Suchergebnisse

This exploratory study used qualitative data as a basis for grounding a new theoretical framework for understanding obsolescence and updating. Fifty professionals were interviewed at length. Four propositions emerged out of the data. One, obsolescence and updating are multifaceted phenomena. Obsolescence has different meanings for different people. Professionals adopt world views-or cognitive schemata-regarding the nature of obsolescence, its relevance to them, and their roles in coping with it. Eleven cognitive schemata were identified. Two, the various schemata constitute various ways of coping with the obsolescence threat. Three, schemata are not individual creations. They are shared by groups of people in organizations. Four, organizational rank and career stage determine to a large extent which schema will be adhered to by the person (or the group). These four propositions are integrated with extant literature, and organizational implications of the new framework are discussed.

The career literature advocates a joint person-organization responsibility for the career development of employees. Along similar lines, this study explored the relationships between individual and organizational career management and employee career effectiveness. The results indicated that two elements of individual career management—planning and proactivity—contributed to career effectiveness. Perceived organizational career management enhanced the affective aspects of career effectiveness (career attitudes and identity) and was also associated with personal planning. The study lends support to an implicit, untested, and widely shared assumption regarding the contribution of organizational career management to individual effectiveness.

This paper investigates the relationship between patterns of life structure and variability in self. It presents new methods for assessing two kinds of variability in self and four dimensions of life structure (complexity, conflict, flexibility, and compartmentation). Data for these measures were gathered through the design of a research program in which subjects were invited into the data-gathering process as co-inquirers. Empirical data reveal a congruence between variability of self and the nature of a person's environment as it is reflected in dimensions of life structure. Variability of self is linked with the occupation of complex, flexible, compartmented, and highly conflictful life structures. Theoretical implications point toward the need to consider patterns of life structure and variability of self as dimensions of individual differences.