programs can be either formal or informal.
VIII.
THE WITHDRAWAL STAGE
During the withdrawal stage, workers begin to plan seriously for and initiate their transition to
retirement. Actions may include scaling back on hours, switching to part-time work, or even
changing careers. Workers in this stage still have much to contribute because of their extensive
experience, strong work ethic, and loyalty.
A.
Planning for Change
Many large organizations offer their employees support in planning the transition to
retirement. Reduced hours, temporary work, and opportunities to relocate are some of the
options that may be available. Retirement requires careful financial planning, as well as a
plan for psychologically withdrawing from a life of work to a life of hobbies, travel,
volunteering, or other non-career activities.
B.
Retirement
Retirement can be stressful due to income uncertainty, declining physical capacity, and
other concerns and anxieties. Knowing what to expect helps reduce the stress of
retirement, and those nearing retirement are increasingly engaging in bridge
employment, employment that takes place after a person retires from a full-time position
but before the person’s permanent withdrawal from the workforce.
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XI.
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CAREER ANCHORS
Career anchors are the self-perceived talents, motives, and values that guide an individual's
career decisions. Schein identified five career anchors: (1) technical/functional competence, (2)
managerial competence, (3) autonomy and independence, (4) creativity, and (5) security/stability.
X.
MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS: MANAGING YOUR CAREER
XI.
LOOKING BACK: Seeking New Challenges
CHAPTER SUMMARY







Career management is a joint responsibility of individuals and organizations.
Good matches between individuals and organizations can be promoted with a realistic job
preview (RJP).
The four stages in an individual's career are establishment, advancement, maintenance, and
withdrawal. Each stage has unique challenges.
Psychological contracts are implicit agreements between individuals and organizations.
Mentoring is crucial to both the career success of young workers and the needs of older
workers.
Childcare, eldercare, and flexible work schedules can help employees manage work-home
conflicts.
Career anchors help an individual form a career identity and formulate an effective career
plan.
REVIEW QUESTIONS: SUGGESTED ANSWERS
1. What is career management?
Career management is a lifelong process learning about self, jobs, and organizations, setting
personal career goals, developing strategies for achieving the goals, and revising the goals based
on work and life experiences.
2. What is the new career, and how does it differ from older notions about careers?
Discrete exchange, occupational excellence, organizational empowerment, and project allegiance
characterize the new career. It differs from the old career paradigm in its lack of mutual loyalty
and corporate allegiance, and in its emphasis on the employee taking charge of his or her career
rather than relying on the organization to manage careers, as well as in other ways.
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3. What are the sources of potential conflict during organizational entry? How can they be
avoided?
Conflicts arise during organizational entry because both individuals and organizations attempt to
present themselves in the best possible light and may not provide complete or accurate
information. Conflicts also arise because when organizations present themselves only favorably
in order to attract a large number of candidates, mismatches between candidates and the
organization occur. Similarly, when individuals present themselves too favorably, they may
receive offers for positions that do not really fit their skills and aspirations. These conflicts can be
avoided through the use of realistic job previews, in which both the positive and negative aspects
of the job are discussed.
4. What is a realistic job preview, and why is it important?
Realistic job previews give positive, neutral, and negative information about the company and
the job. This leads to better employment matches, lower turnover, and higher job satisfaction.
5. What are psychological contracts?
Psychological contracts are implicit agreements between individuals and organizations that
specify what each is expected to give and receive in a working relationship.
6. What stressors are associated with socialization?
Ambiguity creates stress during anticipatory socialization while the newcomer tries to gather
information about the job and the organization, and realities of role, task, and interpersonal
relationship demands associated with the new job create stress in the encounter phase.
7. What are the career functions provided by a mentor?
Mentors provide guidance and counseling to protégés. They provide career functions of
sponsorship, exposure and visibility, coaching, and protection. They also provide psychosocial
functions of role modeling, acceptance and confirmation, and friendship.
