Chapter 12

Special Challenges in Career

Management
Copyright 2010 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, I nc. All rights reserved.
McGraw-Hill/I rwin
12-2
Introduction
Supportive work-life culture
Acknowledges and respects family and life
responsibilities and obligations.
Encourages managers and employees to work
together to meet personal and work needs.
12-3
Socialization and Orientation
Organizational socialization the
process by which new employees are
transformed into effective members of
the company; has three phases:
Anticipatory socialization - employees
develop expectations about the company, job,
working conditions, and interpersonal
relationships.
12-4
Socialization and Orientation
(cont.)
Encounter phase - employee begins a new
job; they experience shock and surprise and
need to become familiar with job tasks,
company practices, procedures, etc.
Settling-in phase - employees begin to feel
comfortable with their job demands and social
relationships.
12-5
Table 12.1 - What Employees Should Learn
and Develop Through Socialization
12-6
Table 12.2 - Content of
Orientation Programs
12-7
Table 12.3 - Characteristics of
Effective Orientation Programs
12-8
Career Paths, Developing Dual-
Career Paths and Career Portfolios
Career path - a sequence of job
positions involving similar types of work
and skills that employees move through
in the company; it involves analyzing:
work and information flows.
important development experiences.
qualifications and tasks performed across
jobs.
similarities and differences in working
environments.
historical movement patterns of employees in
and out of jobs.
12-9
Career Paths, Developing Dual-Career
Paths and Career Portfolios (cont.)
Dual-career path system - enables
employees to remain in a technical career
path or move into a management career
path. Its characteristics are:
Salary, status, and incentives for technical
employees compare favorably with those of
managers.
Individual contributors base salary may be
lower than that of managers, but they are
given opportunities to increase their total
compensation through bonuses.
12-10
Career Paths, Developing Dual-Career
Paths and Career Portfolios (cont.)
The individual contributor career path is not
used to satisfy poor performers who have no
managerial potential. The career path is for
employees with outstanding technical skills.
Individual contributors are given the
opportunity to choose their career path.


12-11
Figure 12.3 - Example of Dual-
Career-Path System
12-12
Career Paths, Developing Dual-Career
Paths and Career Portfolios (cont.)
Career portfolio - multiple part-time
jobs that together make up a full-time
position.
Advantages:
Increases job satisfaction and provides flexibility.
Disadvantages:
Stalled earnings and trouble maintaining company-
sponsored health care.
Readjustment each time the employee moves from
one job to the other.
12-13
Plateauing
The likelihood of the employee receiving
future job assignments with increased
responsibility is low.
Mid-career employees are most likely to
plateau.
It becomes dysfunctional when the employee
feels stuck in a job that offers no potential for
personal growth resulting in poor job attitude,
increased absenteeism, and poor job
performance.
12-14
Plateauing (cont.)
Reasons for employees to plateau:
Discrimination based on age, gender, or race.
Lack of ability and training.
Low need for achievement.
Unfair pay decisions or dissatisfaction with
pay raises.
Confusion about job responsibilities.
Slow company growth resulting in reduced
development opportunities.
12-15
Table 12.4 - Possible Remedies
for Plateaued Employees
12-16
Skills Obsolescence
It is a reduction in an employees
competence resulting from a lack of
knowledge of new work processes,
techniques, and technologies that have
developed since the employee completed
his or her education.

12-17
Figure 12.4 - Factors Related to
Updating Skills
12-18
Coping With Career Breaks
Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act - deployed
employees rights, such as guaranteeing
reservists jobs when they return, except
under special circumstance.
Companies must ensure that returning
reservists are provided with career
counseling and information on jobs and
career opportunities.
12-19
Balancing Work and Life
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
- a federal law that provides for up to 12
weeks of unpaid leave for parents with
new infants or newly adopted children.
Also covers employees who must take a leave
of absence to care for a family member or to
deal with a personal illness.
Companies are required to provide health
care benefits.

12-20
Balancing Work and Life (cont.)
Role of training in balancing work and
nonwork:
Trainers and managers may be responsible
for developing policies and procedures.
Trainers may be responsible for developing
training programs to teach managers their
role in administering and overseeing the use
of work-life policies.

12-21
Balancing Work and Life (cont.)
Types of work-life conflict
Time-based conflict - occurs when the
demands of work and nonwork interfere with
each other.
Strain-based conflict - results from the
stress of work and nonwork roles.
Behavior-based conflict - occurs when
employees behavior in work roles is not
appropriate for their behavior in nonwork
roles.
12-22
Company Policies to
Accommodate Work and Nonwork
Identifying work and life needs and
communicating information about work
and non-work policies and job demands
Companies have to understand employees
needs, solicit their input, and make work-life
benefits accessible to everyone.
Providing information regarding the nature of
jobs helps employees choose career
opportunities that match the importance they
place on work.

12-23
Company Policies to Accommodate
Work and Nonwork (cont.)
Flexibility in work arrangements and work
schedules
Reduce pressure on employees to work long
hours.
Telecommuting - a work arrangement that
provides flexibility in both location and hours.
Job sharing - two employees divide the hours,
responsibilities, and benefits of a full-time
job.
12-24
Table 12.6 - Alternative Work
Schedules and Work Arrangements
12-25
Company Policies to Accommodate
Work and Nonwork (cont.)
Redesigning jobs
Managerial support for work-life policies
Dependent care support: child and elder
care and adoption support

12-26
Table 12.7 - Recommendations for the
Development of Dependent Care Assistance
Programs
12-27
Coping With Job Loss
From a career management standpoint,
companies and managers have two major
responsibilities:
Helping employees who will lose their jobs.
Ensuring that the survivors remain
productive and committed to the
organization.

12-28
Coping With Job Loss (cont.)
Outplacement services should include:
Advance warning and an explanation for the
layoff.
Psychological, financial, and career
counseling.
Assessment of skills and interests.
Job campaign services.
Job banks.
Electronic delivery of job openings, self-
directed career management guides, and
values and interest inventories.
12-29
Table 12.8 - Guidelines for
Termination Meetings With
Employees
12-30
Table 12.8 - Guidelines for
Termination Meetings With
Employees
12-31
Dealing With Older Workers
Companies can take the following
actions:
Provide flexibility in scheduling, which allows
older employees to take care of sick spouses,
go back to school, travel, etc.
Ensure that older employees receive the
training they need to avoid obsolescence and
to be prepared to use new technology.
Provide resources and referral help that
addresses long-term health care and elder
care.
12-32
Dealing With Older Workers
(cont.)
Provide assessment and counseling, which are
necessary to help older employees recycle to
new jobs or careers.
Consider moving valuable older employees
who are suffering skill deterioration to other
jobs.
Ensure that employees do not hold
inappropriate stereotypes about older
employees.
12-33
Dealing With Older Workers
(cont.)
Preretirement socialization - helping
employees prepare to exit from work. It
addresses the following topics:
Psychological aspects of retirement.
Housing, transportation, living costs, and
proximity to medical care.
Health during retirement.
Financial and estate planning.
Health care plans.
The collection of benefits from company
pension plans and Social Security.
12-34
Dealing With Older Workers
(cont.)
Early retirement programs - offer
employees financial benefits to leave the
company.
To avoid costly litigation, companies need to
ensure that:
The program is part of the employee benefit plan.
The company can justify age-related distinctions for
eligibility for early retirement.
Employees are allowed to voluntarily choose early
retirement.