UNIT – I Lesson 1 HRM – AN OVERVIEW Lesson Outline Nature of ...

3.15 Career Stages: There are four major career stages according to experts on career
management. During the first stage there is considerable exploration. The young
employee searches for an identity and undergoes considerable self-examination and role
tryouts. This stage usually results in taking a number of different jobs and is in general, a
very unstable and relatively unproductive period in the person’s career. At the end of the
phase, a career statement emerges based on the crystallization of an individual’s views of
themselves. For example, Human Resource Management aspirants begin to view
themselves as sound in human relationships, labor laws and recruitment practices.
In the second stage, establishment, the employee begins to settle down and indicates a
need for intimacy. This is usually a growing productive period in the employee’s career.
The third stage of maintenance occurs when the person levels off it a highly productive but
plain period with little growth. At this stage the person has a need for generativity, which
is nothing but a concern to leave something to the next generation. This need often leads
the person to assume a paternalistic or mentor role with younger subordinate. The person
may either have a growth spurt or become stagnant and decline during this career stage.
The final stage is decline, when the person gradually gives up his active participation in
official life.
3.16 Mid-career Crisis and Career Plateau: The period occurring between the midthirties
and mid-forties during which people often tend to make a major reassessment of
their progress in relation to their original career goals and personal ambitions. As people
reach the middle of their careers, they find that their options to move out of the
organization is lower than before, while there are increasingly fewer number of positions
above them to aspire for. Some people are likely to experience “plateau”, a condition of
stagnation in one’s current job without any noticeable variation for a long period of time.
In general, junior officers of the management cadre are the ones to experience the most
rapid growth among any type of employees.
According to Argyris, every person in their normal course of living tends to move
through a transition from characteristics of immaturity towards more mature personality
characteristics. As age passes, an employed person is likely to become more independent,
develop deeper interests, reach super-ordinate positions and heighten his or her selfawareness.
Their perspective tends to be focused on long-term rather than short-term.
This trend is likely to continue till retirement. Getting appointment to the first job,
Successful Completion of the period of probation, gaining positive ratings in the appraisal