8. What are some of the most likely causes of home—work conflicts?
Common causes of home—work conflicts include stress on the job, childcare responsibilities,
scheduling conflicts, and lack of time.
9. What are the two key issues to deal with during the maintenance career stage?
Two key issues facing workers in this stage involve sustaining performance and becoming a
mentor.
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10. What is the key to career survival?
Envisioning oneself as the sole proprietor of one’s career, in competition with everyone else
involved in a similar career, is critical in learning to survive. It requires a person to continually
add value to the organization, continually assess his or her awareness of and connections with the
working environment, and work at adopting new ideas, techniques, and technologies.
DISCUSSION AND COMMUNICATION QUESTIONS: SUGGESTED ANSWERS
1. What are the realities of the new career? How can developing your emotional intelligence
help you turn these realities into opportunities to improve your career?
The concept of the new career centers on the fact that individuals will hold jobs with multiple
organizations throughout their careers and, therefore, must be able to adapt to a constantly
changing environment. Developing emotional intelligence can help them master the interpersonal
skills necessary to adapt and succeed.
2. What do you think will be the most stressful career stage? What type of stressors led you to
make this choice?
We all have a tendency to think that the stage we currently face is the most difficult and stressful.
However, students trying to enter the job market may have added reasons for concern during
times when the job market is relatively tight.
3. Does the career stage model have exceptions? In other words, can it be applied to all careers?
If not, what are the exceptions?
Careers that have delayed entry, such as those requiring advanced education, will compress and
delay the impact of the stages. Individuals who leave and re-enter the workforce will have
different pressures than those who have been steadily progressing through the stages.
4. Do men and women have different expectations of a dual-career partnership? How do these
expectations differ?
Students will vary with their answers. Research validates that the expectations are vastly
different. An additional experiential exercise at the end of this chapter deals with the difference
in values between males and females in dual-career partnerships.
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5. Given the downsizing and restructuring in many organizations, how can organizations help
employees with career management if there are fewer opportunities for promotion?
Career management seminars are especially important in dealing with the concept of individual
responsibility for career paths. Organizations can aid members in maintaining their self-esteem
during separation from the organization through the use of outplacement services. The company
may need to help employees redefine career success.
6. How has each of the four challenges (globalization, diversity, technology, and ethics) affected
career management in recent years?
The increase in international assignments for managers is likely to continue for several years. As
a result, most individuals will work in highly diverse environments. Technology has enriched
many jobs, and has also made possible such career innovations as telecommuting. Many
companies struggle with career decisions that have ethical implications, such as layoffs, forced
retirements, changes in organizational structure, etc.
7. Contact the human resources manager of a local business. Ask if he or she would take a few
minutes to discuss some issues about résumés with you. Structure your discussion around the
following questions:
a. How often do you encounter “padded” résumés? What is the most common
“padding” and how do you react to it?
b. Do you verify the information on résumés? How do you do this? How long does it
take for you to be sure that an applicant has been honest about his/her qualifications?
c. What would you do if you found that a productive, loyal employee had lied on a
résumé when he or she applied for a job? Is “résumé fraud” an offense that warrants
firing?
Summarize the findings from your interview in a memo to your instructor.
If you have time for discussion, compare the responses of the HR managers from the various
businesses. Discuss the similarities and differences among the responses and consider why the
differences might exist based on the type of organization, type of positions they typically hire for,
etc.
8. Select an individual in the field you want to work in, or in a company for which you might
want to work. Contact the individual and ask if you might take a minute of their time for some
career advice. Ask them the following two questions, along with others you design yourself.
First, how has the idea of a “career” changed over the past few years? Second, what advice
would they give to college students just beginning a new career? Be prepared to present your
interview results in class.
This is another good exercise to encourage students to think about their careers. Spend time in
class discussing the advice students were given by the individuals they interviewed regarding
beginning a career.
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ETHICS QUESTIONS: SUGGESTED ANSWERS
1. You are leaving your current job to look for employment elsewhere. Should you tell your
current employer? Is it ethical not to reveal your job search to your employer?
