Essay Sample: Career Development Concerns Ones Whole Life Rather Than Ones Occupation

As the western society transforms into post-modern and post-industrial regime, the concept of career development has also changed its complexity. Just as the unprecedented structural transformation witnessed in human work life like the emergence of information age and globalization, human life has experienced significant changes in defining and redefining career development. Career development calls for a comprehensive and in-depth explanation that will reflect a holistic process of human development (Owings & Kaplan, 2012). This indicates that indeed career development concerns ones whole life rather than ones occupation.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Career development has been recognized as a life process and for this reason involves human participation. A career cannot exist in a vacuum and requires human involvement whereby people perform various career development duties in shaping their lives. In career development pursuits, it is the employees who initiate the development process otherwise minimal changes can occur. In this case, therefore, the level of self-concept or awareness and some sense of self-efficacy are the key factors that moderate their career decisions. These two factors are important since employees with high levels of self-awareness and agency are in a better place to control external circumstances in a working environment and control long term effects.

An individuals psychological selfhood constitutes the fundamental factor in monitoring the cognitive, emotional, internal relationship and the interaction with the external environment. It is therefore hypothesized that the quality and level of psychological self has a significant influence on life career growth. Establishing work on self-concept, therefore, does not only form the principle of life career but significantly contribute to the enrichment and expansion of an employee. Self-concept depends on a variety of factors like biological characteristics and the social roles of an individual. It refers to how an individual views himself and related to different work situations (Kroth & Christensen, 2009). This develops through life span and in contrast to a trait which highlights on objective and external measure of life; self-concept is subjective and allows interaction within the society at large hence long term career development.

Career development also concerns self-efficacy which is a central construct in the social cognitive theory. This involves how the people judge their capabilities in organization and execution of the required plans and achieve the desired types of performance. Self-efficacy influences the choices and initiation of persons behavior and persistence therefore performance in an organization. In an effort to design career projects, people need to be aware of their aptitude in order to accomplish their career goals. This is the relationship that exists in the contemporary world between the person and the working environment. And putting the environment into consideration, self-efficacy is neither mere ego nor sole objective measure from the external world but rather a subjective self-judgment that is cognitive and socially constructed in nature. This means that it requires an individuals rational thinking to assess their ability to perform and deliver.

In a nutshell, career development concerns persons whole life rather than occupation. Each independent influence has a significant role in the overall schema. A career cannot exist in a vacuum and requires human involvement whereby people perform various career development duties in shaping their lives. In career development pursuits, it is the employees who initiate the development process otherwise minimal changes can occur. Life means career and people often reframe and frame their lives in the process of career development.

References

Kroth, M. S., & Christensen, M. K. (2009). Career development basics. Alexandria, Va: ASTD Press.

Owings, W. A., & Kaplan, L. S. (2012). Leadership and organizational behavior in education: Theory into practice. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson.