Deck 18: Strategic Competency and Organizational Design

Question 1

"Individuals should be primarily responsible for developing their own careers." Do you agree? Why?

Answer 1

Career planning stands for the individual career choices that an individual makes for choosing his career, occupation, professional growth etc.
The statement "Individuals should be primarily responsible for developing their own careers" could be described by stating that an individual before choosing an occupation or a career path for himself undergoes gathering of information and assessment of his personality type so that a proper career could be opted for making an occupation. For example- a female who is of great physique and personality and loves to travel would be interested in making a career as an air hostess and for this she needs to undergo right training and development to make an excellent career in this field.
If an individual has not studied well throughout his school and college studies, still he wants to make a career as a professor or educationist then this career path would not be conducive to his intelligence and abilities. This is because an educationist is the one who carry clear concepts of study topics and possess excellent knowledge and enlightenment about various topics which could be taught to students and others as education. This way it could be said that individuals should be primarily responsible for developing their own careers.

Question 2

Describe the five steps in the career planning process. What step do you think is likely to be the most difficult for individuals to implement? Why?

Answer 2

Career planning process stands for the actions and decisions that an individual makes in planning his career and achieving career goals. It includes five stages- self assessment, investigating career opportunities, goal-setting, action planning, and evaluation.
The following is the description of the five steps of career planning process-
• In the first stage of self-assessment, an individual has to introspect his personality, likes and dislikes, abilities and weaknesses, opportunities and threats etc. so that proper career options matching his personality and interest could be shortlisted.
• In the second stage, an individual investigates career opportunities that are available suiting his interest and abilities and thereby after scrutinizing and properly making decisions he opts for a particular career.
• In this stage, an individual makes goals to make a career in a particular field, occupation or profession and for this decides upon the way or a medium that would be taken as a basis for making a career.
• In this stage, an individual has to take proper cations in the form of taking a course in a particular field to achieve his career goals, to take work experience etc. so that proper achievement of career could take place.
• And, in the last stage, the individual evaluates the steps that he has undertaken in planning a career for himself and tries to make necessary changes to achieve the career goals in an effective manner.
The most difficult step in the career planning process could be self-assessment because it is not very easy to analyse one's own personality and plan for a suitable career for it. It is not very handy for an individual to study his likes and dislikes and make a career choice accordingly.

Question 3

Describe ways that organizations can assist individuals in pursuing career goals. Which of these may also enhance organizational effectiveness? How?

Answer 3

Career goals stands for the individual career choices that an individual makes for choosing his career, occupation, professional growth etc.
The following are the ways through which an organization could assist individuals in pursuing career goals-
• Mentoring; by using this an organization could mentor the employees and advise them in making right career moves and choices so that their interests in making a particular professional growth could be achieved effectively.
• Framing conducive organization structures could also help employees to realize their true potential in a particular profession. If an organization provide for suitable work design and type to individual employees then it could provide its supportive hand in making an employee pursue his career goal.
• Emotional support and motivation provided by the senior managers in the organization could also help in making subordinate employees to make a proper move in career goals.
• This way an organization could become a crucial factor in making employees realize their true potential and career interests by providing the employees with proper work responsibilities and career choices.
By taking these steps in supporting employee career planning and progress, an organization could make an employee stable and loyal for the organization and this way bring organizational effectiveness. The way the employee will feel motivated when they would be encouraged by the organization in advancing their careers will increase their productivity at work manifold which will also provide effectiveness in organizational setting.

Question 4

What can organizations do to prevent employee obsolescence or ineffective plateauing?

Question 5

What career management components should an organization have in place before implementing a major downsizing effort?

Question 6

Discuss the five different roles that a supervisor might adopt in career development of subordinates. Are there any conflicts among these roles or between these roles and other roles that supervisors must adopt with subordinates? How might conflict be minimized?

Question 7

Should mentoring be an informal program that is totally voluntary, or should the organization try to formally assign mentors to protégés? Why?

Question 8

Discuss the relationship between managing change, career development, and continuous improvement.