When the Outcome is Employability: Leading Indicators for the Governance of Labour Market Services

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between output, leading outcome, and lagging outcome indicators in the governance of labour market services. To support the definition of human capital development policies, the adoption of an intermediate outcome indicator of employability is proposed. By crossing data from a survey on workers’ perception of their own employability with administrative data on individual employment conditions, this work tests the effectiveness of such indicator. Results suggest a positive relationship between subjective career success and outcome, confirming the importance of employability as a predictor of long-term labour market performance.     

Claiming authority: How women explain their ascent to top business leadership positions

Career stories of 50 female executives from major corporations and high-growth entrepreneurial ventures suggest two alternative accounts of how women legitimize their claims to top leadership positions: navigating and pioneering. In navigating accounts, the women legitimized their claims to top authority positions by following well institutionalized paths of career advancement (e.g., high performance in line jobs) and self-advocating with the gatekeepers of the social hierarchy (e.g., bosses, investors). In pioneering accounts, the women articulated a strategic vision and cultivated a community of support and followership around their strategic ideas and leadership. The career stories suggested that, when the women's authority claims were not validated, they engaged in narrative identity work to revise their aspirations and legitimization strategies. Sometimes narrative identity work motivated women to shift from one type of account to another, particularly from navigating to pioneering. Based on inductive analyses of these 50 career stories, I propose a process model of how women legitimize their claims to top leadership positions by recursively resetting career accounts as authority claims succeed or fail.     

Employability management practices in the Polish ICT sector

This article examines current career thinking and employability management practices within the Polish Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. The aim of this contribution is to identify career management problems and to determine obstacles for implementing employability management practices at a company level. Semi-structured interviews aimed at establishing company needs were conducted with 18 managers of small and medium-sized ICT enterprises in Poland. These firms appear to apply various developmental approaches to stimulate competitive advantage. Faced with a more demanding environment, firms aim for versatility rather than adopting simplified solutions. Managing the careers and employability of ICT professionals is acknowledged as vitally important for the survival and development of ICT companies.     

The impact of international business education on career success—Evidence from Europe

In today's globalized world, career paths are becoming increasingly international, and so managers need respective cross-cultural strengths in order to act effectively in various cultural environments. Even though education—especially business education—is progressively becoming more international to meet these organizational demands, little is known about whether the extent of international business education influences careers, and in particular career success. In addressing this research deficit, we explore whether and how international business education affects career success. As the major contribution of this paper we suggest a conceptual framework which posits global identity and international experience as mediators of this relationship. The assumptions of this framework are confirmed by an investigation amongst 450 alumni of a European business school. Additional contributions include that we extend the limited body of research on the construct of international business education and its measurement, by providing an all-encompassing definition and much-needed operationalization. Furthermore, we contribute a European perspective on international business education through our empirical evidence.     

What it Means to Succeed: Personal Conceptions of Career Success Held by Male and Female Managers at Different Ages

This paper describes the findings of a qualitative study which analyses how managers define career success for themselves on their own terms. In exploring career success from the perspective of the individual, not the organization, the research attempts to fill an identifiable gap in the career literature. The paper examines the criteria which individuals use to describe what career success means to them, and expresses them by means of a series of orientational categories – Climbers, Experts, Influencers and Self-Realizers – which classify the different ways in which managers talk about career success. The variations in the way that the male and female, and older and younger, research participants describe what career success means to them are discussed and compared. The women managers and older managers who took part in the study appear less inclined to define career success in terms of hierarchical and financial progression: the paper considers the implications of this for individuals and for organizations.     

Work–Family Conflict and the Senior Female International Manager

The particular focus of this paper is on the workÐfamily conflict experienced by senior female international managers within a European context. This research is particularly relevant as existing European studies have not specifically addressed issues pertaining to the senior female international manager. For the purpose of this study 50 senior female expatriate managers were interviewed, representing a wide diversity of industry and service sectors. The study establishes that work–family conflict still prevents many female managers from progressing to senior management. The results of the study show that the senior international career move has largely been developed along a linear male model of career progression, a development which, together with gender disparity both in organizations and family responsibilities, frequently prevents women employees from reaching senior managerial positions. The study extends work primarily in the international human resource management literature, while also contributing to the research literatures on women in management and career theory.     

