Business career growth encompassing on the advancement and development of an individual’s career has been a great concern for most scholars and researchers. The primary interest in this area is recruitment, training, career development, promotion and selection that mainly rely on career development and advancement for success. Career growth, especially in the business field, is an essential indicator of the employee-organizational relationship that exists in human capital development. An employee’s career progress is mainly attributed to the continuous acquisition of managerial or the need to have higher professional skills and experience, which in return bring about rewards and promotion at the workplace. Employee’s development is a crucial area of interest since it forms part of an organization’s activities and brings about more business strategies. It is essential to focus on the benefits of making career growth since many business organizations use activities, techniques, resources, and programs to map out their employees’ careers.
Professionals require solid credentials that instill trust to their customers. However, with time it is necessary to polish and improve those credentials. Professionals also may portray a great ambition to figure out new responsibilities in the organization. These new responsibilities take shape depending on the career level of the employee. Activities such as familiarizing newly hired professionals with their workmates and decision-making techniques employed in an organization may require some level of experience in the organization. Many organizations also strive to keep their employees stuck in a rut and therefore opt to sponsor formal training tuitions to advance the careers of their employees. These organizations may opt to organize conferences, online lectures, and webinars as an opportunity for professional networking that promotes career development of their employees. Career development is focusing on an individual’s growth throughout the different career stages aids to fulfill an employee’s and company’s needs (Torrington and Hall 7). Torrington and Hall go on to state that, “the fragile consensus built around formalization of procedures and around jurisdiction as a means of handling employment relations and of propiating labour” (p. 8). It means the dedication of an organization to use many activities and techniques is not one-sided but instead plays a significant role of maintaining the balance between an individual’s need that include job security, development and promotion and the organization’s need which include employee’s loyalty, trust, and commitment.
People have varied opinions concerning career development. Some of these opinions hold employees back and make them fail to aim at career development. Some employees think that they need to own their careers but not the job they are currently handling in an organization. Therefore, they feel that there no need to exhaust their energy furthering their careers since the job belongs to the organization. However, employees who view career development in this manner hold on to crystal ball myth. Instead, employees and employers should cooperate and own their activities in an organization to achieve a maximum outcome for the benefit of both parties. People who have it together always have clear and concise plans for their lives and tend to perform much (Lewis and Gilhousen 297). Some employees also view employees seeking career advancement as people who want more, bigger or better promotions, salary increments, power, and prestige. These employees perceive their employees as baby birds with their mouths wide open waiting to be fed. This perception is patently inaccurate since not all employees aim for career development with the aim of receiving better salaries or special treatment. This perception leads to the myth of exactitude that involves perfectionism in career choices. Employers should judge employees based on the real assets they bring to the workplace regarding knowledge and ability to concentrate on a number of tasks at one time. Majority of employees use their job as a way to build their skills and make themselves more flexible in the diverse business field (Lankard 3). The viewpoints possessed by individuals, however, do not overcome the benefits of career development. Instead, these myths and misconceptions lay a foundation for each employee educating them on the possible hindrances of career development. One of the critical benefits of career development is helping an individual to be a T-shaped employee.
Advancing the career ladder is beneficial to the employee since it helps him or her become a T-shaped employee. The concept of T-shaped persons or skills is a metaphor majorly used in job recruitment to describe an individual’s abilities in the workforce. Due to the world’s changing innovation landscape, employees with more skills in a particular field are more preferred. T-shaped personnel helps a company develop more global, integrated and outcome driven innovations (Demirkan and Spohrer 12). According to Demirkan and Spohrer, “In highly competitive industries, as products become more commoditized, services can provide differentiation and drive breakthrough product and business model innovations” (p. 12). Therefore, integrating T-shaped employees puts the company in a better position to accommodate new business models. The counter to a T-shaped employee is an I-shaped employee. I-shaped employees commonly referred as narrow specialists fit best in few fields such as healthcare. However, in the business field, employers are increasingly advocating employing a T-shaped individual since they bring diverse experiences and points of view to the organization. Career development puts an employee in a better position of becoming T-shaped personnel allowing them not only learn new hard skills but also gain an understanding of how different departments in an organization interrelate and fit in a broader business field. If one is human resource personnel, for example, making a lateral move into the marketing field increases the competitiveness of their profile for future business jobs. Many employers are excited to find to human resource personnel who understand the marketing strategies that increase the productivity of the organization. Another key benefit of career advancement is avoiding job burnout.