Most companies request advance written notification of intent to leave the organization. Most
networking approaches propose that you always be “looking” for a new position. It is a courtesy
to tell your employer if you are scheduled for an interview for another position.
2. You are a manager, and one of your employees is an older worker about sixty years old. You
have noticed that his performance is slipping, and other workers have been complaining about
his errors. Is it ethical to discuss retirement with him? Under what circumstances is it ethical to
pressure an employee to retire?
There are a number of approaches to this dilemma, and retirement is only one avenue. The major
issue is the decrease in performance, rather than the age of the individual. Discovering the cause
of the performance problem is the primary issue.
3. You are interviewing a job candidate who inquires about the career paths within your
organization. A natural next step from the job she is seeking would be middle management, but
you know that your company is flattening its hierarchy and that most middle-management jobs
will be eliminated. You are afraid that this information will discourage this very talented
candidate from taking the job. What should you do?
This situation is related to the realistic job preview. A dishonest appraisal of your organization is
unethical and serves no one's interest in the long run.
4. One of your employees has been a disruptive influence on the work group, yet he has decent
performance. He wants to be promoted to a supervisory position, and two positions are
available: one in your department and one in another location. Your inclination is to nominate
him for the position in the other department and reveal nothing of his disruptive nature in order
to transfer him away from your department. Discuss the ethical implications of this course of
action.
This has certainly happened in many organizations. However, taking a systems view of the
organization suggests that your actions in this case will affect every other area of the organization
in some way, including your own. If you transfer this individual to the other department, it could
ruin your credibility within the organization. It is both dishonest and unethical.
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CHALLENGES
17.1 WHAT'S YOUR E.Q. AT WORK?
This self-assessment exercise gives students an opportunity to examine their own development in
the area of emotional intelligence. A discussion may focus on the importance of developing
emotional intelligence, or human relations skills, for future success.
17.2 ASSESS YOUR FLEXIBILITY SKILLS
The Flexible Behaviors Questionnaire (FBQ) examines current flexibility skills in five areas.
These behaviors are essential to managerial effectiveness. Remind students to consider their
work experience in responding to the questions or, if they are not currently employed, have them
relate the questions to their experience with a work group either in the classroom or in a
fraternity, sorority, club, or service organization. The questions are applicable even if they are not
yet managers.
Scores in each category can range from a low of 4 to a high of 28, and total scores can range from
an overall low score of 20 to an overall high of 140. The reliability for this measure is .78.
You may want to collect the FBQ scoring information and provide a mean for the entire class on
each of the categories of behavior that make up flexibility skills. Students are more likely to give
their true FBQ assessment scores if you ask for their scores anonymously. That way, they feel
less threatened if they do not score well on a particular skill area, and it encourages them to
practice the specific skills for their own learning rather than as an attempt to impress someone
else.
Comparison data:
Corporate business executives (105)
Senior Business Majors (208)
Means
120
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EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES
17.1 THE INDIVIDUAL—ORGANIZATIONAL DIALOGUE
Instructor's Note:
An interesting twist to this exercise is to have a "plant" participate with the questions. This
person should ask invasive information that has nothing to do with job ability or performance.
The value in this approach, if the questions are moderately reasonable, is to test students’ skills at
handling inappropriate questions in interviews. Although considered unethical recruiting, some
recruiters will ask students inappropriate questions to see if they will stand up for their
convictions and rights. What do students think of these tactics? Has it happened to any of them?
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17.2 THE ETHICS OF RESUMES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Instructor's Note:
The questions in this experiential exercise will generate intense class discussion due to
differences of opinion about the issues. As groups present their perspectives on each question,
challenge them to provide solid reasons for their opinions. Provide time after each group’s
presentation for other class members to ask questions and to share different perspectives.
