CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Career development is a function of human resource management

which aims at providing opportunities for people to develop their careers. This
will help them to achieve their career aspirations at the same time enable to
talent development in the organisations. Career planning and succession
planning are two major parts of career development. This is carried out along
with the other functions of HRM such as: performance appraisal and potential
appraisal. Training and development plays a major role in career development.
In this unit, the function of career development, career planning and
succession planning are explained in detail.
Career is viewed as a sequence of position occupied by a person
during the course of his lifetime. Career may also be viewed as amalgam of
changes in value, attitude and motivation that occur, as a person grows older.
The implicit assumption is that an invididual can make a different in his career
over time and can adjust in ways that would help him to enhance and optimize
the potential for his own career development. Career development is important
because it would help the individual to explore, choose and strive to derive
satisfaction with one’s career object.
Through career development, a person evaluates his or her own abilities and
interests, considers alternative career opportunities, establishes career goals,
and plans practical developmental activities.
Career development seeks to achieve the following objectives:
a) It attracts and retains the right persons in the organisation
b) It maps out careers of employees suitable to their ability, and their
willingness to be trained and developed for higher positions

c) It ensures better use of human resources through more satisfied and

productive employees
d) It ensures more stable workforce by reducing labour turnover and
absenteeism

e) It utilizes the managerial talent available at all levels within the

organisation
f) It improves employee morale and motivation by matching skills to job
requirements and by providing job opportunities for promotion

g) It ensures that promising persons get experience that will equip them to
reach responsibility for which they are capable
h) It provides guidance and encouragement to employees to fulfill their
potential

i) It helps in achieving higher productivity and organizational development

The essence of a progressive career development programme is built on
providing support for employees to continually add to their skills, abilities and
knowledge. This support from organisation includes:
a) Clearly communicating the organisation’s goals and future strategies.
b) Creating growth opportunities

c) Offering financial assistance

d) Providing the time for employees to learn.

On the part of employees, they should manage their own careers like
entrepreneurs managing a small business. They should think of themselves as
self-employed. They should freely participate in career planning activities and
must try to get as much as possible out of the opportunities provided. The
successful career will be built on maintaining flexibility and keeping skills and
knowledge up to date.
Career development essentially involves the functions of career planning and
succession planning. Both these functions are carried out by HR department.
Keeping in view the organisational goals and capabilities of individual
employees subsequent sections would cover the functions of career planning
and succession planning in detail.

9.1 CAREER PLANNING

Career Planning essentially means helping the employees to plan their career
in terms of their capacities within the context of organisational needs. It is
described as devising an organisational system of career movement and
growth opportunities from the point of entry of an individual in employment
to the point of his or her retirement. It is generally understood to be a
management technique for mapping out the entire career of young employees
in higher skilled, supervisory, and managerial positions. Thus, it is the
discovery and development of talents, planned deployment and redeployment
of these talents. Some writers on organisational matters have described it as
the regulation of "blue eyed" jobs. It is also described as a process-of
synthesizing and harmonising the needs of the organisation with the innate
aspirations of the employees, so that while the latter realise selffulfilment, the
formers effectiveness is improved.
Literally, a career can be defined as a sequence of separate but related work
activities that provide continuity, order and meaning to a person's life. It is not
merely a series of work-related experiences, but consists of a series of
properly sequenced role experiences, leading to an increasing level of
responsibility, status, power, and rewards. It represents an organised path
taken by an individual across time and space. In the case of an employee,
career planning provides an answer to his or her question as to where he or she
will be in the organisation after five years or ten years or what the prospects of

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advancing or growing are in the organisation or building the scope for his or
her career there. Career planning is not only an event or end in itself but also
an ongoing process for development of human resources. In short, it is an
essential aspect of managing people to obtain optimal results.
Career planning takes place at different stages of ones career of an employee.

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 Activity A:
Present a caselet on how career planning functions in an organisation.

