Personal Career Development for Professionals

This book should be required reading for anyone seriously involved in managing career development, either for oneself or for others.

This book is a compact, practical, step-by-step guide to assist a professional working in a large organization to make effective choices about personal career development. Using many exercises and practical tools, the reader is led through a self-assessment of skills, values, aspirations, and development as well as a diagnosis of one's current job and organization. All of the material is integrated to enable the professional to develop a personal career strategy and a realistic and attainable plan for change that can be used inside or outside the current organization

Joseph A. Raelin is Professor of Management at the Boston College Wallace E. Carroll School of Management. He received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His research has centered on executive and professional education and development. He is a prolific writer having produced over 75 articles appearing in the leading management journals. He is also a management consultant with over twenty years of experience working with a wide variety of organizational clients.

He is also North-American co-editor of the journal, Management Learning. Among his most notable accomplishments was receiving the John Wiley "Best Paper Award in Management Education," at the 1994 Academy of Management Annual Meeting.

	PREFACE		vii
	ACKNOWLEDGMENTS		ix
	LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS		xiv
	LIST OF EXERCISES		xvii
ONE: THE SALARIED PROFESSIONAL AND THE NEED FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT			1
	Introduction and Plan for This Book		1
	Professional Status; Its Meaning and Significance in Career Development		4
		Definitional Approaches	4
		Professionals vs. Quasi Professionals	6
		Growth and Erosion of Professionalism	9
	The Major Concerns of Salaried Professionals		12
		The Professional vs. the Organization	12
		Deviant/Adaptive Behavior	16
		Transition to Management	27
TWO: SELF-ASSESSMENT			35
	Introduction		35
	Work Autobiography		37
	Educational History		39
	Interest and Skills Assessment		42
		Interests	42
		Skills	46
	Learning Style		56
	Psychological Need		67
		Professional Needs	73
		Professional Need Orientation	75
	Personality Traits		76
		Career Types and Anchors	80
		Career Anchor/Work Environment Fit	82
	Life Space Concerns		85
THREE: CAREER STAGES			94
	Introductions		94
	Life Cycle Theory		95
		Mid-Life Crisis	101
		Psychological Success as the Driving Force of the Career Stage Movement	107
		Alternatives to the Linear Career Path Model	108
	Organizational Career Theories		110
		Socialization Theory	111
		Professional Organizational Career Theory	125
FOUR: JOB ANALYSIS			129
	Introduction		129
	Job Inventory		130
	Job Satisfaction		134
	Behavioral Job Analysis		137
	Career Pathing		142
		Career Path Problems of Professionals	148
		The "Dual Ladder" Approach	151
FIVE: ORGANIZATIONAL DIAGNOSIS			153
	Introduction		153
	Boss Management		154
	Mentoring		164
	Organizational Climate		168
		Climate Analysis	170
		Analyzing the Organization Style Questionnaire -- Is there a Best Climate Type?	178
		Problems in the Climate of the Professional Employee	182
		Toward a More Challenging Professional Climate	185
		Climate as Environmental Uncertainty	188
	The Role of Politics in Professional Career Development		191
SIX: BALANCE-IMBALANCE ANALYSIS AND PLAN FOR CHANGE			200
	Introduction		200
	The Balance-Imbalance Decision-Making Model		201
	Plan for Change		212
	Reflecting		213
	Planning		214
		Vertical Option	215
		Lateral Option	224
		Downward Option	230
		Enrichment Option	235
		Adjustment Option	242
		Exploratory Option	247
		Removal Option	250
	Doing		256
	Evaluating		260
		Assessment	260
		Feedback	261
		Reassessment	262
NOTES			263
APPENDIX: Complete Definitions of Fine's Functional Job Analysis Scales			275
INDEX			281
ABOUT THE AUTHOR			287