ALTERNATIVE EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE
DUAL CAREERS
Notes for conducting dual careers exercise:
The learning objectives for this exercise are: (1) to help students be more aware of how
underlying biases regarding gender roles can influence their decisions affecting the careers of
others; and (2) to help students be more conscious of their own and others' differing values and
perceptions regarding family roles, and of issues related to career decisions involving dual career
couples.
Suggestions on delivery:
Tell the students that you have a short exercise that will help them to identify and examine
important issues related to personal career decisions. Place students in two or more groups
composed of four to six persons each.
Tell the students to first individually read the case that you are about to hand out, and then
quickly respond to the questions at the end. Also, tell them that after they have finished their
individual responses, they should then begin to share one-by-one within the group their
individual responses (i.e., accept or reject the promotion offer, and why they decided to accept or
reject).
Distribute the case exercise – half of the groups receiving the Chris as male form and half
receiving the Chris as female form.
After within-group sharing and discussion has been completed by most groups (typically lasting
15-20 minutes), tell the students that you would now like to begin to examine, in a total class
discussion format, the issues, concerns, and problems that this exercise helped to identify. Ask
the students to now go beyond this particular case, and to identify what general career issues
came up in their sharing of why they responded the way they did to the case. List these issue
topics on a list as they are identified, and discuss their importance – but don't talk about this
particular case yet. This general discussion typically promotes a useful examination of the
importance of such topics as:
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Dual career couple challenges
Self-sacrifice vs. actualization
Childcare for working parents
Career opportunities in academia vs. business
Influence of earning power on career decisions
An organization's career advancement expectations/policy
Temporary spouse separation for conflicting career opportunities
Allegiance to company vs. spouse and family
Family financial support/security
Following career dreams vs. pragmatism
Traditional roles of husband and wife in providing family financial support & child care
After you have exhausted this class discussion, ask for a show of hands of those who believe that
Chris should accept the promotion offer, and then a show of hands of those who believe that
Chris should reject the promotion.
Ask one of the students to explain why he/she believed that Chris should accept the offer. As the
student begins to explain, and refers to Chris as a male or female, depending upon the form
received, what typically occurs is (a) others in the class with a different Chris gender will spontaneously begin to correct the
student
(b) the explaining student's group members and others will vociferously support the student's
correctness of Chris' gender
(c) as students look again at their forms brief mass confusion will take place, and
(d) the students will collectively come to realize that they've been had and, in good humor,
accuse the instructor of underhanded trickery.
At this point, admit to the deception, and inform the students that identical cases were passed
out--only in half of the forms distributed Chris as male with spouse Kim as female, and in the
other half the gender is switched.
Discussion Questions:
Ask the students if it matters whether Chris is male or female.
Should Chris' gender influence your decision to accept or reject?
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DUAL CAREERS
Chris Jamison was sitting alone, deep in thought on Friday afternoon in June in the
Phoenix branch office of the accounting firm, Arthur Andersen & Co. He has worked there in
the tax audit division for the past six years and has done very well. He has worked hard in lower
staff positions and has developed a strong reputation, both at the local office and recently at the
Chicago headquarters, as a very competent professional who has great promise within the
company.
Chris sat contemplating the conversation he had just had with his office manager and
mentor, Jim Wilkins, about Chris' promotion to the position of tax audit manager within the firm.
This promotion would involve Chris' relocating to a new branch office in Portland. The
promotion would represent a personal and gratifying challenge that Chris has wanted for some
time now, and would serve as an outstanding opportunity leading to much higher management
advancement within the firm.
Despite this very positive news, Chris felt quite perplexed and anxious about how this
career opportunity would affect his family. His wife, Kim, was just finishing up her Ph.D. in
English Literature at Arizona State University. Ever since their marriage eight years before, Kim
had dreamed about teaching English Literature at an Ivy League school back east. She also
wanted to do professional writing on the side. University faculty positions in English Literature
were very scarce throughout the country, and Kim had heretofore been looking for a position
with little success. However, she recently interviewed at Cornell University and was offered a
one-year visiting assistant professor position beginning in September. Kim was very pleased
with this opportunity which could possibly turn into a permanent position at Cornell. As Kim
considered whether or not to accept the Cornell offer, she thought that even if a permanent
position were not subsequently offered, she would have a much stronger chance at obtaining a
permanent faculty position elsewhere with the Cornell experience on her resume.
