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Examining Careers In Human Resource Development
Robyn Johnston
Summary of presentation at the 3rd International Conference
"Researching Vocational Education and Training" July 14-16 1999, Bolton Institute
Faculty of Education
University of Technology, Sydney
P.OBox 123 Broadway 2007
NSW Australia
Ph +(0)295143869
Email Robyn.Johnston @uts.edu.au
Abstract
The notion of career,particularly when embedded within or closely aligned to organisational settings, has become increasingly problematic as a result of significant changes that have occurred in the managing and structuring of organisations inwhat is frequently referred to as the post industrial era. Increasingly the twentieth century model of linear upwardly mobile career located in a large and static organisation has become questionable as have many traditional theories which explained career formation and development. Several writers have suggested that, given these conditions, there is a need to examine careers from an internal or subjective perspective as well as the more common objective perspective, to more adequately understand the notion of careers as they currently exist. This notion of careers and issues related to studying careers become even more problematic in a field of practice that is commonly seen as either emerging or evolving. Such is the case with the field of human resource development. This paper, reports progress on an investigation exploring careers in this evolving field. It focuses on the careers of selected HRD/Training and Development practitioners through an examination of these practitioners' own career narratives. In so doing the paper explores the existence of patterns in careers in this field and some of the forces that help explain such patterns. Such findings have potential to contribute to a further understanding of this field of practice and ultimately to shaping of academic curriculum for those who practice in the field .
Key words: Careers, Human Resource Developers.
There is a growing body of theorisation and research that attest to the changing role of human resource development (HRD) in organisations. Much of this writing points either to the dynamic and evolving nature of HRD as a field of practice or, to its increasing maturation as a field of study (Evart,1998). Despite the wealth of literature in this area there has been little exploration into HRD as a career field. This dearth may be attributable to the evolving status of the field. It may alternatively be ,in part ,the product of the increasing uncertainty about the relevance of the concept of career generally given the turbulence of organisations( the sites of HRD practice and careers in HRD) in the post industrial society. Stories of practitioners however have been used frequently as sources for explaining careers in other fields(eg.Hall, 1996; Bierema,1996; Zabusky and Barley,1996). Such studies have helped illuminate the salient features of practice fields and presented models of best practice generally as well as yielding insights to what careers in those fields look like. Arguably research of a similar kind into HRD as a career field has the potential for providing another lens for seeing what constitutes this field of practice and thereby yielding some directions for the preparation and on going development of its practitioners.
This paper attempts to address this gap. As the initial stage of more extensive research it examines the career stories of selected practitioners in this field. In so doing it presents some early findings which reveal coherent and consistent patterns characterising careers in this field .
Some defining terms
For the purposes of this research a broad conceptualisation of this area of practice has been adopted. The terms Human Resource Development and Human Resource Developer are being used as umbrella terms to describe the processes and practitioners who work in training, training and development, staff development, organisational development and performance improvement. Both Australian and overseas literature use these umbrella terms to describe this area of organisational practice and its practitioners as well as to highlight the move away from narrow behaviouristic approaches previously associated with orthodox industrial training (eg Nijhof, and de Rijk,1997;Field,1995; Garavan,Costine and Herarty,1995; Mulder,1992;Watkins and Marsick,1992).
Similarly a broad conceptualisation of the concept of career is being adopted in the examination of careers of HRD practitioners. Such a position can be seen in much recent writing about careers. Arnold(1996,ix) for example arguing a position advanced by many other writes (eg Chen, 1998; Macken,1997; Ostermann,1996; Handy ,1995) states,
It is important that the notion of career is not confined to a predictable upward movement over a long period of time within one organisation or occupation simply because this pattern has become rarer. Indeed a career concerns any sequence of employment related positions. It includes people's subjective experiences of sequence not simply an objective account of jobs they hold
Working with such a conceptualisation of career, this study of career will foreground some common public, structural or,in other words, objective features of HRD practitioners' careers. The study will also seeks to illuminate common subjective interpretations of experiences that emerge from practitioners' discussion about their careers. Young and Collin(1992, 1-2) clearly articulate the appropriateness of such an approach in understanding careers when they argue
..... in order to study career and counsel others about their career we have to interpret the words and stories people use to construct their career. Career research calls for an awareness of the dialectic between individuals and their context in this constructive process and it can only be achieved though interpretation. Moreover , it is through interpretation and subsequent construction of narrative and stories that individuals make sense of their career and world. The understanding and practice of interpretation, then, are proposed as two key elements in career research, the more so now that a modern world view appears to be giving way to a post modern one.