9.2 CAREER STAGES AND CAREER ANCHORS

The stages of a career (Box 1) within an organization can be described as a

career lifecycle. Hall (1984) set this out as follows.

Box 1: Career Stages

1. Entry to the organization when the individual can begin the process of self-
directed career planning.
2. Progress within particular areas of work where skills and potential are
developed through experience, training, coaching, mentoring and performance
management
3. Mid -career when some people will still have good career prospects while
others may have got as far as they are going to get, or at least feel that they have.
It is necessary to ensure that these ‘plateaued’ people do not lose interest at this
stage by taking such steps as providing them with cross-functional moves, job
rotation, special assignments, recognition and rewards for effective performance,
etc.
4. Later career when individuals may have settled down at whatever level they
have reached but are beginning to be concerned about the future. They need to be
treated with respect as people who are still making a contribution and given
opportunities to take on new challenges wherever this is possible. They may also
need reassurance about their future with the organization and what is to happen to
them when they leave.

5. End of career with the organization - the possibility of phasing disengagement

by being given the chance to work part time for a period before they finally have
to go should be considered at this stage.

Source: Armstrong’s Handbook (2020)

Career anchors

Some recent evidence suggests that six different factors account for the way
people select and prepare for a career. They are called career anchors
because they become the basis for making career choices. They are
particularly found to play a significant role amongst younger generation
choosing professions. They are briefly presented below:

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a) Managerial Competence: The career goal of managers is to develop
qualities of interpersonal, analytical, and emotional competence. People
using this anchor want to manage people.

b) Functional Competence: The anchor for technicians is the continuous

development of technical talent. These individuals do not seek
managerial positions.

c) Security: The anchor for security-conscious individuals is to stabilize

their career situations. They often see themselves tied to a particular
organization or geographical location.

d) Creativity: Creative individuals are somewhat entrepreneurial in their

attitude.

They want to create or build something that is entirely their own.

e) Autonomy and independence: The career anchor for independent
people is a desire to be free from organizational constraints. They value
autonomy and want to be their own boss and work at their own pace.
This also includes an entrepreneurial spirit.

f) Technological competence. There is a natural affinity for technology and

a desire to work with technology whenever possible. These individuals
often readily accept change and therefore are very adaptable.

9.3 CAREER DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

In order to execute the career planning function, HR department in
consultation with other departments fourmulate a career development
strategy.

A career development strategy might include the following activities:

• a policy of promoting from within wherever possible;
• career routes enabling talented people to move from bottom to top of the
organization, or laterally in the firm, as their development and job
opportunities take them;

• personal development planning as a major part of the performance

management process, in order to develop each individual’s knowledge
and skills;

• systems and processes to achieve sharing and development of knowledge

(especially tacit) across the firm;

• multi-disciplinary project teams with a shifting membership in order to

offer develop- mental opportunities for as wide a range of employees as
possible.
 9.4 PROCESS OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT

There are two components of career planning and development: 155

A) Career Development Programme, and

B) Career Planning Process and Activities

The Exhibit 1 depicts the components of process of career development

Exhibit 1: Components of Career Development

Career Development

Career Development Career planning process and

Programme activities

Internal Career
Assessment

Career opportunities

Employee’s need and

opportunities
Organisations HR inventory

Employee’s potential for

career planning

Training and Development

programme

Age balance and career

paths

Review of career
development plan in action

Career Counselling

A) Career Development Programme

This involves three activities:
a)Assisting employees in assessing their own internal career needs.
b) Developing and publicising available career opportunities in the
organisation.

c)Aligning employee needs and abilities with career opportunities.

a) Internal Career Assessment: Since a person's career is extremely
important element of life, each person is to make his or her decision in this
regard. However, the HR manager may assist an employee's decision-
making process by providing as much information as possible to the
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employee showing what type of work would suit him or her most,
considering his or her other interest, skill, aptitude, and performance in the
work that he or she is already doing. For rendering such help some big
organisations provide formal assessment centre/workshops where small
groups of employees are subjected to psychological testing, simulation
exercises and depth interviewing. The objective of such