Chris initially felt very pleased for Kim, but he was now feeling torn between supporting
Kim in her career dream pursuit by moving to Cornell in the small town of Ithaca, New York, or
accepting the very attractive career opportunity recently presented him. Jim Wilkins indicated
that he understood Chris' dilemma, but that he should know that such a tremendous opportunity
within the firm occurs rarely. Besides, his turning down this career advancement offer might
even, in fact, hurt his prospects for significant future advancement within the firm.
Chris had majored in Accounting in college and had a solid B grade point average. He
was a good student, but wasn't very excited about his coursework. After graduation he accepted
a job with a small firm which helped support Kim through graduate school. A year later they had
a child, David. Soon, Chris joined Arthur Andersen & Co. with a considerable salary increase;
but more importantly to him, he became very pleased and excited about his new work and career
opportunity. David was placed in daycare during the time when Kim was occupied with her
studies. Chris was glad that Kim was able to spend much of her study time at home with David,
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but he still had feelings of regret and even guilt that he himself had so little time to spend with
his precious child.
Chris thought about the conversation that he would soon have with Kim when he returned
home. His anxiety was heightened by Jim Wilkins' request for him to have a response to the
promotion offer when he returned to work the following Monday morning.
After you've read the above case, please complete the following:
After talking with Kim, Chris' response on Monday morning should be
accept the position
reject the position
Please explain in one sentence your reason for checking the box that you did.
Your name _________________________
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DUAL CAREERS
Chris Jamison was sitting alone, deep in thought on Friday afternoon in June in the
Phoenix branch office of the accounting firm, Arthur Andersen & Co. She has worked there in
the tax audit division for the past six years and has done very well. She has worked hard in lower
staff positions and has developed a strong reputation, both at the local office and recently at the
Chicago headquarters, as a very competent professional who has great promise within the
Company.
Chris sat contemplating the conversation she had just had with her office manager and
mentor, Jim Wilkins, about Chris' promotion to the position of tax audit manager within the firm.
This promotion would involve Chris' relocating to a new branch office in Portland. The
promotion would represent a personal and gratifying challenge that Chris has wanted for some
time now, and would serve as an outstanding opportunity leading to much higher management
advancement within the firm.
Despite this very positive news, Chris felt quite perplexed and anxious about how this
career opportunity would affect her family. Her husband, Kim, was just finishing up his Ph.D. in
English Literature at Arizona State University. Ever since their marriage eight years before, Kim
had dreamed about teaching English Literature at an Ivy League school back east. He also
wanted to do professional writing on the side. University faculty positions in English Literature
were very scarce throughout the country, and Kim had heretofore been looking for a position
with little success. However, he recently interviewed at Cornell University and was offered a
one-year visiting assistant professor position beginning in September. Kim was very pleased
with this opportunity which could possibly turn into a permanent position at Cornell. As Kim
considered whether or not to accept the Cornell offer, he thought that even if a permanent
position were not subsequently offered, he would have a much stronger chance at obtaining a
permanent faculty position elsewhere with the Cornell experience on his resume.
Chris initially felt very pleased for Kim, but she was now feeling torn between supporting
Kim in his career dream pursuit by moving to Cornell in the small town of Ithaca, New York, or
accepting the very attractive career opportunity recently presented her. Jim Wilkins indicated
that he understood Chris' dilemma, but that she should know that such a tremendous opportunity
within the firm occurs rarely. Besides, her turning down this career advancement offer might
even, in fact, hurt her prospects for significant future advancement within the firm.