The search for commonality in subjective perspectives of career in this field allows for the inclusion of both work and "other life" experiences which have also been commonly recognised as appropriate for understanding career construction. (Super, 1990 ,Cochran, 1990). Chen(1998,439) highlights the acceptance of these wider perspectives of contituents of career, in his discussion of trends emerging in the contemporary theorisation of career when he argues.
Although definitions( between career theorists) seem to differ slightly with their emphasis and wording regarding the concept of career , they appear to echo similar key characteristics and variables. That is, instead of viewing career as a narrowly defined, isolated work- related aspect of one's if, career is seen as an integral active and essential component of a person's life. While one's career experiences always intertwine with their experiences in life, the person's life experiences can well reflect a general picture of his or her career development.
Examination of subjective perspectives also allows for increased consideration of the individual as an actor/ agent in shaping his or her own career. Many theorists are increasingly exploring variables that contribute to the individual's self agency in career formation and enaction. Very prominent in such theorisation are considerations of the role of the self concept and the closely related sense of self efficacy. (eg, Lent, Brown and Hackett, 1996; Amundsen,1995; Miller-Tiedeman and Tiedeman,1990 ,Super, 1990; Bandura, 1982 ) This study will attempt to identify therefore any commonly held dimensions of self agency from career stories of practitioners
Additionally the study looks for resonances with other studies which have attempted to find patterns in careers .Many these studies, while not ignoring subjective dimensions, have primarily focussed on the structural dimensions of careers. Schein(1977), for example ,undertook a 12 year longitudinal study into careers of 44 MBA graduates. His findings revealed little consistency in job histories but a great deal of consistency in the reasons individuals gave for making career decisions, a consistency that increased over participants' work experience. Schein's study suggested that individuals made decisions about their career and career moves or transitions as a result of one of 5 different motivations or orientations which he called "career anchors". The common career anchors he identified included: the desire of individuals use their technical or functional competence; the desire to develop and use managerial competence; the desire for security and stability; the desire for creativity in work, and, the desire for autonomy and independence(Dalton;1989, 193).
Another explanatory typology of careers advanced by Dalton, Thompson and Price( 1977) posited that typically individual careers moved through 4 stages beginning with the development of a sense of identity. moving to the development of competence, followed by building mutually developmental relationships, and finally to the development of a capacity to lead. These researchers however indicated that not all individuals necessarily moved through each phase. Some individuals had careers which plateaued at one stage either through personal choice or organisational opportunity. (Dalton, 1989).
These two examples, while not the only models of careers , do provide examples of typologies based on commonly occurring career patterns. They may therefore provide frameworks for exploring patterning in HRD careers ,even though they are based on research conducted prior to the advent of an era characterised by significant organisational turbulence, and the elimination of many white collar jobs.
The study
Data for this study was drawn from interviews with 6 HRD practitioners from the Sydney metropolitan area. Some had practised in other states, or in regional communities or internationally at various stages of their careers . All had practised within medium to large organisations. Three practitioners had spent some time operating as consultants offering services to large organisations or in a public provision role. None of the practitioners used the Human Resource Development label in their positional title ,however, all clearly indicated that they identified themselves as practitioners from this field. Experience within the field of those practitioners whose stories were analysed ranged from 7 to 20+ years.
The major focus of an analysis to this point has been on an examination of the "objective" careers in this field, with particular attention being paid to participants' entry to the field and transitions within the field. In the later part of the report some early findings pertaining to common dimensions of subjective careers in this field are presented.
Common features of objective careers in HRD
Entry paths
HRD practitioners interviewed had, what could be seen as, comparatively disorderly entry paths to this area of practice in that all entered from different work points and experiences . Such a finding is fairly predictable given the still comparatively deregulated nature of this area of professional practice in Australia. Such "disorderliness of entry" is also predictable given what some have seen as the emergent status of this field world wide (Thijssen,1988), and the fact that the field is still being characterised as one with significantly shifting boundaries of practice (Johnston, 1998; Ulrich,Lake and Losey, 1997;Watkins and Marsick,1992 ).
All participants in the study so far had entered the field of HRD from positions either unrelated to HRD or adult training and development although one had trained and taught as a secondary school teacher with a view to becoming a psychologist /counsellor. Participants came from occupations including agriculture, higher education research, tourism, sales. teaching and public service.- law enforcement. At entry to the field no participant had undertaken studies in the areas of adult education or human resource development or business. Several, however, had undertaken studies in psychology, and, after entry had taken studies in at least one of these above areas . Of all the respondents, 2 had contemplated careers in a teaching role within the schooling system prior to entry to the workforce. One respondent had quite deliberately made a choice to avoid a career on entering the workforce that led in the direction of teaching.