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 programmes is not that of selecting future promotees, but rather to help
indivuduals to do their own planning.
b) Career Opportunities: Knowing that employees have definite career needs,
there naturally follows the obligation of specifically charting career paths
through the organisation and informing the employees. For identifying the
career paths the technique of job analysis may help in discovering multiple
lines of advancement to several jobs in different areas.
c) Employee's Needs and Opportunities: When employees have assessed
their needs and have become aware of organisational career opportunities
the remaining problem is one of alignment. For aligning or matching the
career needs of employees to opportunities offered by the organisation,
special training and development techniques such as special assignment,
planned position rotation, and supervisory coaching, are used. The HR
department of some organisations have also some system of recording and
tracking moves through the organisation, and maintain an organisation chart
that highlights age, seniority and promotion status.

B) Career Planning Process and Activities

The process of career planning involves a number of activities or steps to be
undertaken as mentioned below:
a) Preparation of HR inventory of the organisation,

b) Building career paths or ladders for various categories of employees,

c) Locating or identifying employees with necessary potential for career
planning,
d) Formulation and implementation of suitable plans for training and
development of

e) persons for different steps of the career ladder or paths, and

f) Maintaining age balance while taking employees up the career path and
review of career development plan in action, etc.
a) Organisation's HR Inventory: Such an inventory is an
essential prerequisite for any successful career planning within the
organisation. This inventory should be so prepared as to provide the
following information:
• Organisational set up and its different levels.
• The existing number of persons employed in the organisation. For this,
manning tables are prepared showing the nature of positions at different
levels of the organisation and the number of persons manning those
jobs. Sometimes the age of persons holding the jobs are also mentioned
in the table to show when they are likely to

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 retire and when the vacancy thus caused may be required to be filled.
• Types of existing employees, their status, duties, qualifications, age,
aptitude, ability to shoulder added responsibility and their
acceptability to their colleagues.

• Whether the existing manpower is short or in surplus to

requirements. If there is a shortage, how many more persons are
required, and for what positions.
Number of persons required in the near future, say in the next one to five
years, to meet the needs arising from expansion or diversification of work
or natural wastage of manpower. The latter includes death, permanent
disability, superannuation and retirement, discharge, dismissal, voluntary
resignation, or abandonment of the jobs.
Collection of all the above information may amount to manpower
planning, and involve preparation of manpower budget showing present
and immediate future needs.
b) Employee's Potential for Career Planning: After determining the
career path, the next logical step is to find out the suitable employees who
may have the necessary ability and potential for climbing up the ladder
and are willing to be promoted and to take up higher responsibilities. For
this the management control technique of Performance Appraisal and
Merit Rating is utilised. Periodical evaluation and merit rating of
employees is also necessary for proper planning of manpower and career
of employees in the organisation. This can be possible only by knowing
how much and what types of human resources are available, and the
potential of employees whose career is to be planned.
c) Formulation and Implementation of Training and Development
Plans and Programmes: For making the career planning a success it is
essential that the training and development programmes should be so
planned and designed that they meet the needs of both the management
and employees. The participants of these programmes should be the
employees who are willing to be trained and developed further to make
their career in the organisation. Methods of training and nature of skill
and knowledge to be imparted may be different for different types of
employees. The emphasis may be on improving technical skills of skilled
workers and on acquiring and improving leadership qualities, human and
conceptual skills for senior supervisors, executives and managers.
d) Age Balance and Career Paths: One widespread difficulty in career
planning may arise from the need to accommodate people in the same
level of supervisory and managerial hierarchy, some of whom are young
direct recruits and others are promotees who are almost always
considerably older. The latter, because of their limited education or
formal professional qualification, cannot expect to move up very high;