Chris had majored in Accounting in college and had a solid B grade point average. She
was a good student, but wasn't very excited about her coursework. After graduation she accepted
a job with a small firm which helped support Kim through graduate school. A year later they had
a child, David. Soon, Chris joined Arthur Andersen & Co. with a considerable salary increase;
but more importantly to her, she became very pleased and excited about her new work and career
opportunity. David was placed in daycare during the time when Kim was occupied with his
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studies. Chris was glad that Kim was able to spend much of his study time at home with David,
but she still had feelings of regret and even guilt that she herself had so little time to spend with
her precious child.
Chris thought about the conversation that she would soon have with Kim when she
returned home. Her anxiety was heightened by Jim Wilkins' request for her to have a response to
the promotion offer when she returned to work the following Monday morning.
After you've read the above case, please complete the following:
After talking with Kim, Chris' response on Monday morning should be
accept the
position
reject the
position
Please explain in one sentence your reason for checking the box that you did.
Your name _________________________
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TEACHING NOTES FOR DUAL CAREERS:
It is important during the debriefing stage of the exercise to emphasize to the students that their
individual responses are based on personal values, and you are not suggesting that there is any
universal right or wrong answer. It can be personally enriching and enlightening just to share
viewpoints, listen, and to try to understand another person's differing values and perspectives.
You may occasionally get a student who doesn't like the forced-choice format of the accept/reject
decision. Acknowledge that actually another possible option is for temporary or indefinite
spouse mutual separation to pursue career opportunities, but that for the purpose of comparing
student responses in this exercise, you would like the student to select the choice toward which
he or she would be leaning if only the accept/reject options were available.
During the individual work and afterwards during the within-group sharing, be sure to not allow
discussion between groups. To minimize this communication, especially between groups where
Chris is not of the same gender, try to arrange for the groups to be separated and isolated as much
as possible within the classroom. However, even where the room is small and groups are close
to one another, when within-group sharing is taking place it seems to happen so intensely that
conversations are not overhead from other groups.
There is strong evidence that role does have a significant influence on career decisions among
those possessing values involving traditional gender and family role perceptions. An important
point of this exercise is to demonstrate that gender also has a significant influence upon those
who don't consciously identify gender role as being relevant in career decision making.
Demonstrate this point by describing a recent study of junior and senior, male and female
students. Very few of these students (less than one percent) identified traditional gender role as a
rationale for their decision for Chris to accept or reject the promotion. Yet, when their results
were compared among the four possible condition combinations of Chris male/female,
respondent male/female, as indicated in this matrix of percent of students deciding to accept the
promotion, there was a significant main effect of respondent gender, a significant interaction
effect of Chris' gender and respondent gender, but not a significant main effect of Chris' gender
(p<.05).
The chart below indicates the percentage of students in each cell recommending acceptance of
promotion (columns represent Christ by Gender, rows represent the gender of the respondent):
:
Chris by Gender
Male
Female
Male
73%
61%
Female
67%
62%
In other words, there is evidence that the gender of the respondent significantly influenced the
likelihood of promotion acceptance. This finding is especially evident where 73% of the male
respondents recommended that the male Chris should accept the promotion, compared to when
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Chris is female. And this is not just a matter of male chauvinism, for even the female
respondents reflect a significant bias in promotion acceptance when Chris is male even when
Chris is female. It is important to emphasize that these results occurred among students who
demonstrated by their individual response rationale and who convincingly argued that they
believed that perceptions of traditional gender role did not influence their decisions.
From C. M. Vance and E.A. Ensher, "Experiential Exercise for Illustrating Gender Bias in Career
and Other Human Resource Management Decisions," Journal of Management Education, Vol.
18, (1) February 1994, 98-104.
EXTRA EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES
The following alternative exercises to supplement the material in the textbook can be obtained
from:
Marcic, Dorothy, Seltzer, Joseph, & Vaill, Peter. Organizational Behavior: Experiences and
Cases, 6th Ed. South Western College Publishing Company, 2001.
Professional Skills Assessment. p. 293-298. Time: 55 minutes or more.
Purpose: To assess professional skills.
The Leadership Self-Study Project. p. 291-292. Time: Mostly done outside class.