Entry for the most part into this field of practice was almost serendiptious. For example one, originally from a sales background, began providing training courses in stress management to community groups to assist with her studies in psychology. A second, who was a project researcher in higher education sector in the area of criminology and social science was required to undertake a review of training opportunities for participants working in the field of corrective services and make recommendations for future program provision as one of her a research projects. A third moved into the part time provision of training and development courses as a result of her self-acquired technical expertise in a field for which, prior to her appointment, there was no formal training provision within her organisation. The remaining three moved into orthodox training and development roles on the basis of their technical expertise through invitation or by applying for advertised positions within their organisation.
Such findings would seem to suggest that entry to this area was on the basis of a degree of expertise within a "technical" specialisation or "subject" area which provided the spring board to future careers in another field . Such findings also indicated that entry to this career field can be through a full time position, or as a minor part of another occupational position and therefore a more tentative or temporary entry pathway.
Transitions
A second feature examined as part of the analysis of careers in the field concerned the nature of career transitions that had been made by practitioners. Career transitions include changes both within and between organisations and fields of occupational practice. All but one had made transitions within at least one of their employing organisations ,and, all but one, had made transitions between organisations. Approximately half of the respondents had made up to 6 career transitions within this field. It is worth noting that the one participant who had not moved between organisations had had the least experience of those interviewed for this part of the study. She had however had made two transitions within the field in her organisation.
Analysis of explanations for movement within the occupational area revealed that transitions had been made for personal/ non professional reasons and as a result of experiences within the profession. Amongst personal/non professional explanations of transition were marriage, partners moving interstate/overseas, migration, and becoming a single parent.
Other transitions were the result of individual participants becoming unsatisfied with varying dimensions of the role in which they were operating. Such dissatisfaction arose from long hours, the political context in which participants' organisation were operating, dissatisfaction with the way their roles were defined and limited by their employers, perceived lack of future career opportunities ,treatment or conditions of employment offered by then employer, and restructuring resulting in the elimination of the position they were holding at the time.
These findings have some resonance. with the work of Scott, Dawis, Lofquist and England (1960 cited in Dawis,1996) which posited that notions of satisfaction and satisfactoriness are major sources of what they called work adjustment. They advanced a theory of work adjustment -person correspondence suggesting that correspondence occurs when the worker is both satisfactory and satisfied and that individuals seek such correspondence in enacting their careers. Hence individuals either try to improve their level of satisfaction(or diminish the level of dissatisfaction) within an organisation or seek other employment. Conversely the organisation may attempt to improve the satisfactoriness of worker before requiring them to go. A number of the transitions in this study resulted from, practitioners growing dissatisfied with the working conditions , work opportunities or relationships and having sought improve those, then left the organisation and sought another position in the field or worked as an independent consultant .
Dissatisfaction resulting from organisational restructuring led to at least 4 career transitions. For these participants organisational restructuring was potentially leading them to what they believed would be less satisfying role or to redundancy. For several participants severance from their organisation as permanent employees had resulted in them being provided with opportunities to provide development
services back to the organisation in a consultancy role and therefore served as a bridge into the next stage of their career as an HRD consultant.
Schlossberg(1984) has suggested that transitions can be defined as "anticipated"," unanticipated", "chronic hassle" and "non event". Using this terminology, the transitions examined in this study, could be seen as being "non events" in that all respondents who had made transitions in such an involuntary way, at the time of interview, saw their restructuring transition experiences resulting in severance with their organisation as providing them with further opportunities to pursue new pathways or to enrich their experience within the field. Such a positive outlook and experience may have been the product of what could be seen as successful transition and may not typify the field . No participant suggested that their experience of such restructuring encouraged them to seek a career in an alternative career field.
Approximately half of the participants had made at least one transitions which required them to assume more responsibility for line management in that the position they moved to required them to manage a small number of staff. This pattern however did not apply in all transitions and did not necessarily mean that all those who took on managerial responsibilities in one position necessarily took on such managerial responsibilities in future transitions.
At one level, this study could be seen as suggesting that careers in this field of professional practice could be characterised by considerable instability given the frequency of movement of practitioners between positions and within the field and as such this area as a career field could be seen as lacking the high levels of security or regularity. On the other hand, the lack of movement from this second field of "technical competence" by participants could be seen as indicating that the field offers the potential for career diversity yet stability.