Flexible Work Arrangements and Intentions of Unemployed Women in Cyprus: A Planned Behaviour Model

Drawing from the theory of planned behaviour, we use 18 focus groups with 113 unemployed women and 150 mail questionnaires to explore whether and how unemployed Cypriot women's subjective norms, attitudes, perceived behavioural control and job versus career aspirations influence their intentions to adopt employee‐ and employer‐driven flexible work arrangements. To analyse the information gathered, we used a combination of content analysis, an external panel of practitioners and academics, principal components analysis, and regressions. Results show that women's positive attitudes towards child‐caring and self‐enhancement and their subjective norms of organizational inflexibility were positively related mainly with intentions to adopt employee‐driven flexible work arrangements. Further, women who found childcare support and employer requirements limiting were more interested in telework; the latter were also more interested in temporary work. Finally, women's career aspirations were related with weekend work and telework, whilst their job aspirations were associated with temporary work. Results raise issues for employers and policy‐makers in Cyprus, and possibly other southern European countries facing similar challenges, in supporting women to become fully integrated in the labour market.     

Identity Work and Emotions: A Review

This paper reviews the empirical literature on identity work and identifies two distinct approaches to incorporating emotion. The majority of empirical studies use emotion to describe the experiences of identity work. In doing so, the authors (a) mention the emotions that people feel in situations that trigger identity work, (b) illustrate identity work as an emotional endeavour, and (c) describe the emotional impact of successful and unsuccessful identity work. There is also an emerging literature that examines the mutual constitution of emotions and identity work. These authors address emotional labour, affective social identification, emotional attachment and detachment, and humour when studying identity work. This paper suggests that, to understand better the relation between emotions and identity work, future research should examine the role of emotions in problematizing identity, the emotional constitution of the identity work experience, the intersection of emotions and other ways of knowing the self, and the links between emotions and power in identity work.     

Unemployment and Search for Work: Exploratory Analyses of Labour Market Attachment and its Dynamics

This paper deals with measuring unemployment and labour market attachment in Italy, on the basis of Labour Force Survey data. Based on the answers to a set of questions on search for work, a cluster analysis is performed, which yields four groups, clearly characterized as regards their labour market conditions and attachment. Analyses are then carried out on the gross flows between these groups, estimated over a quarterly interval. Results of the dynamic analysis confirm the relevance of the classification established through exploratory techniques. The various groups exhibit a different dynamic behaviour, thus documenting that the exploratory classification has predictive power.     

Leadership and followership identity processes: A multilevel review

A growing body of leadership literature focuses on leader and follower identity dynamics, levels, processes of development and outcomes. Despite the importance of the phenomena, there has been surprisingly little effort to systematically review the widely dispersed literature on leader and follower identity. In this review we map existing studies on a multilevel framework that integrates levels-of-the self (individual, relational and collective) with the levels-of-analysis (intrapersonal, interpersonal and group) on which leader or follower identity work takes place. We also synthesize work from multiple research paradigms, such as social psychology experimental studies, narrative accounts of leaders' identity work and field studies on antecedents, outcomes, mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions. Finally, we outline implications for leadership development and call attention to key themes we see ripe for future research.     

Research into the psychological contract: Two Australian perspectives

Despite their increasing relevance, employees' psychological contracts have attracted little research attention in Australia. The present paper presents two studies, which examined the psychological contracts of specific cohorts of professional employees and those in a managerial career track. The first study was an in-depth qualitative investigation of research scientists in an Australian public sector research organisation. They were found to have a strong professional affiliation and had developed psychological contracts that were best understood by reference to the ‘ideological currency’ of the scientific community. The second study was a quantitative examination of 156 MBA students at an Australian university, and how their psychological contracts could be related to perceptions of the contextual variables of organisational justice, perceived organisational support and external employability. Organisational justice and perceived organisational support were found to be related to the nature of the psychological contracts measured, but perceptions of external employability were not.     