Purpose: To develop a comprehensive self-portrait that will be useful in understanding
oneself and developing as a person and manager.
Fandt, Patricia M. Management Skills: Practice and Experience. West Publishing Company,
1994.
In-Basket Exercise 3: Dealing with Different Personality Styles. p. 447.
CASE QUESTIONS: SUGGESTED ANSWERS
OPRAH WINFREY’S CAREER IMPACT
1. Using the facts of the case, along with the career stage model shown Figure 17.2, describe
Oprah Winfrey’s current stage of career development.
Winfrey’s career probably is somewhere in the late advancement stage or early maintenance
stage. In the advancement stage, people are very achievement-oriented and focus on
increasing their competence. In the maintenance stage, people try to maintain their
productivity while assessing progress toward career goals. Since the mid-1980s, Winfrey’s
career has been on a sharp ascendancy. She has grown in her career and continues to grow in
her career. She established herself as host of an enormously successful talk show. Then
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moving from this success, she ventured—again with considerable success—into other
business activities, acting, and philanthropic work. In the early to mid-1990s, she moved very
strongly in the direction of making her work endeavors more meaningful with regard to the
impact that she has on others. In 2000, she began publishing a magazine that is a print version
of the motivational initiatives she engages in elsewhere. Additionally, she has taught a
business leadership class at Northwestern University in recent years. All of this supports the
late advancement and early maintenance career stages.
2. Andy Grove, Chairman of Intel Corporation, identifies three key questions that are central to
the management of a person’s career. These questions are: Am I adding real value? Am I
plugged into what’s happening around me? Am I trying new ideas, new techniques, and new
technologies? How would you analyze Winfrey’s career in light of these three questions?
All three questions can be applied to Winfrey’s career in terms of her perspective on power—
namely, the ability to have an impact with a purpose. She uses her show, her various business
ventures, her acting, her philanthropic activities, her magazine, and her teaching to have an
impact with a purpose. In the process, she adds real value; is connected with what happens
around her; and tries out new ideas, techniques, and/or technologies.
To support this analysis, the following case facts can be cited:






The Oprah Winfrey Show is used to enlighten, entertain and empower the
viewers.
HARPO Films focuses on projects that show individuals being responsible for
themselves; as being active creators of their lives rather than passive victims.
Her acting roles have delivered powerful messages about the challenges faced
by humanity and people’s triumphs over human frailties.
Her philanthropic activities focus on helping others to help themselves.
Her magazine encourages “readers to revamp their souls the way Martha
Stewart helps them revamp their kitchens.”
Her teaching of a business leadership class is “a way for her to groom a new
crop of business leaders committed to developing purposeful and fulfilling
careers.”
3. In your judgment, what are the key factors in Oprah Winfrey’s success?
Based on the case information, two key factors explain Oprah Winfrey’s career success. One
factor is her emphasis on honesty—both with oneself and with others. The other factor
involves using her power—her “ability to have an impact with a purpose.” Students should be
encouraged to go beyond the case, drawing on other sources of information about Oprah
Winfrey in examining how these two success factors have manifested themselves in her
career.
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4. What advice do you think Oprah Winfrey would give to someone just embarking on her/his
career?
Winfrey probably would offer two key pieces of advice. Both pieces of advice build on the
suggested response to the preceding question.
One piece of advice would focus on being honest with yourself and with others. In a related
vein, she would recommend demanding honesty of yourself and of others. Using this as a
point of departure, students should discuss what honesty means to them, and what they can
do to effectively practice the virtue of honesty.
The other piece of advice would be for people to use their skills and competencies to make a
meaningful impact on the world. This would apply to people’s work lives as well as their
non-work lives. With this advice in mind, the students should be drawn into a discussion of
how they might make a meaningful impact in their own spheres of influence, and how they
might use their skills and competencies to achieve that impact.
Role Plays
Additional role plays relevant to the material in this chapter are located in Appendix A of this
instructor's manual.