11-11-2016, 10:01 AM
Organizational career planning and managementtechniques and activities in use in high-tech organizations
During the last few decades, career planning
and management has appeared to be one of
the fastest developing areas in the field of
human resource management (HRM). This
holds true for theoretical research as well as
practical purposes. Hall[1] emphasized the
importance of career techniques and activities
and the increasing efforts to apply them
exerted by top management in many organizations.
In general, organizations are taking
more responsibility within the area.
The entire content of HRM techniques and
activities has been the main issue of several
works. These works usually illustrate the
content of HRM by suggestions of lists, including
several HRM techniques, activities and
programmes. The literature provide various
examples. Tsui and Gomez-Mejia[2] suggested
a list of activities, programmes, and methods
with which the organization can handle HRM
processes. Other suggestions can be found in
many textbooks which concentrate on
HRM/personnel. Schuster[3] based his
research on six representative HRM activities.
Gutteridge and Otte[4] also presented organizational
HRM techniques, programmes, and
activities (see also Flippo[5], Hall[1],
Torrington et al.[6], Tyson and Fell[7], Yuen[8],
and others).
Among these activities or techniques are
those concerned with career planning and
management (CPM). What is organizational
CPM? By this term we mean a comprehensive
approach to all the activities and techniques
facilitated by the organization which are
concerned with the career development of its
employees. These include two main aspects –
the planning (i.e. preparing for the future),
and management (i.e. operating and activating
those plans), as seen and performed from
the organization’s point of view.
This article presents the findings of an empirical
study exploring CPM techniques and activities.
The main purposes of the study were to:
• Identify and examine various CPM techniques
in use, and to compare the state-ofthe-art
techniques in usage in Israel and
the UK.
• Examine and evaluate the necessity, quality
and effectiveness of these techniques as perceived by their target population – managers
in organizations, including a comparison
between the countries.
The results of this study could bring a new
perspective of the effectiveness of organizational
techniques and activities in the area of
CPM for the purpose of improving the HRM
functioning in organizations.
Gutteridge[9] suggests a distinction
between career development and HRM planning,
as sub-elements of a comprehensive
HRM system. The importance and prominence
of CPM has already been recognized by
many scholars[10-13]. A “career” is a process
of development of the employees along a path
of experience and jobs in the organization(s)[14].
This definition reflects the notion
of career in a more comprehensive way than
the usual definitions in use because of the
internal balance between the organizational
and individual aspects. This difference was
noted by Storey[15], who tried to distinguish
between the two categories. He called the
individual level approach “career planning”,
while the organizational level approach was
termed “career managing”. It seems, however,
that this terminology does not fit the nature of
career processes. The individual also has selfcareer
management activities (i.e. responding
to job posting, changing profession), whereas
the organization has, in addition planning
activities (i.e. career succession planning,
training programmes). Nevertheless there is a
difference between these both approaches.
The present study concentrated on the organizational
point of view.
Many works have been carried out in which
the author(s) relates to one or more of these
activities. Some of these works suggest a
partial list (see, for example [16-18]. Walker
and Gutteridge’s[19] list is more enhanced
and contains ten CPM activities. Some of
these, however, are closer to other aspects of
HRM rather than to CPM (recruitment, interface
work-family). Certain aspects of the
techniques and activities have been discussed
by Gutteridge and Otte[4], but their discussion
was limited to ten techniques and an
evaluation of only three of them. Their measures
of evaluation of the effectiveness were subjective and therefore perhaps inadequate
for practical use.
CPM is an HRM area that requires special
efforts from both the organization and the
individual. Nevertheless, most of the studies
on careers that are presented in the literature
focus on the individual’s (employee’s) point of
view, whereas very few studies have been
carried out that emphasize the organizational
perspective (see, for example [11,17,20]). Some
of these works consist of theoretical frameworks
rather than empirical study.
Von Glinow, et al’s [21] work suggested an
integrated HRM system based on essential
information flows concerning all HRM activities.
Most of those activities were CPM centred.
Pazy[22] suggested that there is scope for
studying organizational activities concerning
career management. An appropriate
career management programme, according to
Pazy, can contribute to organizational effectiveness.
A survey by Storey, et al.[23] emphasized
that in many cases career planning is
done mainly by the organization, and the
individual has very little effect on it.
To conduct an empirical study on CPM we
need relevant information. What would be
the most adequate source for such information?
Is it the organization’s head(s)? Its
employees? Others? Burack[24] suggests that
there is a difference between the responsibilities
of the organization and those of the
employee in career planning. Jackson and
Vitberg[25] claim that there is a mismatch
between the organizational short-term needs
and the individual’s long-term needs. It seems
to be misleading to assume that this division
is a realistic one, because the organization
also has long-term needs while the individual
has short-term needs too. Thus, in the present
study we confront the organization’s point of
view versus the individual’s – the employee’s
point of view.
The CPM techniques can be identified
through exploring the nature and type of
HRM activities which are of relevance to the
CPM area. The present study is of an
exploratory nature, aiming to examine and
evaluate organizational CPM. We tried to
refer to as many HRM techniques, activities
and programmes as possible (further on –
techniques) that have close connection with
the CPM. From such lists of general HRM
functions as indicated in the literature, 19
techniques were chosen. The Appendix consists
of the comprehensive list of these techniques
and the sources leading to the
generation of this list.