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 the former as they are better educated and trained have aspirations for
rapid vertical mobility. Promotion and direct recruitment at every level
must, therefore, be so planned as to ensure a fair share to either group.
Intense jealousies, rivalries or groupism may develop if this aspect of
personnel administration is neglected. Very quick promotions which
create promotion blocks should also be avoided if the employees are not
to feel stagnated or demotivated at early stages of their careers, and think
of leaving the organisation for better prospects. Such a situation can be
avoided if promotions are properly spaced.
e) Review of Career Development Plans in Action: Career planning is a
continuous activity. In fact it is a process. For effective career planning, a
periodical review process should be followed so that the employee may
know in which direction the organisation is moving, what changes are
likely to take place and what resources and skills he or she needs to adapt
to the changing organisational requirements. Even for the organisation,
annual evaluation is desirable to know an employee's performance,
limitations, goals and aspirations, and to know whether the career plan in
action is serving the corporate objective i.e. effective utilisation of human
resources by matching employee abilities to the demands of the job and
his or her needs to the rewards of the job. Some of the questions that
could be asked while evaluating the career plan might be:
• Was the classification of the existing employees correct?
• Are the job descriptions proper?
• Is there any employee unsuited to his or her job?
• Are the future manpower projections still valid?
• Is the team pulling on well as a whole?
• Are the training and development programmes adequately devised to
enable the employee to climb up the career ladder and fit into higher
positions?
Answers to all these and other questions can be found either by holding
brainstorming sessions or by undertaking a survey of career planning
activities and their impact on the working of the organisation.
f) Career Counselling: Career planning may also involve counselling
individuals on their possible career paths, and what they must do to
achieve promotions. The need for such counselling arises when
employees plan their own careers, and develop or train themselves for
career progression in the organisation. This does not mean revealing the
number of determined steps in a long range plan of the organisation.
Even if it were possible, it would be inappropriate to raise expectations
which might not be fulfilled or induce complacency about the future. In
counselling, the wisest approach is to provide a scenario of the
opportunities that might become available. The main aim should be to
help the individual concerned to develop oneself by giving him or her
some idea of the direction in which he or she ought to be heading. Some
other objectives of career counselling are as follows:

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 • Enabling individuals to study the immediate and personal world in
which they live.
• Providing a normal mature person with guidelines to help him or her
understand oneself more clearly and develop his or her thinking and
outlook.

• Achieving and enjoying greater personal satisfaction, pleasure and

happiness.

• Understanding the forces and dynamics operating in a system.

Activity B: Browse through web resources and illustrate a career planning process followed in an
organisation.

9.8 LIMITATIONS OF CAREER PLANNING

Is not easy to implement career planning process in an organisation. It has its

9.7 RESPONSIBILITY FOR CAREER

DEVELOPMENT

A basic question regarding Career Planning arises as to whose responsibility

it is for such a planning. Is it of the employee or of the management?
Basically Career Planning is an individual's responsibility. However, in the
organisational context, it is the organisations responsibility to guide and direct
the employees to develop and utilise their knowledge, abilities and resources
towards organisational development and effectiveness. Employees' goals have
to be integrated with organisational goals.
own difficulties and-problems like:

It does not suit a very small organisation. There should be opportunities for
vertical mobility if career planning has to become a reality.

Career planning is not an effective management technique for a large number

of HR who work on the shop-floor particularly for those who are illiterates,
less educated, and perform jobs for which labour supply is abundant.

Growth expectations of the members of the family in a family concern

produce adverse results. Since, the members of a family expect to move

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faster than their professional colleagues in the career ladder they upset the career planning exercise.

