This Element will help you to understand why you need to take responsibility for your own personal and career development. It will also help you to find a fit between your personal and your organisational preferences and priorities and to take a fresh look at what you are aiming for in your career.

Over the next 20 minutes you will start to identify your career objectives and personal development needs. The concepts and activities used in Knowing yourself will help you to develop an action plan for progressing your career. By developing such a plan you are preparing yourself to take advantage of future opportunities.
 

Understanding balance

In knowing yourself, you should aim to take control of your career. There are three reasons why you should take control of your own career: today's reduced security of employment, new employment opportunities and the move away from linear careers. By taking control you are better placed to achieve an appropriate balance between work and family commitments, between remuneration and job satisfaction and between security and opportunity.

To achieve this balance you will need to understand your values, preferences and assumptions in relation to your work. These will affect the way you view your work, your commitment to it and the ways in which you work. Your values and preferences, however, will change over time as your family and financial circumstances alter. So you are likely to want different things from work at different stages of your life.

In his book 'Career Dynamics: Matching Individual and Organizational Needs', Edgar Schein identified three interacting cycles that affect individuals' work at different stages of their lives:

  • Bio-social. The changing physical capacities and emotional states that individuals have as they age. For instance, younger people may have the health and energy to cope with fast paced jobs.
  • Family relationship. The different needs, expectations and responsibilities that family circumstances present during an individual's life. For example, the need to care for elderly parents may limit where and how much someone can work.
  • Career. The various societal expectations of work and career patterns that individuals respond to in different ways as they age.

The nature and timing of these cycles will differ between individuals; we can all think of older colleagues whose energy and creativity seem to contradict 'expected' stages in their life and career. Nevertheless, these categories can provide a useful framework for analysing your own values and preferences.

Career anchors

Schein used the term 'career anchor' to describe the different key values that people hold in relation to work. In his view people try to find a way to live that accords with the values that are most important to them. He identified eight career anchor categories, and although not everyone fits easily into a single category, this classification can provide useful insights.

  • Technical/functional competence. Because they are talented and enjoy being regarded as an expert, people in this category have a sense of identity arising from the content of their work, and seek to develop and increase their skills.

  • General managerial competence. These people tend to view specialisation as a trap, and recognise the importance of knowing about several functional areas. They develop expertise at the level of their business or industry. Opportunities for leadership, high income, higher levels of responsibility and contributing to the success of their organisation are key values and motives.

  • Autonomy/independence. These individuals find it difficult to be bound by other people's rules, procedures, working hours and so on. They like to do things in their own way, at their own pace and to their own standards. They do not like work to interfere with their private life, so they prefer to make independent careers on their own terms. They may opt for a lower-grade job rather than give up autonomy and independence.

  • Security/stability. Some people need safety, security and predictability and will seek jobs with permanence and a minimal redundancy record. These individuals tend to identify with their jobs and careers. Their need for security and stability constrains alternative career choices.

  • Entrepreneurial creativity. Some people like to create new organisations, products or services that can be identified with their own efforts.

  • Sense of service/dedication. This describes those who enter occupations because of central values they want to embody in their work. They are often concerned more with these values than with the areas of competence involved in the work.

  • Pure challenge. These individuals define success in terms of overcoming apparently impossible obstacles, solving apparently insoluble problems or just winning. For some the challenge is in terms of more difficult jobs or tasks; for others it is in competitive and interpersonal terms.

  • Lifestyle. For these people career must be integrated with total lifestyle, balancing individual needs, family needs and career needs. They look for an organisational attitude that reflects respect for personal and family concerns.

Which of Schein's definitions seem to describe you?

The following task is intended to encourage you to think about planning your career: to appreciate when you have gained the experience and skills to meet fresh challenges and to identify what you might need to do to move towards career goals.

Essential to Schein's argument is the theory that people's values, preferences and assumptions influence the way they view their work. To some extent these preferences will be based on past experience.

Think back over your career to date and jot down some notes in answer to the following questions:

  • How did you secure your present job?
  • What skills and experience did you have at the time?
  • Which job or position would you like to be holding in: a) five years' time b) ten years' time?
  • What skills, knowledge, experience and qualifications will you need to achieve these goals?
  • What will you need to have achieved in three years' time?
  • What is the next step and when should you take it?
  • What three or four key actions do you need to take to move along your identified career route?
  • What alternative career outcomes would meet your needs?

 

In knowing yourself, it is important to analyse your career and life plans in a structured way. Doing so can help to give you a better understanding of your own preferences and priorities.

Schein identified three cycles that affect individuals' work at different stages of their lives: bio-social, family relationship and career.

Further study

Career Dynamics: Matching Individual and Organizational Needs - by Edgar H. Schein

Organizational Culture and Leadership - by Edgar H. Schein

The Corporate Culture Survival Guide - by Edgar H. Schein
 

After completing this Element you should be able to:

1 begin to develop a career plan

2 identify 'career anchors'

3 plan to take responsibility for your personal and career development.

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Edgar Schein

Edgar H. Schein is Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. Schein trained as a psychologist and, before joining MIT, worked for the US Army.

In his role as a psychologist Schein treated, among others, US soldiers who had been taken prisoner in the Korean War.

Schein's experiences of people's different reactions to social processes and systems led to his research in aspects of organisational culture, organisation development and career dynamics. His notable books include 'Career Dynamics: Matching Individual and Organizational Needs' (1978), 'Organizational Culture and Leadership' (1988) and 'The Corporate Culture Survival Guide' (1999)