Inside Out? Organizational Membership,Ambiguity and the Ambivalent Identity of the Internal Consultant

Changes in organizational structure, roles and technologies have led to an increasing appreciation of the complexities of organizational membership. While a growing literature has focused on this issue with regard to precarious and marginal employees, this paper explores how senior and middle managers in ambiguous roles make sense of their work identity and organizational membership. Based on extensive interviews with human resource and organizational development managers operating as 'internal consultants', it is argued that managers in such ambiguous roles seek to develop a preferred identity which balances both organizationally distinctive and inclusive elements. While potentially conflicting, this ambivalent position can also be a source of strength and differentiation, involving claims to structural autonomy and specialist expertise, aligned to an intimate understanding of organizational politics and personalities. Through analysis of the interview data, the paper highlights the boundary dimensions around which managers in internal consulting roles develop such an ambivalent organizational identification, the ways in which distinctive and inclusive aspects of identity are rationalized, and the constraints upon the achievement of a preferred identity as an internal consultant.     

Talent management as a management fashion in HRD: towards a research agenda

This paper addresses the effects of corporate change programmes on the emotions and ultimately the performance of the so-called ‘middle managers’ within these organizations. Drawing on empirical data from a recent case study in a large engineering company, the paper addresses the extent to which Hochschild's highly original writing on the commercialization of human feeling (1983) and the concept of emotional labour is applicable to managers in today's organizations. Emotional labour is defined as: ‘the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display’ requiring one ‘to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others’ (Hochschild 1983: 7). The conclusion reached is that emotional labour appears to be a growing but much ignored phenomenon in organizations today, which is worthy of attention and further research by the HRD community.     

The Career Advancement Prospects of Managers and Professionals: Are MIS Employees Unique?

The present study examined the career advancement prospects of MIS and non-MIS employees, as well as the relationships of career advancement prospects with job performance evaluations, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational commitment for MIS and non-MIS professionals and managers. Participants included 134 MIS professionals and managers and 397 non-MIS professionals and managers of a large communications company. The results provided no evidence that MIS employees experience more restricted career advancement prospects than non-MIS employees. In addition, job performance evaluations generally had positive effects on career advancement prospects; career advancement prospects had a number of positive effects on job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational commitment; and job satisfaction and career satisfaction had positive effects on organizational commitment. These findings are related to prior research, suggestions for future research are offered, and implications for the management of MIS employees are identified.     

The Impact of Information System Personnel Skill Discrepancies on Stakeholder Satisfaction

System development efforts depend to a large degree upon how well information systems (IS) managers, IS specialists, and IS users work together in a project team structure. Yet, these individuals frequently work under different perceptions about matters of importance to development, management, and success. This paper introduces a framework for examining IS specialists' skill requirements from a multiple‐stakeholder perspective. Derived from discrepancy theory, the framework concedes that different stakeholders hold a variable set of expectations for IS personnel skill levels as well as a perception of skills held by IS personnel. We examine differences in expectation and performance expressed by each group and describe the impact of the discrepancy on user satisfaction, career satisfaction of IS specialists, and on job performance evaluations by IS managers. Results confirm that a discrepancy between an IS specialist's expectations of skill and their perceived skill self‐proficiency impacts career satisfaction. Similar relations hold for IS managers and users. Since different stakeholders may hold different perceptions, satisfaction of all parties becomes problematic unless a common frame of reference can be determined.     