Career planning may not be so effective if it is attempted for a period exceeding a decade. This is
because in every developing country, environmental factors like political philosophy, new concepts
of social justice, new fiscal and monetary policies, state entrepreneurship on a large scale,
intensification of social control of business, development of backward areas, state intervention in
the working and employment conditions, etc., affect the growth of industrial enterprises and other
organisations.
Political intervention, favouritism and nepotism in promotion may make it difficult to have
systematic career planning.,
• Other constraints or obstacles that may hamper career planning are: Practical problems of maintaining
a balance between the promotes and recruits, and the absence of integrated personnel policy and
plans which is quite common in many enterprises; difficulties in identifying suitable persons for
career planning; lack of suitable manpower and rational wage structure; lack of sufficient
opportunities for vertical mobility; difficulties in forecasting replacement needs; assessment of long-
term potentials and absence of a clearly matched system of performance reporting; inability of the
administration to manipulate changes; difficulties in writing job descriptions and conducting
strong and inflicting conviction of the top management in career planning and their ability to their
enthusiasm down below. The path may be tiring, but once determined steps have been taken, the success
will be seen lying
attitudinal surveys and lack of employeetrust in such surveys. ahead making the
management effective
9.9 STRATEGIES FOR MAKING CAREER and its human
PLANNING A SUCCESS resources most
reality m productive, benefiting
What is most needed to make career planning a £ e 1 success is a all in the organisation.
Some of the other
factors and measures
which can contribute towards the success of career planning are:
a) Business Enterprise should be expanding if career planning is to be feasible, as in such organisations
long-term projection of the requirements of the HR, and it can provide ample opportunities for
vertical mobility or promotion.
b) An organisation must have clear corporate goals for the ensuing five, ten and fifteen years, and on
the basis of its corporate plans it should conduct analysis periodically; to determine the types of
changes, its functions, activities, procedures, technology and materials. If this is not done, an
organisation cannot develop the manpower development system, thus reducing the need for career
planning.

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c) Interested, goal-directed, motivated and hard working employees are
essential for making a career planning programme effective. An
organisation can create an environment and show genuine concern for the
development of the employees, but the employees must be willing to
make use of the resources and opportunities available. There are
instances when employees are not interested either in further developing
themselves or in making use of the training and developing facilities
provided by the organisation. As they are contented with what they are,
the question of planning their career further does not arise.
d) Selection of right person for the right job is an essential pre-requisite for
career planning. The right person should not only be qualified and have
necessary experience for the job applied for, but he or she should also
have enough potential and urge to develop and grow further in the
organisation.
e) Maintenance of proper age balance in career planning is also necessary to
avoid rapid promotions and promotion blocks caused by an age structure
which is over balanced either on the side of age or that of the youth. Such
blocks will not only create problems and difficulties for the smooth
working of career plans, but may also affect the growth and effective
functioning of the organisation. The latter must have both the process of
continuity and renewal in the management function and personnel.
Career planning work can be made effective by harmonising the needs of
the organisational growth with the normal growth and aspiration of
individual employees.
f) Management of career stress: Many employees experience stress at work
which is as damaging to an individuals' career as it is to an organisation.
Such a stress may manifest itself in the form of apathy, withdrawal,
dissatisfaction, absenteeism, increased accident proneness, hypertension
and heart disease. This tension is generally caused either by blockage of
career or lack of control when one feels that he or she is on the way out,
either because of impending retirement, or because one is out-paced by
younger employees. The management can help the employee to get over
this stress either by offering career stress management programmes for
getting back in control, and clarifying uncertainties. The management can
also help him or her by increasing the level of participation in decisions
that clearly affect how and when one does his or her job, or by making
him or her aware to what other jobs one can switch over, and how
gainfully one can keep oneself occupied after retirement.
g) Career planning will be made effective when it takes the form of a Fair
Promotion Policy supported by systematic training for those who are
trainable, willing and eager to learn a higher skill.
h) Internal publicity: A career plan should be given wide publicity if it is to
be a success. The employees for whom this plan is intended should know
what it is and what are the career paths they can and what

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 training and development facilities are available within and outside the organisation for preparing
them for higher or added responsibilities.