Job burnout refers to the long-term stress that was not detected and addressed before it spun out of control. Job burnout is accompanied by an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and involves mental, emotional and physical exhaustion. An employee who does the same type of role for a while is prone to develop job burnout especially when he or she feels some repetitive challenge in their job. A lateral move of furthering one’s career can be an effective way to switch things up and even increase one’s earning potential. Nowadays, many employees tend to combat burnout at the workplace by opting a lateral move, which in turn helps them discover job functions they are happy in. Burnout syndrome has structural causes in the work environment including low job resources and high job demands (Bakker and Costa 112). If one experiences career burnout, then they should approach the opportunity for career growth rather than giving up. It is never too late to broaden once horizons and discover talents and abilities one never knew they had. When an employee adds up their current skillset, they open doors to new opportunities. However, before one jumps straight into the external job hunt, they should consider job functions they are interested in and investigate whether those opportunities are available with their current company. Career advancement also aids in building one’s network.
Career advancement is the most valuable way of making professional connections that can help vouch for one’s credibility and work ethic. Networking refers to making connections with different people, the most valuable resource at every phase of one’s pursuit. Lateral moves help individuals expand their network beyond their old team hence setting one up for success as their career grows. It is also essential to preserve the relationships with the old colleagues. It is important to avoid burning bridges and keep on checking them periodically to strengthen the relationship (Wright and Wright 205). One can also take advantage of the various opportunities that exist for meeting their alumni through either externships or campus-planned meetings. These chances help an individual with career advice. Career development also aids in retaining top talent in a company. However, retaining this top talent costs organization-high expenses, loss of company knowledge; disruption of customer service the morale of the remaining employees can be lowered (Friar and Kimberly 110, Bloch and Richmond 64). Career development also strengthens the succession pipeline in an organization. The employees put themselves in a higher position to apply for critical roles that may be vacant in an organization. Here, the organization also strives to retain the wealth of knowledge and experience in the current and impending retirement of millions of Baby Boomers. Therefore, career development initiatives offer direct opportunities for knowledge sharing to preserve valuable knowledge. However, higher salaries and career success majorly accompany upward career moves.
The impact of career growth on the performance and motivation of employees boost an organization’s productivity. Positive approaches of developing career growth, however, rely heavily on the support one receives from the line managers and career development needs of employees. One to one career discussions or career workshops within the organization and subset of employees trained as career coaches mentors motivate employees to better their skills and input in an organization. In conclusion, despite being costly, the benefits of career advancement are inevitable. It is evident that increasing a business organization’s productivity requires a well-rounded person who can handle more than one field of expertise.
Works Cited
Bakker, Arnold B., and Patrícia L. Costa. "Chronic job burnout and daily functioning: A theoretical analysis." Burnout Research 1.3 (2014): 112-119.
Bloch, Deborah P., and Lee Richmond. Connections between spirit and work in career development: New approaches and practical perspectives. Routledge, 2015.
Demirkan, Haluk, and Jim Spohrer. "T-shaped innovators: Identifying the right talent to support service innovation." Research-Technology Management 58.5 (2015): 12-15.
Friar, John H., and Kimberly A. Eddleston. "Making connections for success: A networking exercise." Journal of Management Education 31.1 (2007): 104-127.
Lankard, Bettina A. "Career Development in Generation X. Myths and Realities." (1995).
Lewis, Ronald A., and Michael R. Gilhousen. "Myths of career development: A cognitive approach to vocational counseling." The Personnel and Guidance Journal 59.5 (1981): 296-299.
Torrington, Derek, and S. Hall. Human resource management and the personnel function. London: Routledge, 1998.
Wright, Cheryl A., and Scott D. Wright. "The role of mentors in the career development of young professionals." Family relations (1987): 204-208.