The Importance of Role Models and Demographic Context for Senior Women's Work Identity Development

The lack of senior female role models continues to be cited as a key barrier to women's career success. Yet there is little academic research into the gendered aspects of role modelling in organizations, or the utility of role models at a senior level. The paper starts with a review of papers examining the construction of role models in organizational settings. This leads to the inclusion of two related areas – organizational demographics as the contextual factor affecting the availability of role models and how they are perceived, and work identity formation as a possible key explanatory factor behind the link between the lack of senior female role models and the lack of career progression to top organizational levels. The literature looking at social theories of identity formation is then considered from a gender perspective. The key gaps identified are that while the behavioural value of role models has been well documented, a better understanding is needed of how gender and organizational demography influence the role modelling process. Importantly, the symbolic value and possibly other values of female role models in the identity construction of senior women require further in‐depth investigation. Finally, this review calls for a more integrated approach to the study of role models and work identity formation, pulling together literatures on organizational demography, the cognitive construal of role models and their importance for successful work identity formation in senior women.     

Careering Downwards? Middle Managers' Experiences in the Downsized Organization

The future of middle management has been the focus of attention in the media, following a period of unprecedented restructuring in organizations. However, there are mixed messages in the literature on the impact that this restructuring has had on middle managers' roles and careers, as well as on their reaction to these changes. It is the aim of this paper to address some of these tensions and contradictions. The research presented here is based on a two-year study of middle management in 50 organizations across both the public and private sectors, involving semi-structured interviews with middle managers and key decision-makers. The findings show that, paradoxically, whilst middle managers report feelings of greater job satisfaction from increased empowerment over their work roles, this is in tandem with working in intensified work regimes with increased pressures and stress. Many middle managers are still looking towards hierarchical career progression as the main reward for their continued commitment, despite this being significantly diminished in the downsized, delayered organization. The denial of this reward for what is seen by many middle managers as excessive work demands, it is suggested, will ultimately lead to middle managers becoming increasingly bitter and jaundiced.     

Employability skills for future marketing professionals

This study investigates how digital transformation has disrupted the marketing career path by analysing the most in-demand marketing skills and identifying opportunities for future marketing professionals. Through a content analysis of job advertisements and a cross-country survey of marketing professionals, the study proposes a framework defining the skillset required of marketing professionals to start and move forward in their career. The study identifies five employability skill categories and 29 skills and capabilities. The relevance of such categories is also analysed across lowly and highly digitalised firms. This research contributes to the debate on the employability of new graduates and provides useful directions to universities, tertiary education institutions, and companies to support the marketing talents of the future.     

Pot Noodles,Placements and Peer Regard: Creative Career Trajectories and Communities of Practice in the British Advertising Industry

The increasingly unpredictable, individualized and short‐term nature of the labour market is evident in the careers of advertising creatives. We explore the career trajectories of 48 creative professionals in the British advertising industry, using theories of situated learning and communities of practice to illustrate how the collective remains important to individuals' career prospects. Creatives learn their craft by becoming immersed in the multiple, inter‐related communities that constitute the advertising world during the demanding ‘pre‐peripheral’ and ‘peripheral’ stages of their career. Learning through immersion continues throughout the journey from the periphery to the centre, since creatives participate in a competitive, tight‐knit creative community, actively engaged in social networking and constantly monitoring each others' creative output. Creatives' legitimacy (and power) is earned by winning peer regard for their work. The nature of the learning required changes as each stage of the creative trajectory brings different motivations and pressures, but the processes of learning, the mutual shaping of individual and community, and the identity work involved are evident throughout creative career trajectories.     

Organizational Behaviour and National Cultures

A survey is presented of the degree to which organizational behaviour is found to vary between national cultures. The conceptual framework provided by Hofstede (1980) is used to interpret many of the differences reported. Aspects of organizational behaviour which are examined include classifications of managerial values by national culture, organizational structure, leadership behaviour, negotiation processes and human resource management policies. Some of the implications of the differences found for multicultural management, for career development and for training programmes are then explored. It is concluded that there is an increasing need to prepare managers for multicultural experience and to ensure that evaluations of selection, training and career planning are more firmly grounded than is apparent from the present literature.