Method
A cross-organizational study design was
developed, aimed at three levels of data
collection, processes, and analysis: the individual,
the organizational and the cultural
level. The discussion here will concentrate on
these levels.
Instruments
The research instruments used in the study
consisted of two parts: first, a form for the top
level managers (two in each organization)
which was basically a structured interview
aimed at revealing which of these CPM techniques
were in use in the organization.
During the separate two interviews these
managers were asked to indicate whether
these CPM techniques are applied in their
organization, and if so, to what extent (e.g. to
what percentage of the population, how developed
is the technique?).
Second, at the employee’s level, the source
for information was part of a questionnaire
which was designed to evaluate and analyse
the perception of individual respondents
towards the different CPM techniques in his
or her organization. These included the questions:
• In his or her opinion, what is the importance
and necessity for the use of this
technique?
• Does he or she know or think that the
techniques is in use in his or her organization?
• How would he or she evaluate the quality
of this technique?
• Has he or she been experienced/participated
in this technique?
Sample and procedure
The organizational level
The organizations under study were hightechnology,
employing more than 150 employees,
and existing for more than five years.
These criteria left 57 organizations
altogether as a relevant research population
in Israel and 40 in the south-east of the UK. In
Israel 51 (86 per cent) and nine in the UK (23
per cent) agreed to participate. The data at
the organizational level was collected by
interviewing the HRM manager and the
general managing director/CEO of the organization
(or, in some cases, the vice president
or another managing director, one of the 3-4
top level).
The individual level
Forty-one organizations agreed to extend the
participation to the employees’ level, by distributing
questionnaires among relevant
employees (39 in Israel and two in the UK).
The population was characterized as managers
and employees of managerial potential
(such as engineers, excluding the rank and
file employees). The sample was random and
stratified, separated into hierarchical levels
within every organization to ensure that the
respondents represented all the hierarchy
levels within the organizations under study.
Out of a total 1,540 questionnaires, 846 were
returned – a return rate of 55 per cent. Confi-
dentiality of response was assured through
anonymity of the respondents.
Of the respondents 66 per cent had an academic
degree, almost 90 per cent had a professional
or technical education. This level of
education is higher than what is usually
reported in the literature, probably since it is
a sample of managers and alike in high technology
organizations. Eighty-seven per cent
were males, average tenure in the organizations
was 11.1 years (SD – 7.4). Average age
was 41 (SD – 7.5).
The characteristics of the non-participants
were examined and compared with those of
the participants, at the organizational as
well as the individual level. No special
difference was found between these two
populations.
Results
Table I presents the reply to a battery of questions,
which examined whether there was use
of the CPM technique for each of the techniques,
as reported by the top management
during the interviews. Each one of the two
top managers was also asked to tell the way in
which the technique is implemented, for
which part of the employees, etc. The expectations
at first were that both the top management
members (the manager of the HRM unit
and the CEO or his/her deputy) would give
precisely the same answer. It occurred many
times, however, that there was a mismatch as
to the extent to which they thought the technique
was in use, or sometimes even inconsistency
as to whether the technique was in use
at all. That is the reason for the middle column.
Thus we present in the first column the
number of the occasions of full agreement
between both managers that a technique was
not used. The next column indicates the
number of cases where the two replies were
not similar, and the last column presents the
cases where there was agreement.
The following are some of the prominent
findings that are expressed in the table. First, it is clear that there is a wide range of use of
the above CPM techniques. Some techniques
are in more frequent use whereas others are
limited to very few organizations (e.g. written
personal career planning for the employees).
Two main reasons for such lack of use were
put forward during the interviews:
1 Organizations try not to raise employees
expectations as much as they can. This
may explain the low use of the techniques
such as written personal career planning.
2 The second possible reason may be connected
to the changing nature of today’s
business life. Frequent changes in the
organizational structure and operation,
redundancies and delayering makes it
quite difficult to plan ahead managers’
careers in accurate terms. Sometimes
long-term planning is limited to general
directions and cannot be involved with
individual people.
Table II presents the differences between the
Israeli and the UK responses. For the purpose
of the comparisons all the cases of full or partial
agreement were considered as exist. In
some cases there was a large difference
between the countries. The most significant
cases with higher level of use in the UK were
career counselling (by direct supervisor or
by HRM unit); posting of job openings;
career workshops; written personal career
planning programmes for the employees; and
performance appraisal as a basis for salary
review. Techniques that were used more in
Israel were the dual ladder, appraisal
committees; succession planning and training
programmes for managers. Quality circles
cannot be counted, for they were not used for
CPM.
Altogether the techniques in higher level of
use in the UK seem to be those related to the
individual, whereas in most cases where the
Israeli responses were higher, these were
techniques related to the organization.
The mismatch mentioned above is not limited
to top level management but appears also
at the employee’s level as well. Tables III and
IV present the overall summary of the
answers at the employee’s level to the question
of whether the techniques are in use
within their organization, the actual use of
the techniques as reported by the employees,
and the average scores of the techniques’
quality and necessity, as evaluated by the
employees (on a scale of 1-5). The data which
consist of the responses is presented separately
for both countries.
There are less techniques in these tables,
compared to those in the first two. The reason
is that there are CPM techniques which the
employees are not familiar with. For example,
“management inventory”, a technique that is
usually kept confidential when it exists, and is
known to top management and the HRM
department only (though recently some can
be open for all members of the organization).