9.10 SUCCESSION PLANNING

Succession planning is an ongoing process that identifies necessary competencies, then works to assess,
develop, and retain a talent pool of employees, in order to ensure a continuity of leadership for all critical
positions. Succession planning is a specific strategy, which spells out the particular steps to be followed
to achieve the mission, goals, and initiatives identified in workforce planning. It is a plan that managers
can follow, implement, and customize to meet the needs of their organisation, division, and/or
department.
The continued existence of an organization over time require a succession of persons to fill key
position .The purpose of succession planning is to identify and develop people to replace current
incumbents in key position for a variety of reasons.
Some of these reasons are given below:
• Superannuation: Employees retiring because they reach a certain age.
• Resignation: Employees leaving their current job to join a new job
• Promotion: Employees moving upward in the hierarchy of the organization.

• Diversification: Employees being redeployed to new activities.

• Creation of New Position: Employees getting placed in new positions at the same level.
Succession can be from within or from outside the organization. Succession by people from within gives
a shared feeling among employee that they can grow as the organization grows. Therefore organization
needs to encourage the growth and development with its employee. They should look inward to identify
potential and make effort to groom people to higher and varied responsibilities. In some professionally
run large organizations, managers and supervisor in every department are usually asked to identify three
or four best candidate to replace them in their jobs should the need arise. However, the organization may
find it necessary to search for talent from outside in certain circumstance. For example, when qualified
and competent people are not available internally, when it is planning to launch a major expansion or
diversification programmes requiring new ideas etc.. Complete dependence on internal source may cause
stagnation for the organization. Similarly complete dependence on outside talent may cause stagnation in
the career prospects of the individual within the organization which may in turn generate a sense of
frustration.
Succession planning provides managers and supervisors a step-by-step methodology to utilize after
workforce planning initiatives have identified the

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critical required job needs in their organization. Succession planning is pro-
active and future focused, and enables managers and supervisors to assess,
evaluate, and develop a talent pool of individuals who are willing and able to
fill positions when needed. It is a tool to meet the necessary staffing needs of
an organization/department, taking not only quantity of available candidates
into consideration, but also focusing on the quality of the candidates, through
addressing competencies and skill gaps.

9.11 SUMMARY

Continuous self and staff development are instrumental for to continuous

performance improvement. One’s own self-development needs to be related
to your personal strengths and weaknesses and to the career aspirations. This
requires planning of career progression and setting career goals. This can be
achieved by identifying potentialities of employees with the help of potential
appraisal and various methods. Hence career development has become an
essential function of HR department in order to retain HR by providing them
future career planning. It is an integral part of performance management and
training and development functions in line with organisation’s goals.

9.12 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1) What is career planning? Discuss its needs, purpose and objectives.
2) Write a comprehensive note on succession planning citing suitable
examples.
3) What are the limitations of career planning?
4) Enlist the guidelines for making career planning a success.

9.13 FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES

Aswathappa, K.: “Raman Resource and Personnel Management’, (1999)
Himalaya Publishing House, New Delhi.

Davar, Rustom: “The Human Side of Management’, (1994) Progressive

Corporation. Ghosh, P.: Personnel Administration in India, (1990).

Gupta, C.B., “Human Resource Management ” (1997), Sultan Chand & Sons,
New Delhi.

Jucius Micheal, J.: “PersonnelManagement”,(1995) Richard Irwin.

Micheal, V.P.: “Human Resource Management and Human Relations”
(1998), Himalaya Publishing house, New Delhi.

Monappa, Arun and Saiyadain, Mirza S.: “Personnel Management’ (1996),

Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi.

Saiyadain, Mirza S.: “Human Resource Management’(3rd Ed.),2003, Tata

McGraw- Hill, New Delhi.

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Tripathi, P.C.: “Human Resource Development”, 2003, Sultan Chand, New Delhi. Philip, Tom:
“Making Performance Appraisal Work”, 1983, McGraw Hill, U.K.
Jyothi, P. and Venkatesh, D.N. (2006), Human Resource Management, Oxfordlatest reprint book is also
available
Gupta, C.B. (1997), Human Resource Management, Sultan Chand
Armstrong, Michael (2020), A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, Kogan Page

IGNOU SLM/Unit-16, ‘Career Planning’, TS-7 Human Resource Development, Block-2 Human
Resource Development

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